New tow vehicle/daily driver

[Rmack]

^{WAIT!!!!!!!!! Ok, the tow vehicle is cool and all, but UNDERGROUND STORAGE! WTF! How cool is that.}

^{What was that before it was storage?}

Edited December 5, 2012 by Rmack

[Slayer]

AWESOME!!! Congrats, MA!!

I've been confused as to why Ford stopped making the Excursion. I know its volumes were low, but it's about as good as it gets, IMO. I'm super jealous to say the least and it looks like you found one in super nice shape. Congrats again.

[martinarcher]

Thanks guys. I'm loving it. After driving a car for the last 10 years this truck is amazing. I've hauled things home I would have passed on before, been hunting and driving through fields I couldn't have, and today hauled all 7 guys that wanted to go to lunch. I'm still averaging 23.2 mpg.

^{WAIT!!!!!!!!! Ok, the tow vehicle is cool and all, but UNDERGROUND STORAGE! WTF! How cool is that.}

^{What was that before it was storage?}

It is the ultimate boat storage. I'm lucky to have it only an hour away. It used to be a limestone mine so it is extremely stable roof. It has been converted to storage and office space now. It's pretty cool to walk in the bathroom and see 3 concrete walls and a limestone wall. I'm in mining for a living so it's only natural to store the boat underground.

[Bozboat]

Matt, you need to get one of these grill guards on your Santa list

[Levi900RR]

Then get a sick billet Malibu emblem for it

[wakesetter8796]

One of the TNT Watersports owners has an 01 excursion 7.3 and he put a malibu sticker replacing the ford emblem. Looks great.

[shawndoggy]

I've been unable to post in this thread till now because of my overwhelming jealousy. That rig is absolutely b.a.

[Bozboat]

Note to Mrs. Martinarcher

Nothing says I love you better than a 400 pound grill guard

[martinarcher]

Thanks guys.....this place is great for finding out what you need to be spending your money on.

Boz.....who makes that beautiful piece of powder coated steel!?!

[Malibudude]

AWESOME!!! Congrats, MA!!

I've been confused as to why Ford stopped making the Excursion. I know its volumes were low, but it's about as good as it gets, IMO. I'm super jealous to say the least and it looks like you found one in super nice shape. Congrats again.

Cause the Suburban reigned supreme... Would have been nice to see head to head comparisons between both the Suburban and Excursion with diesels. But I read the sales for the Excursions was dismal, not sure why.

[Bozboat]

Thanks guys.....this place is great for finding out what you need to be spending your money on.

Boz.....who makes that beautiful piece of powder coated steel!?!

The one in the photo was on a friends excursion, he had it custom made out in Pampa Texas and painted to match. I drove this one a few times and it was an incredible ride. The Grill Guard just completes it. I can find out if you are interested.

For a great off the shelf grill guard, I would recommend a Ranch Hand Grill Guard. http://www.ranchhand.com

I had a Ranch Hand Grill Guard on my Duramax Crew Cab. I had both the grill guard and the nerf bars finished in Linex. The grill guard was awesome.

Edited December 19, 2012 by Bozboat

[martinarcher]

If you could let me know more about it I would appreciate it. It looks like the best I've seen. The only issue might be his looks like an 04' or 05' and I know the front end is different on those years than the 99'-03'. I'd still be interested in info.

Worst case, the Ranch Hand stuff looks really nice as well.

[Malibudude]

The one in the photo was on a friends excursion, he had it custom made out in Pampa Texas and painted to match. I drove this one a few times and it was an incredible ride. The Grill Guard just completes it. I can find out if you are interested.

For a great off the shelf grill guard, I would recommend a Ranch Hand Grill Guard. http://www.ranchhand.com

I had a Ranch Hand Grill Guard on my Duramax Crew Cab. I had both the grill guard and the nerf bars finished in Linex. The grill guard was awesome.

Cool grill... is it me or is the hood warped on the front end? Can't tell if that is an illusion or real.

[Bozboat]

Cool grill... is it me or is the hood warped on the front end? Can't tell if that is an illusion or real.

Could be, that picture is several years old, I remember that truck as straight, but I think the grill guard was to help with deer and sage brush in the panhandle, so don't know.

[MalibuAdam]

its very easy to do the 05-07 front clip conversion on these trucks if you prefer the updated look. All parts are available reproduction and all that's needed is header panel, grille, headlights, front bumper assembly with brackets and a few headlight plugs. Very simple conversion. That manual trans install on the other hand is a LOT of work. The floor pan is actually different on a manual truck compared to an auto so it would need to be modified. When I did the conversion on a friend's truck we ended up pulling off the cab, stripping the whole interior and drilling out all the spot welds on the front half of the trans tunnel floor pan and replacing that piece with the one from the donor vehicle, LOTS of work.

[jk13]

Cool grill... is it me or is the hood warped on the front end? Can't tell if that is an illusion or real.

Hood is straight, top of the plastic grille is slightly warped by the two center mounting screws. Pretty common.

By the way Matt, I work on a lot of trucks and have only ever seen one 7.3 manual Excursion. Completely off the wall cool truck. Nice find.

Edited December 20, 2012 by jk13

[martinarcher]

I decided to do a little update on the Excursion. I've always hated the amount of plastic on the 99-04' front ends and decided to convert it to an 05-07' front. I'm a fan of the Harley Davidson trucks with the color matched fronts and dark headlights but also like the Eddie Bower green/tan two tone so I made my own front. \

Before...

Old off....

New....

Next step is to add the tan along the bottom of the doors and rockers. I think that will pull it together nicely.

[Pistol Pete]

And yet, I can't find time to put my new grill together.

[shawndoggy]

very nice MA, VERY nice.

[dlb]

That looks very nice!

[wakesetter8796]

Nice! Looks so clean! Only front end upgrade I was aware of was the 2011+ front end conversion for $4k lol. I love the body color grille.

Are you going to get some 11+ tow mirrors?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[Sixball]

Looks good as is, no need for paint.

[Pistol Pete]

^^^ Agreed. I'd leave the rocker panels alone.

Step bar makes up for it.

You just need to buy these, now.

[Lance B. Johnson]

Oh ya! That looks great!

[martinarcher]

Thanks guys! I'm pretty geeked with how it turned out. It was nice to wire wheel everything really well and get fresh paint on all the steel behind the bumper. I'm hooked on a new rust preventor called Fluid Film and bought a sprayer for it. Lets just say the front end is "well coated" now.

Funny you guys like it as is (without the tan on the rockers and doors). My wife looked at it, kind of shrugged her shoulders and said it would look better after I color matched the rockers and doors. She then asked what exactly was different on the front. Killing me.... I would say girls just don't get it but I know Wakegirl appreciates this stuff as much as I do and recognizes mod/changes better than half the guys I know!