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Third life of an "X" Normal, Ex NBA player's car to a Harley Davidson - lots of pics
This might be an interesting read I hope. I bought Clifford Robinson's Excursion during the spring (Ex-Portland Trailblazers, Detroit Pistons, Nets?) and have completely renovated it the last few months.
1. The start
This 2000 Excursion started out with a "normal life" for a few miles, then was turned over to Canepa Design (www.canepa.com) for complete custom work. Cliff spent a considerable amount of money on the vehicle (124k+) and built it up according to the enclosed build sheets:
2. Second life
This is what the car looked like after it was done at Canepa design:
I really don't know what happened to it, but I picked it up for really cheap, and started the conversion process. I will refrain from bashing it's previous owner, but it needed a complete overhaul. For some reason the powertrain also featured a new engine. The car only had 50,000 miles when I took possession, btw.
3. The third life - my version
I tore out the entire interior, seats, headliner, trim, doors, doorskins,seatbelts, carpet, all plastic pieces, the stock stereo (unfortunately the custom Canepa Alpine system was completely missing from the truck when I bought it). My wife and neighbors said my garage looked like an SUV threw up in it...
I sold a bunch of components I did not plan to re-use, like seats, center console, supercharger, bumpers, lights, hood, wheels (tires and rims) all trim, steering wheel, rear view mirrors, nerf bars, etc.
The outside
After the interior teardown, I attacked the outside. I had to straighten out all the doors, some sheetmetal that had been banged up pretty good, put a cowl hood on it, a lot of scuffing, minor part bondo, and ready for prime and paint, which a buddy of mine completed. Having owned a F-150 100th anniversary Supercharged Harley Davidson, I wanted to emulate the black and silver as much as possible.
This is how it rolled out of the paint booth, after some detailing, pin striping, new H-D rims and 35" tires (yes sharp eyed, the photo has the old 32" tires...), new nerf bars, Iron Bull bumpers, Winch, PIAA lights, Telescoping Power Tow mirrors, Projector HID/LED head lights, LED tails, rear bumper integrated back up lights, train horns, etc. etc. :
What's left?
I still have a bunch of exterior finishing off to do. I haven't yet decided upon what configuration of emblems to use, but have some good advice from other forum members.
I also need to decide on fender flares. I have used chrome, and have been looking at a set of Bushwackers which might have fit the previous off road tires, but maybe not my new on-road friendly tires / rims combination. The grille is the old one. I have been looking for a custom black one... I could use another tint on the side front windows, and the V-10 is begging for cut-outs...maybe a turbo or two...
Interior issues:
The entire car was Rhino-lined outside and in by Canepa. Perfectly sound proofed!!!! Internally, I am sticking another Alpine headunit, four TVs, twelve JL Audio component speakers, and a video/music juke bok. I have a Kicker Amp rack for the rear, and a Kicker subwoofer box underneath it:
There is soo much space in the rear so why not use it... The wife, three kids, dog and luggage still have plenty of space...
The Harley seats are installed, wired etc. new seatbelts to match are in. The new seats have a pre-crash seat belt stretcher (probably a small explosive orignially connected to a sequential airbag), which I couldn't use... Well maybe the 3/16 steel Iron Bull front and rear bumpers will provide enough extra safety for the family... They are soo heavy - I don't understand what would make them give...
As a footnote; I had an Explorer once in which I had an accident. Some lady pulled out in front of me from a parking structure in a Dodge Neon. I was on a main road doing 35mph, had no time to slow down so we hit her directly between the A and B pillar. My Explorer's chassis was twisted a bit, we were completely unhurt but the lady suffered serious injury to the upper body. This episode was actually partially holding me back from my bumper selection. I can probably drive a way from a similar accident at 70 MPH, but I will cause very serious injury to whatever vehicle is pulling out in front of the "X"... 10,000+ lbs and these bumpers....
Some other small details; I had to custom stitch the rear 3rd row sofa since it doesn't exist in a Excursion configuration...
Great build! Looking for a center console mod and noticed you had something done to yours be it a mod or something altogether different. Do you have any pics or info on what you have?
Thanks.
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2004 Excursion Limited Ultimate 4x4, V-10, 3.73, BF Goodrich T/A KO 305/70/R16, Rear Hellwig.
Bought July 2010 with 89,000.
Mods to come: Rancho XL9000, '08+ Telescoping Tow Mirrors, 5-Star, Rear rear bench mod.
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would pay $1,450 for some Fog lights? Not to mention you can't even see them in that pic. Some one with more money than sense!!
