hey guys ive had a few days off from work and of course i had to spend them working on the van. i got an 03 tiburon exhaust from a guy i know that owns a body shop. the car was hit in the rear and bent the angle of the muffler a few degrees. he was going to just throw it away, then i thought...hmmm, dual exhaust setup. i know its not true dual exhaust but its a start atleast. so i shopped the pipes here and there, made for better clearance. then i chopped the muffler off and made a pipe to go straight through it (man i love plasma cutters!) so then i just connected everything from there, sounds pretty good. still kind of quiet but its got a better tone that i was looking for. then i started on some custom gauges. if some of you would like me to make a separate section for this let me know. basically you just take out the guage pod, take off the clear cover, then the black cover. that gives you access to all the gauges. you can simply pull the temp, fuel, volt, and oil out of the pod. the speedo has 2 more bolts in the back. before you go any further, write down where the needles are before you pull them off. itll save you a lot of time of guessing later. from there scan the gauges on a normal computer scanner. and then use photoshop to go from there. id suggest practicing a few times if you havnt worked with this program. from there you can put any picture as a background. since our gauges are actually painted onto the plastic, it makes it a little difficult for night vision. so you can either keep the same style (different colors) or you can do what i did, sand the face off and go total custom. you sand it off like you would normal paint, when you get all of it off the plastic probly wont be clear. so i took a torch and set it really low and heated the surface untill it melted a little and became clear. make sure you dont get it too hot, itll bubble and wont be flat enough to glue your new face to. from there you get high quality photo paper and print out your gauges from the original scale. now i have had a couple problems here and there, 1 is if you just leave only the gauge, you can see through it at night. 2 is if you make an inverse guage (black, instead of white.) it doesnt light up enough. so if theres any bright ideas, litterally, let me know. i mean i can still see my gauge at night but its annoying. anyways, you can glue the gauge faces onto the gauge itself and trim from there. then if you want different color needles, you can just scrape off the o.e. paint with a razor and get a paint stick or a thick ink marker to color the back of the needle. you dont have to paint the whole thing, the back is better so it will light up at night. then you just put everything back together like before. i would have posted pics already but i dont know of a website that hosts pictures for free. but i did a blue on white and even went as far as taking an "aerostar" emblem photoshopped it the same blue and put it on the speedo, looks really good. let me know if any of you want to try this mod.

 

I've not really thought about changing the actual face of the original Dash. SOunds like a lot of work. I am also doing some serious modifiactions to mine. Here's the list so far.

1. Removed ashtray and installed an air/fuel meter and a true voltmeter in it's place (both by Sunpro)
2. Added a big aftermarket Tachometer on the dash, near the drivers side little corner window up front.
3. Added a CB radio under the ashtray in that little "pocket"
4. Removed the console between the front seats. I hated that thing.
5. Custum metal utility rack on the roof. (came from a jeep X-J)
6. 2 large off road Hella Lights on top of the rack. Lights up the road at night something stupid.
7. Alpine Amp and 12" rockford sub in the back. Wired to switch to bybass the "bump" when not needed.
8. Class 5 EQ trailier Hitch.
9. 7 pin/4 Flat RV/Boat plug for hitch. I can tow either or.
10. 600 Watt AC power inverter. permanently mounted in back.
11. Rear Wiper switch broke so instead of paying $40 for a replacement I installed a lighted switch for the wiper and a pull switch for the rear wash feature. Cost $0, had the stuff lying around.

Out of time for now, At work. I'm really intereested in hearing/e-mailing other people who are "changing up" their aerostars.

Dave

 

Sound cool Dave, I'm gonna have to get up to your area sometime to check it out.

 

ive got the auto meter air/fuel ratio guage but i installed mine on the right of the steering, the panel below the climate control. also installed my switch for my electric fan (easy to flip when starting the car) and im sure ill have a few more switches needed eventually. but so far ive done a lot of custom things to it. ive painted the rear tail lights (every other row has a white stripe) then ive converted my fan to electric to free up some power. no a/c (never worked anyways) 91 elcipse seats, no more mid bench, i welded and carpeted over it. the whole front dash is flat black with silver trim peices. blue strobes under the dash, blue glow shift **** (kind of tackey i think...but its cool to show off at night) cut out the original dash speaker holes to make room for 6 1/2"ers. kenwood there, and a kenwood mp625 deck installed. getting the 6x9's and amp/subs with my income tax. i did have a part of a roll pan fabbed up but i didnt put enough layers of fiberglass so it started splitting. black rims, crome beauty rings. flat black hood. painted bumpers and grill white to match the van. and im sure i could think of a few more things but im sure im boring you all already. hope some of you can get out there and start modding with me, id love to see a custom aerostar section in here one day.

 

Sounds like you got a great project going STwenty. Post some pics to share.

 

Yeah I kinda like the idea of a custom aerostar...Its something that you dont see everyday. I pulled out the rear bench and moved the 2 captains back. Put a table from an RV back there. It is alot better now. Switched the gears to 4.10 ratio with positrac, trashed the airbox and installed a 4 inch pod air filter. Cut the exhaust off after the Y and stuck on dual 4 inch bombs, also removed both cats. I shortened the kick down cable and modified the throttle cable so it opens up all the way without having to push the throttle to the floor and will downshift on command. I got around the speed limiter so now my aerostar isnt castrated anymore...It REALLY moves. I just need to get some 16 inch rooms and some speed rated tires. My van has two trashed bumpers, a dented side door, and scratches from when it was keyed, but it still looks good to me. Just need to fix the rear main so it doesnt have a cloud following it.

 

PICS!!!!!

Reading about these mods are great. But pics would be a bigger impact. Some nice ideas though.

Has anyone ever put headers and true duals that you can get for a Ranger 3.0/4.0L on an Aerostar? Would it even work?

 

Dave:

Funny you removed it! I've been looking for one to put in my van.

 

I got a center console from my work (advance auto) for i think it's 70 bucks, but it fits damn near perfect, has a front and rear storage area, 2 cupholders on the front and back, and the grey one matches my interior perfectly.

on pimping the aerostar, I have 15x7 Eagle Alloys series 58's wrapped in Yokohama Geolander AT+II's, side-exit exhaust w/o muffler right now, ReWorks stainless mesh cone filter mounted to the MAF, Optima batt, 130a alternator, foglights mounted in the bumper, i installed and wired power door locks on all the doors and put a remote start/lock system in, JVC head unit that plays mp3 cd's, all new speakers, 2 12" bazooka subs (1 dosen't work, got off-road happy and my giant SUV jack slammed into the magnet, [I have the speakers flipped in the enclosures, they sound better to me like that]). I wired a seperate switch to my A/C clutch so it dosen't have to be on when the defrosters are, put an electric rad fan in w/ adjustable thermostat. I think that covers most of it....

 

Maybe we need to have a category started where we can swap or deal on parts we pull out so others who want the parts can make a deal.

 

On the right side of the page is the "classifieds". You can post your ads there.
We don't allow ads in the forums because pretty soon it would be a big swap meet and no one could get anything else accomplished.
Buying and selling can be done behind the scenes in your email or private messages too. Just as long as any reference to is stays out of the forum

 

Sorry Racer

Guess it just shows that I have not been paying attention to the sidebar.

 

No problem

 

woah, i didnt expect a response this big. most of my threads only last about 2 or 3 replies, lol. ill be taking pics hopfully this week. anyone know of a website that hosts the pics for free? thanks for a positive response.

 

ok guys i finally got a couple pics posted on cardomain http://www.cardomain.com/id/vanandrew i only have 1 or 2 pics worth showing so its not that big. ill have a bunch more soon. and im sure most of you will notice i left out a bunch of details of my modding, well i got lazy, lol. let me know what you guys think. o and be sure to check out pg5 on my site