We took the Ex to a tree farm to cut our Christmas tree today. Into December and no salty roads yet !! My #1 son with the golden hair has been having a tough time lately. He turns 14 in two weeks and we've had some days where I've had to help him get up off the floor. Not sure how to deal with it when it's that time. Hopefully we get next summer with him. Had a fun afternoon.

 

Scott, those furry kids can really hit you right in the feels. Our 8 year old Golden, Charlie has Lymphoma and is in his fifth week of Chemotherapy, so far he is doing pretty well with all of his swollen nodes back down to normal sizes. He is dealing with a low white cell count right now so lots of antibiotics, but otherwise he has been his normal happy tail waggin self.
I've used the EX a few times this past week for lumber and hardware runs as we have been rebuilding our front fence and the access to under our rear deck. Our newly adopted 3 year old female Pointer (Dixie) has been kind enough to point out all of the places she can squeeze out to go off and explore the neighborhood. She has only been here a month but has been busy showing the 1 year old male Pointer mix (Ford) how awesome it is to find ways through or tunnel under the fence that he has been perfectly happy to be contained in since Feb.

 

Finally decded to change out the lock acutators on the 2 back doors, they havent worked since we got the truck a couple of years ago. !st one took over an hour, 2nd one took about 15 min. Amazing how fast something goes when you have an idea how to do it lol. while out there went ahead and did a quick oil change.

 

Yes, the carrier swings out fully to the side and the doors can unlatch from the guides to the carrier hinge pin and the lock handle catch.

 

Very nice!

 

Picked up a winch on the cheap so I set it up on the rear. Just waiting for the quick connect plug. I've run some 6 gauge from the front and will mount the plug near the trailer plugs.

 

Back in July my wife and friends went camping about 4 hours from home when the HPOP decided it was time to call it quits.





$500 tow bill later it made it home and my wife grabbed a rental and continued on. The Excursion sat until I got back last weekend from an extended business trip. Where I creatively got her into the shop. These pigs are heavy!! Rebuilt the HPOP and fuel bowl with Diesel O-ring parts. Found the culprit



The irony of the situation is the o-ring and tools for the repair were in the rig the entire time just lacking the know how.

ohh, I also swapped out the second row bench for some captains.

 

One can never carry too many O rings. Seems the wife was a good sport.

 

I started the POR15 project. The goal is to do small sections at a time until the entire undersand is covered and protected. The rockers wer first since I found some big rust spots after last winter








I also found the culprit to the truck not starting every now and then. I though my ignition was starting to go out, but it was just this little guy.

 

Nice work twitch I did something similar to my truck over the weekend!

In progress:




After rust encapsulator and Truck bed liner application:

 

OUCH, I can't believe how susceptible these Excursions are to under body rust, 2000-2005 was not long ago, and the technology was, still is, and has been in place for a nearly rust free vehicle for many years after production, even in the harshest northern climates. One of my service vans was recently totaled in May, cut open by a F250 Super Duty with a utility bed, sliced the rear quarter open like nothing from the tow hooks he had. It's been parked outside with no shelter, and the raw metal still has yet to even start rusting. I'm just amazed.


6.5 months later and it still looks like this.

 

Its the salt/brine used. I hate the stuff!

 

Someone who lives in the Carolinas cannot grasp what we in the rust belt deal with. It doesn't matter what brand or what precautions you take, the rust will win eventually!

 

Layers and layers of the best coatings in the world and rust will find a way. So depressing sometimes.

 

I'm born in MA, since the age of 7 been living in FL, and SC, I remember how my 1979 Lincoln, and 1971 Eldorado were rusting, I always thought it was from the manufacturing process used then, and the coastal air winning over the poor metal protection. We get brined here, but were lucky to see 1-3 days of light to 4" of snow, then it melts, and the brine gets washed away. My X is only just starting to show a light Ginger color in those areas where most are very rusted. I guess cause My X has always been in SC.