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Question Of The Day: How Would You Build This Dirt-Cheap Mercury Mountaineer?


Question Of The Day: How Would You Build This Dirt-Cheap Mercury Mountaineer?

Hot rodding is all about taking what is old and unloved, the throwaways of the automotive world, and turning them into something that is awesome, performs better than even the factory could have dreamed, and becomes more than it ever was left alone. Right? From kids scrounging up old Ford coupes, to guys throwing down a couple hundred bucks on a raggedy old Plymouth in the hopes that a little spit and polish would make the car seem nicer, that’s been the story of hot rodding. How else could anybody look at a 1990s Caprice long roof and see a sweet neo-surf wagon lowrider in that bloated shape?

With many “traditional” body styles going the way of the dodo (coupe, station wagon, and desirable mid-size car) I decided to dig back into a warped pipe dream of mine and I want to see if any of you have any ideas that could go along with this. If there was ever a vehicle that went from “loved” to “hated” in the blink of an eye, it was the Ford Explorer and it’s Mercury Mountaineer sibling. When new, these things were a pestilence on society…they were everywhere, like Biblical locusts, and usually in Eddie Bauer green. But the 1995-2000 trucks, especially in V8 form, lost favor almost immediately after incidents involving exploding tires and rollovers. Spook the family crowd, watch sales tank. Now, you can find rather decent ones for killer prices, and running and driving examples dirt-cheap. Honestly, I actually missed a V8-powered Explorer by a couple of days and $800, which would make for a killer winter beater.

Lets look at the subject of today’s Question. It’s a 1998 Mercury Mountaineer found on Craigslist with a $1,000 price tag, complete with that GT40-headed 302 as the powerplant. When new, this was fancy. Now, it’s beat up, has a little bit of Tennessee rust (nothing major, just wheel well edges) and is at the perfect point in it’s life to be cut up and modified extensively.

 

mountaineer-or-1The knee-jerk response is to lift it and take it off-road, and we can get behind that. I had a 1992 Explorer that had a nice four-inch lift that would do pretty much anything asked of it, and the 302 answers every issue I had about sluggish response from the V6. But is that the only thing the Mountaineer could be good at? I don’t think so. You have a V8 and all-wheel-drive at your disposal. How about a poor man’s Grand Cherokee SRT? Build the snot out of the 302 and 4R70W automatic, boost the motor, and aim it down the quarter-mile…or better, down an LSR course like the Ohio Mile? Or maybe it’s time to embarrass some normal autocross competitors with a tuned and tweaked sports-utility? Just ditch the automatic for a manual transmission…it shouldn’t be difficult, Exploders came with five-speeds from the factory! Just pick which gearbox suits your purpose, get the pedals in there, and go terrorize a bunch of college-aged Subaru owners with the vehicle they were probably driven to school in!

Not all SUVs deserve to get derbied at a Tough Truck contest, and the V8 Explorer/Mountaineer twins are ones that could be something. What kind of ideas do you have, readers?

Craigslist Link: 1998 Mercury Mountaineer

 


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5 thoughts on “Question Of The Day: How Would You Build This Dirt-Cheap Mercury Mountaineer?

  1. Chevy Hatin' Mad Geordie

    Exploders came with 5-speeds straight from the factory?

    Maybe that’s why they exploded……

  2. Matt Cramer

    That one appears to be 2WD – I’d most likely just use it as a tow vehicle.

    I’m with the knee jerk reaction that their best use is as a rock crawler, but I’d start with a 4WD version.

  3. Gump

    Had a 98 5.0 AWD one for awhile. Felt like I was crammed in a compact car while driving. The handling was uneasy to say the least. That and 13 mpg made me get rid of it.

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