Project: No Boundaries #4

Hi all!

I’ve been making a lot of progress on the Escape over the past few months so I figured I’d post an update. Last time I left off talking about my bedliner floor. If you missed that; check it out here:

http://aminoapps.programascracks.com/p/9u7og9

This is going to be a long entry into this series… so buckle in.

Seats seats seats…

The next day I headed back down to UPAP. My Escape came with some very stained, worn, ugly; tan cloth seats. So I headed to the junkyard to find some replacements. After looking in quite a few Escapes and either finding more stained cloth seats, or extremely worn and ripped leather seats; I checked one more car. I found exactly what I was looking for. Now I will say I wasn’t a fan of the color combo of the seats and car at first, but after much debate I went ahead and pulled them. ½ off interior parts was also an incentive. I found some smaller things as well but nothing worth mentioning. I later discovered logos on the seat backs but to this day I have never found any history on them. It has the Ford logo and says “Racing Interiors” with an oval beneath it with the letters C and P inside the oval. One of my coworkers said it looked familiar but he couldn't either. I imagine it's just Ford’s in-house custom interior lineup from the early 00’s but it's odd that nobody has info on it online. Anyways the seats weren’t in horrible condition but had some small rips from the radiators thrown on top of them (thanks UPAP employees) and slight discoloration. Nothing nearly as bad as my current seats. I ran to the crafts store and picked up some color matching thread to repair the rips.

Fuel pump woes

As soon as I went to drive the Escape around the backyard it suddenly died on me. I wasn’t paying any attention to the cluster and I feared that it’d overheated and I killed it. (Battery had also died) After some diag the next day I discovered the fuel pump had died. Whew. Quickly swapped that out and she was back up and running!

Engine go brrr

Well I avoided it as long as I could. I had to take care of its problems. It had a multiple cylinder misfire, valve cover leaks, and a throttle body problem. So I don’t think I need to say the steps to replace these parts but here’s some highlights. Overall it went well minus snapping two bolts off on the valve covers. I replaced the valve cover gaskets, front valve cover, plugs, coils, and all the seals on the intake. Then cleaned the throttle body and IAC.

Tow time

I made yet another trip to UPAP. This time I sought out the factory No Boundaries tow hitch. The roof rack slides over the rear hatch and clips into the tow hitch/crash bar via these metal strikers. Luckily for me I found one. It was pretty rusty but with some welding and rust converter it doesn’t look too bad!

Picasso… Basically

Next up was to remove all the rust and fix as many paint issues as I can. I wasn’t going for perfection; just enough to keep the rust away and to color match. With that said I’m pretty happy with the results. By the end of it all I no longer have any rust on the body which gave me a good platform to continue to build upon.

No Boundaries…

I managed to find a slightly less busted No Boundaries air dam to go with my roof rack. When I went to remove the oem roof rack that came with the Escape, I discovered the rivnuts were stripped. So after a trip to Harbor Frig I got a new set of rivnuts and bolts. I had to drill out the old rivnuts to remove them so I had to respray around the holes where I damaged the paint to prevent rust. Otherwise everything went well and the rack is fully functional!

Tires and more

Next up came the part everyone is interested in. I ordered my lift kit, tires, and wheels. I went for 16” steelies, a 1.6” rear lift, a 3” front lift, and 32” Falken Wildpeak AT3’s which gave an overall lift of 3.2” in the rear and 4.6” in the front. Which leveled everything out and gave it an even lift. I then had to use 10mm spacers for the tires to clear the rear control arms. For those concerned all the threads on the lugnuts still make perfect with the wheel studs. The lift wasn’t a walk in the park, especially the rear, but everything fit as it should.

I understand a lot of people aren’t a fan of these types of lifts, but it's the only real option for these aside from custom fab. Which I’m not going to do on a $500 Escape. I’m really happy with the lift and I’m happy I went through with it.

Lights, camera, Escape

If you haven’t noticed the theme here; I went to UPAP again. I managed to find some great gen 1.5 headlights and some gen 1 fog lights for the Escape. On top of that I figured I should pay tribute to my original Escape. My 07. If any of you recall, I made a blog post a few years back about adding Raptor lights to it. I had only a basic understanding of what I was doing, I was still in High School learning, so the quality wasn't there. However this time around; I did a much better job. I wired up a real harness for them and properly installed them. The results are very similar externally but the harness will far outlast the janky one I originally made. It’s a nice little touch.

Seats. Again.

Up until this point I still had the nasty cloth seat still installed on the drivers side. Reason being was the new seats were electric and my XLS didn't come with that harness. So I wanted to do all the wiring I could at once. So I ran a fuse tap and some wires and I got it all installed! Additionally I found a 110V outlet in a 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid at the junkyard (UPAP). I went ahead and snagged it. I still haven’t wired it up but it’ll be nice to have once I do.

Clearance! Bluelight special!

In all seriousness the 32’s fit surprisingly well for the car they’re on. However I still had a small rubbing problem in the front suspension. It was catching on the wheel well liner and screws holding the side skirt on. Nothing a dremel can’t take care of. I went ahead and trimmed the aero nubs off the front bumper and the holes for the rear bumper as well since I had the dremel out. That plus some motivation hammer allowed the 32’s to clear with no problem lock to lock.

Last pieces…

Wrapping this all up was a fresh oil change since that hadn’t been done since 2015, a turtle wax headlight restoration kit, back to black heat gun work on the faded plastics, new wiper blades, rain-x all the windows and superclean the windshield, put the battery on the charger, and clean all my tools and old parts out. It’s now officially ready to be driven. I get plates Saturday.

Why the sudden influx in work?

I began rapidly getting the Escape done for a few reasons. One being that I need it for the snow we’ll be getting in the next month or so. Another is the 05’ is beginning to have problems and it needs to be parked until the spring. It’s throwing codes for a bad coolant temp sensor, thermostat, evap system, and few other things. On top of that it needs the suspension rebuilt, a new rear main seal, valve cover gaskets, fluid flushes, wires and coil, tires, brakes, door seals, exhaust hangers, and some other odds and ends. Bodywork too. I fully plan on doing all of it; just not until next spring.

So until next time… Peace :v: