Hello from Central Florida

[Sarah93003]

My name is Sarah and I recently bought a 2004 Sport Trac. I've owned full sized trucks, 3 Ford Explorers, and 2 Chevrolet S-10's. When the Sport Trac first came out I thought it was a cool idea but it didn't fit my needs back then with kids and dogs. Kids are grown and now it's just me and my dog.

My Sport Trac is silver with a grey cloth interior and has 120,000 miles. I was drawn to it because it is small and has It has a tonneau cover. It has some minor imperfections I'd like to take care of such as replacing the sun visors that someone put sticker on to cover up tears. The drivers seat has plastic trim at the bottom that is broken and unsightly so I'll be looking for that. To be honest I don't think the seats are very comfortable so perhaps in the future that may warrant an upgrade.

I'm semi-retired and a firearms instructor so this small truck suits my needs perfectly for hauling gear to the range, and my dog likes it.

 

[user 78012]

Welcome!

 

[swshawaii]

Welcome!
Nice, clean silver Trac! Similar to my white 2005 XLS with "5 spoke "teardrop" wheels. I wanted a base model because the added features on the XLT were things I would never use and are more things to possibly fail. Window visors are somewhat easy to remove. If they are "in channel" without adhesive double stick tape just gently bend them and they should come out of the window channels. Taped versions may require a hair dryer or heat gun to soften the double stick tape adhesive to remove. Nice, helpful, and knowledgable owners are here to help. Any questions feel free to ask.

 

[DILLARD000]

Good lookin' SportTrac!
Welcome to the Herd; lots of friendly knowledgable folk in these forums.
You'll want to become familiar with the quirks+weaknesses in this drivetrain & available remedies.
Specificly the 2 OilPressurized TimingTensioners should be renewed every 100kMiles\12yrs
(along with SparkPlugs+Wires & OxygenSensors) before you get Timing component damage.
Again welcome!

 

[Doug Kaye]

excellent ! that's a really nice-looking Trac..

mine is 2004, black, and very rusty underneath ;-)
taking it and my son hunting tomorrow..

pic in Palisade CO on a peach farm, my truck also takes me fishing and peach-picking.. truly allpurpose.. ha

 

[my red sta]

Wow that's a clean looking trac.
Very nice.

 

[Sarah93003]

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome! I had been looking for a truck for quite a while but they are so expensive in FL even with high mileage. While looking for an SUV for my mother I just stumbled upon this one. I live with my cousin and she and I spotted this Sport Trac and both started grinning. It seems perfect to me. I paid $8,000 for it and must confess I don't know if that is good or not but I do know you don't get much truck around here for that money.

I'm starting to take a much closer look at things. It won't take much to really make it nice. Most things are minor cosmetic. For example, someone in the past broke the gas flap and glued it back together. It broke off the first time I opened it. Fortunately, I found one on ebay that is already the correct color so I will change that out this week.

The driver seat has a plastic trim piece being held together with duct tape. Hopefully I can find one of these. The center console arrangement is kinda goofy. The armrest hovers over a space that isn't easy to get to for storage. I see full sized ones on ebay that supposedly fit so that may be in the future.

 

[DILLARD000]

Prices on vehicles, new or used, are always too high, always.
So its just a matter of minimizing the financial damage when you can,
plus enjoying the vehicle & making it work for your personal situation.

 

[dvdswan]

Junkyards have pretty decent finds in them. Interior parts can generally be found in good condition.

 

[swshawaii]

Good condition driver seat covers are usually the toughest to find. Almost always outer edge wear on the bottom where you slide in and out.

I'm having a difficult time finding interior door panels without sun faded tops. Most salvage yards will only sell them as complete doors. Tempted to upholster or vinyl wrap the tops. Tried the "heat gun" restoring method that lasted less than one year and now looks like total crap.

 

[SwampTrac]

Good condition driver seat covers are usually the toughest to find. Almost always outer edge wear on the bottom where you slide in and out.

I'm having a difficult time finding interior door panels without sun faded tops. Most salvage yards will only sell them as complete doors. Tempted to upholster or vinyl wrap the tops. Tried the "heat gun" restoring method that lasted less than one year and now looks like total crap.

My interior door panels are the same way. I do think you can buy spray paint to match the interior color (i think the grey is called dark graphite not sure abt the tan). My interior door handles were so bad I painted them black with krylon fusion and it looks much better. Another option is wd40. Ive never used it on the interior plastic, but i used it on the bed. Heres a pic of the painted handle and a before/after of the bed.

 

[swshawaii]

Looks nice @SwampTrac. Considered painting all four door panels, but many of the results I've seen were bordering hideous after a short time. Guess it's all about prep and adhesion. I've tried almost every well known conditioning product on the panels that included stupid expensive Wipe-New that ended in a total fail. I believe that stuff accelerated the fading. Now the top of the panels are chalky and almost white. Should have escalated a written warranty claim, but didn't want to deal with greedy idiots.

BEST investment I've made is an OEM (6L2Z99112A15A) Sport Trac specific rubber bed mat. Bare composite bed is OK until you put stuff inside and everything slides around. Made that mistake with a full 5 gallon plastic gas can that fell over and leaked until I smelled it. Once in a while an OEM bed mat appears on CL or eBay or may be found in a salvage yard. I value mine so much I bolted it down with carriage bolts using the two existing holes in the middle of the bed. IIRC, there were aftermarket companies that made them or they had universal mats that could be trimmed to fit.

 

[user 78012]

I’ve thought about doing the torch method, and then sealing with some ceramic coating.

The ceramic coating from Adam’s Polishes has worked well for me on a lot of the plastic stuff. Normally requires a recoat after a few months(as with most products). Mr Sam’s(from Cleetus McFarland channel)trim stuff works better than most of the other big brands from what I’ve used it on.

 

[swshawaii]

Please keep us posted if you go forward with this. Tops of my panels are really the only eye sores on my pampered 2005.

I've looked for matching panels for a long time and know they're only going to get more scarce since they were discontinued many years ago.

 

[dvdswan]

I did a quick search and thought this might help...

https://www.google.ca/search?q=2004...WfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=B1uEZf_jJeqz0PEP-p2D4Ao

 

[DILLARD000]

The 1/2 or 3/4 inch thick livestock trailer mats, cut to fit, make a great bed mat. Available at most farm supply stores.