Other than the battery & compressor, the engine was pretty dirty.

After a few cycles of garden hose & Purple Power/Dawn/water, it's clean enough to work on. Step one was drying all the spark plug wells, and greasing the coil boots.

I could see a lot of debris in the radiator, so I lifted the stack out for cleaning. This was with all the lines & hoses still connected & full.

In addition to all the dirt & leaves, there were some bent fins in the radiator & condenser.

This Sunex pneumatic vacuum works great outdoors without the bag.

A big improvement. Screen behind the grill will keep it that way longer:

This is the evaporator after cleaning & straightening the fins.

There was an oil leak near the front of the engine, which turned out to be the typical water outlet/filter base gasket. I installed a new Ford F6AZ-6840-BA with some Indian Head shellac.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the dash prewired for power pedals, and even moreso to stumble across an '04 CV with Flint interior & power pedals in the first junkyard I looked in.

Removing the old pedals was fairly quick & easy: trim pin puller, 15mm, 13mm, 10mm, & bent-nose pliers were the only necessary tools.

It was a reach to find the pedal motor takeout still taped into the dash harness at the top of the firewall, but it all worked PnP.

To mount this iOttie 1-touch wireless charging cradle without putting any screw holes in the dash, I made this little steel bracket and painted it black so it almost looks like an original part of the cradle's arm. The arm pivots on 2 layers of self-adhesive UHMWPE tape to reduce wear & noise. It's surprisingly solid, with the only damage to the dash being a tiny slot in the trim plastic where it's not visible, even if the bracket is removed.

IF THE IMAGE IS TOO SMALL, click it.

I made similar bases for my trucks:

It's handy, without blocking the shifter, an air vent, the radio, or the A/C controls. And it's rock-solid.

This is a Directed Electronics 9401T parking sensor system, which I found to be very reliable on another vehicle.

The rear camera is barely noticeable above the license plate, but it's close enough to the centerline to be intuitive & effective.





The extra hole in the bumper skin is my goof...

Stant 10502 locking gas cap.

There was a roll of Life Savers in the seat base that I couldn't reach to remove, so I had to pull the chair.

Once one chair was out, and I had the tools ready anyway, I decided to pull the other, and the carpet for a thorough cleaning.

It needed it. There was a lot more coffee in the carpet than there had been on the dash.

Because Ford didn't actually follow the DDIN specs on these radios, the bezel plastic has to be trimmed to fit an aftermarket DDIN chassis.

After getting the correct connectors, the refurb Kenwood DDX774BH is working great. I've prewired the steering wheel interface (if I ever swap the wheel for one with radio buttons), and the front camera (if I add one). The Noauka rear camera works, but I need to turn off its built-in guidelines because the radio has adjustable lines.

I can't get the camera's built-in guidelines to turn off yet, but the upper set is pretty close to correct.

This screen should keep gravel & bugs from damaging the condenser or obstructing the radiator again.

I adjusted the parking brakes, but since the tires, pads, & rotors all looked OK, I didn't remove any wheels. The tires are 8 years old, though; and the spare is an original 2004 tire.

AutoVentShades 94228 went on quickly & easily.

I swapped the hitch receiver from the '98, but not the trailer wiring.