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Paul's 2006 Ford Taurus SE (TaurusDailyDriver)

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#1 · (Edited)
This is the journey my car has taken in the time it has been in my family, and then passed to me.
Enjoy!



In 2006, we traded in our Toredor Red 1999 Taurus SE Vulcan with 112k miles for this 2006 Taurus SE with 15k on the clock.

It was a rental car in Pennsylvania before it became ours. Instead of my dad trading it in for a Corolla in mid 2010, I took it over and it had 74k miles at the time.

Specifics:
2006 Ford Taurus SE
Silver Frost Metallic
Vulcan 3.0L OHV V6
AX4N Transmission - Original (Fingers Crossed)
Built in May 2005 in Atlanta
Miles: 138,001 (at time of sale July 2014)


This is its stock appearance. It had a car starter installed when it was my father's car, too. Just thought I should add.






At my old job, there was a gen 4 (a 2002 Medium True Blue Taurus SES Vulcan) that I spotted with gen 4.5 rims. These are my favorite Taurus rims, so luckily they weren't super rare! I later found out that this was a co-worker's father's car they bought at auction cheap and it ended up dying with 356k miles. Before they scrapped it.. I was able to get the rims for my car! This was the first mod, and I figured it would be the only thing I ever did to this car. Before TCCA, I still loved this Taurus so much!






Then came the day I stumbled across the TCCA. :p This is when modding became out of hand and got to the point where it became addicting.


My first modifications to the car, other than a steering wheel cover :p, were planned to be the spoiler (factory style, no park benches here.) and the amber turn signal modification. I did the two as a combination modification since they correlate with each other. I bought a spoiler off of eBay and then went to a salvage yard and got the two sockets I needed for the bulbs. I wired everything up and got it to look like this. The amber makes the bull stand out!








Ok, so now the rear has a little bit of character. What about the front? I scoured the internet and finally came across a chrome grille for the front of it. It really changed the entire look of the front end. Very classy if you ask me! ;)





 
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#2 · (Edited)
Next, came a little audio upgrade. I didn't want to go aftermarket because I like the stock appearance of the control panel. I had no desire to put an awkward looking metra kit in. I opted to do the Mach audio upgrade, and I am extremely content with it. Sounds great for Ford... worth the price, and it is completely stock in appearance too!

I also found some cool New-Old-Stock OEM Ford Taurus rubber front floor mats. They are used in the colder and wetter months.



So far, this is what my interior looked like. Very SE-ish. It needed something...



And the cockpit.






That something ended up being interior underglow. Last Christmas, my girlfriend got me 2 8" Green LED strips that I mounted beneath my dash. Green is my favorite color, and it so happens to match the rest of the interior lighting too! I have them powered from the ash tray light, so park lamps and headlamps activate them. I installed an inline switch mounted on the AC duct to shut them off as I please (like on dark nights with lots of deer).




It needed more of course! :)

In the meantime, I upgraded to Silverstar 9007 Bulbs. I don't know why people say they suck. I bought mine on eBay for $21 and they have lasted a while so far, and help significantly with visibility.

I also decided to look at the possibility of Centennial Headlights. I found an aftermarket set on eBay and ordered them. I was very disappointed to see that the turn signal area was not chromed. I ran them for a little while, but eventually ditched them.




Next, the interior still needed additional attention.
I came across a 2003 Sable GS wagon at my local junkyard and decided to take the woodgrain bezel from it. It was an easy install and really did add what I hoped to the interior. :)

Soon, I found in a 2002 Sable LS Premium, a Gentex-177 Compass Autodim Mirror. I never realized the convenience I was missing without one of these!

At this point my interior looked like this.




I was getting sick and tired of the dual third brake light with my spoiler. I could not find a rear parcel shelf in my color, but I did come across a charcoal colored one in a 2002 Black Taurus SEL. I installed this in my car, and it looks quite good with the contrast of colors. I kept the graphite hook covers on it to make the dark color pop even more.

Before:






After:


 
#3 ·
Not really a modification, but it bothered me when the light on my headlight switch burned out. I realized that if this happens, you MUST replace the switch. The light bulb is not serviceable. The switch breaks when taken apart. Unless you want to go crazy with glue, visit your local scrap yard and get one in good condition.




Back to modifications.

I never was going to install mirrors with puddle lamps. I later found out that most Gen4s are prewired for heated mirrors and puddle lamps. Naturally, mine isn't prewired for heat based on build date, but puddle lamps work. The heated mirrors are a future project. I was able to get two mirrors with both functions and silver frost mirror caps.




Music is wonderful. I added Mach, but I wanted more! I found a CD changer setup in a 2000 Taurus SE Comfort Wagon and tore it out. I ended up custom mounting my CD changer with the wagon bracket, and I like the way it turned out. It makes for more room in the side area without the case for traditional trunk setups.



In some down time, I took 2 old dealer license plate frames, two Gen 4.0 Taurus Trunk badges, and made some custom plate frames.



Now my BIGGEST modification. Do not ever do this. Seriously.

Do not ask me if I was dropped on my head or for my IQ. I know it was probably more stupid than lighting a match near spilled gasoline, but I decided somehow it was a good idea to put in a moonroof. I did not want aftermarket, and everyone told me to not do it. My stubbornness got the best of me on this one. It ended up working out and I did disprove the myths of loss of structural support in the roof. I did a write up on this.. do a search if you are looking for more details.

I went to the junkyard and spotted the same Taurus SEL that I got my rear parcel shelf carpet out of. I started tearing it apart to see what I needed to do.

This is the tray in the junk car.



I went to town and a couple hours later I got the tray down as well as all the components I needed to do the swap into my car. The SEL was destroyed.






Then the crazier part.

This was my roof before anything.



And this is where it gets graphic. We did a lot of crazy measuring and finally did the cuts.








Then once it was cut, the edges needed to be bent over and welded to the tray.




Of course, it needed some bondo and body work to get it looking good after installation.



Once that was done, I had the headliner recovered and I reinstalled that. Additionally, I put on an AVS moonroof wind deflector too. But... voila, a factory moonroof installed aftermarket.












Before, you saw that I purchased faux Centennial headlights, but ditched them. I wanted to get centennials, and luckily found two Ford OEM centennial headlight housings.. from two different eBay sellers. I was lucky that one had driver and the other had the passenger! Not a bad price too as opposed to aftermarket lenses!



 
#4 · (Edited)
Another couple maintenance issues.. and I will do a write up on this too. I needed a new multifunction switch since mine wore out. My wipers would not work unless I hit my turn signals! Replaced it with one from the junkyard. The donor car was a 2005 Sable that was totaled in 2007. Very little use.



Next, my alternator, at 114k miles, decided to have enough. On my way to pick up the alternator and install it (I was 3 minutes away), my car decided to strand me. I was near the local megadealership so I pulled in there with my last bit of juice and waited there for AAA.




Don't take the "CHECK CHARGING SYS" warning lightly.


Some miscellaneous pictures. :wub:







I ended up getting new NY plates for the bull. My old ones were rusting and falling apart.





The most recent addition was the lighted passenger vanity mirror. I never use mine, so I did not bother installing a driver one, but my girlfriend uses it often. So I wired in a lighted one from that same 2005 Sable.





I have some minor stuff planned for it in the future. I don't really think I will do engine mods... I mean, come on, it is a grocery getter. I definitely have done a lot to it and TCCA helped motivate me to do so!



Just gotta get her through winter.

I return her to stock on the front for the winter.




This is why....

http://www.taurusclub.com/forum/124...on/174301-bull-got-hit-distracted-driver.html



The lady who hit me bent my new license plate and broke my custom frame. Dealing with this all at the moment




And... so the story continues.


Thanks for checking out my Taurus. :)
 
#5 ·
VOTE THIS BEAUTY FOR Car of the YEAR 2012!

It'd be a huge honor to win that contest. Other than the moonroof, I like to do modifications that are accessible to those who were like me on a college budget and still learning how to do stuff. Thanks for reading about my Taurus, and hopefully I have inspired some people to do the same with their cars. Regards!

And of course, if anyone has any questions about how to do anything, or needs assistance, please PM me. I am always willing to help!
 
#6 ·
I think it's great how you took the SE and turned it into an SEL. The mods you have done are some that most people can do (except the moonroof!), but most people won't. That's why I think you deserve to win car of the year. It's unique yet it's attainable for others.


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#14 ·
It looks really good I just have to give you crap about it always coming off the track :p


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The one issue I've always seen with moonroofs is leaking, seeing how that one is just put in there do you have that problem at all?
 
#17 ·
And no... I will never do this to anyone's car haha
Awwwwwwwww! Your cold as ice! Too bad you don't live in Illinois cuz that's a mod worth doing. You just might get car of the year award just because you decided to put a hole in your bulls head.
 
#18 ·
Haha well wouldn't that be something. It is not an easy modification by any means. All the other modifications made are fairly easy to do, subtle, and make a big difference to me. Around here, unless someone really knows Taurii, it doesn't look much different. Especially now in its winter skin. I can't use the moonroof now anyways because of all the snow, but Central New York springs and summers make the mod so worth it.
 
#21 ·
Great work on the roof job but you're insane for attempting it. With that said, don't do it again because we know the definition for insanity, right? Ask Ben Franklin.


The car looks incredible though!
Well thanks! (never again haha) You probably miss the moonroof in the totaled SEL don't you? Going to an SE, you lost a lot of features.




First Mods of 2013!


I found a totaled 2004 SEL with 90k at the junkyard, so I figured it is about time I do autolamps! I took the switch, the dash piece with sensor, and the connectors to take pins out of. I didn't need the switch with fog light capability, so it is just the basic one with autolamp feature.



On top of the autolamps, I looked up on this and discovered that two pins on the sensor have to do with the LED in it. As you can see, there is a red LED inside.





So I preceded to tear apart my dash and run all the wiring in order to add the pins to the SJB.




After a while, I completely ran the wiring for the autolamps feature and it ended up working! I also wired the LED to the theft light in the cluster and I now have a blinking theft LED on my dash now!

Here is the finished product.


Yes, the surround for the headlamp switch is going to either be getting painted, or replaced. I hate the worn off paint!! It drives me nuts.



There ya go! It blinks about every 3 seconds.




This is also a feeler. Not sure if I like it.
I grabbed 4 Lincoln Continental / Mercury Grand Marquis lock pulls. I hate the look of the front being the short stubby one, so I didn't even bother doing that. I have 4 of the tall ones in my doors.. not sure if I like it. Oh well.. takes a minute to change back.




Also, I finally added a cargo net to my trunk!
 
#23 ·
Very nice write up.
 
#24 ·
Sound Upgrade!

I figured it was time for a little bit of an upgrade to the sound system in my car since the factory speakers were a little fuzzy and blah. Keep in mind I had all the factory components that came with the Mach Audio system. Tweeters, 4 Ford speakers, and the CD changer. The Mach amp, too, of course. Bought 4 Polk Audio DXi570s from Crutchfield and installed them. They came with the adapters that fit right into the factory plug, so it was easy. The only issue I ran into was that it was 2°F out. That isn't an exaggeration either. And wow what a difference. Clean crisp highs, excellent midbass, and they aren't even broken in yet. The ceremonial first song was "Squonk" by Genesis. (Now that is good music.)

An excellent upgrade for the money, and the best part is that it is still powered by stock stuff. It sure doesn't sound it!








What is up with this? These are the original ones from my car of course.

But notice 3 have the same part number, but there is one odd one out. It has a different color too.. the 3 had a gold hue to them, while the other one was all silver. The silver was the buzzy one too.

Thought it was strange.





Also, can't wait to use this stuff on the car.
All this for... wait for it....just under $15. Clearance sale at work + my discount! B)


 
#25 ·
Hey, don't forget to mention I recommended you to those speakers! So you wouldn't have upgraded without my persuasion!
 
#27 ·
That speaker was possibly from a different Ford vehicle, same but different lol. So you like them? I need to put better speakers in mine.
 
#28 ·
We had the car since 2006 and the speakers don't have junkyard markings or anything strange on them. Who knows



And YES! I love them! Such better clarity compared to the Ford speakers.
 
#29 ·
This is what I get to deal with fixing tomorrow.
It is inconvenient for your window to fall off the track (who knows what broke this time) in single digit snowy weather on the highway.

So I go to park it til I fix it, and the SEL had a flat tire.. Not my day.
 
#32 ·
Poor Paul. I'll find a new door for you.
 
#33 ·
A few months ago, I had the same problem. It came off the track, but it was able to be wrestled back on the track until I bent the track back so it'd stay on. This time it came off even further, and all it does is clunk back down to where it is if I try moving it.

Stupid car. I don't know about a new door. Although, if I do go down south and find pristine 03+ doors, I'll trade mine out in an instant. Mine have rust and dings. I need ones with both new style handles (Exterior, and interior black ones)... but that is something I'll take if I find on my own I am sure.

And that means I have to resplice the Mach stuff in. Ugh!!!
No new door for now. I'll tear it apart first.
 
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