Over the past year I've been pretty lazy and put off starting my own personal long term thread showing my "build" throughout its various stages. I only use the term "build" because that's what everyone now days seems to think of when throwing on a lift and wheels and tires, lol. I'll update this thread from time to time with new mods to show the long process of going from stock to it's final form, whatever that may ultimately be.

Little back story as to WHY I bought this truck: I'm typically the type of person who drives a new vehicle for a year, mods the hell out of it, parts it out and sells it for something new. In some of my pictures you'll see my old 1966 Ford F100. That truck was bought by my father when I was only a year old, to be his "work truck". It didn't take him long to realize that the truck was too nice to beat up, so he began tinkering with it and naturally it became the "red truck" or "Brent's truck" over time. Fast forward some years and when it came time for me to get my drivers license at 16, my parents gifted me the truck and I drove it for two years during high school, modding it along the way, before ultimately buying my first brand new truck at 18 years old.

The purpose of me buying this new Superduty was to get into something, "build" or mod it right, with the best parts that will LAST and just drive it. My goal is to get this thing paid off in the next few years and drive it until the wheels fall off so that I can free up some time, attention and most importantly cash to start actually building my old truck. I'm pretty fortunate for the fact that my father is healthy and still around to this day, and for the fact that I've somehow never caved into all of the offers I've had over all these years, and held on to this truck. After being around for 30+ years, it's time to get her back on the road and enjoy her again with my dad.

Back to the Superduty..

Had no idea at the time that it was going to be near impossible to find (without special ordering) a CCSB Lariat Ultimate with 6.7 PSD, 4x4, LED package and factory power running boards, WITHOUT the chrome package. After about 2 months of searching, I was able to finally find a dealer that could get one transferred from out of town.

From the evening I picked her up.

 

These are from the next day or so.. pretty sure I only worked a half day after picking her up the day before.

Pulled the factory 18" wheels and tires and had a brand new (take offs) set of 20" factory wheels and tires installed, and had the truck tinted 5% all around.

 

First couple miscellaneous mods thereafter were simple: Installed the OEM 2WD lower valance, OEM tailgate LED light from the DRW trucks and OEM rear fender liners.

 

Shortly after I had a local friend of mine do a full paint correction and apply CQuartz ceramic coating to the truck. It really made the black paint (and orange peel) shine and made it much easier to wash. Of course it rained that night too. Figures lol.

 

After about 5-6 months of indecisiveness, I finally landed on what route I wanted to go with the truck. I pulled the trigger on the newly released (at the time) 4.5" Carli Commuter kit, which came with Fox 2.0 shocks all around. I also added their fabricated radius arms, rear leaf add-a-packs, a PMF dual steering stabilizer with Fox shocks and a set of 37x13.50's for the factory wheels. Here are a couple crappy pics from before, during and after the install. The bed is loaded down in the last picture.

Ignore how dirty the truck was, I was overwhelmingly busy at work and didn't get the chance to clean it for almost a month. Which has never happened again lol.

 

Beautiful truck man

 

Yep, very nice! I've had mine for 6 weeks now and just finally sold my old truck, so I'm about be to traveling down a similar path of Carli leveled (possibly 4.5) customized goodness

 

And some pictures after the lift install, with the truck clean. Also a before/after shot.

 

I loved the look with the 4.5" lift and the 37x13.50 Toyo MT's on the stock wheels. The long term plan always included a new set of wheels, but with the rubbing I had (which was bearable honestly, and only at full lock) I decided to place an order on a new set of forged beadlock wheels from Innov8 Racing, sooner rather than later.

After about a month, they were here and ready to be mounted. The wheel/tire specs are: 17" x 9" with 5" backspace, with 37x13.50r17 Toyo MT tires. The wheels come from Innov8 with grade-8 hardware (which you can see in the first and second pictures) in a gold-ish finish, but I knew that wouldn't work for me. I ended up buying all new polished stainless ARP 12-point bolts, which ran about $20 for a pack of 5 bolts. I ended up needing about 20 packs to completely replace the grade-8 hardware, but IMO it made a world of difference.

 

These pictures are from about 2 months after getting the wheels on. I have to say, I've been completely in love with the way this truck started shaping out. Unfortunately with the all black wheels, pictures just NEVER do this thing justice.

 

Other than cleaning the hell out of this thing every Saturday morning, nothing much else has been done to it. Honestly I've been trying to lay off for a little bit, but there's still a very long list of things I'd like to do.

Over the past few months, I started hating the look of the silver factory locking hub on the front wheels. I battled myself with plastidipping or painting the factory hubs, especially after how much has been spent to do (IMO) everything the right way, using the best available parts. But after learning of their cheap internal construction, I wanted to actually upgrade the hubs if possible. I ended up buying a set of Warn Industries Premium Locking Hubs (PN 95060) and swapped them out the other day. Sometimes the smallest details can make the biggest difference, which IMO these did.

More to come soon..

 

Looks great. You should of come across the street to H-squared Racing Engines and we are a dealer for ARP and could of got you a better deal.

 

Of course!! Haha damn, you're only about a 40'-50' WALK from me too. I'll keep that in mind next time.

 

Truck looks great!

 

Few miscellaneous pictures..