Nothing like OEM. But much better than the blown out panels that were in there. I reattached the sound dampening material from the old door, the new panels don't come with any. I think we paid $4xx for both so I'm looking at it as a stop gap until something else comes by. I live in Arizona so after 25 years in the Az sun anything plastic is pretty much done. If I get 4 or 5 years out of these I'll be ecstatic.

 

Took her out for the first run today. smoked like hell for the first few miles. I'm sure there was a ton of oil in the exhaust from the injector job. I only drove about 4 or 5 miles total but it feels like a new truck compared to the day I drove it home. This week it will be time to power wash the underneath and get tires and a alignment. I changed the CPS and IPR yesterday. The exhaust was heavy with diesel burn your eyes style fumes. After changing the IPR and CPS that totally went away. I had to check everything twice before driving because I cut the rusted bumper off to get the truck into the garage and I put the new one on today and I don't feel like taking that off again if something was not right and it needed more overnight garage time. The truck has no rust except for the after market stuff like rear bumper and hitch those were totally eaten away. After I get tires I'll post some pictures.

 

A few pictures of the truck.

 

Clean interior and exterior judging from the pics.

 

That is what made me decide to do all this work. The inside was filthy but no rips or tears I knew it would clean up, and the body is pretty much good to go. Clear is missing from the hood but I'm going to fix that. The rest does not really even need paint it would be pretty much wasted money to paint the entire truck. This has never been a show truck project. I used the Chemical Guys foaming interior cleaner and it cleaned up really good. One more treatment and it will be good enough to put good mats and seat covers in. Then some monsta liner in the bed and pretty much call it good. When I got the truck it was bone stock and never tuned it has high mileage but blowby seems minimal. Front and rear brakes need to be done too. I paid too much but finding a 7.3 for any cheaper in Arizona is not easy. I'm hoping this is at least a 500K motor

 

Looks sharp.
When I got my OBS it was pretty much a worn out and then some 700k+- stock truck at the time and with out a bed lol.. I focused on reliabilty when I bought her then injectors as I needed some anyway and got 160/0 from Rosewood (woke up the truck really good) turbo back exhaust, custom tunes, added 6.0 IC, 6.0 trans cooler, changed diff from 4.10 to 3.55 and added a low stall triple disc TC on the stock trany (works great and still going) the mill started to give up so I bought an e99 7.3 and rebuild and punched it .030 because the dumb as at the machine shop said .030 was need as two cylinders and convinced me of doing all of them but turns out two cylinders needed more so I had another machine shop sleeved and punched to .030 as I wasn't going to sleeve all of them it's freaking $$$$$. I converted to everything super duty engine wise (timing cover, turbo, turbo pedestal, up pipes, fuel bowl, E- pump) working good as well and leak free and can still buy parts on the counter, by ordering for a 99-03 SD.

Stuff I added before the engine gave out.

No carpet, head liner torn, seats destroyed, door panels broken windows scratched to hell and the list goes on and on. It's still a rolling project but slowly getting her there.I have a custom upholstered seats, new carpet and headliner all I need is good door panels, dash pad and re-paint the dash board as the southwest sun takes a beatin on everything and interior should be 100% to my liking.
Still need paint and I should be set.

 

I think owning a truck of this age is going to always be a rolling project. Unless you just drive it into the dirt. All the stuff you are going to do will still be cheaper than financing a new truck and you can do it at time when you can afford it unlike a monthly payment.

 

Really nice work! And you shouldn't have any issues getting to 500k with good use and maintenance. My advice is do not let the truck the truck sit and do not baby it. This is coming from experience. Adam and a few others have done the 800k run. It's very possible with the 7.3

 

Thank you for the complement I have had a great experience doing the work. At first I was dreading it but after I got started I really began to love going out to the garage every day. This is the first Ford I have ever owned and to be honest its a pretty amazing truck. They sure don't build them like this anymore. Also the community and activity on the forums is amazing. I was not expecting such a large following with so many active members. That makes life so much easier to be able to read and find information from so many others who know 100% more about these trucks than me and have "been there done that" before.

 

Truck looks great, now it runs how it looks. Most first gen 7.3s I see barely can get out of their own way.