Got the tail lights done last night, but didnt take any pictures, used LED bulbs for the reverse light and the top portion is full LED already.

05-07 RAPTOR GRILLE ARRIVED and Headlights too 10 mins ago!!!!! Haven't had a change to open the boxes yet as im working from home and constantly on the phone, will post pictures later when i get a chance.

 

LED Headlight bulbs just arrived, got everything now for tonights little facelift, ill take before and after pics, going from 2000 factory grille, to 2005-2007 Raptor Grille, with LED Headlights, LED Turn Signals.

 

Whoever designed the mounts for the headlights on these trucks, is a massively overpaid engineer with no business engineering a fast food burger box. The Grille took 5 minutes to install, i skipped wiring in the amber lights for the moment, as that is easy to do later, but the 05-07 Raptor Grille fits my 2000, with like a couple Centimetres to spare with the Ranch Hand Legend bumper on there, factory 99-04 bumper peeps would definitely need to trim the bottom edges. But it looks nice on there, and yes it came with the F and R letters.

I spent 2 hours with the truck last night, and only got 1 headlight/turn signal done thanks to the stupid black peg at the bottom that loves to get stuck, i had to break it out of there because no matter how hard i squeezed it, the damn thing would not budge at all. New headlights came with a replacement so no biggie, didnt get it all adjusted and aimed yet as my back seized up and i struggled to finish that much last night through the pain.

FYI on the back seizing mention, 7-8 years ago i was run down in a crosswalk by a drunk driver in an F150, crushed a vertebrae, rag-dolled across the pavement, the works, and they told me i might never walk, run, or work out again, doctors...... Tellin me what i cannot do, i walk and run now, but it ain't pretty and it hurts pretty bad, but i walk, and i run. Because i grew up a stubborn *** redneck, doin rodeo ****, me and pain are life long friends. The pain of having those nerves in my spine flare up sometimes hurts worse than when I got shot. Oh yeah, got shot too, long story, and no im not a criminal, but the shooter was.

 

Just found this, another Excursion guy swore by it and said it puts an end to your drinks constantly launching during a turn which has been a problem since i got it, the factory shallow cup holder is absolutely useless unless your using a soup cup....

 

So last night i ripped i forget how many boxes and parts for the satellite radio system out of the dash, the factory radio would not come out, even with the removal pins, found out it had been forced back in improperly by whoever did the satellite radio install, ended up having to remove the entire dash face, and then ripping the retainers off the sides of the factory radio grunt style with pliers. Managed to do it without any damage to the dash face, couldn't believe how much **** the satellite radio had involved with it....

I was starting to install the new radio but the wires started getting confusing, the adapters were not lining up, etc, so i left off with that and am waiting for availability to have an audio shop do the install.

I have a harness from Metra that fits the connector on the left in this picture, but not for the one on the right, what is the purpose of the one on the right, and do i need it?

 

just a few WAGs, but I'd venture a guess as to some sort of message center displayed via the factory radio, a VSS input for automatic volume control, or something to do with the horribly outdated video system. Regardless, I didn't use it when I installed my Pioneer, and everything works just fine. I pulled my whole front row and cut out the cables for the flip down screen when I did mine. I'll never use it, I don't have kids, and the resolution of those OEM screens doesn't hold up to today's smart devices, so why bother?

 

Left is factory, right is new clear enclosure with Stark LED headlight 8000k color

New clear headlight enclosure with Stark LED headlight 8000k color on the left, factory on the right.

 

 

So I got the 10 inch head unit in thanks to @JAck19 for the wiring assist, also got the second headlight in but it was a PITA.

The Blue USB Ports to the right of the head unit in the black insert i drilled a hole for are wired to the ports on the back of the head unit so i can easily plug in devices such as USB Sticks, Keyboard, Mouse, Phone Tether, SDR Transceivers, etc. There is a third USB port that i put an extension on and moved over to inside the kick plate below the steering wheel so i can add a SSD/HDD, or even the SDR inside there out of sight and not have to use the Face USB ports for that.

For those who see how well this fit and turned out, Here is the exact Head Unit i got:
Here is the USB 2 Port Insert that you see next to my Power Point, you just connect it to the head unit, and it can mirror your phone screen, or transfer music, video, tether for internet, and numerous other things, i tether mine wirelessly tho its simpler.

NOTE: You will need a dremmel, to remove some material above and below the radio opening, DO NOT REMOVE ANY MATERIAL ON EITHER SIDE!!! Remove as much material as possible above and below including the little bits on the top side that go backwards from the face so you get that extra clearance.

VIDEO:
PICS BELOW

 

Additional Information about the install.

The WiFi antenna and the GPS Antenna which are both corded and have 3M Mounting Tape applied to them, I stuck the GPS Antenna on the underside of the dash as centered up as possible with the truck, and as far forwards as possible so it sits right below the windshield, and it works and reads perfectly. The WiFi antenna i put the same way, but off as far to the driver side as i could reach with my arm in through the radio hole in the dash and it works pretty good there, the documentation says not to put them side by side as they can interfere with each other so i made sure there was decent distance between them.

I got a wireless Backup Camera adapter, installed the receiving side with the radio, haven't had time to get the camera and the transmitter mounted yet, ToDo.

This head unit uses the illumination circuit from the factory harness and actually auto dims when the headlight or marker lights are on which is neat.

The Unit has a builtin microphone which i did not realize, i was planning to order a microphone since i didn't find one in the kit, and it has a Microphone port on the back of the unit, but sure enough when i hit the voice button it heard me and works fine.

The unit allows for Front AND Rear cameras, and has inputs for both, so I plugged an AV cable into the front camera port, and dropped it into the driver side kick plate so when i get inclined to add a front night vision camera(oh yea!!!) i won't have to pull the thing out of the dash to do it.

DO NOT FORGET to remove the 2 screws on top of the unit that have a sticker attached, these screws hold the CD-Unit in proper alignment for shipping, you are to remove them just prior to mounting the unit, if you do not remove them, the CD/DVD portion will not function properly.

ALSO, the two screws above the Radio slot on the inside that point upward, must be removed, and left out, or the radio catches on them and is not good, so remove them.

Dremmel work, You will basically dremmel away the bottom and top lips of the radio slot to be flush with the recessed area of the radio slot, so there are no lips above and below, if you do that, it will fit like a glove vertically, with no need to force it, DO NOT Dremmel the sides at all, they are perfect as is for your Metra dash kit plates to mount and snap onto.

EXTREMELY USEFUL NOTE: I left the Metra plates off mine intentionally for a while so i could slide the radio in and out easily as i tweaked and tuned the fit and wires, and such, i strongly suggest this, BECAUSE, once you put on the Metra plates and snap it into the Dash firmly, IT WILL NOT COME OUT, unless you remove the whole face panel, with the radio in it. This is due to a lazy design of the Metra plates not the radio, SO, do not put the plates on and snap the radio in all the way back until you are 500% sure you have everything wired properly, working completely, and are happy with everything, or you will be pulling the whole dash face off if you missed something, this is also why i dropped several cables into the driver side kick plate for future planning purposes so they are there if i decide to use them, and i would not have to tear the dash apart again to plug them in.

 

That's that. I'm chunking my Pio.

 

Got the tow mirrors done now, and the only outstanding item is the backup camera, Due to old injuries, i cannot get under this tank so im trying to find someone to get up under and wire the transceiver for me so that can be done.

 

Updated pics

 

I got the SDR setup working in the Excursion today, haven't mounted the antennas on the roof yet, it was just a mockup test with everything connected, and i opened the sunroof and put the antenna on the roof.

Took me all of a minute to hop into the AZ DPS channels which start at 460.200 MHz, left it on while i sat in there swapping out the rest of the rear area lights with LED bulbs. I also printed out a guide book of all the frequencies for my state for Govt and Military and put it all in the console for easy reference.

I think i will end up with 3 antenna on the back in total, 1 for the SDR, and 2 for the Alcatel LTE Modem i am installing for the head unit to have its own full time internet connection, It also provides a vehicle bound hotspot for occupants that has better data signal coverage due to having multiple roof mounted antennas connected to it.

Here is the modem, i already have one of them i use in the house as a backup internet connection as im an engineer working from home and cant be at the mercy of my ISP. For the one im putting in the Excursion i will be using antenna extension cords to put bigger antennas on the roof and not using the cheap plastic sticks it comes with. This modem has a micro-usb power port and is easily run off a USB Charger, im thinking to find somewhere in the rear portion of the Excursion to mount the modem and run its antenna leads to the roof, i need to investigate options back there still though.

 

Its been a while since I installed my new head unit but I wanna say the other connector has to do with the entertainment center audio link, but I could be wrong, or it least it has something to do with it on mine