'98 Limited street X - Pic's and breakdown of mod's.

I got the truck for free from my parents because my Camaro (1996 ex highway patrol B4C) became not suitable as a daily driver anymore (It's a monster) and I have slowly been working on this instead. I have had it for about 3.5 years. I don't have to many pics but I have a few.


-1998 4.0 SOHC. 150k on the body and trans, about 30k on the engine rebuild. Crankshaft pully broke clean off.

-Custom air filter - Auto zone cone air filter. I ground down the MAF housing round. No adapter plate.
-Removed the orange reflector from the headlights. - Found the "how to" on the forum here.
-I re-painted the front bumper stripe. The tan had faded to an odd silver and black mix.
-Chrome door pillar stick on accents, stainless steel, 6 pieces. - Ebay.
-Removed the roof rack, partially.
-Lowered the front about 3 to 3.5 inches. Airbagit.com re-indexed keys with no adjuster bolts in.
-2 inch block in the back.
-Mid grade auto zone replacement shocks.
-7 inch in dash dvd touch screen. Valor 700W. Works great and looks great for cheap.
-Bazooka amp EL 2150 bridged at 2 ohms, 3 12's, mtx 6000's wired in series, 2 farad cap. DP audio super tweeters. Polk Audio 8 inch sub to replace the factory one. I blew it the 2nd day I had the truck.
-Radar detector mounted above the rear view mirror. Wired to the left map light switch to turn off and on.
-22 inch Velocity Racing U2-75 chrome wheels, 10.5 wide on Kumho 420s 265/35/22 tires.
-Clear/Euro tailights - Ebay.
-Painted ford logo's and third brake light white. Removed EXPLORER and Limited logo's.
-Painted all my bulbs with high temp silver engine paint in the clear housings. Light coat.

To do:

-Install new bulbs for the headlights and fog lights. Have not arrived yet.
-Paint radio dash bezel and map light trim white.
-Tint front 2 windows.
-Make my own mesh grill to fit in the limited grill.
-Maybe go to 3 inch blocks in the rear.
-Maybe paint the mirrors and running board black plastic white.
-Maybe add a white vinyl strip along the top of the windshield (6 - 8 inches thick) for that "chopped" look.
- etc.

 

[BADB4C]

I think it turned out great. The little blue rocker switch is wired to my amp remote turn on so I can easily turn the subs on and off. The white looks so much better than the black I think.

Now within the next few weeks I will probably paint the center console cup holder part and the overhead map light direction part. Looks like I need the white sport gauges too now.

 

[DSpease15]

I don't think you should have painted the radio bezel white but thats just me

 

[specialized7]

agreed, honest opionions here, it would look bad ass with black or white rims, the interior would look nice with the woodgrain i think

 

[BADB4C]

Thanks guys, I went and looked at it again and I really love it! :

It gives it such a sporty look imo. I am not a fan of black rims or wood grain really. I like to be different. I don't want to look like every other truck on the street. Seeing all the white of the truck first then seeing the dash makes it look less out of place.

 

[TheEnforcer98]

I'm not a fan of the white, but I do like the idea of painting the black interior pieces, I was even thinking of doing it myself.

In my opinion you should have left the vents black to go with the buttons and climate control.

 

[BADB4C]

The reason for painting the vents is because of all the painted interiors I have seen, I have never seen anyone paint them, and they all looked unfinished to me. I cannot wait to paint the rest of the vents and other black trim pieces.

If you like the idea of paining them to match your truck or to accent your paint I recommend it. It makes a huge difference. You also cannot beat the price. $5 for some paint.

 

[TheEnforcer98]

yeah, well $5 for standard white paint is hella cheaper than a couple cans of Medium Wedgewood Blue, haha. When I painted my mirrors and Wiper cowl (something that I may suggest you do, look at my registry) in the fall it was around $20 for two cans. But that still doesn't mean I won't do it, haha

 

[BADB4C]

Finished painting all the interior pieces. Installed my hid conversion and really like it. 10k still puts out allot more light than stock and looks really great. It quit raining so I took a couple pics of the painted 3rd brake light and painted logos. I might paint the mirrors in the future.

 

[Slowlyvverot]

im a lifted guy but your ex looks real nice. i actually like the white interior pieces. Might i suggest accenting the doors next? and maaaybe a white steering wheel cover.

 

[BADB4C]

Thanks. I will be changing the steering wheel cover. I liked it before I painted the console parts but not now. What parts of the doors are you thinking about? I don't want to paint the handles since they get used so much. Maybe change the tan carpet to white? Speaker grills?

It is funny. When I text the pics to my friends they don't really like it. When they see it in person, they all really like it though.

 

[Slowlyvverot]

I say paint the speaker grilles and the mapholder on each door. I think that'd round out the interior look very nicely.

 

[BADB4C]

I installed a little Sirius receiver. It is pretty cool.

I tried to get a pic of how blue and bright the HID conversion 10K bulbs are, but it was hard. I had to crank the white balance down.

I found out I had two mufflers on the truck so I cut the second one off and put on a 3 inch dump ($7 Auto Zone). It sounds real nice, deep, and mellow now. It was dead silent before.

 

[BrianDye]

Very nice! Most of me likes the white, but like others are suggesting you need some more Ccents, I painted my handles on my other 95 black, 3 coats of paint and then 3 clearcoats Nd they held up flawlessly, I would also do the speaker grills, mirrors, and take the chrome off the pillars and paint them white!

Maybe even white accents on the rims?

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

looks good keep up good work

 

[2kv8]

Were you able to get your alignment with in spec with the airbagit.com torsion keys? I have been looking to do this to mine to get it a little lower but I don't want to chew up my new tires with in a couple of months.

 

[BADB4C]

There will be allot more white accents in the future. I only work on the truck when I am bored so not sure when they will come.

With the flipped keys and no torsion bolts in, the alignment was an eighth of a degree off of perfect. This is my daily driver and it has had the keys on for over a year now and the tires look perfect.

 

[little x]

Truck looks good. I think what you cut off was the only muffler, and now your just running a resonator.

 

[BADB4C]

The muffler that is still on there is the size of the gas tank almost, no way that is a resonator.

Thanks though

 

[TheEnforcer98]

The muffler is first, then the resonator. He cut the resonator off and dumped it after the muffler, which probably made him loose all of his low end torque. I would've just cut out the resonator and put a piece of pipe in its place. Still looks good though, wheels are just a bit gaudy for my taste however.

 

[BADB4C]

I know I didn't negatively affect any volume or back pressure on the exhaust and "loose all my low end torque." It is noticeably quicker off the line and I can actually chirp the 22's around a corner again. Haven't been able to do that since the stock 15's.

I actually gained almost 2 mpg city and 4 mpg on the highway also, but I wasn't going to post that because it seems unrealistic.

I can maybe see where you are coming from but with as restrictive as the 4 cats, stock headers, and giant muffler are, no. With all that in place this didn't hurt. Even if I gutted most of that I doubt I would lose anything over 1500 rpm.

Anyway, rant over. We all have are own opinions. My only worry is that I can get it inspected this month like this and with my hid's. They are pretty lax here though..