Its upgrade time finally!

[naminad]

That's definitely an option, you don't need to replace the upper control arms. I think its recommended and the reason I did it is so I can install the lift without the worry of having the replace or keep and eye on the upper ball joints since they are the usual point of failure.

i was wondering why you also and went ahead and bought the tie rod and ends?

 

[GSU4x4]

Well I finally got everything installed! And to whoever said it was a 3-5 hour install...you LIE!!!! hahaha, it ended up being a 5 hr job on Saturday and 6.5 hr on Sunday. I know it took some extra time to install the new tie rods, lower ball joints and UCA's but it def was not a super easy task (atleast for me). But after its all said and done I freaking love it and the new stance it has! With the new 265/75r-16 AT2's, it rides smooth and looks a little more like a truck but still be a good, reliable everyday drive. Enough talk, here are the pics....

Here are the height differences in the headlights and foglights...

And I found a ST to park next to and compare....

I'll have more pics to come when I wash her up and install some step bars (wife's request,lol) this weekend.

 

[GSU4x4]

So I've doing so research about Plasti-Dip and I've been wanting to make my bumpers, flares and all the black plastic to look new again. I've been using Liquid ICE to keep them new but they just didn't seem to hold the the new black for as long anymore. So this past weekend I taped off my truck and decided to try out some parts to see how it holds up and looks.

Taped up the wheels

Rear fender flares, rear bumper and roof rails

Finished it up and took all the tape off which took for ever because the Plasti-Dip created a "skin" that overlaped the tape and parts that I wanted to paint, so I had to razor blade everything apart so it wouldn't rip. Still need to do the front bumper, door handles, front fender flares and bed top pieces

BTW I also added some simple step bars on the truck, they were sale for only $139 from Autoanything.com
Then I decided to do the exhaust tonight too, i'm loving the sneaky exhaust

All in all it took forever! haha. The taping and razor blade to take it off added a lot more time than I thought it would, basically a Friday night and all day Saturday. I think it turned out okay but I have noticed some slight peeling on the tops of the fender flares, which I'm sure me driving then the truck sitting in a HEAVY downpour in a storm that came through didn't help only after curing for about 48 hours.

 

[FLOffroad]

Very nice. The recolored alloys now look sort of like Raptor wheels.

 

[kvunck]

As for the 500 RPM drop it is possible the converter is locking up in a rpm range that before the programer it wasn't. I've got a 09 with the programer and it really helped when I added the Gibson cat-back and a K&N air filter and opened the air cleaner intake tube. Lots more gained by seat of pants.

 

[GSU4x4]

Very nice. The recolored alloys now look sort of like Raptor wheels.

Thanks! I'm really happy the way they turned out, I played around on Microsoft paint for ideas before I decided which pattern to use.

 

[Trac Marks]

Looks great, but I've always been curious why Ford didn't paint the bottom of the doors, fender, and front bedside black below the crease/belt line to match the bumpers. Seems like it'd "flow" better. I've kicked around the idea of maybe painting mine either silver or tan. (white truck/tan interior) These ideas get kicked around after I've kicked a few back... Maybe slap that into MS paint & see how it looks.

Surprisingly the tailpipe looks good black. Is that BBQ grille paint? Seems there is more stainless than aluminum in these. I sanded mine down, looked 75% better, then when I tried to polish it, there was zero improvement.

 

[GSU4x4]

Looks great, but I've always been curious why Ford didn't paint the bottom of the doors, fender, and front bedside black below the crease/belt line to match the bumpers. Seems like it'd "flow" better. I've kicked around the idea of maybe painting mine either silver or tan. (white truck/tan interior) These ideas get kicked around after I've kicked a few back... Maybe slap that into MS paint & see how it looks.

Surprisingly the tailpipe looks good black. Is that BBQ grille paint? Seems there is more stainless than aluminum in these. I sanded mine down, looked 75% better, then when I tried to polish it, there was zero improvement.

Its actually the plasti-dip spray paint that I used on everything else, I haven't have any issues yet with bubbling or anything. I'll keep updating if I run into problems

 

[GSU4x4]

Well last Friday night (Friday the 13th and a full moon) I hit a deer going about 60 on a back country road. Luckily the damage was only cosmetic and no major or important parts were messed up. And since my deductible is $1000 I've decided to make the repairs myself, but the local Ford dealership estimated $2074 to fix it so State Farm cut me a check for $1,074. I just finished ordering all the new parts and something a little extra (you'll see) last night so I'll update the post once I get everything in. Here are the damage pics...

The deer kinda ran into my tire because it pushed my tire into my upper control arm and threw my alignment off.

Here is the pic after me and my dad used zip ties to hold everything back in place until I fix it.

 

[FLOffroad]

I dunno.... that plastic damage looks pretty 'extensive' - better get a hefty steel bumper or some prerunner-style DOM to fix that.

In all seriousness though, the zip-tie fix looks pretty good, and the BTFs seemed to have held up nicely.

 

[Trac Marks]

Did you get the keep the deer?

FYI, if you ordered a new replacement front cover, you'll want this little plastic dohickey (for lack of better terms) that 'connects' the bumper to the fender, so just below/behind the headlight. They are about $30 from the dealer. Item # 17E814 on most Ford parts schematics. Very fragile piece of plastic.

Good thing you plastidipped the lower parts - any replacement would stand out like a sore thumb!

 

[GSU4x4]

Did you get the keep the deer?

FYI, if you ordered a new replacement front cover, you'll want this little plastic dohickey (for lack of better terms) that 'connects' the bumper to the fender, so just below/behind the headlight. They are about $30 from the dealer. Item # 17E814 on most Ford parts schematics. Very fragile piece of plastic.

Good thing you plastidipped the lower parts - any replacement would stand out like a sore thumb!

The deer was was in no shape to be taken home, lol. And thanks for the heads up on the bracket, I actually noticed I needed it when we were putting it back together with zip-ties. I've got that part ordered too!

 

[GSU4x4]

Well I finally got all my replacements parts in and my new front bumper painted! I spent a total of around $850.00 on parts, paint, LED bar and wiring harness. I ended up making money after hitting this deer, haha...perks of fixing stuff yourself. Well here are the pics from the repair, only took around 7 hours to remove everything, reinstall, eat some lunch and wire up the light and switch.

I thought this look made the truck look badass, looked like a baja truck with a high bumper, too bad I couldn't keep it like that, haha.

Low beams & fog lights

Low beams, fog lights & LED bar

Just LED bar

btw the pics really don't do the LED bar justice, I easily drove down a back road with just the LED bar on and I could see everything just as good if not better than my normal lights.

 

[Trac Marks]

Looks great, well done. Loving the LEDs.

 

[FLOffroad]

Wow, very nice, and nicely done managing to make a profit off a deer impact.

 

[GSU4x4]

Looks great, well done. Loving the LEDs.

Wow, very nice, and nicely done managing to make a profit off a deer impact.

Thanks!

 

[naminad]

Hello GSU4x4,

I really need your help and i hope you can answer my questions please
You have mentioned in your forum that you did not have the oem fog lights and have had to install them.
my question is:

How were you able to install that with the wiring?
Did you tap into the headlight wiring?
Did you purchase the OEM fog light switch as well?
Did you connect your fog light into the low beam wire of the sport trac so that when you turn on your headlights, your fog lights turn on as well?

I was wondering if it is also to take pictures of what you did with wiring or etc, because my fog lights will be coming in soon

 

[GSU4x4]

Hello GSU4x4,

I really need your help and i hope you can answer my questions please
You have mentioned in your forum that you did not have the oem fog lights and have had to install them.
my question is:

How were you able to install that with the wiring?
I tapped into the side indicator lights so that when I unlocked the truck the fog lights would like up as well (and when I run my parking lights the fog lights also light up)
Did you tap into the headlight wiring?
No
Did you purchase the OEM fog light switch as well?
No, I do not have a switch for the fog lights, if the parking lights are on then the fog lights are on, I can't turn them off separately.
Did you connect your fog light into the low beam wire of the sport trac so that when you turn on your headlights, your fog lights turn on as well?
No
I was wondering if it is also to take pictures of what you did with wiring or etc, because my fog lights will be coming in soon
I used the factory wiring harness for the back of the fog lights then spliced them into wires that I ran up and taped into the side indicators. I wish I could show you picks but I would need to remove the headlights to get back in their, plus everything is taped up with flexible pvc conduit.

 

[naminad]

thank you for answering my questions, although i just have a few more please

since you mentioned that you tapped them into your side indicator wires,

So when you switch to the headlight, do both lights come on or just the headlights?

On one of your photos i see have both your headlights and fog lights turned on, how is that possible, since you just connected your fogs to the side indicator?

What will happen if i tapped into my headlights with the fog lights and i switch to high beam, will the fogs turn off?

 

[GSU4x4]

thank you for answering my questions, although i just have a few more please

since you mentioned that you tapped them into your side indicator wires,

So when you switch to the headlight, do both lights come on or just the headlights?

On one of your photos i see have both your headlights and fog lights turned on, how is that possible, since you just connected your fogs to the side indicator?

What will happen if i tapped into my headlights with the fog lights and i switch to high beam, will the fogs turn off?

I have wired the fog lights to the side indicator light that is circled below:

so when I cut my headlights on, the side indicator also lights up, which also lights up the fog lights.

And to answer your question about wiring to the headlight, it depends on which power source you tap into, either the low beam or high beam line. If you tap into the low beam power source I would imagine that the fog lights will cut off when you cut your high beams on. (My fog lights on the other hand will stay lit even with my high beams on since then are taped into the indicator lights that are on whenever your headlights are on low or high beam)