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Put half my lift kit on. I put the rear on because that is what the instructions said to do if you are doing it without a lift and also because if I put the front on it would look really stupid driving down the road over the next few days till I get time to put the rear on. I only put half on because it was 100 degrees today. No signs of cooling off and hunting season is approaching quickly. It was a wait for several weeks or put it on now. You can guess which one won out. It wasn't awful though. I did 30-40 minutes outside and 30-40 minutes inside playing Minecraft with my boy on the 360. Took about 5-6 hours that way, but hey, I didn't die from heatstroke.
So far I am very happy with the 4 inch BDS kit. I spent weeks researching and getting opinions and looking at different pics to determine if I wanted a 4 or 6 inch lift. As you see I went with the 4 inch and couldn't be happier. I currently run the 295/70r18 Terra Grapplers and don't plan on going with anything bigger than a 35 ever and probably my next set of tires (when these run out) will be 295/70r18 Trail Grapplers which even though they are the same size are slightly larger than these. I think it looks great with the current tires and will look just as great with the others when I go that route many mile from now.
Thanks for feedback. I got a little more done today and still having a great time of it. Much nicer than the $800-1000 to get it installed. I have 3 vehicles and only 2 drivers though so it works for me if the truck is on stands for several days.
This is how far I got today on both sides. I got the sway bar dropped the tie rod ends out and top of the strut loosened. I could have done some more, but was at a good stopping point. It was still hot today and it was done in short steady bouts again after we came home from church and had lunch. Really having fun with it and know it will be done right as well.
I will have to run down to the local Autozone tomorrow and rent a set of deep 1/2 sockets. I have a standard 1/2 inch ratchet, but it isn't enough to get the 27mm nut/bolt out of the bottom of the strut. I need a full set of deep and a good 1/2 driver with a breaker bar. I did spray some penetrating oil on it tonight, however and will attack that part tomorrow. I guess somebody was saying this was a good stopping point today. No worries, I have my 1.5 inch Bora spacers coming and they should be here this week. If I finished too fast then I would be looking at a finished truck I couldn't drive down to get aligned because I needed the spacers.
Looks good. But holy cow. My 2010 doesn't have a spec of rust on the underside!!
Pretty much none of that is rust. It is Georgia Red Clay. If it gets into a porous surface it almost can't come out. I pressure washed the front after I took the tires off, but didn't try to get it all the way scrubbed because half of it is coming off for good anyway. If you notice, some of the hoses are the exact same color and the "rust" you might notice further back under the body is simply clumps of clay.
Pretty much none of that is rust. It is Georgia Red Clay. If it gets into a porous surface it almost can't come out. I pressure washed the front after I took the tires off, but didn't try to get it all the way scrubbed because half of it is coming off for good anyway. If you notice, some of the hoses are the exact same color and the "rust" you might notice further back under the body is simply clumps of clay.
Thanks for feedback. I got a little more done today and still having a great time of it. Much nicer than the $800-1000 to get it installed. I have 3 vehicles and only 2 drivers though so it works for me if the truck is on stands for several days.
This is how far I got today on both sides. I got the sway bar dropped the tie rod ends out and top of the strut loosened. I could have done some more, but was at a good stopping point. It was still hot today and it was done in short steady bouts again after we came home from church and had lunch. Really having fun with it and know it will be done right as well.
I will have to run down to the local Autozone tomorrow and rent a set of deep 1/2 sockets. I have a standard 1/2 inch ratchet, but it isn't enough to get the 27mm nut/bolt out of the bottom of the strut. I need a full set of deep and a good 1/2 driver with a breaker bar. I did spray some penetrating oil on it tonight, however and will attack that part tomorrow. I guess somebody was saying this was a good stopping point today. No worries, I have my 1.5 inch Bora spacers coming and they should be here this week. If I finished too fast then I would be looking at a finished truck I couldn't drive down to get aligned because I needed the spacers.
Do you have to use the wheel spacers to use the stock wheels with the bds kit?
To steelers1 - I haven't dry-fit it yet (as it isn't complete), but BDS says you can't use the stock 18s with the kit. I asked them what about if I use a 1.5 spacer and they said that would be more than good and would fit the stock 18s. I am gonna see just for informational and will share with all when I get to that point, but as I really don't want to throw full-blown 35's and new wheels on it (for power and mpg issues), my stock 18s with the 295/70r18s will stay on it and have the 1.5 Bora spacers for a little wider stance.
So, a little more work on it tonight. I got my free loaner 1/2 inch breaker bar and that that was the trick to break those pesky lower bolts free on my struts.
Tonight I removed the rest of the steering knuckle assemblies and the lower control arms. I also removed the rear cross member. Additionally, I moved the hub assemblies to the new steering knuckles as well as put the spacers on the front struts. I measured the spacers and for anybody wondering this is a true 4 inch lift and actually closer to 4.25. Super high quality on everything so far and pretty easy. Of course I will have to drive it down to the shop for an alignment, but that is a given. Here are some pics of the progress tonight.
By the way I have to shout out to Noah at Stage 3 Motorsports. He helped me get this kit ordered and I ordered it on one Friday and the next Thursday it was freight delivered to my house. Thanks to both Noah and Stage 3.
No pics this time, but will try to get some more tomorrow. Yesterday I didn't do anything because family activities trumped me. No problem there. I finally got my tracking number for my Bora spacers and won't be able to roll the truck till next Thursday anyway.
Today I got the differential dropped. That was a bear due to some of the tight spaces to work the bolts loose in. I finally got it though. That was the only part didn't enjoy that much. Next part was the most fun. That was measuring and cutting the rear-crossmember. Now that I have that done everything starts going back together. I already put the new drop brackets on the differential and the rear crossmember is hanging by the bolts loose. Tomorrow I will raise that bad boy back up in there and start the reverse of the whole process. My goal tomorrow will be the differential back in, rear crossmember tightened and all the differential to rear crossmember support bracket in. I figure I got a week so I might was well take my time with it. I was going to try to finish it this weekend, but not too much rush now.
On a better note, I got my strip of camo vinyl wrap in. It is the same pattern and from the same company my 4X4 emblems are from (in the pics above). This slow time will give me some time to do one of my next mods. Taking off my f150 emblems and putting the camo over the inserts.
I will post some pics of that as well when I get it done.
08-24-2014, 08:30 AM
2013 Blue Jean F150 Lariat Slow Build.
