CowFish

Hello all,
Welcome to CowFish's 'build' thread.
I just inherited this 1998 F150 XL V6 automatic 2wd with only 93k miles.
I'm not quite sure which direction I will be taking it in or if I'm keeping it at all.
However, in the mean time I will go through it and clean the years of neglect off of it and fix it up to 'presentable'.

It's my first pick up ever, though I've had 5 different Jeep Wranglers and CJ7s over the years.
The truck was parked under some trees for the last couple years. When I went to pick it up I put a charged battery in it and at first it would crank but not start, a few minutes of online research later, located the fuel inertia switch that needed to be reset and it fired right up! After I aired up the tires I drove it home, carefully. The tires have flat spots and are sketchy to say the least, but it felt kinda good to be back in a truck again (been 2 years since my last Jeep).

If I were to keep it, I'd probably build it to be a mild overlander / camping rig and look into getting a limited slip rear, decent 33" - 35" all terrains, front spindle lift, new replacement springs (old ones are saggy) and Bilstein shocks all around, then a mild body lift. I would switch over to the 2001+ honeycomb grill and bumper with fog lights, Lightning headlights. Tint, mild stereo, Expy console, little things like that. Eventually a camper shell.

It looks like that Maroon lower body stripe is custom paint work. It will probably get PlastiDipped over in some complementing shade of grey.
Does anyone know if that stick-on side molding is factory or aftermarket? It's come off both doors already and is starting to peel off the front bumper.

Any input / advice / suggestions along the way are appreciated.
Thank you for looking and Happy Thanksgiving!

CowFish

Phase 1 complete: Initial scrub down, pin stripe and side molding deleted.
Next phase will be buffing compound with an orbital buffer, then wax.

CowFish

Finally got the truck titled and registered. The first thing it really needed to be driven was new rubber, so I took it to the local tire shop and got a set of Maxxis A/T 285/75r16 (33") put on. It rides super nice now, very smooth and quite.
The old tires were 235/70r16 (29"), so the new ones are 4" taller yet don't rub.

BEFORE:




AFTER:








I also cleaned the living heck out of the front bench. The upholstery was beyond filthy with dirt, huge stains and even mold. I wasn't sure it could even be saved, but several cans of foaming upholstery cleaner and many hours of scrubbing and vacuuming later:




The door panels and dash also had to be scrubbed down with bleach and a brillo pad but they came around. We're talking years of neglect.

Next mods for sure are new headlights, then maybe new front lift springs and replacement rear springs from SDtrucksprings.com. Those should raise the rear several inches as I'm sure the old ones are sagging.
Link for the rear springs I'm eyeing:
http://www.sdtrucksprings.com/index....oducts_id=1526

Now on to some more cleaning, all that molding residue and the stickers have to go.

CowFish

Btw ^^^^ that's a bone stock '12 FX4 for comparison in the above pics.

CowFish

I'm on the fence about painting the wheels gloss black, while leaving the center caps chrome. Any input is appreciated!
Ultimately I'll get different wheels anyway, so it would only be for a year or so.

CowFish

Discovered today that the transmission harness is touching the exhaust manifold / O2 sensor, but it seems I caught it just in time because nothing has shorted out yet.
So I pulled the wheel and wheel liner to fix it:

















There were two tiny spots where bare wire was actually exposed, so I brushed a little DeoxIT on it and wrapped everything once with black electrical tape from top to bottom, then with red el. tape from the bottom to the top.
I ziptied the harness to another harness several inches away, it's very secure now and over 6" away from the exhaust.

CowFish

Then I painted the wheels with Krylon ColorMaster Gloss Black because I don't care for the look of these particular wheels, so I wanted to black them out. For prep I scrubbed them down with acetone and a green brillo pad to remove dirt and grime, then wiped with a clean rag, then scuffed with 100 grit sand paper, then degreased with acetone and a clean rag. I just used what I had on hand.
Four coats of gloss black and it's done. Time will tell if it'll hold up and if my prep was sufficient. The whole project cost was $8 (2 cans).

I'm not worried about overspray on the tires because the paint definitely doesn't stick to them, the first drive down the road with make all the paint on the sidewall peel off.



It was getting dark on me, I'll take better pics tomorrow.

Jkry2121

Very cool, different build!

CowFish

Thanks!

I took a daytime pic of the blacked out wheels. It's been raining so the truck and wheels are a little dirty.
What do you guys think, should I black out the chrome center caps or not? Or leave them off?

nfldfordman

Coming along!

If you're doing the 2 tone over in a complementing grey, maybe the center caps would look good in that grey?