VFL

My 2004 Lariat SCAB 5.4 3V. I bought the truck and immediately fell in love with it. Of course with every used vehicle you find issues that you didn't notice when you test drove it. I've put a lot of money into it getting it running to my standards before I began modifying. Now comes the fun...

Here is what it looked like when I brought it home. The previous owner had these 22" wheels on it. Weren't my style so I sold them and put back the Lariat wheels.




After bringing it home and going throughout the truck looking for issues I noticed the soaked carpet, slapping timing chain, and clunking slip yoke. (Didn't notice the knocking/ticking until after my 1st oil change, so I'm assuming the PO put in thick oil to cover up the noise, but I'll never know for sure.) So I sealed the 3rd brake light, replaced the cam phasers, timing chain, guides, tensioners, solenoids, and greased the slip yoke. I also had the plugs changed at the same time as the timing kit.

Bone dry slip yoke

Greased and now all drive-line clunk is gone


Used the heat gun to fix the faded plastics


I did a transmission pan drop/fluid change along with a new filter. I installed an OEM drain plug pan for ease of fluid changes down the road. You can clearly see that the transmission had never been serviced and now the truck shifts much smoother. The service made a world of a difference in the way the truck drives.




Changed all 4 rotors and all brake pads.

Now that I had the maintenance work done I could start the fun stuff.

VFL

My 2.5" HBS Leveling kit


Next I changed the grille surround because I'm not a big fan of chrome.
Before:
After:


The leveling kit lifted the front just a little too much, so I installed 1.5" ReadyLift blocks in the rear.


It now looks perfect to me with just enough rake to look good and not sag when towing. Here is a stock height pic and a pic after the 2.5" front and 1.5" rear lift.
Before:

After:


Much more to come because I've been bitten by the mod bug.

VFL

VFL

HalfTon09

Good looking truck! Is it 2WD?

VFL

It sure is!

VFL

Harley headlights installed. Looks 10000x's better than the chrome housings!

XLTOffRoad

Damn it feels good to see someone take off some some "G" wheels and go back to stock. Quite the transformation. How many miles when you did the tranny work?

Also you could think about dong a PTM on the grill surround to match the tan trim. Might look good.

VFL

I did the transmission service at 152k miles. It isn't perfect but it shifts and feels much newer.

Also, I actually have an h-bar grill insert coming in the mail that I'm probably going to PTM the factory white. It'll look similar to this gentleman's truck

XLTOffRoad

That looks pretty good. Are you going to PTM your skullcaps too?