Anzilla82

This story starts back in January of 2016 when my brother and I decided it was time for each of us to get a new truck. After shopping around for a few weeks (and increasing our budgets) we finally found two slightly used F150 SuperCrew XLT 4WD trucks with around 14k miles on them. We took delivery of the vehicles in early February and immediately ordered some basic winter protection for them, Husky Rear Wheel Well Liners, WeatherTech DigitalFit Mud Flaps F/R, and WeatherTech DigitalFit Floor Mats.



Right after we installed the WeatherTech and Husky stuff.

After having drove the truck for a few months I realized that something wasn't quite right about it, like something was missing or being repressed, so I investigated and found that this poor truck was given an identity from the factory that just didn't align with what it was supposed to be. I started researching what was going to be needed in order to help my truck and found that this identity reassignment was going to have to be done in stages as the surgeries and treatments are kind of expensive and my bank account would need some time to heal after each one.
WARNING: The pictures in this thread may contain graphic images of the interior guts pulled out and exterior bits and pieces missing during the different surgeries.


I suppose before I carry on too far I will list the mods done so far and what's to come.


Completed:
1st Stage
WeatherTech DigitalFit Floor Liners (Over the hump front)
WeatherTech DigitalFit Mudflaps F/R
Husky Liners Rear Wheel Well Guards


2nd Stage
Katzskin Leather Seats
Heated Front Seats
Full Interior Sound Dampening
NVX QBUS8v2 powered subwoofer
SoundStream 6.5” Front Speakers
ANZO Headlights
Recon LED Taillights
Morimoto Fog Lights
5 bar grill
Body color painted F/R bumpers
Ford Accessories LED Bed Lights
LED License Plate Lights
LED Backup Lights
LED Smoked Third Brake Light
BAK Revolver X2 Tonneau Cover
Line-X Spray in Bedliner
Curt Class IV Hitch



Not Completed (Probably 2017 some time…)
3rd/ 4th Stage
2” Leveling Kit
20”x10” Fuel Renegade D264 Rims, the black in these will be repainted body color
33x12.5 Tires, I haven't decided what ones yet
Full Audio build, this will happen whenever Scoshe decides to release a dash kit for these trucks and when JBL releases the Legend CP100 headunit. I intend on running the Cadence DSP 4.8 behind the head unit and having that send signal to my amps. A fiberglass enclosure for a single 12” sub will be built and I will probably be running some 6.5” components up front.
LED Front turn signal bulbs
36 gallon fuel tank conversion
Ceramic window tint
Fender flares (undecided)
CAI
Tuner + tunes
Headers + Cat back


I may have forgotten some stuff in both the Completed and Not Completed list, if I remember anything I will edit it in.
I also apologize as I did not take near as many pictures as I should have, I'm sure I have enough for this thread but I wanted to have a bunch of all the different steps involved in some of the stuff as they may have come in handy for someone else if they needed something to reference.
One more apology and that is for me jumping between “I” and “We”, the reason for it is that my brother helped me with almost everything that was done and I hate writing and trying to keep that stuff straight.


I started in the last week of July '16 by pulling most of the interior out except for the dash, once that was done we started applying the sound dampener to the cabin.



Front part of the floor and some of the firewall with sound dampening applied.




Rear part of the floor and the rear cabin wall with sound dampener applied.

This process was horrible, our hands and finger ached so bad after from pressing the mat in and the thousands of tiny cuts from the aluminum.
The next thing we did was made the bracket for the little powered subwoofer. I should point out right now before I get too far along that we don't have a shop or garage, just a barn that keeps some of the weather off our tools. Speaking of tools and getting back to the bracket, I'd like to mention that we didn't have any sheet metal tools other than some left, right and straight snips, this meant we had to do a lot of improvising and maybe some compromising to make the bracket.



If we had only had a shear, bead roller, bending brake and hole punch...




Hey, it fits! Just so anyone reading this knows, that truck bed liner in a can is absolute garbage.




The bracket definitely keeps the sub nestled away, no worries about seat clearance here!

So, having installed the powered sub we put the carpet back in the truck. Next up on the list of things to do was install the Katzkin leather, but before I cover that I'm going to touch a little on the wiring.
If you are going to just put a small powered sub in your truck I would recommend reading this thread
https://www.f150forum.com/f118/factory-sub-348088/
After I had read that thread I decided I was going to get my signal and turn on lead from the factory subwoofer connector, unfortunately I was not able to get a signal from it, I do not know why as everyone else seems to be able to. The turn on lead from Ford is only 5 or 6 volts as I recall so I ended up buying the NVX XTRI1 Remote Turn On module and wiring that from the Ford connector, a local auto parts store has packages of the different pins used in wiring connectors so I used those in order to avoid using wire taps ( I absolutely despise wire taps!).



This unit will take a low voltage turn on signal and pump out a 12v signal to your amp.

The NVX sub came with a free 8 ga. Amp wiring kit and as I was planning on upgrading my stereo down the road we went ahead and installed that to supply power. We routed the power cable through the passenger side firewall grommet, to do this I had to cut the end of the protrusion off, this left a perfect sized hole for 8 ga. wire but the damn grommet is double walled so I ended up having to take a drill bit that was slightly smaller than the hole and turning it by hand for 30+ minutes to get a hole all the way through. If you decide to go this route let me caution you that any slight inclination downward and you may end up in your factory wiring, so be careful! Another thing to mention is access from the interior is very tight, I ended up pulling my 4x4 control module just for enough room to snake my arm up to the grommet and pull the wire down.



What a PITA, I should have seen if taking the power distribution box out was feasible.

The final thing about the sub wiring, I already mentioned that I was unable to get signal from the factory sub connector, what we did was pop the rear door connectors out and tapped at the connectors so we didn't have to use wire taps. I didn't take pictures of this for some reason, sorry.
I am getting close to the text and picture limit for this post, I guess I'll move down one.

Anzilla82

Alright, on to the leather install. This part of the project was probably more painful than installing the sound dampening, our fingers were all but destroyed by the end of Katzkin install. I didn't take any pictures of the removal of the factory covers or putting on the new leather ones, I did take pictures of wrapping the center console lid however. When you pull the lid apart it is almost inevitable that you will break some of the tabs that hold the two pieces together, the good news is that there are a bunch of plastic posts on the one piece that you can use to fasten the two pieces together after you are done upholstering it. Knowing this, we went the local ACE Hardware and bought some threaded brass inserts and some black 4-40 flathead screws.





The center console lid stripped down. I ended up just breaking the rest of the latching tabs off as they were going to be in the way with the new vinyl.




The little brass inserts we used, I do not remember what the actual name for them is, they are used in furniture building though.




The inserts in the lid, they are not set to proper depth yet.

Before wrapping the lid with the vinyl that came in the Katzkin kit I decided to cover the lid with some foam to enlarge the radii of the curves and to help prevent wrinkles or folds, I used floor underlayment foam and spray glue to do this. Next up, I loaded the electric staple gun with some 1/4” staples and with the help of my brother we stretched and stapled the vinyl to the lid. The piece that didn't have the inserts in it was laid against the one that did and we lightly tapped it with a mallet to get the layout marks for drilling and counter-sinking the holes.



The lid wrapped with underlayment foam.




After some stretching and stapling the vinyl is securely attached.




That didn't turn out too bad for a first time.



The center console put back together, the small 4-40 black flat heads kind of blend in and make the bottom side look clean and fairly close to factory.


Continuing on, I put the heated seat pads in the driver and passenger seats and we put the new leather on. Once done with that, we installed the seats and moved on to mounting the heated seat switches, sound dampening the doors and installing the new 6.5” front speakers.The SoundStream speakers I installed did not cost much and aren't "Pro Audio" but they had a fairly high sensitivity (93dB I believe) that works well with the factory radio, they made quite a bit of difference in the audio quality up front.



My fingers ache just looking at the leather seats!



Heated seat switches.




Sound dampening and 6.5" speakers installed.


With that stuff out of the way, we reassembled the rest of the interior that was still apart and celebrated with a few bottles of coconut rum and pineapple juice since the interior was finished for the time being.
Next up, I will cover the exterior mods.

Anzilla82

One of the first things I wanted to do with the exterior was minimize the amount of chrome (I actually like chrome for the most part and I love how my brother's truck turned out), in order to do this I decided to wrap the bumpers with vinyl. I ordered a color fan that had the different Orafol Metallic vinyls and once received, held it up to both out trucks to find a matching vinyl. Once the vinyl came in we started wrapping one rear bumper piece, this proved to be more difficult than either of us anticipated but we finished it up and went to mount it on the truck. We immediately noticed the colors didn't match, the vinyl was a cool gray while the Magnetic paint is a warmer tone, not to be deterred, we decided that we would just paint the bumpers instead, though that would take place a little later on.
The next thing we did was installed the CURT Class IV receiver hitch and the Recon taillights.





The hitch. I got this from AutoAnything for almost $100 cheaper than anywhere else.




Taillights installed!




Those Recons look pretty sharp I'd say. I'd point out that the license plate lights and cargo lights have been upgraded to LEDs.

Having completed those relatively easy tasks we went about working on a slightly more difficult task which was disassembling the front end and prepping the chrome bumpers for paint. Taking apart the front end (and the rear bumpers too) wasn't that bad, what sucked was the paint prep, Ford decided to use some sort of worthless undercoat on the insides of the bumpers, this stuff didn't prevent rust from forming and was a treat to take off. While regular rubbing alcohol would cut the undercoat we used lacquer thinner and some plastic body filler squeegees to scrape it off, this took quite a while to get everything clean but once it was we wet-sanded the bumpers with 220 grit and shot them with a self-etching primer. After the primer dried for a day we scuffed it and shot a few coats of color followed immediately with some clear. This is where a temperature controlled shop would have been nice as it was in the 90's that day and we ended up with a bit more orange peel than we would have liked, we'll probably end up wet sanding and buffing eventually but for now it will have to do.



OMG! What have I done?!?




This was the third time taking the rear bumpers off...




That nasty factory undercoat, ugh.




Wet sanded with 220 grit and ready for primer.




The self-etching went on okay, I'd use epoxy primer if I was to do it over.




Base and clear applied.




My brother's bumpers curing. You can really see the orange peel in this pic.

We let the paint cure for 3 days and then started on putting things back together.
As I have hit my 10 picture limit I guess I will continue this in another post, later.

Jkry2121

Beautiful trucks. Keep going bud.

Anzilla82

Thanks! I am working on writing up the rest of the interior stuff, I may try to cover the exterior work as well, but I feel guilty sitting in front of my computer all day.

GlenS

Anzilla82, I have to ask because I just bought a new 2016. Did your truck not have any sound dampening in it? The truck we just bought is extremely quiet when compared to my Silverado.

Also, what was your reasoning for using wheel well guards as opposed to spraying rock guard. I would think that the well guards would trap road salt, water etc over time and lead to rusting.

Thanks for posting. I'm getting some good ideas, but am only limited by what the wife lets me spend.

Anzilla82

Hi GlenS,
Thanks for checking out the thread, hopefully I can provide sufficient answers to your questions.

My truck did have some sound dampening in it from factory though not a lot. Like yours, it was very quiet, especially when compared to my 2007 Mustang GT. The main reason for putting in the sound dampening is that I intend to upgrade the stereo even more down the road and it was a good time to install the mats as I already had to pull the carpet to run the wires for the heated seats and the powered sub. When I do get the stereo fully upgraded I can rest fairly assured that I won't have very many vibrations or rattles to deal with as well. If there was a lot of road noise to deal with in this truck I probably would have followed the sound dampener with a layer of 1/8" foam and then some mass loaded vinyl, fortunately I haven't noticed much road noise other than that damned wind noise from the upper rear corner of my driver's side door.

Concerning the rear wheel well guards, I really hadn't considered spraying rock guard at the time, I may look into that now that you have mentioned it. When I installed the guards it was still winter and I needed my truck on the road right away as we had a call for work down state that week I believe. The reason for getting them was I wanted to limit the amount of road grime, slush and salt getting on the underside of the bed and frame, obviously, but the other reason was that it makes the wheel opening look a lot cleaner, not being able to see the separate frame and bed entities. One of the things we did when installing the guards was we used nylon fasteners instead of the supplied metal ones as we wanted to reduce or eliminate metal on metal contact. As far as rusting and trapping stuff, I will have to investigate and see if I notice any rust starting to form on the frame where they contact each other, I will check if there are rocks and such getting trapped at the outer lip as well, if either one is happening I may very well pull them out and go with some sprayed on rock guard or bedliner.

Anzilla82

The front end of my truck was going to go together with different parts than what came off it, the OEM headlights were replaced with the black Anzo headlights, the chrome 3 bar grill was replaced with a black 5 bar grill that had the surround painted Magnetic gray, and the OEM fog lights were ditched in favor of some Morimoto LED fog lights.





BEFORE
That's a lot of chrome!




AFTER
I'd like to think the front has a more aggressive appearance now.

We put the rear end back together and added a smoked third brake light that my brother bought for me.



BEFORE
That chrome didn't look right if you ask me.



AFTER
The painted bumpers definitely look better, I am going to have to wet sand and buff the new paint though in order to get the orange peel out.



Once done with reassembling the trucks we scheduled an appointment to get the Line-X sprayed in the beds. With that taken care the next order of business was to install the BAK Revolver X2 and the Ford Accessories LED bed lights. For some reason the Amazon seller of the bed LEDs only sent me one kit despite the fact that I ordered two, so I am waiting to get the second kit and install it on my truck. I will say if anyone reading this plans on installing the Ford Accessories LED bed lights and getting a spray in truck bed liner, I would recommend installing the LEDs first as you will have to cut the bed liner around the holes if you do it afterward, that is not fun, trust me! Another thing I should mention is that the BAK Revolver X2 required shimming in the back on both of our trucks in order to get the tailgate to close, we weren’t to thrilled about that, we kind of expected a product being sold for our trucks specifically to fit without having to modify anything.






I wish a had a picture of the bed before the Line-X, it was pretty beat up and looked really bad for such a new truck.




The Revolver X2 installed and rolled up.




Revolver X2 laid flat. I should take some pics of the shimming I had to do in order for the tailgate to close. These covers had several issues I am going to email BAK about.

So this pretty much concludes the 2nd stage of the identity reassignment, there are a few minor things to finish like the LED bed lights and I will post a few pics of the install when I get them in, but for now I'll end this with a few pics of the “Stable”.



I think the front end of my brother's truck turned out pretty darned awesome.




My '07 GT is on the right, it has had a bit of money and time dumped into it which is a shame as I don't even drive it much anymore. It's hard to get into it though when my truck is so much quieter and more refined, I must be getting old...

Manuellabour247

Awesome write up. Nice job on the mods.

jcubley

Subbed!