This is what my truck looked like when I got it. 2016 Supercab XL. Yeah, it was a work truck, but it's replacing a 2015 Flex Limited so I was unsatisfied.

 

I hated the front end. Too much cheap black plastic. Also, didn't really want a straight white truck.
So I went on local classifieds and found a guy who bought a new grill for his truck, then sold the truck. $30.

 

Still didn't love it. Why Ford Why did you ever think it was a good idea to leave those headlight surrounds unpainted?
We sourced a new bed. Already Oxford White. Even came with the nice embossed tailgate and a backup cam. (Still working on it.)
Sourced a silver back door and a Creme Front door, and a black Fender.
Saturday was a nice day, so my lovely and ambitious wife decided to prime the fender.
While she was at it, I grabbed those surrounds and gave her my best puss n boots face and said pretty please.

I'm finally happy with the front end.


For now.....

One day I might paint the bumper.

 

And while she was painting, I decided to upgrade my appearance inside the cab. Also, my truck did not have SWC or Cruise, so I bought a wheel on Ebay for $100. It was in rough shape, so I got a nice cover for it, While installing I noticed how easily the trim comes out so I painted it too.


Wishlist items include:
Black and blue neoprene seat covers. (Or Katzkin)
New Headlights. (There's a giant dead horsefly inside the lens of the drivers headlight)

Still on the to do list:
Wire in the APIM to convert my truck to Sync2.
Prime and paint the doors
Paint and install the fender.
Change Cluster colors

 

To create the cheapest, ugliest possible base model so they can upsell buyers on the XL Chrome or XL Sport packages.

 

The XL cluster is just sad and pathetic.


Was goofing around on ebay and found somebody who had an old cluster for $30. No photos, no mileage, so I was gambling, but I bought it anyway.
Cluster was in great condition and only had 85k so I was able to edit with forscan.

WAAAAAAY better. But then I decided I wanted to modify the aesthetics of the cluster.
For my first attempt, I tried painting the back side of the backing sheet with nail polish from the dollar store.
But I ain't completely stupid. I did a rough draft on the old cluster.





Did not turn out the way I expected. I'm glad I didn't jump straight to modifying my good cluster.
I also wanted orange needles, so I scraped off the paint on the bottom and hit them with the orange nail polish, but as you can see, they're still blue. There's a Blue LED underneath the stem of the needles. so I won't be modifying that.

I did pull my good cluster and try blue masking tape, but it doesn't stick.
So underneath, there's a kind of trench that has 6 LEDs with a cap that diffuses them all through the trench. I tried putting the masking tape over each of those.
Not 100% satisfied, but it's progress.


My next idea is to see if duct tape will stick to the back side. If so I'll do Blue duct tape on the numbers and Orange on the ticks.
Alternatively I can put the blue tape directly on the LED's, but then I won't be able to do the Two-tone Effect that I had in mind.


I'm hesitant to do anything else with this cluster. I screwed up the needles. Luckily, I was able to put the truck in Engineering mode and do a calibration, but the other night I noticed that the truck was off and it was going 40mph. Gauge calibration worked again: don't want to screw it up worse. Also I had to do the gauge calibration through Forscan because my son didn't fill it up and the low fuel light (Likely any warning light) kept me from going into engineering mode.

 

Seems legit. I know I never would have bought this truck off of a lot.
That being said, It was a county surplus auction and we got it for a killer low bid.

 

I bought an '18 Scab XL in black. I actually like the front grill better than the shiny chrome versions. My truck did come with the 101A package which added chrome bumpers.

 

Nice thread. You should start this in the members build thread section.

 

Sweet truck. Yours has the better grill though, and you have a nice Chrome bumper to give some contrast.

Didn't think of that. Can a Mod move it there?