Savvy Turtle

Hiya,

I am looking for the 2009-2014 F-SERIES FRONT RAIL INSTALLATION Proceedure. The dealers blow me off, all bodyshops stop at the door once I give them the year and i-car is no dice even though I steady get proceedures from I-car for just about everything else.

I heard a rumor that in order to replace the upper fender rails on our year trucks you have to remove the dashboard completely to get to the rivets to drill or tap out etc. and that on average people and insurance companies were billed north of $2300 to install a new fender rail apron from a minor crash. and is why they re did the rails to where now they are on the outside starting with the 2015's on.

Below is the proceedure for the new rails:




And the letter from Ford:



As to us we have the following OEM Ford Parts:
Right upper fender rail - BL3Z-16C274-A
Lower tie bar - BL3Z-16139-B
Radiator Support bracket - 9L3Z-16138-B
Condenser - BL3Z-19712-C
Right Raptor fender, front bumper, valance, grille, etc.
The Front, Driver Side Bumper Bracket - Frame Rail, Repair Kit was installed and I tack welded it in place until I finish mocking up the front and right upper fender rail apron., all other stuff as the insulators, bolts etc. have been replaced whether they needed it or now and all are Ford OEM parts.
The progress of my build can be seen and read here: https://www.raptorforumz.com/members/savvyturtle.26454/ and my youtube channel: ----------
This past sunday I finish taking everything apart on the inside that we bought since our Raptor came stripped on the inside, along with removing the carpet with the big hole in it. and then proceeded to disassemble the dashboard so we can pop it out and sit it back in the rear of the crew cab while have access to the right side fender rail apron rivets to drill out.

I need the proceedure so I know which rivets to use and what adhesive etc. along with the plastic caps on the outside of the rail.

Finally the closest I could find for a dashboard removal proceedure for 2009-2014 F150's all trims was a youtube post for a blown heater for the seats and vents which required removing the dashboard: the video poster did not show a video but had a very straight forward instruction with his pictures. I have followed everything and am waiting until later this week to grab a few guys with beer equity to help me out since I have a spinal cord injury and everything seems like 5000 pounds to me when I try to give leverage or lift.,

Any help would be appreciated if you have a proceedure or know where I can find one, mitchells dont have them either.
and if no proceedure its okay if you can tell me the rivets, adhesive, and caps supplies I need.

All the best and if I can be of any help to the forum down the road I will along with mentioning you guys in my videos like I do for Raptor Forumz.

Savvy Turtle

Guitstik Kustoms

I don't have a clue as to what you need for replacing the rails but I will be doing a complete strip down of my dash later on to replace my wiring harness to upgrade to the 8" screen and SYNC, should be fun. I tried to watch your video but it says it not available.

JMRRebuilders

hey brother we are about to do the same job on our 2013 lariat. Like you we have found absolutely nothing that clarifies this job. This is the only thing I have found and have been searching everywhere. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Savvy Turtle

yeah I did not add the link on here correctly my videos on youtube are @SavvyTurtle
you will be fine you do not need to do a complete strip down like we just finished doing as its not that labor extensive job to do your sync. so breathe have a beer and relax its all good!

Savvy Turtle

Thx, so for this I heard back from Ford Corporate Collision dept. as what you have shown is awesome and if it was just a 2009-2014 F150 I'd be done with the rail already but apparently its not the same setup on a 2014 Raptor I cannot speak for the 2009-2010-2011-2012 or 2013 Raptors as I dont know but I do know for a fact the 2014 Raptors are done differently then the F150's they made it where we cant get to the rails unless we take out the firewall. I just stripped everything down from the video I shared above and removed the dash no problems except I will add that dash removal video above still works on 2014 Raptors but there are 17 additional bolt points you have to remove in order to get the dash out. once out you dont have access to the rail apron assembly as it is inside the firewall.

After talking directly with Ford Corporate I told them I want their solution or their entire 2014 Raptor truck assembly blueprint as you state that all of your Ford collision parts come with a lifetime warranty if installed correctly and not altered, you also state that you dont want it sectioned even though its standard practice in body shops etc because you dont supply the assembly solution. I understand this was a bad engineering design flaw I wont tell anyone heck Ill praise Ford in my videos just give me the blueprints and a solution.

So for me its like this the 2014 Raptor which I now intimately know every part on it as I took it apart like a hotwheels truck., we will call X company Frog since I promised I would not mention them if they gave me a certified solution that wont affect my value or the intergrity.

Frog said I had two options option 1. take off the firewall, install the rail apron, put the firewall back on. put the dash back etc. or option 2. in which frog privately certified the bodyshops to do in which they dont talk about is sectioning now publicly frog says no to sectioning but privately its fine as long as you do it to standard. and the funny thing is 99% of fender rail replacements from damages are caused by tap fender benders or hitting a pole our Wrecked raptor is not really wrecked it was parked lol! but a couple inches as you know will throw everything off alignment.

So while I cannot publicly share or show the complete assembly blueprints or instructions from Frog with certification along with the supplies list I will however on the side of my video I am currently shooting will not mention frog period and just talk about step by step the best way to get to it and what you can use.

In short: depending on where your apron rail is getting sectioned if you dont go past the authorized sectioning limited area as measured and marked then mock up a oem assembly rail apron part and cut it to pick up where the other one left off, tack weld it and do all of your measurements on your front end make sure everything lines up etc. then weld the section from the outside, now if you did it right where you cut you still should have a factory plate on the inside but if you dont you will need to go buy the same thickness sheet metal and make sure it overlaps 6 inches past each side of the rail from their seams. then weld the plate, note that if you do this you will need to mock up and drill all your bolt and wire holes on the inside along with reinstalling the hood.
a mig welder is fine you can tig it if you want but you have better access with a mig. whichever preference you choose gas or electric does not matter. and you want 0.35 wire in my case i use fluxcore shielded wire as I used eletric. Hope this helps its a pain in the *** and I am glad they redesigned the fender aprons to the outside.

JMRRebuilders

In the 2 photos I uploaded it shows where the two rails come back through the fire wall into the a pillar. It might be different for yours. But behind the fuse panels and modules on pass kick panel there are 2 black plastic plugs. This is where we got access to the aprons for removal. Appreciwte your feedback.


This is the top part of the apron. As you see not only do you need to remove the seats, consoles and entire dashboard you also have to remove the door.


The second photo is the bottom apron and how it is connected. It has maybe 2 spot welds on each.

JMRRebuilders

We got our first video in the apron removal up. Check it out.

Savvy Turtle

will do, yes the F150s and possible some Raptors are like the truck you are working on. you can drill or tap out the rivets and spot welds and replace it. for the adhesive foam used get 3m bodywork adhesive it comes in caulk tubes to use when you go back with your new rails and you can use the same clips if you did not damage them or cut them.

my video focus is a little blurry as im still having problems editing with my cast off! I gave you a shout out at the end.

JMRRebuilders

Thanks for the shout out brother. Looking forward to see the raptor once you get her done. Keep getting after it brother.

JMRRebuilders

Hey savvy turtle question how did you get your apron to seperate from bonding agent and be able to actually remove it with out damaging the black plastic tabs. Here is a pic.