catengi

Hello all! This thread is going to be dedicated to all the things done to my newly acquired 2004 F150 Lariat. She's a SCAB 4x4 with 146k on the clock when I bought her. This thread is mainly for me to keep record of what I have done. Feel free to take a look!

Here's what she looked like when I got her home!









Here she is parked next to the old Chevy. Just turned over 234k in the old gal. Still drives like a top

catengi

First thing I did was easy. Transferred the toolbox that was on the Chevy to the F150. It's beat up a little and the gas struts don't hold the top up anymore, but I got it for free several years ago so I'm not complaining! I thought about getting a bed cover but decided against it as 90% of the time I can fit everything I need in the toolbox. I think it looks pretty good!

catengi

Last Tuesday I transferred my CB radio from the Chevy. Already had the antenna mount on the toolbox so I was able to just screw my 102" whip straight on. Didn't take many pictures during install but it was pretty straight forward. Radio is just velcroed to the dash. Ran the cable underneath the truck and brought it in through the grommet on the driver's side. Ran it up the kick plate cover and into the radio. Grabbed power from the cigarette lighter and grounded it under the dash. Couldn't have been simpler! Headed on vacation this weekend so we'll see how she does!

catengi

So the previous owner was a bit of a whack, I've found several hack job repairs since I've bought the truck. I think this is my favorite though. His stock fog lights were leaking so instead of fixing or replacing them he just spray painted the front black. Grabbed some LED's off Amazon to replace them with. Got one set of floods and one set of spots. Wired them both into the factory fog light harness so I can use the stock switch. Didn't feel like wiring up a seperate switch for the flood lights so they all come on at once. Can't use them too much while driving but they're great for offroading and backwoods driving. Going to drive down to GA from IL this weekend for a friend's wedding, longest trip I'll have taken this truck on since I got it. Hopefully it goes well!

catengi

While I'm down in GA I'm planning on working on the truck some with my sister's boyfriend. Going to order another set of LED floods to install in the rear bumper. Probably going to do Gott's mod as well and help him wire up some lights he has on his truck. He has a 2003 (maybe '02) F150 that's been pretty well modded out. Will have to post some pics of both our trucks!

Planned mods and repairs when time and money permits:
Nerf bars (wife insists I get some lol)
2.5" level
Tailgate assist
LED reverse lights
Gott's Mod
New toolbox struts

catengi

So the wife and I arrived in NC Sunday evening to visit the parents. Roughly 1,400 miles on the truck and it ran fine aside from some minor (for now) issues. I've been noticing a tranny slip sometimes when I accelerate from ~30mph. I have to let off the throttle, let it down shift and then it works fine. I'm dreading a transmission rebuild, anyone else experience something like this? It maintains speed, but it revs up and doesn't accelerate until I let off and let it gear down. Starting from gear 1 I haven't had it happen, just after coasting at 30mph or so.

Got the chance to get some pictures of all the F150's at my parents house. The old red, white, and blue. Red one is my sister's boyfriend's, white one is mine, and the blue one is my dad's. The red one is a 2003 F150 XLT and the blue one is a regular cab, 6.5ft bed base model.








Decided while I was down here to just go ahead and replace the cats since I was getting the lovely P0420 and P0430 codes. Bought some Walker cats from Autozone and took it to a local exhaust shop in town. Getting those welded on in addition to two Super 44's, and X-pipe, and 5" tips tucked behind the rear wheels. My wallet is really hurting right now, I sure hope it sounds good and fixes my cat codes!

Also, does anyone happen to know if the running boards from an '03 extended cab will fit an '04 extended cab? My sister's boyfriend has a set that he doesn't want but we're not sure if they'll just bolt on.

Picked up stuff for Gott's mod while I was at Autozone too, should be getting that done tomorrow after I pick up the truck!

catengi

Got my truck back from the exhaust shop today! It isn't quite as loud and I was expecting it to be, but I think it sounds really good. It's got a lot more rumble than my Chevy which is nice. Pretty loud when you're on the throttle but really mellows out at cruising speeds. Snapped a quick pick of the right tip before it began pouring rain.





So if you were wondering, running boards off of a '03 F150 will not fit an '04 directly. However, with $12 in hardware from Lowe's and a couple of extra holes they fit just fine. Only had time to put the passenger side on before the rain started coming down. It's a little bent because he hit a deer with it but I'm not complaining for free running boards. Should be getting the driver side done tomorrow if it isn't too wet!





Also did Gott's mod on it when I got it back. Real quick and real easy, I was a little surprised. Haven't driven it any since I put it on, but even if it doesn't have much improvement it at least looks better than the stock crap.

catengi

Made it safely back to Illinois! Truck ran great during the trip, put almost 3,000 miles on it. After installing the new cats and exhaust the CEL went off but I can still pull the P0420 and P0430 codes. Hopefully since the CEL is off they're "pending off" codes haha. Only issue I had was some transmission slip type issues. Sometimes it would refuse to go into 4th gear and acted like it was in neutral. Turning OD off or slowing down and starting in 1st gear fixed it. Guess I have some diagnosing to do at some point.

Random pics of exhaust and new running boards. After 3,000 miles it definitely needs another bath!






Next week I'll probably buy another 4x4 sticker for the passenger side (it's missing) and replace the 3rd brake light since it's broken. Slowly but surely coming along!

catengi

So I popped my plasti dip cherry this weekend. Bought some white and black dip from the big box stores and spend some time spraying the mirror caps and front bumper. I like the two tone look of the white and tan, but I think I want to dip all the tan trim pieces to black. Here's some pics of what I got done this weekend, rocker panels and everything else will hopefully get done this week/weekend!




Overspray was a bitch. Live and learn I guess haha. Half my time was spent dealing with the overspray.










I probably should have just taken the bumper off but I was being lazy. Turned out fine anyway imo.

catengi

It was pretty rainy this weekend but I managed to get some more dipping done on Sunday. Decided to do my entire grill black instead of just doing the surround. I think it looks pretty good! Also did the front fenders and rocker panels on the doors. Didn't do anything past that because only only one half fits in my garage at a time! Hopefully this week I'll finish up the rocker panels.

Unfortunately while dipping the grill I discovered a spray paint patch that the previous owner had done on the hood. My painter's tape took off some of the spray so not it looks kind of funky. Also discovered some more patching above the passenger side fender. Not sure why he had to spray paint them, but a magnet stuck on the area so I'm doubtful it was body damage. Now I'm a little tempted to just dip my whole truck