smcox1

Should look pretty good when it's all done.

Franchi Motorsports

iTrader: (9)

I hope so! Should be getting it all done this week sometime I hope as time allows...

I'll post updates as the parts start getting thrown on...

BAM298

Looks good, makes me miss my old blue truck.

Tell me more about these 20" Raptor Replica wheels? I love the raptor wheels look but have factory 20's and want to keep the same size wheels.

Franchi Motorsports

iTrader: (9)

There is a good number of places that make the Raptor rims in replica for 20 inch. I ultimately decided to not do that as I only wanted the factory 17 inch size which wouldn't work for me with the lift.

But I did find a number of places online selling em in 20 inch size no problem when I was considering it.

Franchi Motorsports

iTrader: (9)

So I have about 95% of it done now and thought I should post up the updates and pics!

Before the lift, rims and tires... ( forgive the quality of pics, I'm not the greatest at taking pics )



And after! Did the Rough Country 6 inch lift, with 18 inch KMC Rockstar XD827 rims ( added the blue accents as well ) and Nitto Ridge Grappler tires in 35 / 12.5 / 18

Couple other shots / angles





It def sat a little nose high at first which I was slightly concerned about as the RC kit specifically is supposed to level the truck out after install but after having it on a week or so now, it has settled down in the front and is level now.

37 inch tires would have filled out the wheel wells a bit more but I really like the stance of it as is now, as any of you with lifted trucks can attest too as well, def much bigger looking in person, pics dont do it justice.

It rides nice and smooth too, I wasn't sure what to expect but logged about 400 miles since the lift and one road trip for a few hours and so far, drives and rides just about stock smooth. No road noise from the big tires which is one of the reasons I chose the Ridge Grapplers based from other folks reviews.

That part was easy cause just dropped it off at a 4x4 shop local and had them do the lift install as that would be beyond my desire / skill level not to mention time.

Franchi Motorsports

iTrader: (9)

Phase two was the Iron Cross front bumper and fender flares...

Worked out pretty well as I traded a buddy a tune for his wife's 6.8 Excursion in exchange for help with the bumper / rest of the work.

Before on the bumper....I had just refinished the front grill couple weeks ago so would be nice and clean looking on the front as I knew I would hate having the new bumper on and faded *** black on the grill.



My son Miles and my buddy's daughter impression of what the Iron Cross looked like after unpacking it... lol They "helped" all day... mostly by digging holes in the side yard and proudly presenting them to us periodically through the day. Ha.




Oh noes! What happened to my front end?!?! Did find I had a nice rock chip in my Wagner intercooler which I hadn't seen before....and wasn't too happy about. But I will still say, that Wagner intercooler is a piece of work. Solidly designed AND well built. Been running it for 3-4 years now flawlessly.

Franchi Motorsports

iTrader: (9)

We could not have done the job without a cherry picker. The bumper itself is 207 lbs so heavy as hell and even if had 3-4 guys to hold it in place while one bolted it on, would have been difficult to hold it that steady for that long.



All installed! Prob took about 3-4 hours total to do, start to finish and last hour was just adjusting everything to get it to line up evenly as I knew even 1/4 inch off, I would see it every time I walked out to the truck so took our time and got it just right, just had to adjust it 5 billion times. lol



Thing I was surprised by is that while the Iron Cross is def larger then OEM, at some angles, it almost looks smaller simple because the OEM rear valence is gone so the OEM bumper goes down quite a bit more visually.

Front end shot... It def changes the look of the truck significantly and I like it. Realize it's not everybody's cup of tea but was exactly the look I was wanting and going for.

Franchi Motorsports

iTrader: (9)

Wired up a couple KC Highlights LED offroad lights as well since the factory fogs were deleted. Which were quite a bit brighter then I thought they would be and gave quite the spread of light so I went back and recessed them a bit further back in the Iron Cross bumper, which narrowed the field of light from them so now they work perfect as fog replacement, nice and bright directly in front of me but won't be blinding to anybody else on the road.



After that, just had the flares left and that's where we hit a snag...

Got the rear flares on no problem, and they def add a lot to the look of the truck. I was surprised though that even with the flares, the tires stick out just a TINY bit more past the flares, but only by like 1/8 or so which is acceptable to me. ( It's not like I'm gonna be doing some serious offroading anyhow in it where that's an actual concern )



But then went to do the front flares and realized they wont fit because they are designed to follow the body lines of a OEM front bumper and we put the Iron Cross on. Which I hadn't thought of or considered at all. REALLY glad we did the bumper first and not the flares as it would have sucked to do the flares, and then realized had to take the fronts off to install the bumper then.

So in the end, after looking at it, decided to not do the front flares yet, and gonna take it to a body shop to see if they can do it for me as the flares need cut to size for the new bumper, needs about 5 3/4 inches cut off, and a 2 line cut made evenly to follow the line of the end of the Iron Cross bumper. Prob a simple job for somebody who knows what they are doing but I wasn't confident I could make two even, clean cuts like that and not have it look beverly hillbilly when done. But just so happens, guy in our church owns a high end body shop and he is gonna have one of his shop managers take a look at it for me and see if they can do it easily.

Just was kinda exasperating to get soo close to having everything done....and can't quite wrap it up 100% yet. lol My OCD brain doesn't like leaving anything unfinished...

Also installed a easy let down liftgate mod as well while we were at it, and LOVE it. Prob the best $20 mod I've done to the truck, aside from the "+20 HP" sticker on the back windshield.

Franchi Motorsports

iTrader: (9)

Few other shots I took... overall very happy with it. The truck def stands out a ton everywhere and is fun to drive. Went to a local Cars and Coffee event this AM with it and while that crowd isn't much into trucks, it def got a lot of attention and compliments.





Quite the difference from 5 years ago when I bought it!



Once I get the front flares on, I'll post up a couple more finished pics...

BAM298

Looks great! I almost went to Cars and Coffee at the Lennox this morning, would've been nice to put a face to the screen name.

BTW, thanks for the info on the raptor 20" replicas, I went ahead and ordered them got them installed yesterday, love it! Never would have known about them without reading your thread.