Finally getting used to this forum and figured out how to do some things around here. Figured I would make a build thread. One of the things I love doing to Ford vehicles is adding factory items that usually come in higher trim models into lower trim models. In my case I have a Lariat 502A non tech package. That alone is a respectable build out, however I am missing some things that would come in something like a limited or platinum. As of writing this post I have had the truck for just over 3 months so I am excited to start doing things to it.

So far in my endeavors I have added OEM Magnetic Metallic running boards. Some people like them, some don't. I ended up needing them due to my bad knee.

Here is a picture before putting them on:



I replaced the OEM fog lights with Diode Dynamics SS3 Max SAE Wide Beam pods. They are incredibly bright, very well focused, and make an excellent fog light.

This truck has quite the history according to Carfax. I bought it with 69000 miles on it. It was imported to the states from Canada. It was supposedly in an accident where it states it overturned. I can't find any evidence of this though and it looks to be fine. The claim was supposedly for $33,000. Yes you read that right. Not sure what the deal is there, but it drives great, and there are no issues with body panel gaps as far as I can tell. I very thoroughly looked it over before buying and got it for way less than the dealership was asking because of that, and because of some other gripes I had.

I had to fix a lot of little things with it when I bought it. The rear passenger side dome light wouldn't work when any door was opened. It would work if you manually pressed the button, I thought that was weird, but then figured out they operate on a lin bus from the front upper console so I replaced that light with a used one from a junk yard and got that sorted out.
A few days after owning it I got pulled over for both license plate lights being burned out. Those connectors were so corroded that I had to cut the OEM ones off and solder/shrink wrap new pigtails on with new sockets.
The backups sensors did not work due to one of them shorting out. Replaced the bad one with a new oem one and things have been good there.
When it started getting cold the passenger door suffered the infamous freezing door latch. Learned a lot about that issue that day.
About a month ago from this writing, the rear driver caliper seized up and smoked the pads pretty bad. Ended up getting that replaced and all brake pads and rotors replaced.
New issue cropped up just the other day that I think I solved for now. One (or both) IWEs are not fully disengaging causing the dreaded grinding in the front. Read up and watched some videos on that. Decided to disconnect the vacuum line for now. I might get the system looked at, but for now I'll leave it.

Now that I got most of the issues with it fixed, I can start looking into mods and other goodies for it. One of the first things I did was replaced the FCIM with one from an Expedition. Super cool and easy mod that brings a few quality of life upgrades. You can read up on that here.
I intend to add the LKA mirror, and enable that system. Another one of those neat things to have.
I want to also add Adaptive Cruise. I haven't looked into how involved that is, but I do know it is possible.
I really like the upfitter switches the Raptor and Super duties have, but adding those looks to be somewhat challenging, and holy crap are those overhead consoles expensive right now.
Adding the 360 camera system is something I thought about too, but that will take a lot of work and parts to get to that point. Not impossible, but definitely up there in terms of difficulty.

I am on the fence about adding a brush guard to the front. Deer are super common up in my neck of the woods and having one of those I feel might help mitigate the amount of damage I would take from hitting one of those.
At this time I don't intend to add and lift kits or performance parts. Maybe in the future, but I don't do enough with the truck to warrant it.
That's all for now. I'll update this thread as more stuff gets done to it.

 

Next mod I am currently working on is the upfitter switches found in the Raptors and the Super duties. This project doesn't look too difficult. I found a thread that mentioned boostedgreygoose makes a harness for it. Looks to be out of stock though and has been for quite some time. With that, I opted to make my own harness. I downloaded all the wire diagrams I would need to get the project started. I'm currently waiting on the fuse box, and wire pigtails to arrive, but I was able to get the console installed. The console wasn't cheap ($500 was the cheapest I could find), but my console also has every feature you can get aside from the switches so I guess I can't complain too much.

Here it is installed:

 

One of my favorite mods. I use it daily.

 

Got the switches wired up today. Kindof a pain with the wiring between the switches and the relay box. Here are the pics of them lit up. I used pin 10 on the console connector for the illumination.

 

Cheap little mod this weekend. Programmed a newer style key fob. I had 2 keys already so programming this one was easy.

 

Had some water ingress issues with the old tail lights. Replaced them with the 2nd Gen Morimoto XBs. The parking lights on these is insanely bright (dare I say almost too bright), but they look damn good. Easily visible on sunny days. These lights are truly red as well, not that orangy/red color videos and pictures make them out to be.

 

Haven't mentioned the audio aspect of the truck yet here, however I am big into car audio. I changed out all the speakers with CT Sounds Meso series speakers. I am also using two 6 channel mb quart class AB amps for them. For the low end I have 6 Sundown U series 6.5s under the back seat powered by a Taramps Smart 3. Processing is all done with a PAC Amp Pro and a Helix DSP.3. I am using Toslink between the 2 as I was getting fuel pump whine with the RCAs. Here's an image of the subs:

 

Nice!. Do you mind sharing an image of the amps setup?

 

Here's one I was able to snap a Pic of. The dsp and sub amp are underneath the seat. The factory amp has to stay in place even though I'm not using any part of it.

​​​​​​I am bridging some of the channels on the amps to get more power as well.

 

Got the Alpharex Nova Headlights installed this past weekend. Got some new pics of the truck now that it's getting nice out.