Bought the truck used with 19K miles on her about a year and a half ago. 2007 FX4 with leather, sun roof, tow package, 20" factories. Been modding her in my spare time and this weekend will be picking up new 20" Rockstars and 33x12.5 Nitto Trail Grappler MTs. I'm a huge fan of murdering my cars+trucks I've had. I'm pretty good with a paint gun so I thought I'd include a little how to on tinting brake lights.

At the dealership bone stock.






First things first, Lightning style exhaust: Flowmaster 40 w/2 side exit tips 3.5"s. The fender flares were already faded as well, so 4 coats of jet black paint fixed that. Also tinted the front windows 20%

I have a Mustang with a Panasonic Strada and love it. Had to put it in the truck

 

Next I wanted to tint the tail lights and 3rd brake light. I took pics of the process for the 3rd brake light...the tails are the same process.
First I wetsanded the bare brake light with 1000 grit.

After wiping it down with Sem Solve paint prep, I sprayed the first coat of VHT Nightshades

2nd coat

Wetsanded with 1000 grit then 2000 grit

After wiping down again with Sem Solve, first coat of clear. I have a gravity-fed paint gun and 15 gal Dewalt Air Compressor. Rattlecans WILL NEVER GIVE YOU A QUALITY GLOSS

Wetsanded with 2000 grit again then 2nd coat of clear. When fully dried, color sanded

The end result. I also used a heat gun and pealed off the stock FX4 decal and replaced it with a flat black 2010 FX4 decal

The chrome running boards and F150 emblems weren't helping the black out, so those were painted black rather than replaced with aftermarket ones (I like the factory ones best)

 

I'm a commercial fisherman and wanted a better way to transport a lot of my reels to and from the boat when tuna fishing. I had seen a lot of rod racks for the bed but nothing that went with my taste. Decided to design and build my own. I build custom furniture as a hobby so I love working with wood. I'm not much of a quality welder so woods the way I went. Started out with mahogany 15ft 2x8 mahogany in the rough, cut down to size, put through the planer and squared off. Figured out the measurements and even placement of each rod holder and started on the drill press


All finished with the rod holder holes, all eleven

Designed it to mount using the predrilled holes in the sides of our beds that are accessable through the bed rail caps. Attached the sides of the rod rack with 4 lag bolts and wood glue and marked the 33 holes that were needed to be drilled for the rod holders

2 Coats of wood primer then 4 coats of Satin black outdoor paint then rod holders mounted.


Mounted in the bed. Around this time I also had the bed Line-Xed. I haul a 22ft trailer with lobster traps and also stack them in the bed, so needless to say it was VERY scraped up. Didn't want any bare metal to start rusting through.

 

Next mod was the 2" leveling kit from Autospring




Before

After

 

The running boards I had painted black with getting a few chips here and there from rocks (half the roads I drive on here on the island are dirt and rock). I had planned on going off-island the the shop the Line-Xed my bed but couldn't find the time (45 min, $77 ferry ride then 2 hour drive to North of Boston), so I bought some Dupli-Color Spray On Bed Liner. It came out better than I thought and is more resilient than I thought it would be.

Did the mounting brackets as well.


Got ambitious and did the trailer hitch too

 

Bought a Saleen grill from the Saleen SpeedLab. Luckily they were in stock at the time.
Bye bye old grill

Hello Saleen

Also had Steve at BilletBadges.com make a custom badge for the grill (stock headlights are actually black Hella headlights now)

 

nice work, lets see a pic of that truck with the rod holders full

 

Awesome photos, thanks for sharing! I agree with Hogan, I would love to see some pics of that rack full! So what's next on the mod agenda for the future?

 

Nice looking ride that rod holder is sick man

 

Wana get rid of that old grill ???