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My Build Thread....Better late than never (Tons of Pics)

11K views 46 replies 13 participants last post by  fastNugly @ RP 
#1 ·
I've had my truck now for 15 months and I think its about time I start keeping track of my mods. This is my first post back from May 2011 when I got the truck.......


I finally made the move to Dodge and I love the power of the Hemi and handling of this truck has over the previous under powered 2010 Ford F150 Platinum. I got a good deal over the weekend on my trade in/rebates and couldn't resist, I hate to see my baby go but I think it was time for a change. IMO Ford had better interior and that sync system was BA but I'm getting use to the UConnect Navi setup....so definitly not a big deal.


Here is my new baby (crappy pic but only one I could find on my computer): Current mods done within the first 3 days of owning her
Undercover SE Tonneau Cover
Bushwacker OE FenderFlares
18" magnaflow exhaust
UGLY 4" Black Powder coated nerf bars- those are coming off for the power boards (The Platinum F150 spoiled me with the ones on their)



 
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#2 ·
A week later I got rid of that god awful stock antenna, added Bestop power running boards, a Remin carbon fiber dash kit, Sypder halo projectors with 6000k HID's for the heads and fogs (<not pictured about 2 weeks later>), and a Mopar Cold Air intake






 
#3 ·
I wanna say I sported the chrome/black look for 4-5 months before going to the darkside....Blacking this baby out! I Debadged her and Plastidiped the wheels, emblems, and the upper and lower grille. Then I smoked the tails with VHT Niteshades and painted the exhaust tips black



 
#4 ·
Mods got put on hold from the end of November to March due to a turnaround at my refinery (working a 12hr shift of 19 days on 2 days off).......

One of the first things I did once I got some time was change up my exhaust set-up. The 18" magnaflow muffler just had to much drone for my taste, especially at constant HWY speeds on long trips. So replaced with a 22" maggie and added the y-pipe mod with a Raceland e-cutout before the muffler. This set-up is the best I've ever had because with a press of a button I can go from similar to stock to NASCAR. Makes long road trips nice when it's closed but city driving a blast with it roaring down the road. The kicker to the cutout is when you sitting at a light and you have another truck testing you and all of a sudden you open it and you see their face....it's pretty damn funny.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsNNl6TJ6T8&feature=plcp
 
#5 ·
Then the next couple of months (April to June) the mod bug really bit me and I figured with all the talk of the rolling code encryption just about being cracked by Diablo I'll just start bolt on mods to hold me over (boy was I wrong).

So the first week of April I added a Fastman Throttle Body, a E-bay Catch Can (should have done this day 1), and a 180 T-stat from Autozone






I also put my order in for a Ground force drop kit and a JBA Shorty headers which was an headache in itself. Both dates keep getting pushed back until I got tired of waiting for the Ground force kit and cancelled. I keep the order for the JBAs because to me they were the most bang for the buck mod to have and I'd figure it must have been a sign to open my wallet again while I wait for the shorties to arrive.
 
#6 ·
Mean time while I was waiting I paid a visit to Chris at Circle D around April 10th and decided going with the 258mm Pro II 3000 Stall Torque converter. After he showed me the parts that go into the custom made tc it was a no brainer to step up to the pro series vs a modified/upgraded oem tc.




After a week of having my Circle D TC I decided to buy my baby some new shoes.... 22" KMC slides wrapped with Nitto 420s 305/45/22s




Here's a video of the Circle D TC in action....no bad for a CC sport on heavy ass 22" KMC Slides (90lbs per corner)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui6973EEzms&feature=plcp
 
#7 ·
After waiting for over a month the Silver Ceramic JBA shorties came in around May 7th and I must say they were worth it. They pull harder in the mid range which is a good thing because with my 3000 stall Circle D TC it puts me right there in the meat of my power from jump street



Still wanting to put a drop kit on my truck and with ground force still on backorder I decided to go with Belltech, which turned out to be a pretty good kit for alot less. I wanna say for the drop kit, a 1000 airlift kit (helper bags), and an alignment it ran me right under $600 dollars....which still turned out to be less than Ground Force's kit ($700-$800).



 
#8 ·
A couple of weeks of procrastinating I finally got off my ass and decide to mod my Mopar CAI......I'd thought with no tuning available still this would be my best option to getting more air in/ more air out after adding the Fastman TB and JBA Shorties


Here's a pic of what I used.....its a flexible drainage tube from Lowes found in the garden center.


The inlet is about 4 1/2" x 3 1/4" and overall diameter of the flexible tube is 4"


I took off the Mopar CAI box and cut a hole for the tube using an angle grinder and smoothed it out with a dremel


I took my dremel and cut the plastic behind my lower grille....I tried taking the grille off but the shitty nuts and bolts were rusted so that was a no go after stripping the first one. Trying to cut the plastic from the backside was a PITA but turned out pretty good.


Re-installed the Mopar CAI with the intake tube


I used gorilla glue/double sided 3m tape to secure the inlet and used tie wraps to secure the tube all the way to the cai box. I started at 530pm and took a little over 2 1/2hrs would have been much easier if I didn't have to dismantle the entire cai.

Here's a pic of what it looks like from the inlet after taking a test drive down the HWY....Looks like it stayed pretty well flush and no gaps. Before anyone says it I know I still have to clean up the glue residue, just got to damn late....I'm gonna break out the trusty ole plasidip to redo the lower grille as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-rKDiWwrU&feature=context-cha
 
#9 ·
With the extra weight of the 22" KMC Slides (47lbs per wheel and 43lbs per tire) I knew it was hurting my performance so I starting looking for other options. I knew I wanted a 22" wheel and just swap out tires and I found these.....

One of the first sets made of 22" Boss 338s only weighing 39lbs vs the 47lb Slides



I still wanted to maintain my Blacked out look so I took them to get powdercoated 40% gloss black and I also painted my calipers & wheel hubs black


 
#10 ·
Trying to completely finish the Blacked out look I got in contact with Jeremy with the retroshop.us where he supplied me with morimoto projectors so I can do my own retro fit for my oem quad headlights. I'll tell you this, cracking them open and painting them wasn't hard at all. I ran into 1 wiring issue that I resolved pretty quickly (problem with the HIDs spades connecting into the low beam connector, just to big, so I spliced them) but the biggest issue was after washing my truck I had a leak in my left headlight where condensate started to form (used buytl but must have missed a spot/didn't seal properly). I ended up drying it out and put silicone around both lens but other than those minor issues I would say the avg Joe can probably handle this task.

Baking the headlights open.....set oven at 230 and left them in there for approx 15min. The key is to keep them hot after pulling them out (I used a heat gun) and don't force them open or the lens will crack. Here are some pics of them done and installed....I used rvinyl smoke tint for the fogs until I get time to do a retro fit on them.










A couple of weeks ago I checked my Catch can and this is watch I got out of it after 2500 miles

 
#11 ·
Wow this took 3 nights at work off and on to complete/ catch up on my build thread.....I'm sure I missed some mods I've might have done but all I can say is damn I've put some money into this truck without really realizing it LOL.

Mods to come:
Want some stripes
A tuner or might just do the PCM swap
Projectors for the fogs/ paint the housing
Setup for the track- 17s with DRs
Maybe Nitrous if tuning never becomes available
If tuning does: Cam/heads/ long tubes and or a Supercharger/ Turbo setup with an upgraded tranny of course.

To be continued.....
 
#12 ·
damn dude thats one sharp lookin truck i love what you have done with it but me personally i like the look of the slides better so what did you do with them when you removed from the truck?
 
#15 ·
Appreciate it Fellas....

The slides were my first choice and probably the only choice I found that I really liked out of hundreds of wheels I looked at in our bolt pattern....which is pretty damn limited to begin with. I just couldn't get past the power/mpg loss, probably one of the heaviest sets of aftermarket 22's out there. Besides, the slides are like the SRT10 wheels, everyone has them, and I want to be like no other ram/truck out there. The boss wheels look much better in person, the camera doesn't really show all the lines/definition but to answer you question....

The slides are actually collecting dust in my garage at the moment. I put them on craigslist here in Houston to test the water but got a bunch of scammers and didn't want to sort through all the legit offers. I'm in no rush to sell them and I'll probably list them on here or craigslist again.
 
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#19 ·
I haven't had any issues in this Texas heat (going on 4 months) but I'm sure you know your stuff....I'll probably flush it and re-fill with the Zerex G-05 just to be on the safe side.
 
#20 ·
You know it might have been me...I was pay a visit to a ex from time to time down there.
 
#21 ·
I'm gonna talk to a vinyl/pin-striping guy tomorrow and see about getting some stripes on this baby...

Here are two options I'm lean towards but just don't know for sure if I want blue (different) or red (common)....good part is if I don't like it I'll just take it off.


Without pinstripe on wheels

With pinstripe on wheels


 
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#22 ·
I am liking the blue man. The red and black is really a common thing like ya said. I'd skip the dark blue though and go with an electric blue, that'd look really good with your truck IMO. And like ya said if ya dun like it then it'll peel right off.
 
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#24 ·
Yeah that ass hole needs to find him a new career....Talk to the pinstripe guy and showed him some ideas I had and he definitely can do it. I'm kinda tied up for the rest of the week so look for something possible by the middle of next week.
 
#26 ·
Hey man! Your truck is absolutely sick!
Love all the work....
I do wanna take one thing from you though.
The raceland cutout :smileup:
Since you put it before the muffler, you got the 3" right?
Was it difficult to connect the switch?

I want loud (city) and to scare some punks and quite with the wife and kids and when I just wanna cruise :LOL:
 
#27 ·
That's what I wanted to achieve as well...to be able to control my exhaust note.

Yeah its the 3" one but there's no switch to connect, it's wireless, using a remote to open and close it...you can either plug it into your cig lighter or directly to your battery (what I did). Here's a video of how it works, not mine but one I found on youtube when I was doing my research.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeVQJ8HwEss
 
#29 ·
It's pretty simple just use an inline fuse for direct power to your battery (cutting off the cig end of course)....I already installed one because of my power running boards, so I just piggy backed off that. The module that comes with the raceland e-cutout mounts pretty good with zip ties just north of the battery in that cubby hole.....then just run all your wires down the underside securing it with zip ties till you get to the cutout.
 
#31 ·
Yeah I ran from beneath the engine buy down the frame railing but as soon as you get to the gas tank your gonna have to cross over to the other side. Thats when I stuffed in inside the firewall (you see what I'm talking about when you get underneath) for the extra protection from the exhaust pipe and drive shaft. Then from there it pretty much can be connected to the motor housing of the e-cutout. I would recommend a turn down pipe on the end of the cutout because instead of the exhaust running down your underbelly have it directed towards the ground.....any good exhaust shop can fab it for you for pretty much 10-15 bucks.

Yeah these forums aren't for the average McDonald's employee....
 
#34 ·
I really can't compare any other cutout but I know one of the main reasons people were turned off by the raceland cutout when it first came out was the sealing issues/leakage but I can assure you I haven't had any. I'm sure they've improved their cutout from when they first came out because I know my wireless remote is different than that video (more up to date/ smaller). The main reason why I went with the raceland is because of the functionality and they were decently priced. From what I've researched QTP and Doug cutouts are pretty good options as well but I don't think they use wireless remotes. I'm sure you can find a bunch of info before making your decision but I'll tell you from my experience so far I would recommend one to anyone looking for a cutout.
 
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