Can't wait to see that but really you could smear doo doo all over a Raptor and it would still look cool I'm loving those General Grabber's on your truck to
Thanks fellas. I'm really pleased with the way this truck is coming together, but there is still a LOT I wanna do to it. As you guys know, the project never ends!!
Hey guys, just wanted to check in and say hello to my friends over here. I absolutely love the new skin, it was worth the wait. Looks legit, official, and very clean. Kudos to all involved. Right now it's still in it's current state. My graphics guy finally got the vinyl in to do my roof, but i got a nasty respiratory cold that kept me outta commission for over 2 weeks (I'm better now) and then I was in Vegas for a while, just got back yesterday, so things were at a bit of a standstill for a few weeks. ....time to get back at it! We're gonna wrap the roof once I'm caught up at work, and we're gonna re-wrap the tailgate at that time. I told him I just wasn't satisfied with the cut-outs around the badges, so he said if I'll take care of removing and re-applying the badges, he'll re-wrap it for me free of charge. I'm still trying to make time to spray a TON of black Line-X on the truck, so once that is done and the roof is wrapped, hopefully the tailgate won't look so out of place. On a positive note, my customized ADD bumper and a boatload of Rigid LED lighting finally shipped and should arrive this week. I'm choosing not to install it myself since there is some drilling required for some of the extra mounting points we added in the design process. My buddies and I could probably handle it in the garage, but I'm a bit hesitant to run that risk.... A few cases of beer and a drill just sounds like a bad idea for a $50K truck! Install is scheduled for next Wednesday (not tomorrow, the Wednesday after). Ryan from ADD told me he thinks my bumper is the strongest and best-looking bumper their shop has ever built. He likes it so much that he's gonna take his ADD bumper off of his Raptor, sell it, and fab-up a copy of my bumper for his own truck. I was stoked to hear that the people who build them liked my design tweaks to their product that much. I'm chomping at the bit to get it on. I'm also planning on mounting my Deaver rear leaf springs that will significantly boost my offroad prowess this week or next. I'll be going from Ford's standard setup that provides 3-leafs-per-spring, to Deaver's custom-tuned-11-leafs-per-spring setup. This should really settle the bucking "problem" I experience in the ass end of the truck when hitting high-speed whoops. (Wow, that last sentence could easily be misinterpreted in a very negative sexual context!!) I'm gonna mount a VIAIR air compressor behind the grille too.... It's a sweet setup. I'll be able to air down and back up at will when offroading and it will be nice for cleaning the truck's interior too. I'm also in on a group buy for NAV-TV Allsync over at FRF. This will allow me to watch DVD's in motion, force on my reverse cam at any time, as well as a front cam I'm gonna add. I'll also be able to run video, etc from my iPad/iPod Touch to the Nav screen. There is another spot or two left on the group buy, and the setup works for all kinds of Fords, so if anyone wants in, please PM me or contact Susanne Basile at NAV-TV for more details. I wont get that shipped out until the group buy is complete. Anyhow, sorry for rambling guys, but that sums up what is next on the agenda. Pics of everything to follow. Hope everyone is doing well!!! -Bo
Sorry it's been WAAAAY to long since I've checked in with the Fine folks here at FFS. Things are growing like crazy over at FRF and it sure looks like you guys have been busy over here too! Congrats on the growth, and a fine looking site! I've had that custom bumper I'd previously mentioned installed for several months now. The thing is strong as an ox yet not too heavy -we pre-runner guys are more weight-conscious than a room full of Jenny Craig chicks! - and it really turns heads absolutely everywhere I go. Anyhow, here's some info I posted on FRF after the install, I'm also gonna copy over a bunch of pics. * * * * * * So back in late December, Ryan from Addictive Desert Designs and I started talking about the perfect bumper for my truck. ADD had recently come out with their new Stealth design, and I knew that was our starting point.... All it needed was a few lil' custom tweaks and my truck's perfect crowning jewel would be under construction. When we got to the drawing board, we decided to go with heavier-duty metal for the plating and skid. At the time, ADD was making other Stealth bumpers in a two-tone finish, gloss on the skids and hammer-tone on the tubing. I liked the matte look and rough texture of the hammer-tone finish. I decided I wanted to be the first to try doing all of the tubing and plating in hammer-tone, but then during the fab-up some sneaky sonsa***** in a sexy Raptor by the name o' SOCOMech had the same great idea and went and re-painted his ADD bumper in a full hammer-tone. As soon as I saw pics of his finish, I knew I was gonna love mine in person, and I was right. The finish is awesome, it's like a finer (in both senses of the word) version of the texture on the stock running boards. For the beefier skidplate, I asked Ryan to give me the water-jetted ADD logo but also room for a front license plate. I'm not going to run one just yet (never have) but it's the law where I live and for some reason Cops here seem to suddenly be making a big deal about whips that aren't wearing them. For that reason, the ADD logo was moved higher up on the skid plate and beneath the logo, 4 tiny holes were drilled through it so a front plate can be mounted at any point later on. I'm not a fan of front plates, but at least I have custom Texas plates on the way that are all black with only a white half-star and white letters. The fromt plate might actually look alright on there if it ever goes on. I knew I wanted to get a little nutty with the lighting. I loved the look of the two-bar setup, and also knew ADD had not built a Stealth with 2 Rigid Industries light-bars. Naturally I wanted mine to be a bit unique, at least for the time being, and throw a ton of light, so the 2 light-bar twist was thrown into the mix. For optimum lighting, we went with a white light-bar on top and an amber light-bar on bottom. The white light is great for distance and clarity offroad while the amber is better for cutting through fog, smoke, and most importantly, dust from other trucks. The white bar and amber bar look exactly the same when the lights are off, but there is a distinct difference both inside and outside the cab when they are on. Just for an added ****-you-factor, a pair of Rigid Industries new D2 lights were thrown behind the first pair of dimples adjacent to each side of the skid plate. They are bright, but I need to do some adjusting on their current positioning. The white bar and the D2s are wired together on Aux Switch 1, and the amber bar is wired on Aux Switch 2. The total result of the setup is absolutely blinding to anyone not in the cab, and truly "turns night into day" for the driver. This bumper has a total of 12 mounting points (2 drilled) and feels unbelievably sturdy. My friend made the comment "you could drive through a ****ing bank vault with that thing on there." One of my Vato buddies on the job site exclaimed "¡Tú TúmbaBúrro es bien Chingón!" I laughed my ass off because that literally translates to "Your DonkeyTumbler is ****in' bad!" It doesn't matter what language you speak, I think you can agree that ADD and Rigid Industries put together the perfect bumper for my truck. Big thanks to the fine folks at both companies.
