Luxury Chase Truck Build [2007 F250-Carli Coilover]

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Well, I decided to mirror my build thread over here from two other forums, powerstroke.org and DezertRangers. 'The org' is my resource for things to do with the truck, DezertRangers is where my desert buddies are, and ExPo is the place for things relating to 'overlanding' in general (obviously). It's going to take a few days to copy over everything, and some of it wont make sense because of conversations on the other forums. The following took place over the last two years. Truck purchased April 11, 2013. Enjoy!

I've basically been in love with the 05-07 King Ranch since it first rolled off the line when I was in high school. Made it through college, got an amazing job, and bought that *****. Yes I know it's "the worst diesel ever designed" but if you do some research you'll find that if you eliminate two major engineering flaws, it's a pretty ************ motor.

The day my Dad brought her home. I had to fly to the Gulf for work the DAY before. SO bummed.

This was a trial run of all the aftermarket dash mounting solutions I found (for phones, radios, gps, ect.) I ended up keeping in clean and runnning the top left one alone.

Original plastic bedliner.

Far superior Linex

After a run through some trails near Silverwood Lake and Big Bear (and some close calls), I decided this was in order...

Swapped in 55 watt 5k HID's in the heads and fogs. AWESOMEly bright. Yes it's a little bro. Yes they're too bright. Yes I still feel bad for Civics. I'm about to swap the fogs for rigids and the heads will go back to stock or silverstars or just something white-but not too bright for the streets.

Driving lessons for the gf who's known nothing but Civics her whole life (her dad works for Honda).

Wiring harness for the Hellas. Sure this pic is boring to you, but it is one of many harnesses I've extended for this beast and countless hours. I am SO over electrical right now...and I still have four switches and floods to rig up...details later.

Back when she was nice and clean. Parked next to my '71 Mustang convertible that my great Uncle Vic left to my brother and I. 351 Cleveland. Love that car. All original, still plenty to do. The paint looks better in pics than it really is, but it's still awesome...

My whole life I've been half-assing projects and tools because of budget and being in high school and college. Now that I have the ability, my motto is "do it right the first time". After spending too much on some things, I'm slowing down a little lol, but still trying to stay the course...

I picked up four Hella red ring HID's (external ballast) from a guy in Huntington Beach (my second home-it's where my gf is from). Didn't like any of the light bars on the market and they were overpriced anyway. Don't have the skill or tools to weld one up myself (yet). So I found a fab guy in HB who whipped this up for me with my general design. Probably still paid too much but I just wanted it done and I was sick of dealing with it. I need to tweak a couple things on it so I've slacked on painting it-which sucks because now its rusted and I liked the look before...

Little day trip in Holy Jim Canyon with my buddy from San Clemente. It looked like such a pig on stock 20's. Oh wait, it's still a pig

First time putting her to work

More to come tonight...next up-coilover install.

 

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I have a little personal issue with settling for less soooo as a result I end up spending a lot more than I really need to on a lot of things. Case and point-Carli Suspension's custom tuned coilover kit...I know most of you are far more talented than I at valving and tuning shocks and might have been able to do this yourselves, but I am not, nor do I have time, or a garage. Also jumped on their custom Deaver packs and did the 08+ spring hanger conversion.

This thing is my DD and toy so I really do get to enjoy its caddilac-like ride every day. Before you knock it, just take a ride with me, on and offroad It might change your tune about what an 8000 lb truck can do...

Went with the time-tested classic BFG AT. No street queen frizbee wheels on this thing. 37s on 17" methods.

Spring hanger moved forward to accommodate the 08+ spring pack

I'm still astonished at how much springs settle after just a few days (which is great because I'm not a fan of lifted trucks anyway, I just wanted the performance) In later pics, you'll probably see how much lower it is (more bueno I think)

I'm so used to it now but it's still scary how much it dwarfs 'decent' sized cars...

Still have the option to add a bypass if I want buuuuuuut I think my gf wants a house first...I don't get it

More on the way!

 

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On-board air!!!

Once again my complex got the best of me and after I found the most capable 12v air compressor ever designed (as far as I could find) I just couldn't run anything else...
ARB CKMTA12. Pretty mean stats if you want to read.

I enlisted my little brother (home for winter break from ASU) to help out a little.

Upgraded from the supplied 'supertanium' as I like to call it to Stainless. Sorry-I grew up on boats like sdecurti. I don't ****** around.

This was BEFORE I popped a couple more holes in the frame. Pretty nuts to me how many are there from the factory. It's interesting imagining all the things this truck was built to do...from an ambulance, to a tow truck, to a **** tank...talk about superDUTY! Sorrry...maybe that was over the line

I might remote mount the filters eventually, but I have more important things to do first.

Another harness. Lil bitches. Most essential tool at one o' clock thur...

 

[CAPT.HODGES]

On-board air!!!

Once again my complex got the best of me and after I found the most capable 12v air compressor ever designed (as far as I could find) I just couldn't run anything else...
ARB CKMTA12. Pretty mean stats if you want to read.

I enlisted my little brother (home for winter break from ASU) to help out a little.

Upgraded from the supplied 'supertanium' as I like to call it to Stainless. Sorry-I grew up on boats like sdecurti. I don't ****** around.

This was BEFORE I popped a couple more holes in the frame. Pretty nuts to me how many are there from the factory. It's interesting imagining all the things this truck was built to do...from an ambulance, to a tow truck, to a **** tank...talk about superDUTY! Sorrry...maybe that was over the line

I might remote mount the filters eventually, but I have more important things to do first.

Another harness. Lil bitches. Most essential tool at one o' clock thur...

 

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This was an early appraisal of the switches I got. Trying to keep it super clean. The four factory AUX switches are already taken up...inside hellas, outside hellas, air comp, and the fourth is a 'high idle mod'. These trucks were designed with a couple PTO configurations for ambulances and stuff so there's already a wire right under the dash that you can hook up to the aux switch. Put the truck in park, E-brake on, foot off the brake, flip the switch, and viola-more revs for jump starting/warming up/compressing los atmospheres.

Anyway-this is an aftermarket switch that's nice and flat black. I bought like ten for future use, but will probably only put in four here to keep it clean. They will be for the floods that are coming later

Getting into the beginning of the radio install here (which I mentioned above). This will be a little out of order but it's too much work to straighten it out right now. The previous owner had this ballin little Bell 12v socket for his kid's videojuegos (and wasted a factory aux switch on it) pity. That was promptly removed. I installed this sweet dual socket (water resistant) from west marine that I had lying around from my boating days.

Just a pic illustrating what a PITA is was to get the radio brain inside the console. I had to remove the beige shell and disassemble the inner shell which conveniently split down the middle with screws. Being a super stout commercial 110 watt radio, this thing is freakin huge...

Radio and remote head unit with cable

 

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More on the radio install later. Sorry. Buuut more air capabilities! 2.5 gal tank from viair. Amazon gift cards make it easier to pull the trigger on overpriced stuff...

Really nice little anti-vibration washers too...kind of a ***** to find the hole

 

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Ok, phone mounts. Two favorite companies: Panavise and ProClip. They're both a little spendy but so bad ***. You'll wonder how you ever lived without one. Depending on what vehicle I'm pimping out, I'll check both companies to see who came up with the best location. But I like panavise best because it's all metal and bolts to some existing piece of the car.

If you remember from the earlier post with all the phone/accessory mounts, there was one on the top right near the radio. That's a two piece panavise mount. The base plate bolts to the radio bracket behind the dash REAL solid-like. It happens to be symmetrical to the other side so I ordered another one and VIOLA! Rock solid base mounts to build whatever the ******* I want! So I whipped up this little aluminum bracket pretty crapily. I picked up an iPad to run motion x and lifeproof has a sweet case coming out with an awesome cradle adapter that will bolt right on this thing.

I am SO fed up with all my good ideas coming out half-assed because I've tried to cut them with a dremel or cut off wheel in a pinch, so I'm buying a porta-band setup, drill press, and belt sander as we speak.

 

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Back to the switches for the roof floods I haven't even shown you yet. Like my superpro cherrios box template? I was just experimenting with how things would look with different amounts of switches...i like accessories. Right now I can only thing of 6 needs but it looks so cluttered I'm just going to run 4 and put the other two somewhere else. Also trying to decide if I need relays or not...2.1A for each switch/light? What do you think?

Surprise! Roof floods. More on these tomorrow. I need better pictures.

 

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Last batch of the night. These are just a few from a Valentines day road trip the gf and I did. LA-->Santa Ynez-->Monterey-->Pisbro-->LA. Tomorrow I'll get some more of the Sii's and race radio. They're probably my two favorite things so far besides suspension. The lights looks so clean up there and the radio head looks freaking factory!

Coming back down Hwy 1 (sucks)

We spent the night at Pisbro the last night. She actually smiled for once.

Made it just in time for sunset and to grill up some carne asada.

Oh how precious

Free ad for Carli

 

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Well I spent most my vacation getting a stupid vw passat cherried out so the family could sell it...today I finally got to MY projects.

Brennan (goofballracer) at Baja Designs got me set up with four Sii's (flood pattern). Eddie (yellowranger1) confirmed my research that these are the most ************ lights you can buy for the size. I also got two amber lenses to swap in and just turn the rear one/two as dust lights. They'll be work floods most of the time and if I'm going hard enough to have dust, I've probably already taken the shell off for that kind of trip anyway - so eventually I'd like to build a little bolt on light bar that straddles the bed rails. Each one is only held on by one bolt so it would be super easy to switch around, plus modular things tickle my fancy anyway...Ok ok, picture time

Coming from boats and hoes, the first thing I did was upgrade to some 1/4-20 stainless bolts. Then I cut up some 3/4" aluminum flat stock and tapped them out. It worked pretty well, though I wouldn't mind switching to fine-thread in the future. Terrible pic sorry.

I'm pretty OCD so I just couldn't stand running these wires through the frame rails all twisted-like. Zip tie party was off the chain. My OCD also sets me back A LOT when it comes to projects. I want to do it all so perfectly, that I'll spend literally days in side researching and planning it out before just getting it done, which is why I was stoked to get out of my rut today! This pic reminds me I need to pop those stupid hub caps off in case the vacuum lines cut out for 4times4

In case you've never seen a 6.0 bay before-it's tighter than a teenage girl. There is zero room to 'cleanly' run auxiliary wires/fuses/relays and I've added about 30, literally.

This space on the front right is about all I've got left. I'm gonna wire these floods up with simple in-line blade fuses for now but eventually I might get a little blade fuse block from hella and clean it up. Also maybe a relay block depending on how I set up my circuits in the future.

Pretty unhappy with how this turn worked out but I really struggled to find a better way. Everywhere else was more in danger of pinching, debris, or way too close to the headers/block than I was comfortable with...I might find something better eventually. Or wait till the invent wireless electricity.

Zip tied the hell out of it to the frame. It's not dead straight which is annoying to me but I was utilizing factory holes so this was the best way. It's rock solid though...

Had to kinda work around my emergency wood block stash but left enough slack to tuck it in there if I ever remove it.

Yes that is a ladder. #liftedtruckproblems

'lifted truck' makes me cringe btw

I left enough wire for the front ones to reach as far forward as I ever envisioned them being in case I ever build some hi-pro-glo chase rack or some ****. Again, thinking modular and versatile. Of course, this was an afterthought and necessitated ANOTHER run to home depot. I'm not kidding when I say I've been there 15 times in five days.

I like the idea of connectors so things can be removed/switched around, but these little bitches aren't fun to put together. I REALLY wanted to solder them but couldn't find the freakin solder and really needed to finish this stage of the project before the rain. Eventually I'll pop them all apart and solder them up, or just remove them all together if I grow the balls.

That's it on the lights today. Hopefully putting in switches tomorrow if I can find a parking structure to hide in out of the rain. At least there's one advantage to working out of the truck all the time...

Bonus pics-I got some higher quality ones of the radio. I'm so stoked on how it came out. The matte black plastic matches the dash like it was factory!

Even made a welcome message

 

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I just about finished my mega wire harness I was going to run to my switches and after cutting and labeling all the wire, decided I want to follow my motto and just do it right the first time. I'm gonna be adding another full on fuse box possibly under the dash. There's already a secondary box under there with a huge gauge wire feeding it. I think it would be plenty to tap off of...then I'd just have to run output wires to my accessories instead of going both ways with hot leads. Any thoughts?

Crappy pics sorry. I was taking pics of the accessibility for jdereu. The large gauge lead is on the left side of the box with the flex tube around it.

 

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Pretty lame day. At least is made one step in the right direction. Picked up a Blue Sea Systems fuse panel from west marine. 12 circuits built in. It's gonna be really clean once I'm done rigging it all up. Here's a pic of some other guy who stuck one under his super duty dash. It drives me nuts that it takes little discoveries like this to remind me of simple solutions after I've wasted time and money on over engineered methods :/ But I guess that's part of the voyage

 

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Well after growing up in THIS shop in high school, and learning all the professional ways to do everything, I just couldn't take cutting stuff with an angle grinder or dremel any longer.

Oh, and I forgot the mill with servos and digital readouts...

So I did a lot of research and looked at some basic shop suggestions here on DR and factored that into my personal experience and needs. I pulled the trigger on the latest milwaukee variable speed bandsaw and fitted it with a variable-tooth 14/18 tpi blade. Then I got the ************** SWAG offroad portaband table. Burns through everything I've cut so far, wood and metal. I spent most of the day setting it up and taking over mom's garage. I also picked up on ebay a delta 1 inch belt sander/8in disc. I also have two grinding wheels to make 4 wheels with wire, stones, and deburring wheels on them.

Sprung for the Incra miter gauge which works amazing.

At least I made some progress on the truck. I 'fabbed' up this bracket to mount it to the dash frame. It started out real fancy so I could utilize existing bolts but got simpler when I realized a flaw. The Incra helped me make sweet little 45's everywhere too! So refreshing after a LOT of ****ty cuts recently.

Oh yeah also planning on picking up a little drill press on cragislist soon. It might have to wait a month till I get back from work :/
So stoked to be finally making a minishop after all these years. Now I need a house.

 

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To make up for my unproductive days, I was under the truck at 7 am cutting zip ties and rerunning all the wire for the Sii's. I must say, it's nice to be able to sit up under my truck and sip coffee out of a mug while cutting zip ties. +1 for lifted trucks. I think that puts me at a total ooooof 1. Lol

Ran around like a madman all day measuring, cutting, splicing, praying...finally got the fuse box installed and it's rock solid. I debated jumping off that stock box which had a heavy gauge already but kept telling myself over and over and over, DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME TUCKER! So I drilled a hole in the firewall, put a grommet in, and gave the box it's own lead to the battery.

viola

All I have to do is mount the switches on that little strip, hook up the black and whites you see, and run jumpers to the block. Not sure if I'll get to it tomorrow because I leave on Monday for a month and have some other stuff to wrap up. I really don't want to rush the switches either because those measurements are going to be CRITICAL. Oh yeah, what's everyone's vote on how many switches to throw in there? Pics above...4 looks really clean but I think I need 6. Really don't want to clutter it though.

Almost forgot! Just got back from dinner with sdecurti and yellowranger1. Picked up these sweet D2's off Eddie that I'll be swapping in for my fogs. Already have the rigid brackets and everything. It WOULD be very simple to do tomorrow if I have an hour...famous last words, right?

Feels really good to have accomplished this and made up for lost time. Doesn't look like much in a couple pictures, but the amount of time it takes to measure, cut, strip, solder, heat shrink, cable wrap/sheath, and zip tie all that **** is mind-blowing. And I'm super OCD sooo it takes three times longer than the guy that DGAFs.

Stay classy SoCal

 

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Well here we are, over a month later, I'm finally home from work. I was a little caught up the first few days getting a ring finished up and asking my girlfriend to marry me...soooo I guess I'm engaged now...and it's AWESOME!

Made huge progress the last few days. I picked up two Rigid D2's from Eddie [yellowranger1], and swapped them out for my fogs. Big improvement. also got some amber lenses for them.

Scott [sdecurti] helped me a TON getting my light bar dialed in. The guy who whipped it up for me welded sleeves through the main tube which weren't perfectly perpendicular to the ground, so all my lights were pointed up towards the sky, even after adjusting all the way down. I picked up some trick tabs at Kartek on my way back from getting the ring resized and Scott welded them up for me yesterday. Really stoked to have that off my back.

Not a very exciting picture, but when I run my mag mount antenna out the rear sliding window, I lose a little water/dust tight integrity. I picked up some weatherstrip that just pushes onto the glass and is removable. Problem solved.

FINALLY got my switches in. I measured twice, and drilled once. Ok I actually measured like 15 times. But they're straight, thank God.

Fuse box came out really clean too.

I also got an amber Dually off Eddie. I'll run it for a while but it just looks out of place up there. I may swap it out and throw two more rear-facing Sii's up there with amber lenses eventually.

Today was the culmination of a LOT of projects. I spent hours cleaning out the back of all the project supplies and getting my boxes organized for a trip. Really stoked to have everything almost dialed in so I can just buy ice, beer, and diesel and hit the dirt!