So yea, if you knew everything you knew now about your truck, and you had to decide on buying a 2004-2008 Ford F-150 all over again, would you? Would you have chosen a different series or cab size? Would you have done things differently to modding your truck? Would you have chosen a different truck, or even a different car? Any regrets? ....and why?

Personally, I love my truck.. it looks nice, it rides nice, it's just about everything I could want in a truck. As far as looks go, I've yet to see a truck cooler than mine, but I'm obviously biased and a big egocentric.. lol And although this is my first truck, and I don't have too much to compare it too other than my 2006 Honda Civic EX, this thing has plenty of power for me. If I had to choose again, I'd still pick the same truck all over again... I knew I wanted a truck, and I could have waited a couple years on buying it, but with such deep discounts that were available, it more than likely wouldn't have been worth it to pass up such awesome savings.. Sure I might have bought a "dated" truck considering all of the newer model trucks rolling out, but who's going to argue that my truck isn't badazz the way it is? Personally, I don't like any of the newer trucks out on the market, the 2009 F-150 really disappointed me on exterior styling.. l don't have ignorant brand loyalty to any automaker, it's just that the F-150 looked the nicest.. Heck, if the Tundra wasn't so fugly on the inside and overpriced, I might have bought it, but in the end, it came down to a F-150 and a Ram with their deep discounts and looks, but the ergonomics of the interior styling on the F-150 won it for me..

In the end.. maybe I'm a bit superficial when it comes to vehicles.. but I can't imagine driving any other truck, I knew what I wanted and I got what I wanted.. no compromises

 

I aboslutely love my truck aswell, my last truck was an 03 Ranger and going from that to this was just amazing. If i were to of bought it all over again i would of gotten the Rize 8" instead. but Im still happy with the way it all turned out. I just wish i had the money for an 08 Superduty and to throw a 15" Kelderman air lift on it. that is for sure my dream truck.

 

I love my truck to death and there are only a few nicer trucks than mine in Erie, but if I could do it any different I would want an FX4 which would give me the black interior and the 5.4 and some of the other options that I would want(4x4 in dash. cluster, carpet, flow thru, etc). Also, I would want 3.73's.

I would never have a truck that isnt red, so I wouldn't change that. As far as mods, of course I would go taller, but I have no regrets at all with what I have put into my truck.

 

i would have gone with a bigger lift and bigger tires and i would have a reg bed not a stepside and one color paint not two tone paint but im not complaining about my truck at all bc i get soo many compliments about it and its a bad *** truck but this is also my first truck and love it. My next truck is going to be upgraded to a 250 all blacked out like zeruin's truck and a 12inch rize 4 link conversion when i get back from this coming up deployment.

zeruin -im painting my badges right now and i just threw a primer on there and about to put on the frylon fusion black on there and its not the satin black bc i want it to match my truck a lil bit more with a lil gloss too it. But question is can i also do this with the badges instead of having to buy them from patriot decals? Also now that im in a painting spree how hard is it too black out the headlights and tailights and will it change on how bright my lights are after painting them? And how do i go along with doing this?

 

The only thing I may have done differently is gone with the Supercrew instead of the Supercab. I really like having the extra foot in the bed though so I probably wouldn't even change that.

For the difficulty on painting the headlights. It's not that bad. It took me about 40 minutes of baking (at 7-10 minute intervals) just to get them apart but I think it was definitely worth it. The way I did it, while one was baking, I was prying on the other one. I wasn't as lucky as some of these other fellows who got them apart very quickly.

 

hmm..

honestly, I don't think you needed a primer for the krylon fusion, it has built in adhesion that's meant specifically for flexible plastic.. the only primer I can imagine that would work well on plastic would be Duplicolor Adhesion Promoter..

I painted all of my badges and emblems black and then threw in the decals/inlays.. techincally, you could "paint" the letters and everything, but that would require one heck of a masking job.. the Ford oval decals and emblem inlays were very cheap, I think my entire order was only about $50

blacking out the headlights really isn't hard.. the "hardest" part is convincing yourself to put a perfectly good set of headlights into the oven.. lol.. there are plenty of good write ups on this site, but yea, I'd definately recommend it.. you just have to have patience with it

the tail lights are even easier.. just get yourself some VHT nightshades from somewhere like carshopinc.com or ebay and go to town with it.. the best "canned" clear I've used for tails can be found at your local auto store, Duplicolor Acrylic Enamel, it goes on really smooth and glossy with a little wetsanding

your headlights will be fine after you black them out, they will be a bit more focused if anything.. the tails will work fine during nightime, it just depends on how glossy you manage to get them and how dark you actually tint them.. as dark as mine are, you can still easily see my brake lights even during the day, and somehow my reflector still shines through..

here's a couple pics of my tails, and a little food for thought with your blacked-out F-250.. it's not lifted really, but you get the idea..

daylight "reflector"


nightime "reflector"


semi-blackout f-250

 

hey mhockey, one more thing.. I dunno if money is really an issue, but changing your wheels would be a huge improvement.. the cheapest, and probably most cost efficient way of getting a new look would be to use some Duplicolor wheel paint! You can go either way on this.. they carry a flat black (turns into gloss with clear) or graphite (which is dark shadow grey).. personally, I'm leaning towards the graphite to match your two-tone..

Prep work is easy, you can paint them on or off the truck, it just depends if you want to paint the back of the wheel as well.. It would be quick and easy just to leave them on IMO.. clean them up really good, scuff them up with some 300-400 grit sandpaper, clean again.. spray with some Duplicolor Self-Etching Primer, use Duplicolor Graphite wheel paint, finish with Duplicolor clear coat Wheel paint..! It's like $6 a can from O'reilys and you only need about 1/2 a can for each wheel so thats less than $40 with tax.. I've helped a friend paint over some 16" chrome wheels in flat black last summer and they are holding up great! check out the success stories under wheel coating http://duplicolor.anthonythomas.com/...gory.php?cid=1

I don't have photoshop, but I'm pretty good with MS paint! but here's an example of what I think your truck should look like..


btw.. throw some High Temp BBQ or engine black paint on your exhaust tips! and spray down your shocks and wheel wells with some more black spray paint! lol, you had to get me started..

 

If I could , I would still have my 94 bronco. That was a truck to love , I still miss it.

 

I love my truck. But I would trade it in a hearbeat for a F-350 with the 6.4 in her...even after adding the RoushCharger


I wanted a Superduty, but they were $10,000 more and I couldn't justify the money.


I would do it all over again, but do the mods right away the 2nd time around...and not wait ~2 yrs to get them all. About the only thing I've got left is mud tires. After that, I think I'm mostly done.

 

yeah honestly i know i wanna do the inside fender wells in the rear and my shocks im not really too concerned about bc im trying to sell the truck but doing these little things imo will help the sell of the vehicle bc its going to only stand out even more

also wanna do the tail lights just dont feel like going through the trouble right now but the wheel paint sounds like that might be next along with the exhaust tips but everytime i start something new ill ask you and you can lead me through it and what i need to buy. So next would be the inside fender wells in the rear so how do i go along with that?

that pic is bad *** man ill try and do whatever i can before i sell her. haha you got me started as well

 

If I had known I was gonna get a raise a week after I bought my XLT I woulda got the FX2 with the leather and 5.4 instead.

 

tinting the tails are the easiest things to do.. just take them off your truck (easy), wetsand them with some 2000 grit for a couple minutes, clean, spray on the nightshades (1 can is enough for both tails and the 3rd brake), multiple thin coats (wait about 3-5 minutes inbetween), spray on the duplicolor clear acrylic enamel in the same multiple thin coats (if it ever looks milky from spraying too much, don't worry, it drys glossy)

obviously its not gonna be as glossy is you were to have them cleared at a paint shop, but for under $20 it's one of cheaper mods..

for the wells/shocks just use some Rustoleum Gloss Black from Wal-Mart, you prolly only need 1 can, I cleaned it all up under there and just sprayed it on anything that wasn't black.. including the underbody

For under $100 you can easily do all of the appearance mods.. decals, emblems, wheels, exhaust tips, wells and underbody

 

Hell yeah I'd do it all over again. There were no better looking trucks at the time and I wasn't going to ride around in that God forsaken Ranger a second longer.

 

sounds good im almost done with the badges ill take some pic too show you how they came out.

next i will do the inside fender wells in the rear, exhaust, wheels and then the tail lights and head lights. But ill take my time doing this and only do it on weekends haha. so yeah but everytime before i start ill either look at this thread again or get a hold of you on another thread and go through the steps so i know for sure im not screwing it up.

 

no regrets here love the fourhweel drive supercharged pick up i ony thing i wish i had is rubber on the floor like a xl work model .