I finally got around to installing my backup camera. A buddy of mine had an 09 F-150 totalled at his Body Shop, he just gave me the whole tailgate so I could get the emblem and cam out of it (FREEEEBIE). The whole thing was really simple. Got a scraper, and worked off my original emblem (held on by double-sided tape), cleaned off some of the left over tape, then cut an 1-3/4" hole in the tailgate. It was hard to gauge how much room I would need for the cam until after the hole was cut, so after I had to use the dremel and make it fit. The new emblem will line up perfectly with your old alignment holes in the tailgate. Now I fed the harness from inside the tailgate out to the bottom using some metal wire. Once I got the emblem in there perfect, I drilled 2 holes (this is how the new emblem mounts) and used 2 self-tapping screws to secure it. Dont forget to put on a little silicon between the new emblem and the tailgate. The problem with the new emblem is its two-piece (main piece holds the camera and then theres the ford cover). I couldnt get the cover off without breaking it (2 weak little tabs that I dont know how you could possibly get it off without breaking them) so I bought a new cover emblem ($12 at the dealer) and slapped it on there and used a little silicon there aswell. Now that the camera was all installed, all I had to do was wire the cam. I cut the connector off the end of the harness and tossed it aside. Then I soldered in some new wires. For the power and ground, I spliced into my trailer light connector since it was so close. Theres 6 wires from the cam, I only used 4. Red=Power, Black=Ground, White=Video (+), and Green=Video (-). Now for the video, I got a set of RCA cables. You only need to use one of the RCA wires (each has 2 wires inside). But since I needed to stretch so far, I split the 2 RCA's apart and got an adapter to connect them together and get twice the length. On one of the RCA's, I cut off the end, and seperated the two wires inside (outside wire ground, inside wire positive), then I soldered them to the + & - of the camera harness. I also wrapped these wires in some loom from the tailgate down to the trailer connector. Now I ran the RCA cable underneath the truck along the where the main chassis wiring harness runs along the driver side frame rail, then inside the truck at the grommet under the driver side floor board, then under the carpet, and up into the head unit. The last step for me was to connect the reverse cam wire (from my head unit) to the reverse signal on my truck. This is so that when I put the gear shift in reverse, my headunit shows the rearview camera on the screen. For this I tapped into a wire from the main harness on the driver side (pop up the plastic cover on the floor). It was black/ Pink (reverse light signal). And thats it. I can also switch it in my headunit to show the rearview cam while driving. Sorry I didnt take many pics and they are all with my cell. Lemme know if anyone has any questions. Its really easy and didnt take long at all.

Oh and bottom pics show my new FX2 grille I installed this weekend also.

 

Nice job !

Gosh Darn those are expensive gas price

 

Haha. Dont remind me. I dont even look anymore. I just close my eyes and pump since I always use the most expensive too (Chevron 91).

 

Sweet man! I have always wanted one of those since I got my head unit. Nice work!

 

Been looking for a how to on this! Thanks!

 

Nice write-up! As for the gas prices, try paying $4.57 a gallon for 93, not too fun filling up anymore

 

nice i have always wanted to do this thanks! and nice gas prices i wish they were that low here! $3.70 here for 87!

 

Well that was from a year and a half ago after all...