Ok, here it goes.
I own a '97 F-150 that already is lowered and modified. For my birthday I am getting some Corbeau bucket seats, so one area is being imporved with out my money Here is my dilemma: I love my truck soooo much that I am going to spend about $3500 on it. Either I buy a set of 20's, repaint the truck, add a superchip and an AF1 intake, and a few little cosmetic mods, OR, I do serious engine mods, skip the 20's, and focus mostly on performance. Either way, I am a winner. I have 85,000 miles on the truck, but the engine has only 35k on it (free warranty replacement). I never plan on selling my baby, it was my first vehicle, she is as tight as a new truck (REALLY!!) and I have way too many good memories in her. Please give me your opinions on what I stated above. All comments are welcome, and i will try to post pics, but just read my sig for my mods that I already have

------SC

p.s. My ride is already lowered, I have 17" centerline wheels, an amazing stereo, and misc other mods. I just want to take it to the next level.

 

I would throw a S/C on it! If you have 3,500 might as well save the rest and throw a bolt on! I have a 1998 Ford F-150 4x4 and thats what im going to do. Hopefully I can get my truck to run 14's if im lucky! It's always nice to have a sleeper and pull up beside them ricers and beat em. Just my opinion.

 

believe me, a supercharger has crossed my mind a time or two

 

If you plan on keeping your truck for a long time I would recommend spending your money on the cosmetics (paint, rims, etc.) vs. spending money on performance.

 

Tough question.

Consider this point: appearance fads (like 20" wheels) come and go. Performance never goes out of style. Instead of 20", consider 17-18" wheels. They look good and perform.

Then with the extra money (and there should be alot) go with performance mods. It is obvious that you love your truck (as I'm sure we all do), so why not do things to enhance the driveability? Then you'll love driving it even more than you do now.


Just my $.02

---J

 

Put the money in the motor man! Make that thing scream!!!

 

I'd give you a good run.... with a mear push of a button buddy.

wanna temp me


I say improve the overall strength of your vehicle performance wise.

18" rims/tires
lightning (or anything better than stock) brakes
dual friction clutch
aluminum pumpkin cover for added strength
good limited slip (if not one in already)
Get some 3.73's or 3.90's gears
do your basic chip, exhaust, intake
some minor appearence mods

and if you have $1,500 left over get a good cam and ported head combo...

performance wise that's ~ 60 - 70BHP added plus you have a nicer looking truck. with those mods and your configuration you could be into the low 15's, high 14's.

 

I would do the engine mods and make it faster get some tires and rims latter.

 

A truck that looks nice is great...until you get smoked off the line by another truck.

Do the engine first!!

 

Hi Streetcruiser,

Only *you* can decide what is more important to you, performance or appearance. Anyone that would pick appearance over performance generally doesn't have a real passion for performance, which is fine of course, to each his/her own. If that is the case, and appearance is more important to you, then you'd do maybe a coupla minor performance items, and then spend the "real" money on appearance.

That wouldn't be my choice in a vehicle I was going to keep for a long time (hey, you asked!). Any vehicle I keep long-term for my primary driver and especially my toy is going to have both performance and some appearance mods.

Ok, so now we're to the point where we're keeping a vehicle long term, that we're going to do both performance *and* appearnce modifications on...................

The reality is, anytime you are going to do both performance and appearance modifications, it only makes sense that you always do the performance modifications first, and then do your paint & other appearance things last, with interior being the very last area to complete.

That way you don't damage the paint while doing the performance modifications, and you don't have new seats & interior parts smelling like paint for 2 years and having all the paint & primer dust that you will always have anytime you do any painting to get out of the beautiful new interior, etc.

It's a matter of what makes the most sense in terms of not damaging anything and not having to waste time cleaning brand new interior components, etc.

With the budget you have available, you can make some *very* nice performance improvements to that vehicle.

Since you are going to keep the vehicle, you have all the time in the world to do more appearance things, but since you have some money available right now, that would enable you to do a nice package deal for several performance modifications at one time, and thus fully optimize your performance mods bang for the buck & total cost.

Bottom line, I'd do performance first, and then do your appearance things later on, with interior last.

Best of luck whatever you decide, & if you'd like some help mapping out the best bang for the buck performance modifications to do, what parts to add in what order, when to do the tuning, etc., give us a call, we'll be happy to help.

 

Thanks all for the input
Mike: I think performance will be first, but I am going to do the interior fully in a month. I am getting the seats paid for in a month (bday), plus I am going to paint the dash, and put a bunch of sound insulation in. I know it should be last, but I am fed up with my stock bench.

Any more opinions all?