Elrod's 93 F-150 Build

[Burninriverdiver]

Thanks! I waited a looooong time to find a set of em! Exactly a year after I bought them and had em in my shop attic, another set popped up for sale about 30 miles from me, for WAY cheaper than what I paid, LOL. Oh well though these are here to stay now!

That happens all the time to me, just gotta appreciate what u have and never look for deals on things that you already purchased! It always seems to happen that way. Good luck on the build, can't wait to see the finished product

 

[amy98gt]

good looking truck. I just sold my 04 lightning a month ago. I always wanted a first gen but had to settle for a family vehicle. keep up the good work.

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

That happens all the time to me, just gotta appreciate what u have and never look for deals on things that you already purchased! It always seems to happen that way. Good luck on the build, can't wait to see the finished product

I'm with ya there, I know what I have in em and it'll make me appreciate em that much more. And thank you, I've been ready to see it done for the past ten years lol.

good looking truck. I just sold my 04 lightning a month ago. I always wanted a first gen but had to settle for a family vehicle. keep up the good work.

I would love to have a first or second Gen Lightning but my truck is probably as close as I'll get. It's still satisfying to me though. Glad you like it and thanks!

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

Finished getting my frame and tank cleaned up yesterday and went ahead and sprayed one decent coat of undercoating on everything. I burnt up three full cans doing it so I'm gonna pick up a few more this evening and give it one more good coat before I'm ready to put the bed back on. It looks a ton better already though.

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

Hey [MENTION=15502]Ferocious[/MENTION] , I have a photoshop request for ya if you're up for it and have time.

Use this pic:

And I wanna see what it will look like lowered, and with my Lightning wheels on it (if I have a good enough picture of them on here). And also if you could, I'd like to see how those wheels look stock, painted charcoal grey, and painted black. I'd really appreciate it if you could man!

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

Finally got off my ass and worked on this heap this weekend. Seems like not having the mustang around just made me lose all my motivation I had for this project again. But it's coming back around for now. I finally finished all the frame cleanup and undercoating of everything, cleaned and painted my brake drums, and redid the plumbing for my air shocks as well as relooming and taping my harness. Yesterday my friend helped me get the bed back on and we rolled the truck back into the open area of the shop and took the good off to see in the engine bay.

After that I started off just screwing around with it while we discussed our projects, but before the end of the night I went ahead and started degreasing everything and pulled all the old vacuum lines and removed a bunch of the wiring harness and harness for my HID's to get it all ready for a cleanup.


This is how it started under the hood:

SO MUCH NASTY

Rat nest?

After I got all the junk out of the inner fender wells I started half ass cleaning with some degreaser just to see what I was working with.

So much crap under that hood.

After that I called it a night and decided to hit it again the next day.

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

When I look at this I couldn't help but think of how much better it would look without all the vacuum lines just running everywhere.

Already looking better, right?

When I started today, I pulled the radiator and fan shroud and started taking off the accessory brackets to clean and paint them.

My plans from now are to take the upper and lower intake off to clean and paint them, and get the block and head as clean as I can get them...the paint on them from the machine shop is still in pretty decent shape. I also have to replace my fuel pressure regulator and may get new injectors also. I'll also be taking off my fan and going with an electric fan I've had for like 5 years now. I would also like to try and get my buddy/painter over here to paint the firewall and inner fenders. After everything is done under the hood I still have to pull my front suspension apart to change my ball joints and radius arm bushings as well as out my new belltech coils in.

Now ow for the fun part for those of you who took some time to read this: How should I paint all of my brackets and intake and what not? Keep in mind that the truck itself will be a dark charcoal grey, and that the engine is sort of a dove grey I think is what they called it. I'm thinking silver for the brackets and black pulleys, and just cleaning up my P/S pump and A/C compressor the best I can. I had in mind to paint the upper and lower intake black, and sand over the raised lettering til they shine again, and possibly either paint my TB black or silver, not sure on that yet. Any of you have any input? I'm open to suggestions! And thanks to those who check this out!

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

I wasn't gonna do anything today after a long day at work, but after a good shower I felt like making some more progress while I had the time. Finished sanding and cleaning the upper intake then started painting it. I think I'm gonna like the black with the letters polished out.

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

I took a few parts to the car wash the other day to try and blast some of the 20+ year old junk off of them. They cleaned up a good bit but I still had to come home and hit them with a grinder and brush wheel.

Didn't take any before shots of this but there was so much grease and oil down here it was unreal. A few cans of degreaser later and a couple pieces of scotch brite cut most of it off, then some citra-clean took care of the rest.

I still need to go out to the shop and take some current pictures. As it stands now, the entire wiring harness is out, fender wells/splash shields are almost out (got a couple of uncooperative bolts), motor has been touched up with a fresh coat of paint and might be coming out later this week if I decide to do it. I'm still undecided on what color to paint my alternator and power steering brackets.

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

I took a few parts to the car wash the other day to try and blast some of the 20+ year old junk off of them. They cleaned up a good bit but I still had to come home and hit them with a grinder and brush wheel.

Didn't take any before shots of this but there was so much grease and oil down here it was unreal. A few cans of degreaser later and a couple pieces of scotch brite cut most of it off, then some citra-clean took care of the rest.

I still need to go out to the shop and take some current pictures. As it stands now, the entire wiring harness is out, fender wells/splash shields are almost out (got a couple of uncooperative bolts), motor has been touched up with a fresh coat of paint and might be coming out later this week if I decide to do it. I'm still undecided on what color to paint my alternator and power steering brackets.

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

More progress. The other night I took my brackets to a friends house and put them in his bead blaster. Makes me wish I had one now. It's like a magic eraser.
Before:

After:

Also out a fresh coat of paint on my engine. Looks just as new as when it came home from the machine shop.

In the process of trying to take the egr tune out to remove the lower intake the tube split in a few places so looks like it will be getting deleted. I'm already running with no smog equipment or cats so why not?

And the other day I bought a couple cans of Duplicolor automotive paint in DSG just to see how it looked and was pretty pleased with how it turned out. So I decided to just use it to paint my inner fenders and firewall instead of going through all of the trouble to get my friend over with his paint fun and everything and doing it. Here's some crappy iPhone before and after pictures:

After one light coat...the cans don't go very far.

My plans for the week are to get a few more cans of paint tomorrow after work and finish up what I started painting. I'm also painting my alternator and P/S bracket the same color. I also have a box of parts and bolts and such to take and bead blast so they can be painted as well, including my lower intake. Once everything gets painted, I will probably go ahead and start on my front suspension work that way I can go ahead and clean/paint all of it and the front section of my frame. I also have to finish taking out my fender splash guards so I can clean and paint them as well. I'm very anxious to see how it's all going to turn out.

 

[Orange 94]

Nice work!

My dad had one of these gens. brown with cream haha.

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

Nice work!

My dad has one of these gens. brown with cream haha.

Thanks for checking it out OJ!
These trucks rarely get any kind of attention like this anymore, most that I see are lifted. Seems like the older 7.3 Powerstrokes are becoming popular again though.

 

[Orange 94]

Yeah the old powerstrokes are becoming popular.
I'm starting to see the odd one pop up. Seen a couple lightnings. Those were pretty awesome! They may not be as cool as the second gen, but they're still special.

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

I agree. They have loads of potential but if I was picking between the two I'd pick a Gen2 unless I could find a Gen1 in great shape and no hack-job with maybe a Vortech kit or something, that would be sweet. One day I plan to get serious on a motor swap. My buddies are trying their hardest to get me to do it now....7.3 swap, 460 Big Block, 4v or Coyote. Idk what I would rather do.

 

[Orange 94]

coyote or ecoboost lol!

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

Either would be sick! I have another 302 block in my shop but I really don't even wanna waste the time with it. If I'm gonna get rid of the 6 cyl, it's gonna be for something with some serious power.

 

[the5.ohh]

LS swap!

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

LS swap!

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

Ok time for an update: I've been busy working and keeping up with pictures but haven't made enough time to put it all together on here so here's a short rundown of what's been done with pictures to follow.


I finally finished painting the firewall/fenders and core support. Also taped off around the heater box and painted everything in that area. Removed the splash shields and the header panel and cleaned them and got one coat of paint on them. I took a big box of parts to a friends house last week and put them in his bead blasting cabinet, amongst those parts was my lower intake, case for my alternator, windshield wiper arms, throttle body, water neck, and a few random brackets and other things. I spent a couple hours getting them all cleaned back up then brought them home for paint. So far I have all the parts painted and ready to be put back together. I still need to finish painting the splash shields and header panel though before I put them back in. I also started on relooming and retaping some of my wiring harness where I was able to, as I still plan on extending some parts of it to tuck it out of sight. Also yesterday evening I went ahead and pulled my coil springs out and wound up spur of the moment putting them in my buddies 92 Flareside to drop his front end a little. I have them to him since they were just cut factory could anyway. Mine will be replaced with a set if Belltech 2" drop coils I've had collecting dust for about 4 years now, lol. Next on the list is getting the rest of the frame cleaned up and ready to be under coated just as I did the back portion if the frame, then it'll be replacing my ball joints and bushings in the front, replacing the coils and then I should be ready to buy a gasket kit and start putting the motor back together! I'm extremely ready to see it all come together! Anyway on to the pics in the next post..