Black Beauty Project Build - 06 Ford F-250 Super Duty **1/27/18 - New pics starting on page 41**

[scooter99]

I didnt. After talking with Trevor at PMF, he said I don't need it. After I get this stuff installed and drive it, if I'm still having issues he'd suggest it as a next step, but not now. I'm going to be at about 7.5-8" of lift after this. He said if I go up anymore, I'd definitely need it.

So short answer no I didn't get it.

[ToNasty]

I'd really keep it in mind. Because as you go up higher, it puts more stress on the steering and pitman arm. I lifted my buddies 04 a few months back. 6" and his needed it bad. No more wandering on the freeway

[scooter99]

I hear you. Again, I've spoken with PMF about it and Trevor is pretty knowledgeable about these trucks. 99% of the time, the redhead Gearbox, and eliminating the radius arm drop brackets and going with an adjustable set up, gets the caster down where it needs to be (5-5.5 I think) and stops the wondering.

[lifted_silverado]

Check your redhead steering gearbox when you get it, just replaced my buddies on his 05 f350. They pressure adjustment had backed off causing the stem to push through to low. Ruined his hydroboost, and power steering along with it. Redhead handled it like shit to bastards. There was literally red paint all through the system (hence redhead name) and they didn't warranty it claiming someone adjusted it and ruined it. Then said to make the deal somewhat not a complete rape, they wouldn't keep the core charge if it was toasted and they did anyway. So make sure yours has the tamper proof adjustment screw.

Secondly PMF is extremely knowledgeable but wandering is probably that you're using either track bar drop bracket thats too short or the drop in track bar is making your axle be pulled too far over to the driver side. If your drag link and track bar are not parallel then you're going to have wander and bump steer.

[scooter99]

I'll be checking everything thoroughly before I dig in. I don't have time to be down too long. And I have bad luck to boot. It'll be some 1 in 5000 times incident, hole drilled off or something stupid, and I'll be the 1.

As far as the rest, I'll get it all installed, have it aligned, and go from there.

[scooter99]

So I know its been a while since I've posted anything. Been busy AF doing stuff around the house. I was standing in the shop yesterday looking for a tool, shockingly it wasn't where it was supposed to be lol. But I looked over and saw the dash panel. From a distance, even still raw and cut up, I like they layout. I think the layout is on point.

HOWEVER, I walked up to it and I immediately became disappointed. Not with anything cracking or flawed in the work, again its still raw. But moreso the look of it.

Recall in the beginning i wanted to try as hard as I could to retain the factory body lines. Above and down the right side of the area where the tablet mounts, and left side of the gauge cluster had that nice sharp edge where the woodgrain was at.

Now that ive eliminated that, remember i filled all those and the other lines, to make it all uniform. Well, thats what I'm not so happy with. So, now im faced with a dilemma.

Do I leave it, finish it, and then figure out how to finalize it and get it in? Then maybe make another one later.

Do I scrap it, start over with a new panel and try to do a few things differently now?

I'm not so worried about the work I've put into it, that's not a big deal to me because I've learned a few things. Nothing will change, as I said, I love the layout. It just works well. Pleasing to the eyes IMHO.

It just feels like by loosing those lines, I've lost the character of the original look.

Anyone have any thoughts on it? Suggestions? Is there any way to get the body lines back into it? I'm open to anything.

Should start back on it very soon. Like maybe in the next day or so. Im applying for a promotional position so i need to work on my application and statement of qualifications tonight, so thats more important. But hopefully I can put in a couple of hours tomorrow on it.

[bsneon98]

Id hate to see you scrap that dash man. Maybe some pin striping to make your own body lines after its finished?

[scooter99]

I think what I'm going to do is finish it all the way to the primer stage. Then see how it looks and decide if i need to put some kind of body lines in it.

Part of the reason I want body lines, is because I want to do hydrodip in a darker woordgrain. But I want to do it in the areas where the original wood grain was on the oem panel. By not being more careful about what i was doing, I lost those lines so I need to figure out how to transition from where the hydrodipped areas are at and the rest of the dash which will most likely just be painted a matte black.

I think the transition between the two is going to be super important, and I think it's going to need more than just a taped line on one surface. But we'll see I guess.

So I'll work this one, and then down the road I'll probably get another one and start over. At least this will get it able to be installed.

[scooter99]

Ok, so it's going to be a huge day, huge weekend. I'm starting today, I took the day off, to get this list going:

Rear:

Replacing rear oem springs with 6" lift springs

Remove 6" lift blocks and replace with 1.5" lift blocks

Remove traction bars and mounts

Install new u-bolts and adjustable top plates

Reinstall air bags

Install stainless steel brake lines

Install speed bleeders

Adjust parking brake

Replace carrier bearing shims with PMF Adjustable Drop Bracket

Remove and reinstall exhaust correctly

Front:

Remove old radius arms and drop brackets

Install new PMF 3-arm system

Install front 2" coil lift spacers

Install shock adapters

Install Stainless Steel brake lines

Install speed bleeders

Flush brake system

Remove old oem steering box

Install New Red Head Steering Box

Flush power steering system with new fluid

Remove and replace glow plugs and harnesses

Replace Fuel Filters

Remove, clean and rebuild egr valve

Install EAS System for Edge monitor

Drill and tap header for EG Probe

Install temperature sensor for EAS System

Install pressure sensor for EAS System

Remove PMF OEM Hd track bar

Install new PMF HD track bar

Grease hubs

Alignment when it's all done.

I'm sure there may be one or two more things I'm forgetting about, but that's the list for now. Once all of this is done, I'll be back to audio on the truck. Some of this was a must and while I was doing it, I figured I may as well do it all. Lots of work ahead of me, better get started!!

[bsneon98]

holy shit man thats a huge list. I was thinking about your build this morning with your steering wheel controls, good to see ya back at it!