calling all f150 owners

Hey everyone! I am just bored and always looking at new ideas.  I have a 2003 for f150 ext. cab and i plan on doing and have done the following things to my truck, and just wanted to narrow the search by creating this thread.

Have done: shaved tailgate handle and emblems.    shaved fender flares, emblems and shaved antenna(hidden now).  fiberglass bodykit and fiberglass cobra cowl hood, purchased at www.productionpronto.com tell Becky i sent you, my name is Jeremy Hicks.    i custom upholstered the seats in black vinyl leather with royal blue crushed velvet inserts.  i fiberglassed the driverside a pillar with 3 guage pods and smoothed the passenger side to match removing the o doodie handles.  pioneer in dash dvd player, 2 earthquake sws 12 inch sub under the back seat in a custom hand built enclosure, earthquake 1000w amp, and eclipse door speakers.  billet chrome fuel door.  ARE fiberglass tonneau cover.   white faced with blue flame guages from www.NuImage1.com.   Flowmaster 40 series muffler with dual exhaust.   short ram intake.  hidden hitch with flip frame liscense plate and personalized plate.  custom rubberized spray on bed liner.  sport mirrors and speed grille from www.streetsceneeq.com.  also i custom fabricated a speed grille from street scene to fit my body kit to match upper grille. 

Plan to do: custom house of kolors kandy blue paint job.   drop kit for 4wd from belltech.  either 20s or 22s with low pros.  fiberglassing the headliner, dash, and door panels.  in the future having blue and silver airbrushed flames added to paint job.  Looking for any sponsorship if anyone knows of any! 

So that about covers it, please post any ideas or share your truck job here.  looking forward to it!

Sponsorships? hehe...

only one place to go if you want a sponsor and don't have a strong inside lead:

carsponsors.com

It's where many of my friends and aquaintances (sp?) got started and yes they are legitimate. Best part. Your portfolio is FREE. Their only charge is if you get awarded sponsorship that totals $1000 or more. Then you pay $89. Now who wouldn't pay $89 to get $1000+ of fun goodies?

Now being with my shop and sponsored by our affiliates, I am unable to participate in the program (conflict of interest) but I know some people who have gone through the program and in fact, one of them is in the RTF Program (Road To Full sponsorship) and he hasn't had to pay for tires or suspension parts and installation for 3 years now (and being a semi-pro drifter he's burned at LEAST $15k in tires) and has all his engine mod work (at least $5k in labor alone) done for free for the past year and a half. There are contracts you have to fufill, but get quasi-sponsored and the contracts are very limited (usually a logo and you get parts at cost). And perk sponsorships give you little goodies for passing out flyers and/or promoting via clothing, etc.

bellsracer,

thanks for the info, i will give it a shot for sure. what do u know about air ride and 4wd and cost?  im looking at a mild 2/4 drop but lower for stance(for show) if the front dif. will allow.  let me know. and you wanna sponsor me hehe? jk, maybe.

Drops will vary GREATLY from $200 for a mild kit to as much as $2200 just in parts (excluding extreme drops 4"+ in your case)

As for sponsorship? maybe... we don't have a show car up there. Think you can get to the central west coast?

There are several companies that produce drop kits... Your vehicle's limit is 3/3 (without major mods). Beltech has a kit that will give you a 1-3/3 drop for ~$600 including their Nitro Drop 2 shocks. That would be the kit I go with.

As for going with with an air ride suspension. This area isn't my specialty and the person I would go to for it isn't available at this time. Being that you are lowering and have 4wd, typically, the air systems will add $3-5,000 in parts to the system. It's not the rear that is the problem, but the front. I am not aware of any that are prefabricated for 4wd (in almost any vehicle, let alone f150) It will have to be custom fabricated on the vehicle as it is assembled really. Rear air system will set you back around $800 and the fronts I can see about $1800, plus the controls, compressor, tank, etc. starting around $900 for a decent basic setup. You're looking at $3500 in parts to get started. 2wd systems are less expensive because there is a lot more room to work with and more tolerance (in terms of dynamics and geometries) for kits to use air without interfereing with other parts.

If price isn't an issue, I recommend getting in touch with a Kick-butt off-road specialty shop. They can fab something for you if their competant (sp?) But expect a final price tag of ~$6-10k for a dropped air suspension for your vehicle. The price has a large variance due to labor and quality. Higher quality shops will charge a premium price but you'll get a premium job. Other shops may charge less, but they may be a bit slower, so it's hard to predict.

hey sounds great cant wait to see pics. keep em coming.

bellsracer,  i found that belltech has a 1-3,3 drop kit through stylin trucks for 518.00 shipped to my door.  as for air ride, a little outta my $ range right now.  and what exactly did you mean by can i get to the west coast?  travel or move.  cause i plan a trip to cali when my truck is done, but right now i took a huge cut in pay at a new job cause of a lay off.  so its tight right now.  but my truck is all street legal and its gonna be top notch.  i do alot of my own work its just suspension and paint i gotta hire out. i could paint it if i had a place to do so and a compessor. keep me posted,

later

LOL... I wasn't exactly serious when I asked you to get down here. We've been pretty busy with a lot of project cars and applications for getting us into FF4. Besides, if you do you own work, then you don't need our logo on your truck. You seem to have everything dialed in for the mobile entertainment part.

As for painting... look for places that privately owned and operated. Many of them rent out the bays for people to do their own work. We do that too once and a while, but we also have a screening process to ensure that it's not abused.