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Desert Racing Our Ford F-150 - Project Race 150 Part 4It's time to fly! From the February, 2009 issue of 4Wheel & Off-Road By David Kennedy Photography by David Kennedy
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Like everything in life that is exciting, magazine project vehicles must come to an end. Our Race 150 is no exception. No sooner do we get it finished then it's time to move on. In four months we took a stone-stock F-150 and worked with the best in the business to convert it into a desert-eating beast and jump-start the aftermarket with products for Ford's new baby. We had JD Fabrication prototype a long-travel front suspension kit to work with Bilstein 9100 series race shocks and Deaver Spring rear leaf packs for a daily-driver suspension that kicks butt in the rough stuff. By adding a set of Glassworks Unlimited bulged fenders, we were able to fit 37-inch Goodyear Wrangler MT/Rs with only a 4-inch suspension lift when everyone else needs a 6-inch lift to clear 35s! If we had more time with the truck we'd find stiffer front springs (something in the 700 lb-in range) to keep the front end from bottoming. We'd also add a rollcage that ties into the front half of the frame to help spread the load on the chassis when landing. Of course, we'd still like to swap in 4.88 gears, add a supercharger, a Dana 60 axle, maybe four-link the rear...we could go on and on. But we think you'll agree our Race-150 is a heck of a start!  To match the Glassworks Unlimited...  To match the Glassworks Unlimited fiberglass fenders with the rest of the truck, we hauled our Race 150 up to KC Customs in Santa Rosa, California. The plan was to keep the truck red but add a few graphics to draw attention to the front end. Scott De La Montanya and Bryan Kinney laid out these granite tears over the front clip to follow the theme of our Ultimate Avalanche that they painted last year.  After the five coats of clear...  After the five coats of clear had dried, Tom Burke and Tim Swan went to work polishing the new paint to a show-winning finish. Then the door handles, weatherstripping, and sideview mirrors were carefully reinstalled. Finally the bumper, bed cage, and wheelwells were shot with black paint to tie the look together.  To clean up the bed and hide...  To clean up the bed and hide the scars of its past life, we had Line-X of Santa Rosa spray the bed with its protective coating. Michelle Merritt and her crew prepped, masked, and sprayed our truck in under two hours while we hung out at the off-road shop next door. We were tempted to have the bed cage and bumper coated with Line-X too, but we didn't want to cover up the beautiful fabrication work.  It's too bad there aren't...  It's too bad there aren't Les Schwab Tire dealers across the country because the crew at the Rohnert Park, California, branch made us customers for life. Jeremiah Cook manhandled a set of 37x12.50R17 Wrangler MT/Rs onto these lightweight 17x8.5-inch Weld Racing Renegade XT wheels for us.  We didn't add bead locks because...  We didn't add bead locks because Weld's one-piece forged-aluminum design features a very shallow drop center so the tires tend to stay on the wheels even if the sidewall momentarily flexes away from the wheel's lip. The chrome-plated Renegade XT wheels' design really complemented our F-150, and the bolt-on center cap hides the dual pattern (6-on-135mm and 6-on-5.5-inch) hub.  Before shooting last month's...  Before shooting last month's cover, we brought the Race 150 back to JD Fabrication to add Bilstein bumpstops and steering extensions. The lower chromoly A-arms were reinforced and a wear pad was added to take the hit from the bumpstops. To cope with the 14 inches of suspension travel, we added Crown brake lines and extended the vacuum lines to the wheel hubs with rubber hose. We still need to add some limiting straps to finish it up.  Deadlines dictated that we...  Deadlines dictated that we cut the Ford halfshafts and weld in spacers (arrow) to cope with the truck's wider front track width. This has worked so far, but it's not a durable solution. Our plan is to have Superior Axle make longer halfshafts that will work with the Ford outer CV-joint and find an inner CV-joint that permits more angularity.  Compared to the front suspension,...  Compared to the front suspension, the rear end was a cakewalk. One call to Deaver Spring and we had a set of its new '04 F-150 leaf packs. We ditched the factory Ford blocks and got a 4-inch lift that ended up being perfect for 37-inch tires. From our testing we found the Deaver Springs are soft enough to handle bumps and jumps, but without a hint of wheelhop in the sand.  Of course it doesn't hurt...  Of course it doesn't hurt that the rear suspension is damped by 2 1/2-inch-diameter Bilstein 9100-series quadruple-bypass race shocks with remote reservoirs. Overkill? Heck, yeah! But we needed some serious hardware out back to keep up with the front suspension. JD Fabrication mounted the shocks on this simple bed cage, which bolts to the F-150's frame and still leaves room for the spare tire.  The only modification we needed...  The only modification we needed to make to the flawless FX4-level interior was a Garmin GPS unit. The new full-function Street Pilot 2610 ensures that we'll never get lost no matter where we go, thanks to the audio and visual navigation instructions from the 3.3x1.7-inch, 256-color LCD touch screen. There is even a CompactFlash data card for storing base maps and routes for our yearly trips to Baja, Moab, and Ultimate Adventure. Best of all, the Street Pilot plugs into a 12-volt outlet and is easy to set up and use even for people who'll never read the instructions.  Our final addition was a set...  Our final addition was a set of the Australian-made Lightforce 240 HID lights. The lightweight polycarbonate housings harness an incredibly intense and focused beam of light that illuminates the terrain better than any halogen light on the market. They'll make your high beams look like parking lights! And their integrated ballasts make them the easiest HID lights on the market to mount and wire. We run the clear light shields on our F-150, but yellow, blue, and amber shields are also available.  Trailer Queen During the...  Trailer Queen
During the course of our Race 150 buildup, the truck hasn't always been what we'd consider driveable. Whether we needed it in San Marcos for suspension work, Santa Rosa for paint, or Las Vegas to show off at SEMA, Mike Goodfellow of Goody's Transport was always there to hook us up. We programmed Goodfellow's number into our cell phone in case of an emergency because he wheels too and can safely transport off-road vehicles at reasonable rates anywhere in the country.
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