The life of my 2013 Black SuperCab

[RogueRaptor]

Nice truck! If you haven't done the catch can on the passenger side I'd recommend it. I've only had mine on for a few hundred miles and have already got quite a bit of junk.

 

[rkneeshaw]

Made a few changes to the truck.

Decided to ditch the bed-mounted chase lights and install the GJ 3rd brake light. It incorporates the NMO radio antenna with high-mounted chase lights. Really great product.



I also got the itch to hear that 6.2L sing a bit more. I chose the Corsa system. The nice thing about the Extreme is that you can install it with the stock resonator removed or in place. Since I was concerned about highway drone when I tow my car to track events, I kept it in. And it sounds awesome.

The Corsa system's muffler is a straight through design, with unique ports at the right positions to eliminate drone. Theoretically, I could remove the stock resonator and it still shouldn't drone.



I went with the black chrome tips which I think look great



As always, Snoball was a BLAST!





I love this event, its great people and a lot of fun.



Truck is running and sounding great. After a recent offroad run I've got another loose inner tie rod, I'm getting sick of changing out tie rods after offroad trips. I think its time for an upgrade.

 

[rkneeshaw]

These should do the trick






Truck is aligned and ready for the next offroad run

 

[rkneeshaw]

Well, it's been a while.

This year the truck really started showing some wear. 106k miles on the odometer, hundreds of miles of offroad smiles, and at least 7 northern michigan winters were taking their toll. Shocks were leaking, rust was forming, deaver spring snapped, and something had to be done. So this is going to be the summer of the truck project(s).

She's a good looking truck and we've had a lot of fun.



Rust began forming on the rockers, both sides. Also a rock chip above the windhield had formed a rust spot as well, and I need to get ahead of that before it gets more serious. Rear bumper looks awful.









Truck will have to go into the body shop to address this. New rockers, windsheild needs to be replaced to repair the roof, its going to be pricey. Shop needs the truck for 6 weeks to get this work done. Could replace the bumper with stock.... but I have another idea.

Also, either due to corrosion or a big hit offroad or both, top spring in the deaver pack snapped, so need to get this addressed too.







So before the truck goes under the knife for the rust repair, I decided to tackle the bumper problem. And this seemed like a real good time to not only address the rear bumper, but also the stock skid plate I smashed in on a whoop. So to fix these issues, I did a thing.



Really like the look of the KHC frame cut front and rear bumpers for the Gen1. Great clearance, but not too aggressive to make the truck look like it has an overbite. And I really like working with the KHC guys, good dudes.

I was surprised to find the rear bumper required a little frame trimming too, but not a big deal.





Had to do something about that exhaust....and I had a sawzall, so...



Trimmed up the rear frame, and ready for dove tail.





Installing the front bumper wasn't too bad, but did find I had to disconnect and reconnect the transmission cooler lines during the process. Made sure to use some Por15 liberally to make sure things seal up good for the winters too.

















Decided to have the body shop handle the dove tail cut since they'll have the bed off the truck and it all tore apart anyway for the rust repair. Turned out real nice.



Since I'm all in, I decided to make a few other minor touches as well.

Driving during snoball really had me missing paddle shifters. Its super helpful to run the truck in manual mode, but such a pain to shift on the side of the shifter. So seemed like a good idea to retrofit the Gen2 steering wheel using the kit from Eco Power Parts. I'm really impressed with the design and thought that went into this kit, very good stuff.



Had to change the diff fluid for maintenance, and everyone can see under my skirt a bit more with the frame cut rear bumper, so decided to dress up the rear diff cover a tad



KHC hooked me up with these at Snoball this last year, so I finally got around to installing these sexy bed supports



The one other thing I tackled, but didnt take pics of, was the tailgate torsion rod. What a PITA. Tailgate was creaking and popping as I opened it, and the old torsion rod was seized in the end of the tailgate. Took a few hours and finally a trip to the shop but got it out and replaced it, and the tailgate opens so nice easy and buttery smooth now.

 

[rkneeshaw]

Got the truck back from the shop and the rockers are all new



Now for the suspension, this needed some major attention.

The shocks were due for a rebuild, the fronts were even leaking a bit. Deavers needed to be repaired. And the bump stops were in bad shape.

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One of the bumps was seized, and I hadn't properly maintained them. They survived just 4 winters, but I didnt do a thing to them, and paid for it. These weren't rebuildable at this stage, so I had to replace them. Will be rebuilding them regularly every year or so, and coating with Amsoil MPHD.

I could have just had the stock 2.5 shocks rebuilt, but, I've gone in this far, and made the irresponsible financial decision to take the leap to Fox 3.0's.



And they look so darn good



Had installed these RPG upper control arms somewhere back in 2021 after another set of stock replacement UCA's wore out again.





KHC made up some reservoir mounts for these shocks that move them up under the body mounts, a bit higher up and out of the way compared to the Fox 3.0 mounts that come in the kit



The deaver leaf springs needed a complete overhaul. Deaver replaced the top leaf for me, and I tore apart the rest of the leaf packs and had each leaf individually sandblasated and powdercoated. New bushings and hardware too. Hard to believe these are the same deavers I took off the truck. Almost looks too nice to reinstall.







And lastly, had the truck undercoated to protect all this hard work for hopefully many more years to come





And finally, a lot of $$$$$ and time later, she's reached her final form

 

[Bozz]

Congrats on the like-new Raptor!

 

[V1ROTATE]

Wow. That was a good read. Thanks for sharing

 

[Raptized]

Dang man. Long time. And I thought I was putting in some work. Looks great.

 

[MurderedOutSVT]

Nice! Just damn, still lookin good

 

[Turning Blue]

Looks like you're really getting alot of pleasure from your truck. I'm impressed. Nice work and write-up!!!