'95 F-150 track ready street beast

[Sbeck09]

Lots of little things going on to prep for the first fire. It's not very photogenic, but exciting for me.

One thing all of my neighbors have commented on is how clean the interior is. I do like a simple and sanitary looking interior and that lizard skin came out superb. Plus there is no wires crowding everything...yet.





But of course it must get worse before it gets better. So right after that photo I started mounting all the different electrical components so I knew where to connect everything. As I'm diving into wiring I want to make this as clean and easy to work on later as is possible. So I hunted hard to find a label maker that was affordable and would do heat shrink tube labels. So here you go, you can do it too. I can't find tube bigger than 1/2" for this one, but that's ok with me.



From there is has been lots of laying out wiring and hoses. You can see the power steering line I made that just clears the oil lines. It's kinda crazy looking, but it works together so I'm happy to see that. Got all the vacuum lines I'm aware of needing installed and every sensor is hooked up.



Those front support tubes are not fully welded or pained yet. I've noticed they like to move around a bit when welding so these will be welded in place then removed for painting. They come on and off really easily and won't affect any hoses.

Once I had the starter and alternator cables run I grabbed the core support to install all the coolers. I didn't take time to snap photos of the process, but the radiator went from a 10 degree layback (factory) to a 2 degree lean forward. Sure more would really help with ducting air out of the hood, but this made mounting everything almost like stock and easy to access. It is already a big improvement and potential gains from the hours of work to take it further wouldn't really be realized with all the other aero shortcomings of a truck.



Those gaps on the sides of the radiator will be closed later with real aluminum ducting. For now I need to get everything functional and verify that nothing is being relocated.



So that's a 4 row aluminum radiator, the largest A/C condenser Vintage Air offers, and the two smaller coolers are oil (bigger) and power steering (smaller). It just barely fit behind the stock plastic grill support there. Now I can run the last 4 AN hoses and the radiator hoses are on the way. I'll wrap up all the main systems wiring and program the two computers over the next couple evenings. I expect to hit the start button for the first time Thursday or Friday. I'm not bothering with headlight/taillight wire terminations until I am ready to go further than down my street. A/C plumbing will happen after it is back on the road since I have a couple more months of good weather and other systems to focus on first.

After about 16.5 months of work we are double the original budget and time I planned for, but I did wayyyy more than I was supposed to. It's so close now that I can taste it and I'm looking good to make All American Sunday at Good Guys Scottsdale in 1 month for the first event. Fingers crossed for no issues over the next couple weeks.