Couple updates and thoughts.
1) Headlights and tail lights showed up today. Gonna hold off on doing the headlight install until I install the lift and bumper so I'm not adjusting them twice. But, excited for the fact that they are indeed OEM style as I can finally use the xenon low beam bulbs I ordered in with my current headlights that I couldn't get to fit properly. Main reason for this swap is I don't have high beams, I know there's a conversion harness but I like using the fog lights and never thought I'd need high beams. Well, my current lights are pencil beamed too much and I can't see going down the road to well.
Tail lights will be installed tonight before I leave work and I'll update with a photo of those when that happens.
2) Wrap is incomplete. There was a misunderstanding between me and my sticker guy, colors wound up inverted where my red decals were black and black decals were red. Luckily he's cool about it considering it's one of his regular sticker packs for our local club, so he'll just hang onto them and sell them to someone else. Should have the correct decals by the end of this week, as long as it doesn't rain this weekend I should be able to get them on and "wrap" up my graphics.
3) I've been toying with the idea of custom paint. I think it's probably about a year out or so, and I don't want to repaint the truck until I have all of the parts I plan on installing on the truck, which would be the hood, grille, flares, and the rear bumper from MOVE to match the front. I am going to raptor line the bumper PR4 to match the truck at the moment, but I'm thinking once I have all my parts I want to change it up a little bit.
My truck has been nicknamed "Ruby" by my family, reason being is my oldest daughter picked the name. Ford has a tri stage red by the name of "Ruby Red Metallic" and before I picked up the Dodge I was actually planning on buying a newer Ford truck in that color. I fell in love the first time I saw it a few years ago on a dealer lot, so if I ever chose to go different than what my truck is now it would be that. Plus, the name of it matches the truck. I'm playing with the idea of either the red with black, or red and charcoal gray. Either way, it's going to be the red on the upper portion of the truck, and black/charcoal for the bumpers, flares, and lower portion of the rockers. The black/charcoal will be done in Raptor liner, and I think I'll probably do everything to match with it as well (TireGate Pre-Runner, FabFours headache rack & modifier, sliders, etc). If I do repaint the truck, I think I'll leave it debadged and no graphics, just clean. The colors I think should attract enough attention. My main fear of spending that much time and money on paint and body work was the fact that my truck someday WILL run the Rubicon, Moab, and tons of other trails where body damage is highly likely. But, fact of the matter is, I'm building a trail rig, not a show truck. It does see it's share of shows, but the shows I'm attending aren't typical car shows. We're setup in booths at rock crawling events, mud bogs, hill climbs and etc, so body damage will show the truck is used, not a street queen. So, if I do decide to pursue a color change, it will probably be babied the first couple times out on our trails until I get it's first dent, and from there I'll probably just start easing up on being careful and using the truck to its full potential, even if it winds up with a heavy amount of battle scars. Hell, it is a truck first, right?
Here's the idea of the color with Ruby Red and charcoal. I don't believe it's a charcoal in the picture, I think it's the Ford Caribou which is a little more brown, but eh it looks gray in this picture from the interwebz.
The flares I might also change to Bushwacker's street flares. Main reason is if you don't have a super high offset wheel, the flares stick out further than the tires and I feel like it looks like the challenger space shuttle running down the interstate.
4) The goal is someday to be on 37's with 7" lift via coilovers, but I'm thinking of building a rack system in the bed of the truck to hold 5 tires (3 in the front portion of the bed, 2 between the wheel wells). By doing this, I think I can tuck the 5 37's into the bed of the truck, and I'm thinking I might go 18's or possibly 20's on 35" all terrain tires. Reason being, as much as I want to do non stop off road, at this current time the truck is my main form of transportation. A 4th gen Rebel has become a topic with the wife, but I don't foresee one in the near future, so putting the truck on some nice wheels and all terrains will keep it DD appropriate, but having the 37's on beadlocks in the bed will allow for heavy wheeling when the time comes. The TireGate will hold the 5th 35" spare and when swapped on 37's, the 5 35's can then be mounted in the bed and spare 37 on the TireGate. By doing this as well, the truck can then be used to commute to larger trails such as Moab or the Rubicon, also been wanting to go further out and explore Arizona, Colorado, etc. I'll probably go with the BFG KO2's for the all terrains considering the mileage people are getting out of them, and when I find the cash for the beadlocks and 37's I'll do the Trail Grapplers.
My biggest setback right now for the wheels is the choice of color for paint, black or charcoal. If I go black, then I want black wheels. If I go charcoal, there's been some anthracite wheels catching my attention that I think would flow really well with the color choices.
We will see. I might do some editing with photochop on the colors and see what myself and you guys think.
/End novel.
