Big Red Diesel build.

Ok, so here are some shots of the custom LED grill light bracket process.

First, let's start with the lights I purchased them on Amazon and can be found Here



These are a direct replacement for Ford Raptor (albeit knockoff) grill lights and I liked the fact that they are smoked so you would have to be looking for them if the vehicle was off. Other Colorado dudes on Youtube and a few on here have just bent some aluminum or bought angle and screwed holes into it. Well, I own a 3d printer so I got to work in Fusion and this was the result.



Here is one of the brackets fresh off the printer. This is printed in PETG so it is UV resistant and has the same properties as ABS with a little less heat resistance but that will not be a problem because it does not start to soften until at least 190f. If I am seeing temps high enough to damage this thing I have much worse things to worry about. I also did a "strength test" by standing on one with the 2 legs down. I am 225lbs and they are just fine.



Here we have the bracket, light, and hardware for mounting the light to the bracket. I wanted to be able to wire up a harness off the truck so that I could solder everything with the exception of the quick disconnect which came with the lights prior to going on. The holes in the bracket are threaded for an M4x0.7 screw. Gladly my printer is very accurate so the threads came out with just the right amount of tightness you want from metal to plastic mechanical bond.



Here is the fully assembled bracket with light, mounting nut, and screw inserted. I ended up switching to pan head mounting screws for a more factory look from above the grill. The screw in the picture is just there to test clearance and to make sure that the mounting nut inside the bracket stays centered during the glue-up.



Here is a side shot of the bracket. As you can see there is a nut sitting inside the bracket. A few drops of superglue were put in here to secure the nut and make a more permanent bond than just friction. This will allow me to drill a hole in the top of the grill and have the lights "hang" down from the top. This is an M5 x 0.8 screw and nut combo. I threw a washer between the head of the screw and the grill plastic on top to spread the load when mounting.



There they are, all mounted up. Look closely. I wanted a stealthed out look when I mounted them and I feel I have achieved that.




Here is a link to a little GIF I posted on Reddit of the lights coming on.

Let me know if you have any questions.

I mentioned the Cupholder Hero and if you have not checked these out they are great. Literally just a rubber pad you put in every pocket of this truck, of which there are many as we all know. You can pull them out to clean the pockets quicker. Anyway not really a mod just a quality of life improvement. In my opinion. Also, the red matched my paint almost exactly.






There are more in the back but you get the idea. I love them and I am pretty sure they come in other colors. Also bought on Amazon, link here...

Merry Christmas folks! I worked on the truck this morning after slogging through with 2 young children. They are content and I got some work done.

SB intake is installed. Enjoy!

I did not get any before pictures. We know what a stock engine bay looks like. I included this picture to note the oil leakage out of the intercooler pipe. Normally this would be alarming but I have both the AFE Blade runner IC pipe set and the Pro Fab IC set to do a comparison and see what works best with my truck. The testing will be road testing while hooked up to EFI Live to check airflow differences. I will do a drive with the stock setup before as a baseline.



Wife snuck an action shot and insisted it go on my Instagram, so here I am cleaning oil off the breather attachment. @BigRedZR2 on insta if you want to check that out. It is new.



Tiny turbo go choo choo.



Don't mind the disaster of a toolbox. The tools are working out new living arrangements so everything has been tossed together for the moment. Here is the new air box. It is a beast and kind of a bitch to get in but it sure is pretty.



Finished up the install. From unpacking to cleaned up was just short of an hour. I used a flat blade screw driver, 11mm socked, Philips head drive and some choice swearing where needed because it is kind of cold out. Also, used the #2 torx for the MAF sensor but tossed those out and replaced them with the provided philips screws.



Next up is the intercooler pipe install.

A little update for people that are following this thread. I have in my possession both sets of intercooler pipes from AFE and Pro Fab. I think I am going to start with the Pro Fab pipes for my testing after getting a few runs in with the stock setup for the baseline airflow. I will note that I am currently running a tune with a Catback exhaust. This will be changed to a different custom tune with a full turbo-back exhaust on Monday (hopefully). Take away from that last sentence what you will but I am not going to come out and say it. I will post installation pictures/lessons learned when that is completed.

Here is a picture of my truck (me testing the load capacity) and Apollo's puppy ass to tide everyone over.

So due to scheduling issues I have to push my new tune back until next Monday so the IC pipe testing will have to wait. That being said I did manage to get at least something done. Here are a few shots of the AVS Aeroskin installed on my truck.

Here is the reason I got the Aeroskin. I have 4 more about the same size and I did not feel like doing any touch-up painting and then the following color correction required so I covered it up.



I went waaaay overboard for preparation but here is what I did.

• Clean the area with Dawn dish soap. I used Dawn because it will take off any waxes and/or oils that may be present on the vehicle.
• Claybared the area with a light-duty clay, and again, used some Dawn/water mixture as a clay bar lubricant for the same reasons stated above.
• Dried with a microfiber towel.
• Took the supplied alcohol wipes and threw them in the garbage. We only use 99% medical-grade alcohol around these parts.
• Used the real alcohol to soak a microfiber.
• Wipe down the entire area that the visor was going to be sitting.

I will note that I had to do some muscling of the visor to get everything to line up evenly. All in all, it was really easy if you follow the directions, and took about 30 min even with the overkill prep work.

Enjoy the final product views.







Next up this week while waiting to get shop time to do the tune I will most likely be installing the flush mount reverse lights in the bumper. Stay tuned!

BigRedD said:

Here are a few shots of the AVS Aeroskin installed on my truck.......
I will note that I had to do some muscling of the visor to get everything to line up evenly. All in all, it was really easy if you follow the directions, and took about 30 min even with the overkill prep work.

Click to expand...

I too installed the same this past weekend. I fought with it for 2 hours trying to get it to lay flush with the lower edges across the front of the hood. And like yours, mine is flush in the center, but rises about 1/8th -1/16th on the right and left of center. And maybe it’s my white truck, but at least in my eyes the gap is really obvious. I love the way it looks from 10’ away, but up close it is driving me nuts. It’s like they should have designed it to underlap the lip of the hood like other bug shield / stone guards I have had on other trucks..........

I'm freezing. It is 43 deg outside and I have been out there cutting up my rear bumper. Some may say yeah, 43 is not that cold, and they would be right. I was raised in Central NY so I am familiar with the cold. That being said 43 is still cold.

Now that my uncalled for justification for being a pansy is out of the way let's get to some pictures. I will preface this with yes I am not done but I'll get pics tomorrow when I finish the other side and wire the whole thing up. I am going to be tapping into the trailer hookup wiring harness to power these so it should look pretty factory when I am done.



Here are the lights that are to be going into the bumper. They are iJDM Toy flush mount spot bumper lights. After opening and inspecting the package contents I noticed there was no type of template or gasket included. I hopped on with their customer service when the link in the box brought up a 404 for their website. I asked about a gasket and they said they don't sell them, they also do not have printable templates. By the way the directions I did find were complete garbage and all of their listed measurements were incorrect. Well folks, I have a couple 3d printers and some measurement calipers so I got to work.



As you can see I have plenty of room to fit a gasket. Idk why they think metal to metal contact would not cause problems but whatever. I suppose I could have just cut a cork gasket or something but people will be seeing this.





After a few prototypes this is the final result. It is red TPU because that is the only color flexible filament I have. Good thing my truck is red!





Nice fit up here, took about 3 tries to get everything lined up for the print. This is a UV stable, weather resistant flexible plastic so it should last a long time. On to the install...



Since they have no instructions or templates I was on my own. I taped off my work area and mocked up where I wanted to seat the light. This spot right here, where everyone else puts them of course. I tried to get the top to line up with the top of the plastic for a level look.



Gasket/template removed after drawing a shitty square. It was cold as stated earlier. Time to do some cutting.



2 disks for one light. I did drill pilot holes in the corner and center with a stepped bit.



Ahh, looks like ****. Good thing that huge lip around the light will cover most of this up. All bare metal was painted prior to installing the light.

Ok, not so bad after all. It looks crooked but this is just a weird angle, curved surface and all. After this I hit all the cut parts with the de-burring tool and some brush on touch-up paint. My slips were painted as well.









This is the point that my fingers were not obeying the mind because holding metal tools apparently makes hands sluggish in the cold. Tomorrow is the other side and wiring.