“Thunder” 1998 Expedition Build Thread

[Tjhoward84]

Another slightly random update. Bumper is off for refinishing and with the spare out of the way while I was cleaning it, seemed like a good opportunity to play around some with the go-pro and see the custom rear panhard and all the goodies at work.

Some more updates coming in the next few weeks too, here's a teaser....

Are those tubular upper and lower A-arms? You just cost me more money. Nice find!!! I'm getting ready to do the upper and lower rear trailer arms. I think I'm going with the PMT versions. Is that what you used?

 

[acolic]

Are those tubular upper and lower A-arms? You just cost me more money. Nice find!!! I'm getting ready to do the upper and lower rear trailer arms. I think I'm going with the PMT versions. Is that what you used?

Yes he also shamed me into sprucing up my truck.

I didn't go with the PMT trailing arms I went with Supreme Suspension. And I'm waiting for my new rotors and brake pads.

Unfortunately while I was under the truck figuring out how to add /remove the trailing arms I noticed I had to replace the rear rusty brake pads




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[acolic]

Yes he also shamed me into sprucing up my truck.

I didn't go with the PMT trailing arms I went with Supreme Suspension. And I'm waiting for my new rotors and brake pads.

Unfortunately while I was under the truck figuring out how to add /remove the trailing arms I noticed I had to replace the rear rusty brake pads




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I meant brake lines.


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[MISTERgadget]

Just out of curiosity would you have gone with the TruTrac differential if you were going to use the Expedition off road??

From my limited knowledge of off-road stuff, I understand the true-trac diff is good for most mild or moderate off-roading, better than a conventional LSD with clutches, but if you are regularly getting a tire in the air or doing rockcrawling you want a true locker and not a limited slip. I have read it's often used as a front diff as well for mixed street and trail use rigs.

Are those tubular upper and lower A-arms? You just cost me more money. Nice find!!! I'm getting ready to do the upper and lower rear trailer arms. I think I'm going with the PMT versions. Is that what you used?

Yup! Chromoly DOM tubular upper and lower control arms from Stiffler's, the UCAs have been available for a while now, initially the LCA is only available through JuniorRacing. They are lighter than OEM, correct the ball joint angles for lowered trucks and the upper control arm is tweaked to fix the geometry on a lowered truck. The LCa also gives 1" of drop, I will be using a spring spacer to keep my ride height as-is for now, but will eventually go 1" lower. Need to wear out my current tires first

https://www.facebook.com/JuniorRacing-896825336997103/

I used the PMT arms for the rear, there's some pictures earlier in the thread. There's a lot of cheaper ones out there but I was concerned on some of the ebay ones in particular that the bushings used would be low quality, I know people who have used the mustang arms on ebay have issues with cheap bushings that oval out quickly, and with the weight and future power level I didn't want to be worrying about that.

Yes he also shamed me into sprucing up my truck.

Encouraged is the word to use here, not shamed!!! Happy to see other guys love their trucks as much as I do

 

[MISTERgadget]

Rear bumper has finally gotten paint matched!

I got some new aftermarket black trim for the bumper to put on at the same time, but I'm not really happy with the fit, you can see they fall short of the bodylines in the bumper, so those pieces will get replaced with OEM ones at some point. At least they should keep their color for a while, they were saturated with 303 Aerospace Protectant for nearly a week before they went on.

 

[MISTERgadget]

Pretty big update now Suspension and brakes are wrapped up! Once again, Danny at South Florida Muscle Cars is behind the wrench

Front suspension got a total re-do with new Stiffler's upper and lower control arms. The upper control arms are fully adjustable and allow for proper alignment of a lowered truck, and both the uppers and lowers have the ball joint angle adjusted for a lowered truck. They are also lighter than stock and take some weight off the frontend, before I add it back with the supercharger

The Stiffler's arms do have a 1" drop, so a Energy Suspension 1" lift coil isolator was added to keep ride height the same. (PN 4.6106)

All together, ran into a slight issue where the supplied endlinks don't have enough threads for the beefy Belltech sway bars.

Danny of course figured out just the trick

 

[MISTERgadget]

Now for the brakes!

I was originally planning on getting just a 14" rotor kit up front, nothing too wild. I came upon a deal on the full TCE Wilwood 16" / 6-piston front and 15" / 4-piston rear kit at a price I couldn't refuse. It was missing brackets, hoses and a few other odds and ends, but luckily Todd at TCE is very gracious and helfpul even if you're not buying a new kit from him, and got me setup with all the missing parts. For just a little more than only the base front kit new, and for a little more than half of what these would have cost all brand new, I got the top-of-line in brakes! I'm very excited to get some road time and really test these.

They were installed and then never driven other than backing the truck they were on in and out of a garage it seems, and after a fire the truck was parted out. The pads had zero wear and the rotors look dirty, but it's actuallya blend of some mild surface rust, and most of the original black coating still on them! They aren't picture perfect, but they are gonna get dirty anyway!

The rear has an iron hat and keeps the stock parking brake too, most kits delete it. Custom rear brake lines were required to make it work, the rest bolted right up!

 

[acolic]

How would the Stiffler upper and lower control arms work on a non lowered truck?


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[MISTERgadget]

They should work just fine, they have a 1' drop built in, so to keep the ride height as-is they need a 1' spring spacer.

They are a little pricey so unless you really want the weight reduction, poly bushings, tweaked balljoint position, and the adjustability of the uppers (corrects for the stock arms being too short for proper camber with a drop) then I would say go with a good OEM style replacement instead.

 

[acolic]

Regarding the brakes I'm assuming you got the brakes as per the following page:

http://www.tceperformanceproducts.com/lightning-and-harley-f150/kits-18/



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