Lane's Dark Soul XL Build (lowered w/ Silver's, 19" wheels, Zep BAP, audio...)

[Lane]

Having had my Mav for a few months now, I figured it was time to start a build thread. For 6 months before owning one, I read these forums and got inspired by what others were doing (and sharing) and took a lot of notes. Thanks to everyone who has shared their efforts, time for me to share some also.

Ordered a 2024 poverty-spec XL from my local dealer, while continuing to watch the usual online sites (Carvana, Vroom, Cars.com private party) for what I wanted used. I tried looking at what dealers were offering, but in almost every case dealers would post ads where it was a "customer order" where they didn't have the vehicle, or they had it and were pricing it with a $5k-$10k market adjustment and listing only the MRSP online. Lost all patience with getting dicked around by all these dealers and I ended up buying one used from a private party a little better than I wanted, with options I wouldn't have otherwise ordered (CP360, rear sliding window, rear 120v socket).

Flew to WA to pick up a 2023 XL with 1700 miles on it and drove it 1600 miles back home to WI. Was very happy that was able to buy one with Area 51 paint which had been discontinued for 2024.

My first reaction was boy was this thing high off the ground for its size. About 6 years prior, I'd wanted a small fuel-efficient truck but ended having to build my own. Used a 2006 VW Jetta TDI donor vehicle and a Smyth truck conversion kit. Here are the 2 side-by-side to get an idea of the size difference.

For anyone interested in the VW's Smyth kit and that build process, you can take a look at my Google photos album here. Regardless, a few changes were in order to make the Mav feel like an even more compact truck. But more on that to come.

Sponsored

 

[Lane]

I started out with a few easy modifications that will improve usability and enjoyment.

As I write about what I chose to do, I'm not writing all of this as a how-to. There are plenty of other threads that do that. But I did want to share my results, thoughts, and a few hints/tips and things that I learned during the process that will make it easier for others.

I'd seen people's threads where they'd posted non-Ford options for hooks & bed side rails but decided to go a different route. This is an inexpensive truck, I'm not spending $70 each for the floor D-ring hardware from the dealer. Not even $20 for some of the more basic generic universal rings either.

There is a pick-n-pull type salvage yard nearby and I'd gotten used to getting a ton of parts there for my prior Jetta UTE project so the Mav wouldn't be any different. After a visit, I ended up getting a dozen various bed tie down hooks from an older F150, an explorer, and a Dodge Durango. All the bolts with the correct length/thread were from engine brackets off of a few Saturns. Also picked up 2 rear floor mats from an older Escape for a grand total of ten bucks for everything.

I tapped the bed holes that needed it, and all these salvage yard parts allowed me to ad tie downs to every unused attachment point in the bed.

Rear Escape floor mats. Good enough. Better than nothing. Price was right. And a back seat passenger will be rare.

 

[Lane]

Sure, appearance expectations are lower when it comes to an inexpensive truck. But adding the hitch trim panel sure does improve the look.

Reading others' threads where it seemed like this was too tight of a fit, I reduced the risk of getting the new panel all scratched/scuffed while getting it into place by doing 2 things:

I taped a couple pieces of thin aluminum flashing to the areas that scrape against the chain hooks as the panel is being slid up into place. If you don't have any flashing available, one of those slippery thin plastic cutting sheets for the kitchen should work well also. Or, a student folder or notebook cover - anything that's thin plastic and slippery. Go visit your local dollar store and you'll find something for cheap to protect your nice new panel as you install it.

And, I snipped the plate's top lip off right next to the notch I'd cut that fits around the hitch receiver. This makes the panel thinner and easier to slide behind the chain hooks, and the snipped off area normally sits behind the factory bumper panel plastic anyway so it's not visible.

After the final fit, the panel was slid into place for the last time and the tape & aluminum flashing was removed. No scuffs or scratches. I only removed two bolts on the bottom of the factory bumper panel plastic if I recall correctly. A small thing, sure, but it sure improves the look.

 

[Lane]

I'm not a fan of the bright chrome trim on the front & rear Ford emblems, and while I'm at it, might as well get rid of the blue as well. Dug through boxes full of spray cans in my workshop and found half a can of Plasti Dip from a prior vehicle (score!). Masked off the front emblem in-place, wiped it well with pre-paint prep, and gave it 6 or 7 coats of Plasti Dip. It doesn't really need that many coats, but I figured since the front's going to see bug splats and road debris, might as well make it a bit more durable with some added thickness. When it had dried, I used a tweezers to peel off the coating inside the Ford script and from the oval outline so that slight bit of chrome would show.

The rear emblem was quicker to remove than applying masking to that whole area. End result ended up similar.

Yet another small and inexpensive change that makes a nice impact. A spray can of Plasti Dip is around ten bucks, and you can find it at Wal-Mart or most auto parts stores.

 

[Lane]

My favorite CamelBak insulated bottle won't fit in the cupholder. Bought a cupholder adapter off Amazon, but it fit too loosely in the Mav's stock cupholder pocket.

Digging around my house/workshop, I found a few silicone wristbands and realized a new use for them.

Now the adapter fits in there super tight and securely holds the weight of the full large bottle. I've read about people using a ton of rubber bands wrapped around the base of the cupholder adapter as well, and that's another option to make it fit tightly also.

Something needs to be done to improve the usefulness of the center console compartment. Since I have no need to store a gallon jug of milk in it, I picked up the Muslogy 2-piece organizer off Amazon.

( Their picture, not mine). Great price and fit, well worth it.

 

[Lane]

Back to the back, picked up a TMS tailgate assist strut, one of the cheaper kits on Amazon ($20). Decent quality and fit, works as designed, quick install, no clearance issues with the gate cable, and a great price. Be aware though that for this brand/model, the assist kicks in after opening it about half way which this thread says isn't the same as other brands. Regardless, it works to prevent a BANG!!! from dropping the gate so it's fine for me.

Of course, when you add a strut kit, the factory tailgate tie down point has to be removed or the gate won't close. Came across the thread by @Dean S here where he had made his own replacement tie down bracket very simply and I ended up doing the same. Great idea Dean! Bent a piece of steel, welded a chain link to it, and powdercoated it black (I have a very basic home powdercoating kit like this one at Harbor Freight).

 

[Lane]

My last truck had a serious rust issue on the bottom of the tailgate, and I'm convinced it was due to an open area on the bottom of the gate. It lets in leaves, dirt, wood chips, or whatever else you haul, and that stuff sitting inside the bottom of the gate retains moisture. Was surprised when I saw that the Mav had an opening in the bottom of the gate as well. Easiest and quickest way to prevent stuff getting in there is to use silicone to apply fiberglass screen over that open area.

I started a new thread with more specifics on it here, and others have also offered other options for closing up that area.

While that helps prevent debris from getting in there, I picked up a Rok Block tailgate gap cover off Amazon ($36) which will go a lot further. It always bugs me when I'm hauling something and that gap gets full of it when the gate is open - leaves, grass, gravel, etc.

There are a lot of companies offering similar covers, and many of them cost less than Rok Block. I splurged on this one because it's made in the USA, and hopefully the quality is a bit higher than the overseas equivalents. Specifically, I wanted the best chance that the adhesive on this would last. It has to stick to the rough surface of the spray-in bedliner, and handle temperature extremes here in WI from -30F to 95F.

The kit includes an adhesion promoter to prep the surfaces before sticking it in place. I did have to supply the roller (although you don't need one) which I found at Goodwill for a dollar. I did deviate from the kit's instructions by extending the seal past the edge on each side of the tailgate. While they say to cut it right at that edge, I ran it all the way to the side body panel to cover up that edge gap as well.

I've had it installed for 6 weeks as of this writing and it has handled fall yard cleanup well.

The seal folds downward as you close the gate. I was wondering how tight the fit would be because you've now got 2x thickness of rubber that has to fit between the gate and bed when the gate is closed. Well, you can tell it's there as you close the gate with the lightest feeling of resistance just as the gate closes and latches. It fits just perfectly. I'm very happy with this upgrade.

One warning though - the adhesive is aggressive. If you stick it, you won't be able to reposition it. It's stuck for good. So be careful and read the instructions well before starting the job.

 

[Lane]

Ordered two cubby boxes for the rear bed area (the poverty-spec XL doesn't come with any) from theoemparts.com. They had the best price I could find online at around $50 each shipped. Unfortunately, it took more than a month to receive them, as their order status on their website stayed at a ready-to-ship status during that time. They did not respond to an e-mail and I had to call to actually get them to ship them out.

Part #s are NZ6Z-60286A72-A and W505424-S450B. Two bolts are needed for each box, they're M6 x 1.0. Just like for my tie downs, I'd gotten my bolts from a prior salvage yard trip and they came off a random Saturn engine bracket. Mllombardi did a nice write-up on the box install in this thread.

I was surprised with how much space was in the area between the bed & outer rear quarter panel. Had to even go look from the underside. And take a dumb picture.

If you live in an area where you feel you need a lock on your box, use the forum search function and you'll find other threads where people have found readily-available lock/key kits that can be installed in it.

 

[Lane]

Ok, back to the interior. I'm looking forward to audio system upgrades which are in the planning stages right now, as other more-important upgrades are currently in the hopper. As I'm considering the space available behind the rear seat for a subwoofer enclosure, I'd come across more than one thread where people have made additional space back there by removing the middle seat belt mechanism and related hardware. Unfortunately, it seems like it's common for people to feel that they have to cut the belt itself to get it all out.

Since it would be odd for the factory to install something like that which had to be destroyed to be removed, I ended up taking it apart in order to determine if it could all be disassembled and removed with a reasonable amount of effort. Answer is - absolutely.

I'd written up non-destructive removal instructions with a lot more photos in a separate thread, you can see them here.

Although I'm not very far in the process at this point, here's a sneak peek toward the future.

I've started making a cardboard mockup of rough enclosure dimensions to help envision the amount of space that will be available in a custom enclosure. I'll be using fiberglass to conform to the rear wall surface in order to get the most out of that area. I've made fiberglass enclosures for several prior vehicles and I'm looking forward to it. Except for the strong smell of the curing resin, that I don't like as much.

I've started adding some sound deadening mat back there, but it hasn't been a lot. It has a point of diminishing returns and people tend to use more than they need. For reducing vibrations - a good guideline is that if you knock on a panel with your knuckles and it resonates or rattles, put mat there. If you're looking to go further than reducing vibrations and want to reduce exterior noise (tires on the road, rain, exhaust, etc), THEN you're going to need a ton of mat to practically cover every surface. But that's not my objective, so I won't be needing a massive amount of it. Regardless, I've bought Noico brand mat at 80 mil thickness off eBay (18sq ft for $40) that I've used in the past for multiple cars. There are a lot of brands of mat out there, this is just one brand that I've found works well and is a good value for the money.

I'd considered using the under-seat cubby for the sub location, but I want more room to work with than that and I don't want to give up that usable storage space. What's behind the rear seat is under-utilized so I'm going to make use of it. More on my audio system efforts to come in the future.

 

[Lane]

One upgrade that I'd done in my last truck was adding a leather steering wheel. Since it's the part I'm touching every minute I'm driving, I've found that I've appreciated the feel of a better wheel in my hands. It's something you notice.

Others have shared options in other threads, and I've seen people install a Fiesta ST or Kuga wheel in more than a few. Another poster shared details on a wrap/cover. These options look great, but the end result is a wheel rim that is now noticeably thicker. Big and chunky. To me, that's going to make me feel like I'm driving a bigger truck and I don't want that.

I ended up buying a "leather" steering wheel from a 2020 and up Ford Escape. It's in quotes because I don't know if it's real leather, but it has laces and feels like it has some padding to it (unlike the harder plastic XL wheel) so it does have the proper feel. Got it on eBay for $110 shipped and it included the trim bezel and switches.

The new wheel arrived with a glossy black plastic bezel, but I prefer the matte black that's on my stock wheel. In this photo, the stock wheel is on the right, the Escape wheel is on the left.

Unfortunately, the stock XL wheel has a thinner lower bezel (that lower V part) since the molded plastic of the wheel itself is thicker and visible in that area, while the Escape wheel covers that area with the wider trim bezel. I kept the stock XL upper bezel, and removed the lower V portion and used that part from the Escape's bezel. This took a lot of time with a dremel and X-Acto knife to selectively remove some tiny plastic tabs which held the two together. Most people would not want to go through this effort. And I broke some tabs and mangled up others... It's clearly not meant to ever be taken apart.

I ended up sanding & painting the V bezel piece from the Escape wheel so that it was a matching matte black, and joining it to the XL's upper bezel piece.

The end result looks great and is exactly what I wanted. Padded feel and no super thick rim.

A few misc notes on this swap -
* The factory service manual spells out the airbag depower process. The manual states that disconnecting the battery isn't required. You just need to allow X number of minutes after you shut off the vehicle before you disconnect the airbag wiring.
* The factory service manual says to simply unplug the airbag wiring connectors, but assumes that you know how the latch on these connectors works. And if you have never seen them before, you're not going to know that.

In the photo above, the two yellow connectors can't be removed from the airbag until you pull the orange piece away from the connector a few millimeters. You can see that in the connector on the left. A tiny flat-head screwdriver, or a hooked screwdriver helps. Once you do that, the whole connector can be removed from the airbag easily. And if you forget to press the orange pieces back in upon reassembly, the vehicle will tell you there is an airbag fault.

* The Escape wheel I ended up with is heated. The Mav XL does have an empty socket on the clockspring mechanism to plug in the heated wheel connector, but the socket doesn't have any pins in it. So if you want the heat to work, you'll need a clockspring replacement and likely some additional wiring.

 

[Lane]

The headlights and tail lights have too much fake shiny chrome in them for my tastes. I've tinted tail lights on a prior car with spray and had been familiar with that process. I've also used tint film that was specifically made for tail lamps. But reading the other threads about the use of Zep degreaser on them to remove the internal chrome finish - heck, that's simple, creative, and low-tech brilliant! Thanks to @PLG for realizing this could be done and sharing it.

For others doing this, and regardless of the tail light lens darkening method you use, please make sure you do not end up with tail lights that are dimmer than they used to be. Just be responsible and upgrade your bulbs to brighter LEDs at the same time.

Once you remove the lens assembly's bolts from the tailgate area, a plastic trim pry tool will help work the light loose from its wedge socket fasteners. Here's what those fasteners look like:

If you don't have a pry tool, wrap a handful of layers of electrical or duct tape on the end of a large flathead screwdriver and put some masking tape on the body panel where you're going to rest it. Doing that will make you nervous enough that you'll wonder why you didn't just buy the darn $8 tool.

Once the lens assembly is out it's easy enough to remove the bulbs and wiring harness. One thing I'd wish I'd done - put a towel or washcloth on the inside bottom of the tub you put the lens in otherwise you'll risk scratching the lens as you move the lens around to get the Zep everywhere.

Another tip - when the chrome finish magically disappears and it's time to rinse out the lens, you have to use distilled or deionized water. If you don't, you'll end up with water spots inside the lens after it dries. I could not find deionized water locally, but I realized my local grocery store had distilled and it worked just fine. Tap water, even Brita filtered, did not work just fine.

I wanted to see what effect this had on the brightness of the stock bulbs. Here's a photo with the headlights on (tail lights only, no brake applied) with the stripped lens on the left and the stock lens on the right, with original halogen bulbs on both sides.

It's noticeably dimmer as a person would expect. I wrote about this in more detail in another thread here.

At this time, I chose to upgrade to brighter Lasfit bulbs. You need two for each side.

The LED bulbs in the stripped tail lights bring the brightness back up to what it should be. And then some.

 

[Lane]

I labeled this thread my 'dark soul' build because of my dislike of bright and shiny parts. Chrome looks absolutely killer on a 1950s Merc or Cadillac, but just doesn't appeal to me on a modern car. So I'm gonna axe as much of the shiny stuff as I can.

Continuing the tinting effort beyond the tail lights, there should be something quick and easy that can be done for the 3rd brake/bed light lens assembly to tone down the look a bit.

There are aftermarket replacement lenses that change the look, but I wanted cheaper and simpler. I'd used lens spray tint with good results on other vehicles, but there's masking and multiple coats, drying time, and ultimately some orange peel to the final product...

I had some vinyl lens tint film I'd purchased for another vehicle's tail lights. It's by Metro Restyling, and I think I paid around $12 shipped for enough of the "light smoke" variation to do two tail lights.

Unfortunately, those tail lights I'd bought it for had compound curves and even though this tint film is stretchy, it just couldn't conform to those lenses so it went on a shelf. I'll give it a try for this, since this lens doesn't have any compound curves to deal with.

I used two separate pieces of film on the lens, one for the horizontal top part, and another for the vertical part, with the slightest overlap. Wet the lens with soap and water, squeege the film, and trim the edges with an X-Acto knife. I also trimmed out the section of the film that covered the recessed screw pockets.

A heat gun run around the edges of this type of stretchy film will make it contract a bit, or actually move into and stick to edge creases. It's odd - I don't know how to better describe it.

End result:

This muted look is much better. And since the tint is made for lights, it minimally impacts the brightness of the light. Taking a look at mine after dark confirmed that both the bed illumination and brake light looked good. For these, I didn't feel that I needed to replace the stock bulbs with LEDs to make it any brighter after tinting.

Since that worked well, I thought I'd do the parking lights with the same tint.

The result looks great. And the light is still easily visible at night.

 

[Lane]

Alright, now for something more substantial.

I love the look of lowered vehicles. And I want my Mav to have a driving feel that's a little more firm and sporty, closer to the feel of a performance car. The Mav benefits from a selection of quality aftermarket suspension options. I've owned two cars with Eibach suspension and I was very happy with how they perform. But in this case, I want to go a bit lower than what Eibach allows, and I'd love to be able to have adjustability to dial in the firmness I'd like.

Others have posted threads with their suspension choices and results, and Silver's stands out. I ordered a set of their Neomax FWD coilovers with Swift springs, in the "Lawrence Giles" spec (265mm springs, 9k front, 8k rear). They arrived at my door in less than a week.

I'm going to start a separate thread for my thoughts on the install and adjustment, there is just too much to include on the topic in this build thread. I'll link it here after it's posted. For now, just a few pics.

I chose to widen the opening in the strut towers for easiest camber adjustability. Without doing that, the entire strut assembly would need to be removed to make those alignment adjustments on the top of the strut's camber plate.

Front.

Rear (simpler beam type suspension because it's not the AWD model).

Quick install thoughts - all the Silver's suspension components have a solid quality look and feel. There were no surprises during the installation and the fit is outstanding. Silver's provides no instructions and they really should because there is a lot of adjustability. It would be beneficial to have them provide some settings suggestions so that after initial install, you're at least in the ballpark for decent alignment settings and your desired ride height.

I'd purchased a different set of wheels for the Mav, but finished up this suspension install with those new wheels still at the powdercoater. My thought was that this would give me the opportunity to get it at a moderately low ride height where I knew there was no interference or tire rub with the stock wheels and verify there was enough suspension travel for all occasions. Then a switch to the new slightly wider wheels and a different diameter tire will reveal if there are any issues with the new wheels where the stock steelies were just fine.

This was a height that was about 3/4 as low as the standard Silver's can go. The shock compression is adjustable with a knob, with a range of 25 clicks to adjust firmness. At this point, I've started to make periodic adjustments and take notes on the feel. Eventually I'll arrive at a setting that's what I'm looking for, the right combination of ride comfort and performance, but I have more adjustment and driving before I reach that point. And I'll be adjusting the height to be lower than this as well after the new wheels arrive.

Oh, a note on some benefits I didn't realize there would be.... Once lowered, it's much easier to step up to the tailgate, and step down. Same with the doors - I have a friend with back issues and she commented, "I didn't expect it to be this nice to get in and out of. " It's also significantly easier to load/unload items into the bed over the sides. Some people say that lowering a truck sacrifices its truckyness. But at the same time, those are probably the people that put a bed rug in the rear and tow a trailer with leaves on it because they don't want to get the bed dirty. Or they need running boards because it's uncomfortable to step up to get in. Or they need a ladder to use any part of the bed beyond the tailgate. To me, that's not adequate usability for a truck.

 

[Lane]

I'm not a fan of the steel wheels on the XL, and the option package(s) with wheel upgrades weren't compelling enough for me. I'd rather have more of a choice of wheel diameter, tire size, and finish. Although I'm normally a fan of a simple 5-spoke design (all the way back to Keystone & Cragar), I decided to go with a stock 19" alloy wheel from a Ford Escape after seeing them on @daddio211 's Mav in his thread here.

This wheel is listed as being from a 2013-2016 Escape, part # 560-03947. It's 19x8, offset is 52.5mm, hub bore is 63.4mm. Weight is 30 lbs.

Picked up one wheel on my local Craigslist, and the other three off eBay (one refunded because there was so much curb rash, but I got to keep it and fixed the damage) for a grand total of $342. Although I have a sandblast cabinet, a 19" wheel won't quite fit in it so I had a local shop do the sandblasting to remove the factory finish on the wheels ($100).

If you buy wheels used, it's rare that they'll be in perfect shape. These were a little beat up with a lot of scratches, gouges, and curb rash. Sandblasting ended up removing most of those defects which were just in the surface finish. What remained was the worst of the curb rash which I could now repair.

Online research showed postings on powdercoating forums where hi-heat JB Weld ($10) was commonly used to fill defects like this.

Once cured, it can withstand the heat of the powdercoating oven, and the filler has enough metal content that it can conduct the static charge needed for the powdercoating process. I used a fine wire brush and acetone to make sure the gouges were clean. The filler was applied and allowed to cure overnight. I then used an oscillating sander with a rougher grit to knock off the high spots, and then block sanded with a finer grit.

The end result wasn't absolutely perfect, but it was good enough to be hidden by the powdercoat that I chose. Off to the powdercoater they go.

Meanwhile, I'm looking at Ford center caps on both eBay and Amazon. There are a few designs that would look just fine, but I wanted something that matched really well. The center caps I'd gotten with the wheels had scratches and scuffs and I didn't intend to reuse them. That made them perfect to experiment with.

I'm going to powdercoat my center caps. But wait, they're plastic - you can't do that with plastic. After looking at them closely, it turns out that the cap is plastic but the outer surface is aluminum. It's thin and slightly convex, and is adhered to the plastic part with silicone.

Now for the challenge of how to get them apart without wrecking them. At salvage yards, I've removed vehicle trim emblems with a very fine piece of strong wire. But since that's typically foam adhesive and not silicone, I decided to soak the cap in acetone before attacking them with the wire. Acetone softens silicone.

After the soak, not only did my rustynut-wire™ (© 2023) tool do the job, but the acetone removed most of the paint from the aluminum as well. A wire brush took care of what remained. I sandblasted the aluminum discs and wiped them down with metal prep, and then made a hanger for them so they could be coated.

I do my own powdercoating for small-ish parts - I have a very basic home powdercoating kit like this one at Harbor Freight.

The powder was sprayed, and 20 minutes later, the parts removed from the oven. A bit of silicone was applied, the caps reassembled, and I now had a finished set of center caps that will be the same color/finish as my wheels. I'd chosen Cadillac Grey metallic from Columbia Coatings and 2 lbs of powder and clear for the 4 wheels ran $60 shipped.

I picked up the wheels from the powdercoater, the total was $300. And I now had the exact wheels I wanted.

So, now the choice of tires. I took a look at Consumer Reports' tire ratings for truck/suv/crossover tires. I wanted something highly rated, but they had to have a longer life treadwear rating, and had to be rated as "Eco" (lower rolling resistance). I also didn't want each to weigh much more than the stock tire. The size I wanted was 235/50R19 which would be very close to the same circumference as the stock tire but just a hair smaller. I did a search on eBay for CR's top brands/models in that size and chose Continental CrossContact LX25. Lots of great reviews for this tire, and as a bonus, CR ratings say they do well in snow. Each of these tires weighs 29 lbs w/ treadwear rating of 740, load index of 99 (1709 lbs), and speed rating of H (130 mph). The Mav needs a load index of 92 to support 1383 lbs per tire.

I've bought tires on eBay before, always choosing those with a tread depth close to new (> 10/32) and a date code that's not more than a few years old. It's a great way to save money over new. Got the 4 tires for about half the price of new (total was $420). And a buddy in my local sports car club has mounting equipment and that added another 50 bucks.

Onto the choice of lugnuts. I cannot believe the depth of discussion here regarding lugnuts but I don't mean that in a positive way. I wanted black or gray, closed, and didn't want them to stick out. And some reassurance of durability so the finish wouldn't be damaged by an impact socket. I ended up with these off Amazon. DPAccessories Black m14x1.5 Lug Nuts - Closed-End Bulge Acorn Lug Nut for Cone Seat Wheels - 19mm (3/4") Hex - Black Lug Nuts Set of 23. Set runs $34 and contains 3 extra nuts.

(factory nut on right)

I've had the wheels on and off at least ten times (with multiple adjustments of my suspension and alignment) and no problems with the lugnut finish so far.

The end result turned out better than I expected.

 

[Lane]

The dark charcoal gray metallic wheel color works great with the slightly grayish tone in the Area 51 paint. The 19" Escape wheel & tire combo ended up being about 10 lbs over stock on each corner. I'd have preferred it be less of a weight difference, but it does look better than I expected it to. Now I'll just have to see if there's a mileage impact from that bit of extra weight.

Compared to my prior suspension post in this thread, these pics show the Mav after I lowered a bit more from when it was on steel wheels. All in all, this is approximately a 5" drop front and rear. Still no interference or rubbing, I guess I'm going to have to lower it some more. And there's still more ground clearance underneath it than any of the cars in my garage. The fact that it looks so close to the ground is misleading, since the truck was so high for its size to begin with on its stock suspension.

With the wheels and suspension upgrades, I'm happy that it now has a look befitting this truck. A DIY BAP treatment on the headlights at some point will have a nice visual impact as well.

Sponsored