Slide 1

Street Scene Body Kit
We began Sport ConsTRUCKtion’s makeover with the Street Scene ground effects. Since the truck was getting a new paint job and the effects would be painted separately, all we did was trial-fit the pieces to make sure they fit properly. We started in the front with the bumper cover. The stock air dam must be removed first.

Slide 2

Street Scene’s bumper cover slips over the factory bumper. The cover is a fairly tight fit, but uses sheetmetal screws and two-sided tape to hold it in place. The instructions tell you to apply the tape to the underside of the cover, but leave the backing on until the cover is aligned and the holes are drilled for the screws. We left the tape off completely until the cover is painted and permanently installed.

Slide 3

Two holes are drilled on the ends of the bumper cover and bumper for the 1/8 inch sheetmetal screws. Take the cover off, remove the backing from the tape, and reinstall the cover. Drive in the sheetmetal screws and you’re ready to go.

Slide 4

Ta-da-a-a! One bumper cover in place and looking’ fine. Too bad we have to take it off again.

Slide 5

The Street Scene side skirt kit contains six pieces of urethane—two main (cab) skirts and four filler pieces for the bed. The stock lower trim and our Bushwacker fender flares were dumped to make room for the new cool stuff.

Slide 6

Like the front bumper cover, the side skirts are stuck on with a combination of two-sided tape and sheetmetal screws. The main skirts fit over the rocker panels, which requires removal of the door entry plates. The skirts are secured with screws inside the door openings, one in front wheelwell lip, and another in the back from inside the skirt into the body.

Slide 7

The front bed filler pieces should line up as closely as possible with the main skirts. With the panel in position, drill a hole into the wheelwell lip and secure with a screw. Reach into the wheelwell opening, drill a hole from the bed flange into the rear of the panel, and run in a screw.

Slide 8

The factory rock panels must be removed to fit the rear bed filler panels—they are secured with plastic rivets that must be chiseled off. Two screws for the rear filler panels go into the wheelwell lip as shown. Another screw secures the back of the panel to the bed from underneath where it can’t be seen.

Slide 9

The rear bumper and tailgate come off to make room for the Street Scene rear roll pan. The bumper is actually a two-piece deal—a chrome cover and a steel frame that bolts to the truck’s frame. The cover bolts are hidden under the step pads. Once the bolts are removed, the cover can be pried off the frame.

Slide 10

With the cover removed, the bumper frame can be unbolted from the truck.

Slide 11

We were absent from school when the roll pan was installed, but here is the finished product. Installation is simple. Align the lower edges of the pan with the bed corners, tape the pan to the truck to hold it in place, drill five 5/32 inch holes (one in the center of the pan, two at each corner, and two between the corners and the center), and secure with the included sheetmetal screws.

Slide 12

Street Scene’s Cal Vu Signal mirrors have a big turn signal indicator built right in. The mirrors are direct swaps for the factory power mirrors and plug into the factory harness.

Slide 13

Cool, huh? The big LED arrow in the mirror lets you and the people behind you know when and where you’re turning. Two wires splice into the turn signal indicator leads under the steering column. The green and white wire is the driver side signal, the blue and white wire is for the passenger side.

Slide 14

Here is the F-150 with the Street Scene stuff in place, ready to go to the painter man. No more rental car gold and camo for us!

Slide 15

Electric-Life Shaved Door Handle Kit
Door handles are for stock trucks. Proper sport trucks have theirs shaved. Since we wanted our truck to be proper, we called Electric-Life and got its shaved door handle kit. It includes two 50-pound solenoids, door thrusters (poppers), keyless remote module with alarm feature and two key fob remotes, a cable-operated emergency entry system, wiring, and hardware. The kit is available exclusively at Summit.

Slide 16

We entrusted Jim Remick, our paint and body man, with the shaved door handle kit install. With the door panel off and all linkage removed from the latching mechanism, Jim looked for a mounting spot for the solenoid inside the door. Since the solenoid does the opening and closing, it needs to be close to the latch mechanism. Jim used the solenoid bracket as a template to mark the mounting hole locations.

Slide 17

Jim drilled one locating hole and mounted the bracket and solenoid inside the door with a sheetmetal screw. He then raised and lowered the window to make sure the solenoid was not in the way.

Slide 18

The solenoid and bracket are removed and the rest of the bracket mounting holes are drilled.

Slide 19

The activation cables are crimped onto the solenoid’s plunger rod. The cable attaches to the door latch mechanism.

Slide 20

The cable is looped and crimped to the outside door latch mechanism. When the solenoid is activated, the plunger rod moves down to unlatch the door. The inside handle mechanism remains in place to open the door from the inside.

Slide 21

The solenoid is hooked up to a 12-volt power source and tested to make sure it operates the door latch smoothly with no cable binding. Jim gets to do the same thing on the passenger side door.

Slide 22

Now comes the fun part—wiring the solenoids to the remote control module. Since everything is prewired, it’s not that hard. Just run the solenoid wires to the relay block, plug the remote control module into the relay block, and run the wires for power, ignition-on, and ground.

Slide 23

Running the solenoid wire through the rubber pass-through between the door and door jamb can be tricky. Jim wrapped the wire around a piece of wire hanger (it doesn’t bend as easily) to route it through.

Slide 24

This little piece of steel is the door thruster that pops the door open when you hit the remote button. It sticks on with double-sided tape, so there is no drilling or paint damage involved. Yes, it works just fine.

Slide 25

Electric-Life Talegator Power Tailgate Kit
A power tailgate? Sure, why not—it’s easy to have thanks to Electric-Life. This is the Talegator tailgate kit with keyless remote. Instead of using hydraulic cylinders, Electric-Life uses an electric linear actuator to open and close the tailgate. The actuator is more reliable and much easier to install than a hydraulic system with its hoses and fluid.

Slide 26

This illustration shows how the tailgate assembly is installed. The factory tailgate lock system must be disabled for the Electric-Life kit to function. Removing the latch striker bolts will work if you retain the handle assembly. We planned on shaving the handle, so we removed the entire assembly. All of the mounting hardware is included in the kit.

Slide 27

The completed Talegator assembly on the F-150. The most critical part of the installation is setting the spacing between the upper and lower actuator brackets. With the tailgate closed, measure 19 inches along the top bed rail from the inside face of the tailgate to locate the upper bracket.

Slide 28

We had to cut the factory bedrail cap to install the upper actuator mounting bracket. The actuator attaches to a pin in the bracket with hairpin clips. For stepside trucks, the bracket should be located 3 inches below the top of the bed rail so the mounting screws stay hidden from view.

Slide 29

This is the wiring diagram for the Talegator power tailgate and power tonneau kits (we’ll be installing the tonneau cover kit in the next installment). The tailgate kit comes with its own wireless remote module and key fob, but it can be tied into Electric-Life’s shaved door handle system so everything can operated from one remote.

Slide 30

Center Line Rapid Wheels and BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW Tires
No self-respecting sport truck can ride on stock wheels. That’s why we opted for a set of 20 x 8 Center Line Rapid aluminum wheels. The Center Lines are rotary forged from a single piece of aluminum alloy. That process not only makes the wheels strong, but lightweight—a 20 inch Rapid is equal in weight to a smaller 17 inch OEM aluminum rim. The five-spoke design allows our Power Stop disc brakes show through, too.

Slide 31

Our BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDWs came in the extra-beefy 285/55R20/RF size. In fact, the wheel/tire combination was large enough to prevent us from lowering the truck all the way down—they hit the wheelwell lips. Jim Remick solved the problem by rolling the lips to add extra clearance. As you can see, it was barely enough.

Slide 32

The Final Result
Well, what do ya think? The stance is right, the rolling stock is right, and Jim Remick’s paint and graphics are right. In fact, we might have done too good a job on our F-150—people didn’t believe it was the same truck we lifted a year ago. We still have a few more upgrades in store for Sport ConsTRUCKtion, including the Electric-Life power tonneau kit, new lighting from APC, and more bling from Putco.