Polished Exhaust Tip and New Tires

[Shadrack]

35" Nitto Trail Grapplers. Next mods are getting rid of the papaw steps (anyone have any stock polished/chrome Ford steps?), and a "Job 1" shorter front valance and that's where I'm stopping I believe.

What I started with.


Step 1:


Step 2:


Step 3:


I'll probably polish up a little on the inside of the pipe as well.


Before:




After:

[mikemcd88]

What did you use to polish the tip?

[Shadrack]

To be honest, I'm not even sure what it is called. Basically it was a cone cotton buff on a drill with a course polish followed by a fine polish compound. Then I removed the scuffs with a mushroom cottom buff on a drill with "Semichrome" polish. Honestly, I didn't spend a whole lot of time with, and what you see done there was completed in about 20 minutes tops. If you had some time and really wanted to work with it, you could make it a mirror. It looks great compared to those stockers. once I get some more time, I'm going to probably buff the entre tire tip from where it meets with the stock single pipe to the split exits.

[raymel417]

Dumb question,
what is the front valance??
Also i have some chrome NFAB steps if your interested. $325 shipped. In perfect condition.

[BigGreen06]

The "Valance" is the piece of plastic that sticks about 4"s lower beneath the front bumper. The ones on the 08's were a lot shorter than the ones on later trucks.
Come to think of it, I really wouldn't mind getting my hands on a shorter one as well.

James.

[CDUBYA]

I had a shorter one and made it even shorter, just take your Valance off of the bumper measure evenly to how short you want to make it, i think i made mine like 2" is all just enough to cover the 1" of metal from the bottom of the bumper. Then all i did was get a really fine edged jig saw and cut it off very carefully so that it is straight, after the cut i took some fine sand paper and smoothed everything off. worked pretty well.

[gottabadf250]

Looks great man.

I'm from Elkhorn. Did you buy your tires locally??? I can't seem to find a shop around here that carries them.

[REDL1NE]

Looking good! How did you end up with a 09-10 valence?

[superdutydixie]

Some guys cut the 09-10 valence in half or how ever long you want it. I might do this soon.

[Shadrack]

Originally Posted by gottabadf250

Looks great man.

I'm from Elkhorn. Did you buy your tires locally??? I can't seem to find a shop around here that carries them.

I bought them from Discount Tire Direct.

Originally Posted by REDL1NE

Looking good! How did you end up with a 09-10 valence?

Actually, I have NO IDEA. I bought the truck from a dealer that got it from a ford Auction. This truck had 9,000 miles on it when I got it, but spent its whole life as a "Ford Executive Demo" when the dealer bought it from Ford. It already had all the updates/recalls done and somewhere along the line they put a Job 3 valance on the front. I HATE how long that is, and I hate those papaw steps (no offense to the guys that like them). I wanted the Ford tubular chrome/polished stainless ones but that's what the truck had on it.