Sky Jacker Lift

You know, one thing I like to do here on trucks is to try to keep you informed of all the cool stuff that's coming out new.

And one thing that people have been talking about for a long time is this new Ford F 150.

And most people agree that this is a good looking truck. Ford did a good job with this one. But if you've got one and it's four wheel drive,

well, you got a problem, it's too low to the ground and you got too small a tires on it,

but we're gonna show you how to solve those problems today.

Now, as you can see, this truck is not exactly what you're gonna find on a showroom floor. Now, it's already been decked out with all kinds of cool aftermarket gear

because it's going to magazines and automotive trade shows

to represent these aftermarket companies and to show the potential of these new Fords. And the only thing it's missing is a lift

and a cool wheel and tire combination

and that is what we're gonna show you how to do today. So you won't be afraid to do it to your own truck,

the kit we're using is from Skyjacker and it's gonna lift that truck six inches up in the air. Now, for the front, we got a couple new cross members and various drop brackets. This is gonna lower our differential and also our lower control arms.

Then we've got two huge new steering knuckles. Now, obviously, this is where most of our lift is gonna come from.

Then we have a new spring shock combination.

We have a couple of skid plates and then all the hardware to put this in. Now, these are the parts, obviously, they don't go on until we take off the old stuff. So that's the first step.

Now, we're ready for the real disassembly to begin. So we'll pull off these calipers

and the rotors.

The next piece to go is the sway bar and the end links. Now,

if this looks a little weird to you, you're probably used to the sway bar running in front of the suspension, but on these trucks, it runs across the rear, but it works just as well back here.

Follow that with the axle shafts. Now, make sure you mark them left and right.

So you don't get them mixed up.

Now, we'll just pop the tie rods loose the upper and lower ball joints

and slide that steering knuckle right out of there.

Now, we're ready for this factory spring and shock assembly. Now, believe it or not,

it just unbolts and slides right out.

Finally, we'll just unbolt the lower control arms

and get those out of there. Now, you may have noticed

that I don't have my usual pile of throwaway junk growing at my feet.

That's because a lot of this stuff, we're gonna have to reuse part of it. So, if that's the case, you need to make sure you're taking your time and keeping things organized.

All right, you can't just lower the suspension components down and leave this differential all tucked up nice there in the frame rails.

No, that'll throw all your drive shaft angles out of whack. So this has got to come down too.

But before we do that, we come to the only cutting that you need to do with this kit and that's his arm right here.

Now, Skyjacker includes a template with the kit.

You just set it in place, mark around it and then cut it out either with a Sawzall or a cut off tool.

Now we can unbolt the differential and lower it out of the way.

Now, for those of you that have been squirming in your seats thinking, oh man,

you remove the whole front suspension. 12. Yeah, you're right. It is pretty much gone.

But the good news is now it's time to start putting it all back together using all this new shiny red stuff and it's gonna go real quick. So we're gonna start with these new differential drop brackets. They go right in the factory pockets

with the new drop brackets in place. It is time to put the differential back in. So first

we're gonna bolt this new rear cross member to the differential,

then we'll just jack it all up into place. Now, notice

that this new rear cross member is gonna slide right up into these pockets where the old control arms went.

Follow that

with the new front cross member.

Next up are the stock lower control arms. Now, as you can see, they just slide into the pockets in these new cross members

and they are held in place with the special cam bolts. Now, if you're wondering what a cam bolt is and just exactly what it does take a look at this,

they slide into place

and they go into that pocket and then when you rotate the bolt,

this moves your a arm in and out. That is what allows you to align the front end of this thing.

Very important.

Now, another thing worth mentioning

is how much lower the mounting point is for your lower control arm. Now, you're gonna find out why that is so important

when we put those big steering knuckles in.

Now we are ready for the new coil over shock assemblies. And as you can see, there is a huge difference between the new stuff and the old stuff. But something worth noting here,

this is a pre-production kit from Skyjacker, which means these came fully assembled your kit will be just a little different. What you'll get will be the springs, the shocks

and all this hardware.

What you want get are these black spring cups at either end, those will come off your stock for piece. Now, the reason that Skyjacker does this

is this keeps your costs down. Now, all you have to do

is take a couple of spring compressors,

compress the spring disassemble it, compress this spring reassemble it

and you're ready to go. Now, once you've got them all together,

they just bolt into place.

Yeah, it's starting to look pretty good, isn't it? Well, you just wait till you see what we do to it after the break.

Hey, welcome back to trucks.

Today's project is to show you how to put a skyjacker six inch suspension lift on the brand new Ford F 150. Now, as far as independent front suspension lifts go, this is one of the easiest you're gonna find. It's basically a bolt on deal. Now, when we left off, we were ready for the new steering knuckles. So let's take a look at them. The difference between these new knuckles and these old original knuckles is amazing. Now, not only is this considerably longer to give us the lift that we need,

but also notice that your T rod and mounting points are a little different. This will keep everything in alignment and keep you from having any kind of bump steer. Now, the only thing that you need to do is take this hub out of your original knuckle,

bolted into the new knuckle

and then it's ready to go in the truck.

Oh,

all right. We got our new steering knuckles in, got our drive shafts back in. Got our brakes reassembled.

Now, it is time to talk about brake hoses. And that is always an issue when you're doing a lift. Skyjacker hasn't forgotten that they include this drop bracket with the kit

and it basically

lowers the stock bracket to give you some slack in your break hoses. Very important.

Now, another thing that needs to be lowered is your sway bar and that

is what this bracket is for.

It just bolts into the stock location.

Then you just bolt your original sway bar to that.

The last parts to put on the front are the skid plates and the braces. Now, I know you're thinking, oh, man, those are just for looks. No, they are actually a very integral part to that front end being as strong as it is.

Now, these braces, they bolt right between these two cross members

to tie it all together

and to support it.

Then the skid plates bolt right to the braces and the cross members to further support this whole structure

and

protect it from damage when you run into a bunch of big old rocks. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about

and that takes care

of the front. See, I told you it wasn't that hard.

Now, the rear, the rear is really easy

because it's basically just replacing springs and shock. Take a look.

The springs are these big old, heavy duty guys

that have a six inch lift built right into them.

You've also got an original style rubber bushing installed at both ends

and an original style overload spring in the spring pack and a wedge to correct your pin angle. Now, what all this means is that these basically bolt right in place of your stock springs. Now to go with these springs,

we got some Skyjacker platinum series gas shocks and once again, these bolt right in place of your stock shocks. So these are the parts.

Let's go put them in.

Welcome back to trucks. The show where we think it's just wrong to leave anything stock case in point, a brand new Ford F 150

we just made it better by fitting a six inch Skyjacker suspension lift on it.

Now we come to the final step wheels and tires come and check these out.

The wheels are brand new from weld racing and they call these the dagger. Now these are a super strong one piece fours, all polished aluminum wheel

and it's a very unique multi spoke design kind of similar to the old turbine wheels from years ago. Very cool. Now, the outer rim has got these simulated studs in it to give you kind of a bead lock look and the size is a very wide 17 by 10.

Now, the tires,

the tires we got from Mickey Thompson

and these are the new Baha

Claw radials, which means you still have the look, you still have the tread, you still have the traction of the original Baha

Claw.

But since it's a ra

it's gonna be much more for giving much more quiet, much more drivable on the highway.

So if you want a very aggressive tire for mud and rocks, but you still want to be able to drive down the road a lot.

This is the tire to check out. And the size 35 1250.

Well, there it is the new Ford F 150 finally looking like it should all jacked up and ready to go play. And the best part is this project is only gonna roll about halfway up our difficulty meter

because this really is something that a competent do it yourselfer can pull off in a weekend.

Go ahead. Take a good long look at it. You know, you want one of these.

All right. I know you've been drooling about these other trucks. I've got sitting here in the shop and I guess I've made you suffer long enough. So we're gonna take a look at them. But first, I've got a question for you.

If you own a company that specializes in Tano covers,

how do you get the word out? Well, if you're Bill Gaylord. You build some wicked trucks to showcase the product.

That's what this is starting with an unsuspecting 1952. Chevy

seven inches was whacked out of the roof. The doors were smooth and suicided

and then the windshield center divider was tossed in the trash to make room for a much slicker V but style windshield.

The interior screams old school custom with its rolled and pleated upholstery

round gauges, fuzzy dice. lots of chrome on the dash.

A classic La

Carra steering wheel

and of course, you gotta have a huge rat f

style shifter.

The chrome continues in front on the grill and the bumper,

the hood is sectioned and peaked to get it nice and low.

And then you got some wild purple flames running all over the front and down the side

under that hood is an eye popping, rubber burning small block Chevy decked out with a Gay Banks twin turbo system

pulling in enough boost to lift the space shuttle and sending about 600 horsepower to those rear tires

back. The flames continue not only on the fenders and the tunnel cover,

but even all over the wood and the bed. Now you'd think with all this bill would be done right

now. This is just the way he does a classic truck. We'll take a look at how he does a newer truck when we come back.

Welcome back. You know, when Bill Gaylord was a kid growing up in the sixties and seventies in California.

Well, he was exposed to some of the coolest cars and trucks of the day.

So it's really no surprise that he grew up being a custom truck guy

and owns a company that builds some of the nicest tunnel covers in the business. But

one thing he always wanted to build is the ultimate California cruiser. So, starting with a 2003 Ford F 150

the Gaylord Speedster was born,

the first thing that had to go was the roof. Why?

So you can take full advantage of the sun's rays, but that's not all. No.

The windshield was also laid back three inches for a more streamlined look and the doors were kept and shaved to make this a true Roadster

to get the front to match. 2.5 inches were pie cut out of the front fenders to slam the front end down

and then the nose was finished off with a handmade hood grill and bumper to make this thing super slick and clean.

Of course, the interior received some serious attention too

as everything that resembled the stock four dash was removed and tossed

and a custom metal dash and console was created. And of course, it holds all the gauges and stereos and DVD S that you would expect in

a modern custom.

And of course, the seats flow right

into the twin speed bumps on the tunnel cover.

The surgery continues out back with the bed being narrowed two inches in the rear.

The rear steps were removed, a roll pan was molded in

and the tail lights were hidden just to make people scratch their heads and ask questions

until somebody hits the brake pedal.

The stance is controlled by a full air ride suspension to get this thing down on the ground where it belonged.

Now, the truck sits on twenties in the front and 20 twos in the rear

to really fill out the wheel wells with style.

Now, a lot of trucks like this are thought to be all looks and no substance.

No, this isn't one of those trucks. This has a 5.4 V8 that's packed in a super charger to get the air in

and the spent gasses bellow out of twin side exhaust.

Well, that's a look at some of the ingredients that went into Bill Gaylord Speedster. So,

was he successful?

Is this the ultimate California cruiser truck?

Well, look at it this way.

Who wouldn't wanna drive this thing around on a nice summer day?

That's where I'm going after the show. Bill.

You are gonna need some new rear tires.

Everybody knows that you need tools to work on your truck. And if you've got tools, well, you need a place to keep them and that is where DZ comes in with these wrench works tool boxes

and these are a nice heavy duty polish stainless steel, easy opening lockable drawers and then you've got casters on the bottom so you can roll this thing right over to your work area. So,

if you've got the tools,

dzs got your boxes.

Wow. Nice.