Help me trick my truck!

I was reading through the OBS picture post and got to thinking about my truck. I had mine repainted last year and expected to like it more, but never really was happy with the way it looks. My truck is shown below.

One thing I really dislike is the color of my flatbed. I painted it black and the paint company supplied me with a tinted black, which looks very brown. They gave me some free paint in return, but it was too late to use it. I'm going to sandblast the bed and repaint it. It's a bradford built flatbed. Now, I think pinstriping will help it a lot, but I have no idea how to do this. Is there a book or anything on pinstriping that I could get?

Regarding the truck, a new bumper and painted grill would go a long way. I'd like to get the clear headlights and cab lights, and I think a trim piece along the doors will help. I have to get one door painted later this year as someone keyed it, and I think I'm going to have him pinstripe the door too to hid the masking line.

What other suggestions are there? I really like the stock look, with the nice details. I'll go back through that post and find a picture of the trucks I really liked for an idea. I'm mainly curious how the flatbed fits in there - how much that will affect the look of the truck.

I went through and pulled the pics of the trucks I really liked the most. I notice most all have the trim on the side of the doors, and what surprised me is that none had the pinstriping that I was considering doing along the side of the cab. It seems that the front end of the truck makes a big difference too, like the brightness of the headlights and grill.

I really like the stock look, no billet grilles, aftermarket bumpers or wheels.

More I really liked.

I vote for some nicer rims for your truck not fancy like nice looking alcoa's

Tint your windows, add some cargo lights to the flatbed, maybe consider LEDs for the flatbed maker lights, consider underbed toolboxes, runningboard/nerfbars

The flatbed actually has quite a bit of lights in it already. It's a bradford built bed.

Pics of new ones are below.

I really like the tinted window idea. I actually hadn't considered that. Looking at a lot of those trucks they have tinted windows.

I can help you with anything OBS you might be needing

If you go with LED replacements in the flatbed you might ask around about the draw, I remember something about since the LEDs don't draw as much they short out if not done correctly. Another thought would be smoked "drip" guards on the side windows.

tint the windows, get alcoa wheels, paint the trim around windshield, smoke cablights, get clear or smoked headlights, put some chrome accent across the bottom of the doors.

chromehound said:

If you go with LED replacements in the flatbed you might ask around about the draw, I remember something about since the LEDs don't draw as much they short out if not done correctly. Another thought would be smoked "drip" guards on the side windows.

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They don't short, but you have to add a resistor to them to make the blinkers work properly.

Ok maybe that's what it was, I just remember something didn't work right when swapped to all LEDS.

If you decided to go with the all clear/black look, Truck-Lite makes all the LED lights for your flatbed in clear with amber/red LEDs in them, just another idea.

Hey I see my dad's old F450 used for a suggestion.
Ranchhand bumper for sure. I say keep the wheels but paint them darker. I'd go with aftermarket tinted headlights instead of clear. Maybe instead of painting the grill and bezels you could swap for the stock gray. Some steps would look nice as well.

Rims and painting the bed will go along way.

If you like chrome but not to much of it look at my avatar pic. Got the chrome strips along the bottom and on top of the bed rails.

redneckabbott said:

Hey I see my dad's old F450 used for a suggestion.
Ranchhand bumper for sure. I say keep the wheels but paint them darker. I'd go with aftermarket tinted headlights instead of clear. Maybe instead of painting the grill and bezels you could swap for the stock gray. Some steps would look nice as well.

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Anymore pictures of the truck with the SD mirrors??