New York Client Gets Massive 2016 Ford F350 Transformation

A repeat client all the way from New York contacted Prestige Car Audio & Marine in Metairie about doing a 2016 Ford F-350 transformation on his new truck. Our team spent significant time on going over the vehicle and exploring ideas with the client. After our discussions, we worked up a proposal that he liked, so we set a time to begin working on the vehicle.

Exterior Transformation Comes First

Our before picture shows just how much work we did to transform the front of this F350

A huge transformation took place in just the front! New headlights, painted grille and lots of extra lighting!

The new Ford emblem sits atop a rear view camera.

We began the transformation by addressing the outside of the vehicle. We disassembled and painted the front grille and installed a new Ford logo. We flushed two LED light bars into the grille, one on the top and one on the bottom. We disassembled the headlights and foglight housings, and painted them to match the truck. Then we integrated Oracle lighting into the newly painted housings. In the rear of the vehicle, we painted all the trim to match the vehicle, and installed another new Ford emblem with a built-in backup camera. In fact, we debadged the whole truck other than Ford emblems and the F-350 logo at the top of the front fender.

Wheels, Tires And Leveling Kit Set Off The Stance

The BDS lift kit allowed us to perfectly dial-in the ride height of the F350

The BMF wheels and Nitto Tire combination on this truck look incredible.

To continue with the rugged, black theme, we installed a set of BMF SOTA 20” wheels, along with a set of 35×12.50×20 Nitto Trail Grappler tires. Using Armadillo Powdercoating in black created the beautiful finish on the wheels. Our team installed a BDS leveling kit to create that perfect stance.

Additional Exterior Accessories Finishes Off The Look

The bed-cover will help protect the contents of the bed from the elements and potential theft.

We applied Llumar CTX ceramic window tint to the windows, giving the truck a mean look while blocking almost 60% of the sun’s heat. A set of Amp Research motorized PowerSteps makes climbing into and out of this beast a lot easier. We installed a Bakflip MX4 folding tonneau cover and had LineX install one of their spray-in bed liners. Thise combination gives the client great versatility whenever cargo has to be transported.

Sound Dampening Makes The Ride More Peaceful

The entire floor of the truck was covered with SoundSkins deadening material.

To help reduce any resonances caused by the powerful Audiomobile subwoofers, we treated the back wall of the truck with deadener.

To complete the sound proofing project, we covered the roof with SoundSkins as well.

If you have ever driven up the road in a truck, you know they are louder inside than a typical luxury vehicle. This client wanted peace and quiet while driving, so our team installed SoundSkins sound-damping material to the whole interior, including the roof. We completely disassembled the interior to install this great material. The result is a quieter, more solid-feeling truck that was ready for a great audio system.

Navigation Enhances Factory Screen

This particular truck had a touchscreen display, but no GPS navigation. Our installation department added the factory Ford navigation system to the factory screen, giving the client a great-performing turn-by-turn system.

Helix DSP Processor Dramatically Improves The Sound System

The Helix DIRECTOR controller gives the client finger-tip access to his audio system.

To accommodate the Helix controller below the radio our team moved the electronic brake controls to the lower part of the console.

In this truck, there is no reason to eliminate the factory stereo system in the dash if you want great sound. The way to skyrocket your audio system is by adding a sound processor. In this truck, we used a Helix DSP Pro. It takes the signal from the Ford stereo and allows us to eliminate the Ford equalization added to the music that negatively colors the sound. We then have dedicated, discrete channels for every new speaker added. This allows us to add equalization, make crossover settings and adjust digital delay to maximize the performance of each speaker. When it is fine-tuned, the results are nothing short of extraordinary.

Audiofrog Speakers Added In Front and Rear

The stock rear door, before our custom grille was added.

The grilles for the rear doors were custom molded to fit the door precisely.

The rear door inserts look like a factory piece!

The front sail panels of the doors were upgraded with Audiofrog tweeters.

When it came time to choose speakers for the truck, we went to Audiofrog, choosing the flagship GB series. We installed the GB60 6.5” woofer in the front doors, along with the GB10 1” tweeter in the stock location upfront. We machined custom speaker mounts in-house, using composite materials for the ultimate in fitment durability.

In the rear of the truck, we made a custom speaker mount and grille to move the woofer from the back wall to the rear door. We installed the GB60 woofers in the new location, as well as a set of GB10 tweeters in the original tweeter location in the rear.

Italian-made Mosconi Amps Supply The Power

The base for the amplifier mounting rack was securely bolted to the floor of the truck.

The amplifier mounting platform consisted of a base and a top trim piece.

Lots of beautiful Italian power is now on tap for the client!

The low profile of the Mosconi AS amplifiers gave us the ability to fit them under the rear seat in this Ford.

The amplifier trim plate cover lifts off for easy access to the amplifier controls.

The cover on the amplifier mounting platform helps them blend with the interior.

Even from the side, the amplifier mounting rack and cover look like they belong in the truck.

With the seat down it is almost impossible to tell that anything was added to the back of this truck.

We used a total of three Mosconi amplifiers in this build, with an AS100.4 amp for the front speakers and an identical second model for the rear speakers. They send more than 100 watts to each of the eight speakers. A Mosconi AS300.2 amplifier sends well over 1,000 watts of clean power to the subwoofers. The combination of these three amps means the client can have concert-level volume for hours on end without the system breaking a sweat.

We fabricated a custom amp rack in-house to hold all the amplifiers in a flush-mount configuration and fitted underneath the rear seat. A complementary vinyl covers the amp rack, giving it a clean, factory-installed look.

A Good Audio System Needs Bass

The additional wood pieces in the enclosure are braces to add rigidity to the enclosure and maximize the bass output.

A trim plate was fabricated to flush-mount the subwoofers as well as finish off the top of the back wall.

The subwoofer enclosure was a snug fit, but precision fitment is one of our specialties!

The four Audiomobile subwoofers provide the client with great sounding bass and lots of it!

It was now time to put some low-end bass into this system. We installed a total of four Audiomobile EVO10 10” subwoofers in a custom enclosure that fit behind the back seat. Just as with the amp rack, we covered the sub box with complementary material covered, giving it a beautiful look. To fit the enclosure and the amp rack in this F-350, the team at Prestige Car Audio & Marine fabricated custom seat mounting brackets to move it forward and up 2 inches to clear this incredible equipment. The result looked and operated as if Ford built the truck this way.

Eliminating Brown Woodgrain Continues The Black Theme

When we initially received the truck the radio trim was a brown woodgrain that did not match the interior.

Not only did we hydro-dip the side pieces, but we also blacked out the rest of the pieces of the center radio panel.

Our comprehensive transformation even included color-matching the steering wheel accents!

The OEM radio bezel was modified for the Helix controller and then hydro-dipped.

In addition to the the new finish on the air vent trim plate, the accent pieces were painted black.

The color-changed door switch plates look much better!

Many areas of the inside of the Super Duty were covered with a brown woodgrain that looked out of place. For this reason, we had Muddy Water Hydrographics change the color of all these panels to a black burlwood by hydro-dipping all of them. This change alone made the truck interior look completely different.

K40 Laser And Radar Detector Keeps The Tickets Away

Our technicians modified the lighting in the gauge cluster to illuminate when the K40 system sensed radar signals.

The rear of the truck was protected from laser attack with a K40 license plate frame with built-in defuser.

If you want to drive a vehicle the way it was meant to be driven, you need a custom-installed laser and radar detector. In this vehicle, we chose the K40 RL360i system, giving the client front and rear radar sensors. For laser protection upfront, we placed a pair of G5 laser defusers in strategic locations and a single G5 defuser in the rear on a license plate-frame mount. To see more of the radar and laser system, check out this video:

In the interior, we wanted the alerts to be special, so we disassembled the instrument cluster and set the tachometer to flash in blue for front alerts and the speedo flash in blue for rear alerts. This video shows the alerts in action.

https://youtu.be/jq8Itnj-Cp8

A Great Vehicle Needs Great Protection

Now it was time to protect the vehicle while making it more comfortable to drive. To achieve this goal, we installed a Compustar combination alarm and remote start system. We combined the convenience of the DroneMobile smartphone module with the RFP-2WT11SS two-way remote control for the ultimate in control and alerts.

A Happy Client

No job is complete until the client is satisfied. In this case, it took us several weeks of work on this F-350 to create the client’s dream truck and then some time to know how the client reacted, since we had the truck transported back to New York for delivery. We couldn’t wait to hear if he liked it. He was thrilled! As he described the finished vehicle to us, we could hear it in his voice – he loved it.

When you are ready to upgrade your vehicle, come to the pros at Prestige Car Audio & Marine in Metairie. Our team will work with you to design and build the vehicle of your dreams. You can contact us HERE for more information about any of our products and services.