Look Down On Your Prey with a Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Lift Kit

I have been wanting to lift the Matchbox Ford F-150 SVT Raptor for quite some time now.  Thanks to my recent experience making the Z bars for my drift cars I had an idea.  In the past my 'lift kits' had consisted of multi-piece chassis that frequently involved more than a bit of cutting and grinding to accomplish.  Another down side with that technique is that it is very hard to find a donor that has wheels that align properly with the wheel-wells on the new truck.  Even then, you may think you have it right only to find that you have just spent an hour grinding away on something destine for the junkyard.

Now that I was almost certain that my Raptor would not end up in the junkyard I set to work.  I carefully drilled the pilot holes in the posts, taking extra care to not break through the plastic floor of the truck bed.  Once I had Dremelled through the mushrooms and cleaned up the posts I set to work making Z bars from .032 brass rod that would accommodate the massive tires I planned on stuffing under the Raptor.

The only modification that I had to make on the chassis was to file some channels for the Z bar to rest in so they would not float about. This was done using a triangular file.  Once the Z bars were mounted I pinched the chassis and the interior together to keep the axles from moving as I mounted the wheels using the .031 crimp tubes I had picked up from the craft store.  This time around I added the slightest drop of super glue gel to help hold the crimp tubes in place.  In mounting the full size spare I did have to do a bit of grinding and drilling but I figured that the results had been so good that I had no problem committing to finish the overall look of the truck.