Background
Purchased from original owner in July 2016 with 17,000 miles. My parents picked it up in Arizona and drove it 2,000 miles back home to North Carolina
Over the last 2 years, I installed the following upgrades (in order):
August 2018
My wife and I were planning to remodel our master bathroom during August so I decided to park my Raptor at my parent’s house (6 miles away) to avoid the risk of it getting dented or scratched by the tile workers since the garage had turned into the staging area for all the materials.
On Wednesday, August 8th, 2018, I received a call from my dad on my way home from work that he had just experience the worst storm he’d ever seen in his lifetime (which they determined after the fact to be straight line winds in excess of 100 mph) and that their 100+ year old white oak tree was laying on his 2016 F350 and my 2013 Raptor… To say I was devastated would be an understatement. Thankfully nobody was hurt during the storm and my parent’s house survived with only minor damage but they did have over 54 trees (that were at least 2 feet in diameter) down across their 100-acre property and most of them landed on fencing, gates, etc. As soon as I got home, my wife and I headed to my parent’s to make sure they were ok (my mom sounded devastated on the phone) and to inspect the damage to the Raptor. This is what we saw when we pulled in the driveway:
(The Raptor in this picture is my dad's which somehow managed to escape unharmed even though it was parked right next to mine.)
I was shocked at how painful it was to see this. I’ve owned numerous vehicles over the years and I’ve spent significant time on each of them turning them into exactly what I wanted but this is the first vehicle I’ve owned that I honestly never had any intentions of selling. Our insurance agent arrived shortly after us to take an initial assessment of the damage and get the claim process started. Once he left, we spent the rest of the evening herding cattle and goats into the one section of fence that wasn’t damaged (again, thankfully no animals were injured during the storm either).
These pictures were taken the next day once they were able to bring in a crane to lift the tree off the trucks:
After roughly a week, the insurance company determined that the truck was totaled but gave me the option to purchase it back with a Salvage title for $5,000. This was a no-brainer for me considering I had spent at least that much in upgrades and by some miracle the truck was still drivable (although a little uncomfortable considering the condition of the cab).
Over the last 3 months I’ve been debating on what I wanted to do. Not owning a Raptor was out of the question (and it had to be a Gen 1) so it left me with the following options:
Parts that will need to be replaced:
Purchased from original owner in July 2016 with 17,000 miles. My parents picked it up in Arizona and drove it 2,000 miles back home to North Carolina
Over the last 2 years, I installed the following upgrades (in order):
- ****** Passport MAX (including Blendmount and hardwire kit) (later upgraded to the ****** Passport MAX 360)
- Bugscreen
- Bed Liner
- JLT Oil Catch Can
- JDM 675HP Upgrade Package (65MM Ford Racing Throttle Body, NGK Iridium Spark Plugs, JDM Custom Tuning)
- Retrax Bed Cover
- Geiser Springs (Mid Perch)
- RPG Stage 3 with +2 Deavers
- BFG KO2 37x12.50R17
- GJ Motorsports 3rd Brake Light (ordered, not installed)
August 2018
My wife and I were planning to remodel our master bathroom during August so I decided to park my Raptor at my parent’s house (6 miles away) to avoid the risk of it getting dented or scratched by the tile workers since the garage had turned into the staging area for all the materials.
On Wednesday, August 8th, 2018, I received a call from my dad on my way home from work that he had just experience the worst storm he’d ever seen in his lifetime (which they determined after the fact to be straight line winds in excess of 100 mph) and that their 100+ year old white oak tree was laying on his 2016 F350 and my 2013 Raptor… To say I was devastated would be an understatement. Thankfully nobody was hurt during the storm and my parent’s house survived with only minor damage but they did have over 54 trees (that were at least 2 feet in diameter) down across their 100-acre property and most of them landed on fencing, gates, etc. As soon as I got home, my wife and I headed to my parent’s to make sure they were ok (my mom sounded devastated on the phone) and to inspect the damage to the Raptor. This is what we saw when we pulled in the driveway:
(The Raptor in this picture is my dad's which somehow managed to escape unharmed even though it was parked right next to mine.)
I was shocked at how painful it was to see this. I’ve owned numerous vehicles over the years and I’ve spent significant time on each of them turning them into exactly what I wanted but this is the first vehicle I’ve owned that I honestly never had any intentions of selling. Our insurance agent arrived shortly after us to take an initial assessment of the damage and get the claim process started. Once he left, we spent the rest of the evening herding cattle and goats into the one section of fence that wasn’t damaged (again, thankfully no animals were injured during the storm either).
These pictures were taken the next day once they were able to bring in a crane to lift the tree off the trucks:
After roughly a week, the insurance company determined that the truck was totaled but gave me the option to purchase it back with a Salvage title for $5,000. This was a no-brainer for me considering I had spent at least that much in upgrades and by some miracle the truck was still drivable (although a little uncomfortable considering the condition of the cab).
Over the last 3 months I’ve been debating on what I wanted to do. Not owning a Raptor was out of the question (and it had to be a Gen 1) so it left me with the following options:
- Purchase an already modified Raptor and part out the wrecked one
- Purchase a stock Raptor, transfer my upgrades, part out what’s left of the wrecked one
- Rebuild my wrecked Raptor
Parts that will need to be replaced:
- Cab
- Front Passenger Door
- Rear Passenger Door
- Passenger Bedside
- Passenger Taillight
- Hood
- Tailgate
- Sound Deadening
- Billet Oil Pump Gears
- ADD PRO Front Bumper
- 72mm Supercharger Pulley
- Lessons learned from anyone who has done a similar rebuild
- Leads on a Tuxedo Black Cab (the closest one I’ve found so far is 300 miles away in Virginia)
- Upgrades I should consider during the rebuild
