Countdown to SEMA 2025: Stock to Not Hits Full Send

SEMA 2025 is Coming Up Quick

Last issue, we took our “factory fresh” frame, made it a roller, and took a few minutes to gather our sanity before the strenuous part—putting it all back together again.

A lot has happened in the past month. Tyler and the gang have been on full kill mode making this truck a true one-off machine to show this year in Las Vegas! From getting the engine all the way down to nothing, plus minimizing the wiring harness to hide within the body panels, there has been a great deal of work put in. We even had our buddy Devan Ence, editor of F-Series Builder’s Guide and Tread magazine, come out and put his skills to the test by getting the truck smoothed out and bodyworked in just a few short but long days out here in Oklahoma.

The next stop the truck made was straight to getting painted instead of being wrapped. This month has been a long one.

MAKING 12 VALVES RELEVANT AGAIN

We’re really trying to make a statement in the magazine with this build, seeing that we’ve been perfecting this truck for two years now. We went through the motor and gave it a fresh coat of paint, along with a Hamilton 188/220 cam and 1.45-inch tappets from Blessed Performance to make the new Smeding S472 spool a little better on the low end. We also added some billet goodies to add some fresh shine to the engine. Nothing else is changing for right now with the fuel setup outside of going from 18 to 20 degrees of timing to get some more burn on the piston.

KEEPIN’ IT CLEAN

Tyler has been showing off his visions of hiding all of the plumbing and wiring not only under the hood but also along the frame rails using the Far From Stock frame rail mounts, which are great for managing fuel and brake lines, our FASS harness, and all other wiring harnesses. We’re also relocating the batteries, so this is a good way to run the wires for the starter and fuse box to keep them out of the way and tidy. After some long, grueling hours of bending lines and running wire loom and tape, this masterpiece is finished and ready to power up once the body goes back on.

The Holley Pro Dash and Classic Dash clusters are in our LRB Speed metal dash, and the correct sensors to plug right into the Holley harness have been installed and run. The cluster fit perfectly, even in the aftermarket dashboard, with no cutting or trimming at all—what a relief! As for the rest of the interior, it has been layered in Thermo-Tec sound-deadening mat to keep the confines cooler and insulated from loud exterior tractor sounds. A Thunder Muzzle muffler from Glory Days Speed Shop has also been added to minimize outside sound as well.

LAYIN’ PIPE

Our 5-inch polished 304 stainless steel exhaust kit from Polar Diesel wasn’t necessarily made for our second-gen (it’s actually for a fourth-gen Ram), but we were confident in the ability to make something work. It was worth it to have that awesome reflective goodness underneath our rig. It’s literally butterfly valves for your diesel truck, and it’s one of the things I’m most excited about having on Stock to Not.

Having friends who know how to do cool stuff is great. Our friend, Nathan, got the rear of the exhaust made up and cut out from a few of the pieces of the Polar Diesel kit and fit every pipe junction with a V-band clamp for a clean look and easy removal when necessary. We also flipped the turbo manifold to switch the orientation to a “high-mount” setup, which doesn’t do anything but look cooler (in my opinion).

STAYING ON SCHEDULE

With such a short time frame for SEMA, we’ve kept a pretty good stretch of making things happen with this truck to make it as fun and drivable as possible, not necessarily keeping a budget in mind but definitely being cost-minded. Tyler has spent a lot of time perfecting this machine to be as one-off and usable as possible and we are so excited to show this unit off at the show.

For the most part, this build process has been fairly strenuous, but has moved along pretty smoothly. A lot of that has to do with the fact that we’ve made a point to touch every part of this truck ourselves. We’ve had not so great experiences with shops in the past, and wanted to show that this can be done with some long nights and a few friends on the weekend. From scouring old forums to buying old service manuals for wiring schematics – Stock to Not has been really great for the magazine and everyone involved. Once again thanks for checking out another update on Stock to Not, we’re just a few short weeks ago from finishing this project out!