Home Automotive St. Patrick’s Day Showstopper: ADA Offroad’s Ford F-250 Platinum Super Duty

St. Patrick’s Day Showstopper: ADA Offroad’s Ford F-250 Platinum Super Duty

March 19, 2024

Elvis wore blue suede, David Bowie wore red shoes for dancing the blues and Paul Simon sang of a girl who had diamonds embedded in the soles her shoes. But Josh White of ADA Offroad went “Footloose” on his Ford, a 2015 F-250 Platinum Super Duty. You just can’t miss fancy footwork of its Full Throttle 8-inch lift, powdered and painted in Lime Time metallic green, along with its spiked American Force rims.

“551 horses and 1,104 lbs. of torque”

Time Crunch

Josh completed this suspension upgrade within nine days, for the Lifted-Truck Nationals. That’s because his firm has been handling show trucks for several years. In fact, the company built five trucks within a month for the SEMA 2015 show.

But Josh didn’t start out with high-steppin’ Fords and other pickups. Back in 2000, he founded Arkansas Direct Auto, a used car lot, but soon realized he needed to stand apart from the local competition, so he began offering lifted trucks—more than a marketing approach, though, “I actually enjoy lifted trucks,” he enthuses.

All the Details

It’s no surprise that his passion morphed to ADA Offroad which creates custom rigs for all types. One of the more popular upgrades is to install a 7-inch lift on 20-inch rims with 35-inch tires. Josh is particularly fond of using Full Throttle’s Ford suspension setup, with taller springs and twin-reservoir shocks up front, along with higher spring packs and blocks in the rear. He says the setup goes on in only a day, unless he’s applying custom colors like those seen here—and there’s the rub. He shared some insider tips for those who are considering a similar color treatment.

“The Prismatic Illusion powder-coating goes on first, and then we match the color with paint on those parts that can’t be powdered, such as the drag link and front driveshaft. All told, the whole underneath of the truck has been powdercoated or painted.” –Josh White

“We even did the rotors and calipers,” Josh points out. It is necessary to plug the hydraulic line holes on the brake calipers and then turn the rotors in a lathe afterward so that the pads can contact the metal. The rest of the brake components will be protected from corrosion. He also upgraded the front with Readylift’s anti-wobble, heavy-duty Trac Bar. Straight bar kits are usually required for trucks that have more than four inches in lift.

Getting the colors of the paint and powder to look exactly alike isn’t easy, though. “The powder coating color never lays like the sample,” he points out. “It’s usually a shade or two darker.” And even though the laser color-matching system he uses comes close to matching the hues of the powder and paint, he usually does a “spray out” on a couple test sheets of aluminum for pre-check. He then compares the two colors side by side to ensure they are perfectly in sync. He’s used this method time and again on all sorts of suspension colors—blue, yellow, purple, whatever.

But he kept the brightest shade of metallic lime green for himself: “It’s my personal truck. I wanted it to stand out,” he says. “Prismatic offers a whole illusion line of colors. All of them contain a high amount of metal flake, and they are then topped with a clear-vision topcoat. We like to use them because even if the smallest amount of light hits any part of the lift then the color really pops.” Snyder Customs did all of the powdercoating and has been handling all of Josh’s builds for the past four years.

Pure Show

While his Ford is a promo vehicle for his firm in every sense of the term, it’s not just a showboat. There’s more to the build since he uses it to tow a 2008 Corvette racecar and a 27-foot Crownline bowrider. He travels far to attend auto auctions and needs a reliable, smooth cruiser.

But not dirt trails. He jokes that his Ford Platinum is a “Pavement Princess” rather than an offroader. “It doesn’t get muddy,” he admits, since it’s a show truck that needs to stay clean to represent his company. But he made an exception to our shoot by kicking up dust in the desert as well jumping a large berm.

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New Shoes

This trip was made possible by the rolling stock, which provided him with plenty of grip and grunt. American Force rims, as stated at the beginning, are used. Josh’s contact at the company, Andy, who’s now a personal friend as well, asked him, “What can we do that is new?” He said, “I’ve always wanted to do a 10-lug conversion on a 3/4-ton truck.” So, we went with 24×14 Evos 10 lugs that were brushed and then cleared.”

It’s funny, but he bought the wheels before the truck. So, in a sense, they bought it to match the rims! Adaptors were also required for the 10-lug conversion. Interco M16 tires for a more aggressive look, and better bite.

Final touches

What about the rest of it? Several mods were added specifically for the 2015 SEMA show, since the truck was going to be displayed in American Force’s booth.

“For the grille, I turned to Luis Reyes from Gravel Empire,” Josh notes. “He made us a one-off piece with our logo in the center of it in black and chrome.” Under the hood is SCT X4 diesel tuner, custom calibrated by Punch It Performance to deliver 551 horses and 1,104 lbs. This is a significant increase in torque over the factory output. Add a Flow Pro stainless turbo-back 5-inch exhaust powdered with Prismatic High-Temp Silver. Josh contacted Johnny from Fusion Bumpers. He supplied a front bumper with four Rigid Dually LED spot beams. For reverse lights, the bumper at the back has four Rigids. The headlights have Morimoto HIDs and Recon LED Smoked Cab Lights. Derek Zacha, of Undercover, provided a tonneau in the same color as the truck’s factory finish to protect cargo. A soft Bedrug is used to finish off the cargo space, along with two Undercover swing cases which are tucked into the wheel wells. The cases are capable of holding up to 75 lbs. These cases are designed to hold up to 75 lbs.

Is there anything else Josh would like to do to his truck or add to it? Nope, he’s happy with everything as is, as he feels he’d have to start over if he were to make any more changes. All told, this Ford has kicked off its Sunday shoes and is ready to cut loose…footloose. DW