Our Wildtrak Build is Underway Here at Apollo Optics!

[Nick@Apollo-Optics]

Well folks, it's been quite a turn of events with our Bronco here at Apollo and we owed y'all an update! We've been working on a ton of upgrades to our new site (launching soon) and have had our hands pretty full, but now that we've got some breathing room it's time to tell y'all about our Bronco build that is live and in progress!

At Apollo Optics, we've always believed in actually installing, running, and testing the products that we offer...and our Bronco is no exception to that! Every single product that you see on this rig is a brand and part that we offer and can help you get setup on YOUR Bronco!

While our site is still in progress, if there's anything that you see here that you have questions about, feel free to send me a PM and I'll be glad to help get you dialed in!

If you follow us on social media @apollo_optics on Instagram or @apollooptics on Facebook, then you've seen some of our progress over there. But we figured it's time to give our B6G family some updates and do a full write-up!

NOW...onto the Bronco build!!

The bad news was that our Day 1 reservation got pushed back to a 2022 model, but we were able to make some changes and took delivery of our Eruption Green Wildtrak this past June! Now the good news, we've got another Bronco on the way for later this year that will be another build!

But for now, we're focusing on the Wildtrak build!

Here's what she looked like on Day 1 of Delivery:

The Bronco actually showed up a little bit early, originally slotted for July, and we were behind on our parts deliveries. So she sat for a few weeks before she went under the knife.

Now, we do our own stunts and installs here at Apollo, however, paint and body work is something we leave to the guys who are real pros. So once we got our full order from our friends over at ADV Fiberglass, we dropped her off at the local paint and body shop where she sat for nearly three months being meticulously taken apart and then put back together!

Here's some pics from along the way when we started ripping the truck apart with only 70 miles on the clock:

We opted to go with the ADV 2" Front Fenders w/ Wheel Liners, 2" Rear Quarter panels, and the Ram Air Hood. We've also seen WAYYYYY too many of these trucks where the paint was not properly blended, so we opted to repaint most of the vehicle to blend properly. And since we were already doing such a significant repaint, we had the body shop triple the amount of metallic flake in the paint. So while the new color is still Eruption Green, technically, but it's our own take on Eruption Green!

Pictures do not the color justice, in person there is a HUGE difference in depth and flake in the paint!

Here's a few pics below from when we picked her up from the body shop earlier this month!

Now that she's safely back home and in our hands, the real fun starts!

We are throwing the catalog at this truck so to speak. We're completely upgrading the suspension components and shocks, bumpers, lighting, winch, wheels, tires, performance parts, and more and we can't wait to get it started!

We're still waiting on a few of our suspension components to be back from anodizing and shipped, so we can't get our new girl up in the air just yet, but we're starting off with some cosmetic and performance upgrades for the time being.

This is it for now, but stay tuned for our next update coming later this week!

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[Dzlbudman]

Can’t wait to see the build.

 

[Nick@Apollo-Optics]

Can’t wait to see the build.

Thanks, Geoff! We're looking forward to it as well and should hopefully have her completely wrapped up next month! Then we'll be doing a full photoshoot along with detailed video on all of the parts we're using as well!

 

[Nick@Apollo-Optics]

Time for another update!

This time, we started with some of our more basic upgrades under the hood. Roush Cold Air Intake and Turbosmart EM BOV have been installed. We also will be adding a Mishimoto catch can this week and will post pictures of that up as well.

Here's a cool before and after of the under the hood upgrades:

Before:

After:

Then we started the disassembly of the front end for our new bumper upgrade plus the installation of the Oracle Grille Lights as well.

Factory grille, lower valence, and OEM bumper were removed. Then active grille shutters for the upper grille and lower intercooler opening were removed. We then pulled the Adaptive Cruise Control module and relocated it to the upper grille. Lots of disassembly to get to this point, but it is really not that bad, just a matter of keeping track of your fasteners and remembering your order of operations.

Disassembly complete:

Adaptive Cruise Control Relocated to driver's side corner near the headlight:

Once this was done, we then pulled the factory wiring harness for the front parking sensors and installed on the new bumper.

Then we went to work on the grille. Oracle letters are straightforward, drill out the factory letters, clean the grille, route your wires through, and attach with the included 3M tape.

Oh...and a little sneak peak of our wheels/tires:

The most time consuming part of the grille lights is building the wiring harness, but it's very simple. Connect all positives together and connect all the grounds together. We ran the grille lights to AUX 6 and used the front light bar "pass through" wire for power then made the connection at the upfitter. Then routed a single wire with a ring terminal and grounded it to the battery. Very clean wiring under the hood.

And here's the finished product:

Then we threw the factory valence back on and went to work on our bumper assembly.

Our bumper is fully assembled and installed on the Bronco now, but we still have to run the power for the winch and the light bar. Once that's done we'll get some pictures with the completed ADD Capture fairlead, but here's a sneak preview for now. All parking sensors remain functional as well.

** No, the bumper is not scratched. Just some little pieces of foam from the packing material.

We went with the DV8 Offroad FS-15 Series winch front bumper and it will also have the full extension side wings and skid plate. But we have some custom finishing to do on the skid plate before it gets installed.

On the bumper itself, we have a Superwinch SX12SR winch, 12k capacity and a synthetic line. We also upgraded the original Superwinch Hawse fairlead for this ADD Capture fairlead. We still have the hook to go on to complete the look, but we need to finish wiring up the winch for power before we can finalize the install.

We also opted for a 20" Baja Designs OnX6+ light bar in the bumper as well.

Lastly, we got the Baja Designs XL80 A-Pillar Kit installed and wired up along with the DV8 Offroad FS-15 Rock Sliders. More pictures of those once we finish up the wiring and can get some nice pictures that aren't just sitting in the shop.

That's all for now! We'll update again soon!

 

[DV8offroad]

Love it!!!

 

[Nick@Apollo-Optics]

Love it!!!

Thanks guys! Very pleased with the quality of the products. Fitment is perfect as well. Very little adjustment required to align the front bumper and the side wings fit perfectly.

Additionally, the Rock Sliders were spot on and installed very quickly! They look sharp are plenty strong, and they cover up those unsightly pinch welds from the factory!

 

[DV8offroad]

Thanks guys! Very pleased with the quality of the products. Fitment is perfect as well. Very little adjustment required to align the front bumper and the side wings fit perfectly.

Additionally, the Rock Sliders were spot on and installed very quickly! They look sharp are plenty strong, and they cover up those unsightly pinch welds from the factory!

Awesome to hear, can't wait to see finished photos!

 

[Nick@Apollo-Optics]

Awesome to hear, can't wait to see finished photos!

Thanks! We got the winch and light bar wiring finished up and took her out into the sun to get some pictures today. We'll get more on this tomorrow. Now, we're tackling the rear! DV8 MTO rear bumper and MBRP exhaust going on, too!

 

[Nick@Apollo-Optics]

The front bumper and accessories are now done and all wired up!

We got the Bronco out of the shop for some pictures in the sun and the paint just looks incredible.

We have our fingers crossed that the remaining suspension components will be able to ship out by the end of the week and we can get this beauty up in the air.

We also sent some accent pieces off to paint today that will be painted to match our custom anodized suspension parts!

Anyway, here's some pictures of her out of the shop and in the sun!

 

[2020FordRaptor]

The front bumper and accessories are now done and all wired up!

We got the Bronco out of the shop for some pictures in the sun and the paint just looks incredible.

We have our fingers crossed that the remaining suspension components will be able to ship out by the end of the week and we can get this beauty up in the air.

We also sent some accent pieces off to paint today that will be painted to match our custom anodized suspension parts!

Anyway, here's some pictures of her out of the shop and in the sun!

That looks amazibg!

 

[KABQ]

Other than the bumper (which you did not make), you guys are putting some serious effort into this build and I applaud that. Anodized suspension bits with matching accents? Hell yeah. And I really wish I could see the extra flake in person. Did you change the color or size of the flake at all, or just the amount?

Anyway, keep us updated, and I can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[KT_bronco]

Other than the bumper (which you did not make), you guys are putting some serious effort into this build and I applaud that. Anodized suspension bits with matching accents? Hell yeah. And I really wish I could see the extra flake in person. Did you change the color or size of the flake at all, or just the amount?

Anyway, keep us updated, and I can't wait to see the finished product.

lmaooo, can't unsee.

 

[TheRealCobraBurnout]

The front bumper and accessories are now done and all wired up!

We got the Bronco out of the shop for some pictures in the sun and the paint just looks incredible.

We have our fingers crossed that the remaining suspension components will be able to ship out by the end of the week and we can get this beauty up in the air.

We also sent some accent pieces off to paint today that will be painted to match our custom anodized suspension parts!

Anyway, here's some pictures of her out of the shop and in the sun!

Very nice

 

[Dom]

She's sweet! That's my color and I really want t get that hood. It's high on my list once I get her.

 

[Nick@Apollo-Optics]

That looks amazibg!

Thank you! We're loving the progress so far!

Other than the bumper (which you did not make), you guys are putting some serious effort into this build and I applaud that. Anodized suspension bits with matching accents? Hell yeah. And I really wish I could see the extra flake in person. Did you change the color or size of the flake at all, or just the amount?

Anyway, keep us updated, and I can't wait to see the finished product.

I totally understand where you're coming from on the bumper. Unfortunately, it's just a tough decision when you want to have the winch, and the light mount, and everything else. While it does look a bit too "underbite" for now, the truck is still on stock suspension and stock wheels and tires. Once we get the front end back up and throw the 37s on, I think it will look more balanced. I do seriously appreciate the kind words though. We wanted to go "all-in" on this build and that's what we're doing.

We're going to get some professional pictures of this truck done when it's finally complete and hopefully with the right lighting and a proper camera, we'll be able to get a more accurate representation of the paint. We keep the exact same color and size of flake as the OEM spec, we just tripled the quantity. The factory color and size has the bronze/gold accents that we're integrating into our build so we didn't see a reason to change.

And yes, we're going to be custom anodizing the tie rod ends, UCAs, rear links, and the rear diff cover for some extra accent along with some extra accent pieces on the skid plate and rear bumper to really tie it all together.

Very nice

Thank you!

She's sweet! That's my color and I really want t get that hood. It's high on my list once I get her.

Thank you! Happy to share more pictures or anything other info you'd like. We're an ADV Fiberglass dealer, happy to help get you set up when the time comes!

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