Florida B.S. Thread

He is good at that lol

 

Well, I finally got around to performing door surgery today. Changing the handle on the OGT wasn't terrible, but it wasn't any fun either. Changing the door latch/lock actuator on the T4R sucked ass, but it works now, so that's awesome. Thanks loads, @Key-Rei . If you feel like taking the other three out some time, I'd like to get those from you too just to have for spares, but if you don't feel like it, it's no big.

Only downside is now the OGT has a weird hetrochromia thing going on. The driver's side door handle is black and the passenger side is OD green. I was going to paint the new one, but the rattle can green I have doesn't quite match the color of the truck so I figured it'd stand out more on the door handle than it did the old bumper while leaving it black matches the color scheme of the truck. I guess some day when I get really bored, I'll take the passenger side handle off and paint it black to match the driver's side, but for now it's just going to have to look weird.

 

It's not like people can see the driver side and passenger side at the same time. Let them think their mind is playing tricks on them.

 

Tru dat, lol. I was thinking of just saying it's color coded in case I ever get confused about which side of the truck I'm on.

But seriously, it's probably going to bug my OCD tendencies until I fix it, haha.

 

Thanks to @Trident904 's misfortune with Wheelers, I saved about $30 by ordering my extended rear shocks from Headstrong.

Oh, and my SOS skids should be at Fastenal for pickup the end of this week. Looks like this weekend might be a busy one.

 

That works too!

 

Did you get a shipping notice? He told me my bumper should ship today.

 

Yep. Got the email from Eddy on 03/23. I followed up with Fastenal this morning.

 

Publix. Where parking is a pleasure. Mine’s the white one.

 

Anyone planning on off-roading soon? I’m in the Orlando area but I hear Ocala has some good spots.

 

Glad you got 'er did! If you want the other actuators I can rip them out.

As for the door handles, I can't believe I'm saying this but, plasti-derp them? Easy to mask, easy to clean up, and will make them match and provide some UV protection.

You'd have to ask someone how best to go about it though, I'm pretty handy with spray paint but man do I suck with the dip.

As for color coding to know which side, being that I spent a fair amount of time in Japan, on occasion, especially when I'm tired, I'll walk to the wrong side of a car, reach the wrong way for the seat belt, bump the door looking for the gear shift, try to look over the wrong shoulder to back up, flip my wipers on to signal a turn, and if I'm extremely fatigued, I really have to think about what side of the road I'm supposed to be on.

So yeah color coding not such a bad idea.

 

I definitely want them; the drivers side is good for about two cycles before it gets hot and quits working. No rush though. They are all currently operational for normal use.

As for the plasti-derp, that's pretty much a no-go. I don't trust even low tack tape to not pull the paint off (it's happened before), and plasti-dip on that nice rough flat paint would be a bitch to peel off, I'm betting, and it probably would take the paint with it. Best case, I just take the handle loose so I can tape the back side of it so the sticky side is out and then stick masking paper around it and then cover everything else I don't want over-spray on with a sheet then just shoot it with my semi-gloss black. It'll be a little shinier than the other side, but after the paint hardens up (after a couple months ) I can always wet-sand it with 400 grit or so to dull the shine a bit if it bugs me.

 

Well sounds like you got a plan then.

I do find it funny how tough your paint is and how well it holds up against pinstripes and the like but will lift off if you look at it wrong.

The importance of sanding off clear coat.

Paint is a great primer, clear coat isn't.

 

Ain't that the truth. I could take it back to the guy. Supposedly he guarantees his work, but at this point, he'd probably have to reshoot the whole truck and I'm really not that worried about it. I've done enough damage my own self on the trails that I'm not going to begrudge him a couple of spots where they didn't scuff up the clear coat well enough. Don't get me wrong, if you look at my build thread at the pre-paint pictures, they did a fantastic job of leveling the surfaces out where the clear coat was peeling off. It looked perfect when I brought it home from the body shop. I'm just not so pleased that they didn't take a little more time on the rest of the surfaces to prep them better.

 

I've seen a few cars get repainted, it's all about the prep work.

I have two friends who got their cars repainted, they went in on a bulk order of paint together, one did his own prep work and trailered it to MAACO, the other took his car to a well reputed independent body shop to have all the work done. Both were 240's, both were painted with the same paint more or less at the same time, Maaco's paint job looked better then, (say for some overspray that was either easily cleaned up or in areas it didn't matter and where they messed up my buddy's masking and redid it themselves getting paint on a rubber window seal) and his paintjob still looks better today.

The only difference, the one guy sanded the crap out of his old paint removing all traces of clear coat, wiped the car down with IPA and did his own masking, the other made the mistake of assuming a guy getting paid flat rate for a job was going to care as much about the car as the owner.

 

Yup and the shop that did my paint was a shop that did high-end custom work with exotics and such. I think they rushed mine through because it lacked the profit margin of their other work. They literally had the truck for two days. Charged me $800 for the minimal body work it needed and shooting it. I provided the paint which was a one gallon kit plus a one quart kit and cost me $200 due to hazmat fees on the shipping. So I only ended up paying $1k for the paint job, so while it's not accurate to say I'm happy that they rushed the prep, I can't say I'm entirely displeased. I think I got my money's worth for a truck that's mostly a trail rig and has been beaten on pretty hard. The paint is mostly still in decent shape and if it was just a pavement princess, it'd probably still look perfect. Had I paid any more than that, I probably would take it back and make him reshoot it.

 

Ramon is at it again with another group buy, this time ARB Snorkels.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/arb-snorkels-2-0-group-buy.540768/

5 more days to get in on the Wet Okole buy if anyone has missed that one.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/wet-okole-group-buy.539597/

 

Compare the group buy price with the Florida Tacomas discount @Jon4x4 can get you through 4wp. Ramon's group buys are shady sometimes.

 

Oh really?

I just placed an order with Okole through his GB, considering the code and order was all handled directly with them I'll assume that's on the up'n'up.

I do appreciate the precautionary warning!

Also thanks for letting me know about Jon, sending him a PM now.

 

Several of the GB's have had inflated or double shipping costs negating the discount.