New England B.S. Thread

morning guys

 

True... I'm wondering if/when the dissimilar materials fight is going to come my way with the truck. So far, I haven't come across it but I haven't owned an aluminum vehicle long enough for it to develop either.

 

Eh. Aluminum panels have been on vehicles for over a decade without any real issues. An all-aluminum truck is less likely to have problems than one with mix&match panels, as long as the frame is isolated properly, since there's fewer potential 'contact' points.

 

Humvee's are a prime example. Steel frame with an aluminum body. As long as you make sure the body mounts/bolts are isolated and inspected often, you're fine.

 

Have you seen the pictures of the new Bruins seats? Apparently they took an inch from each seat to fit another seat in each row. They added over 500 seats. This is a 5'11 guy with a 32" pants size. TD Garden says #%€k you to the fans with their new "Black Out" seats. There is also no chance someone can "squeeze by" which could happen with the old seat. The entire row has to stand and twist to let people by.

 

That just looks incredibly uncomfortable!

 

New Frame, crappy alignment. Told them what I wanted my alignment numbers to look like...I know I had caster at like 2.1+ before the frame replacement but they couldn't even get it over 1.0

Suggestions for a good alignment shop around Boston or Beverly MA?

 

Be happy you have a new frame... My GF's 2007 FJ had extensive frame surgery by Dr. Emelianenkov for a completely rusted out crossmember (where the upper rear axle links connect to the frame). The crossmember alone cost us $425 and months worth of weekends cutting and grinding and swearing and bleeding.

 

I overhead them on the phone with another customer, they said her rear subframe was so bad they were refusing to work on it and told her they basically thought it was totaled. It was a 2000, but not sure on the model.

I'm very happy to have a new frame and LCAs etc. and they didn't even give me a hard time about lift, bumpers, shell w/RTT, etc. that I didn't take off (I removed the skids and sliders but I wasn't going to do the rest by myself).

 

Lucky lucky. We just had a truck load of frames dropped off around lunch time.

 

The guy who sold me my truck said he was skeptical of GM's approach for that reason. I figured it was just typical sales guy talk to come up with positives for the brand he's selling, but maybe there's some truth to it?

 

What sort of short-bus designs are GM using?

 

The Cliffs Notes version is that they're doing a mix & match. Aluminum hoods & fenders, and (I think?) exterior bedsides on the new trucks. Steel cab, doors, & bed panels

Edit- I just double-checked; the fenders are still steel. The 'Swing Panels' are aluminum, so the hood, doors, and tailgate.


GM has handicapped themselves when it comes to using Aluminum for the next decade or so with those idiotic 'toolbox slap' commercials.

 

...and the aluminum man ad. That was even worse because it didn't attempt to make a reasonable argument against it like the toolbox ones did. It ended with "Some things shouldn't be made of aluminum" followed by doors opening to reveal the last generation Silverado.

 

Yeah.. I'm looking forward to a fully-steel Ferd.

 

Meh. Steel, Aluminum, whatever. They'll all corrode if you don't take care of them. Even if the beer can bodies stay perfect forever (unlikely) the rolling chassis are still steel.

 

So, lots of vehicles my FIL had, two stuck out I want. A 88' 3500 Sierra with a dump on it, in good shape with a sticker that's good until mid year 2020. And a 77' GMC 7000 with a huge dump box on it, this truck also has a sticker that's good for a while, and frame was gone over recently and everything touched up and it runs well, and is a few thousand under the commercial requirements. I'm most likely going to purchase both, use the 3500 as my plow truck and keep the big boy for, well whatever the hell comes up I suppose. Flirting with the idea of getting rid of the box on the back and getting a flatbed for it so it could be a tractor/car hauler...

 

All of those options sound awesome, but I'm super into the ramp truck idea.

 

If anyone needs the Lug nut adapter for SCS rims I have an extra. Bought lugs and the tool/key, but the lugs apparently included one as well, which I didn't realize.

Free to a good home if you want to pick it up - in Winthrop MA.