New England B.S. Thread

I did. I did a fuckton of prep work before I took it to John at NEK Collision for the welding. Lots of work with a wire wheel, degreaser, zinc etch, and POR-15. (Do not use POR-15 if you are not going to do meticulous prep, just wire wheel to clean metal and use a burr or dremel to get any perforations with thin edges cleaned out to good/better metal. Top notch work and cost was far less than I expected, it was IIRC neighborhood of $500 for the front caps as well as fabrication and welding of plating for the front cab mounts, and I had him replace the body mount bushings at the same time since he lifted the cab a few inches to clear the welding.

Installation instructions say to remove the bottom 1/4" of the frame since that's what is typically chunking out on most truck frames, but since my bottoms were solid, I left them in place and the fit was perfect.

Prep/rust removal before installation is critical (especially removing rust inside the boxed section, check out the chain flails the jeep guys use to clean their boxed frames), and you can have your installer use the drops from the Saf-T-Caps (they come as bent/laser cut and perforated sections, kept in place for shipping strength, are removed to fit frame features prior to welding) to plate over large holes from the inside if they can reach, keeping the water from getting between the frame and cap.

John also puts a layer of cavity wax inside the cap and on the frame before zipping it on, again to leave no room for moisture.

There's a link in my build thread (in my sig) to the frame drama. In fact, click the build link and ctrl+f "frame drama".

 

All higher end stuff. Hybrid Audio speakers, Arc Audio amplifier and Image Dynamics subwoofer. Going into wife's car now

 

Wow that's crazy

 

None of my Fords have had them, just the bed fenders. They're aluminum though so no rust concerns, just a weird gap between the frame and bed.

 

Didn't even see this the first read-through, EZPZ. You doing by hand or with a machine?

 

Finally done. What a nightmare. By far the dumbest and most complicated thing I have ever sewn. The cuff detail was a serious pain. I will add for the benefit of my ego that this was done without the benefit of a pattern - hand, eye, imagination, and an antique Singer with a quilting foot.

 

Man, it's been a couple of weeks.

My Mom's been in and out of the ER and a new "hospital at home" program so I've had about one day since mid-July I've been able to just come home from work and stay home. She's almost 82 and has had pneumonia 4? times in the past year. They finally figured out she had a fungal infection in her lungs that was causing it. We were back in the ER this week since her energy level crashed and I was concerned. She's back home again with the hospital-at-home programming sending EMTs daily to do a full check over, food services, etc. I'm going on vacation next week so that's going to be an adventure.

I impulse bought a guitar that wasn't nearly as nice as the seller said. It's within Reverb's definition of excellent, but the seller's version of pristine and mine certainly don't match. The clearcoat on the neck peeling is known on this guitar (even my other one has it a bit) but I'm kicking myself since I shouldn't have bought it to begin with. I bought it wanting a "nice(r)" guitar to bash on without stressing about leaving it hanging on the wall, but yeah, I shouldn't have bought it.

I got my truck back and it looked pretty good but then had to have it go back in as there was an odd paint failure. To the shop's credit they immediately ordered a new OEM bumper, sprayed it and had it on my truck with only a day downtime for me, so I can't complain there, but it's just been one thing after another.

I'm ready to get off this ride...or at least find a new Subaru to enjoy in the time being. I'm still dealing with the BS of selling leftover Corvette parts.

 

Liking because here's hoping the ride has stopped. Yikes.

 

Hopefully you’re on the upswing and have some good luck coming your way!

 

Just put a deposit on a 2024 RAV 4 hybrid. Now the WAIT for it to be built and shipped.

It will replace our 2016 CRV. Keeping the Tacoma.

 

This is how it feels trying to clean this house.

The dining room floors - Sweep and mop just to exist in the place, still visibly dirty, still odors. Hardcore mop with heavy duty detergent, still visibly dirty, still odors. Stiff brush, soapy water scrub on whole surface, corners, cracks, trim, windowsills, still dirty, still odor. High pressure steam mop, still. Still.

This morning, mineral spirits and green Scotchbrite on every single square inch, water/microfiber rinse, finally actually fucking clean.

The upshot is that the floors were so ground-in with filth and neglect that a heat gun and a plastic scraper took up all the paint splatters from when the trim and walls were (poorly) painted.

Tonight I put the magic juice on the dining room, seal the kitchen grout, and move on to the living room and downstairs hallway. I might just skip right to mineral spirits.

 

You might want to try TSP. It’s a powerful cleaner. For best results, follow up with a mop and clear water.
It’s readily available at hardware and paint stores.

 

Lol so anyone have any suggestions on what to ask a shop to make sure they have a spring compressor that can handle the diameter of a fox shock spring?

Going on #3 today hahaha

 

The problem is the filth ground into the (remaining) wax and finish, and the sheer bulk of the polymerized filth (10-15 years of animal urine buildup at a minimum, which is where most of the bad smell is coming from, as well as shoes in the house from 5 adults). I do like TSP for walls and concrete prior to paint, for sure, and I appreciate the input.

Measure the diameter and ask if their compressor will handle it. If they say "yeah definitely" tell them the last two shops said the same thing, and it's not that you don't believe them, you just know that these coils are not super common in the area and don't want to make another failed trip.

 

+1
Did my oak handrail going to the 2nd floor.
Looked black when I started, now it's almost blonde and you can see the figure in the wood.

 

If you want to make the drive, you can come out to my house. I can hook you up. I have an old wall mount rigged up.

 

I appreciate the offer Jared. Hopefully this last shop will have been the ticket!

This silly things...

 

When you call that one shop that has the big list of parts....

Downside of fox factories are the steel bodies just like they have in their real big boy race shocks.

Upside, they're just mini versions of the real big boy race shocks.

Might have brand new shock bodies for the coilovers for under $300 and just scored springs for $80. Gonna head out to buy some lottery tickets now...

 

Okay. I'm gonna post the post-cleaning "before". I'm putting some magic juice on it tonight so it can cure overnight. I'll post the afters and we can see if I chose correctly or if I should have just started with a 180 grit belt.

I'm hopeful that I got to the finish on these floors just in time to salvage it.

 

They put this stuff in kids cereal ya know!
Cinnamon Toast Crunch, cheerios, Reese’s puffs, mmmmmm, probably ok for consumption?!?