Chris(NJ); Slowly but surely, a build journal

New NAPA rebuilt calipers went on tonight. with less than 16 hours before the road trip lol. Pedal feels a little softer and lower than normal, but I'm thinking that might be from the old caliper sticking so the piston/pads were right up against the rotor the whole time.

Same mileage: 217,630

 

Oh and new Crown SS lines went on at the same time too.

 

Man I tell ya...things are just failing left and right around here! Stock subwoofer cracked during the road trip. When I did the stereo upgrade I only changed the head unit and 4 door speakers. Left factory amp and sub in tact. Now all that'll remain from stock is the factory amp. Just ordered a Pioneer TS-A2000LD2 sub. I had like $35 in Crutchfield rewards so that basically chopped off 20%. I may have considered other options if it wasn't for the rewards. I'm sure it'll be fine for my purposes though. Factory sub/amp already removed. New one should be here on Saturday.

 

New speaker went in a few weeks ago but I was overseas so didn't update this thread w/ the obligatory picture! Also gave the headlights their annual dehazing....

 

Dropped it off today to have the roof, hood and grill repainted.

 

I'll have to snap some better pics in daylight. They rushed to get it back to me tonight before the weekend. (and they also forgot my antenna lol)

 

Oh and I told them to leave the drip moldings off b/c I need to reinstall the roof rack.

 

Overspray! Holy moly. It's like they clearcoated the rear glass and the rear cab corner. Sorta hard to capture but.......





And you can see the top half is now cleaned up making it easier to see what I was dealing w/ on the paint.

 

0000 Steel wool made quick work of the glass.

Clayed the remaining paint and went on to clay the entire truck. Door jambs and all. Looking fresh.

But here's the cleaned up overspray corner....





I also went on to use the 0000 on the rubber window trim. Really cleaned up the caked on grime that was on the bottom edge of the trim. You can see the 50/50 shot here.....

 

Now I need to polish the paint. Maybe tomorrow or whatever. Obviously can't touch the new paint yet. But I need to get the micro swirls out from claying this thing. Then lay down some protection for the winter.
Also want to order new drip molding for the winter.

Two more shots of the new paint from this morning as I was inspecting everything. Only one paint drip on the leading edge of the hood (on underside). Rest looks good. They did manage to buff off some of the powdercoating from the center mesh grill. So I need to put some touchup paint in there. Otherwise good to go!

 

Huge thank you to @6 gearT444E and the other clowns who showed up to help a guy when he was down. Busted right hand and these guys insisted we press on with the clutch install. A lot of beer, food, cursing and shits later.... we've got a new clutch! Replaced everything but the master cylinder for now. .I'll get to that another day.

Installed @ 221,884 miles

 

@6 gearT444E is a great guy

 

I’ll make note of the extra billing over the standard 4 hour book time

glad we got it done, certainly a marathon weekend of beer, food, and wrenching!

 

This showed up a week late for installing while we had the oem pipe down for the clutch. But...better late than never and a new excuse to cook great food, drink good booze and install cool parts at @6 gearT444E 's place

Sub zero fabrication mid pipe. 2.5"

 

Installed that ^^^^ @SubZero_907 piece this weekend!

223,090 miles on the truck.


Quality product. Love it. Noticeable bump in power. No MPG gained or lost (after first tank of gas on 80% highway). Nice change in exhaust note.


Out w/ the old.....







In w/ the new..... (And new o2 sensors on both sides)






No more pipes hanging below that crossmember....

 

Same weekend, same mileage (223,090) Changed the front crank seal. Old one was leaking for quite some time. So much so that it probably sealed itself back up with all the dirt and prevented larger leaks lol

 

these mod days are finally coming up a win for me

t

 

we should turn that pulley into a clock! Or make it functional somehow if you decide to leave it as a permanent fixture up there

 

shouldn’t be too hard, I’ll order up some parts and that can be next mod days “mod”

https://www.ebay.com/itm/365001396320

 

I was thinking maybe something like this lol