Builds The Story of Blue (1 Viewer)

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The blower motor was making weird noises again! Pulled it again and found some more debris.
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Now that things are quite again, I have started looking at the exterior powder coated parts and what it would take to restore them.
I know the sliders just need to be stripped and painted again but I am not so sure about the front and rear bumpers. Stripping them and repainting can get expensive :(

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I kind of like the bumper patina. Nice work with this thing. Really jealous of the LRA tank.
 
Truck looks great!

I'd wire wheel the sliders, sand the bumpers, and spray paint the lot of them a metallic dark gray. Come to think of it, I might do the same to the wheels and match them.
 
Use a shop vac to clean up all the debris, reached up into the cowl area as much as I could and made sure there wasn't any left up there. Spent some time cleaning up the blower rotor, sanitized the whole area with Lysol and buttoned it all up. The intake air works great now, no more noises and the air comes out strong! :clap:


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Aaaaaaand now you have hantavirus.
 
Truck looks great!

I'd wire wheel the sliders, sand the bumpers, and spray paint the lot of them a metallic dark gray. Come to think of it, I might do the same to the wheels and match them.
I really like that idea! I will start saving up for a good professional job. All the lower body claddings are fading too so perhaps get them all painted at the same time would make it easier to match the color.

As for the wheels, I'd love to get some Methods in either black or titanium color. But those would probably be a while, since there is plenty of stuff to fix before then!

Aaaaaaand now you have hantavirus.
Yes, I am going through Lysol spray like crazy. My wife commented that this looks like plague central :yuck:
 
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I use Rustoleum metallic spray paint from Lowes in the bottles that look like this. I've been really impressed with this stuff - easy to put down a nice uniform color. No runs / chips / splotchiness. It lasts 5+ years in Arizona sun on my metal fencing with very little fading, and it is super easy to touch up. The only thing it won't cover up is uneven surfaces like deep scratches.

I'd at least try it before you commit to a big-cash 'pro' job.

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I use Rustoleum metallic spray paint from Lowes in the bottles that look like this. I've been really impressed with this stuff - easy to put down a nice uniform color. No runs / chips / splotchiness. It lasts 5+ years in Arizona sun on my metal fencing with very little fading, and it is super easy to touch up. The only thing it won't cover up is uneven surfaces like deep scratches.

I'd at least try it before you commit to a big-cash 'pro' job.

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That's a great idea! Now I if I could only figure out which color is the closest match to the body claddings
 
I've had rats chew up the injector harness on a Honda Citic. It turns out the protective covering was made from some type of eco-friendly soy-based plastic. Rats love it. It does become brittle over time and starts to break up faster than other types of harness protection. Honda does sell a rhodent repellant tape. in the image below.

Some years ago I started rewrapping engine wiring harnesses with flex conduit and silicone tape. The rats in my area do not like silicone tape. No rhodent incidents since I started wrapping wires like you see in the picture.

Last winter a rat got into the engine cmpartment on this 5vzfe. I guess since it couldn't find any tasty wires to chew on, it urinated and deficated on the throttle body and left.

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Honda rhodent tape.

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F4 Silicone Tape


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I've had pretty good experience over the years painting OVER powder-coating that is faded like that but not rusted. My 4x4Labs rear bumper has been on the truck since 2008, and a couple of years ago I painted it right over the faded powder-coating and it's holding up very well. Paint adherence was fantastic after wiping down with denatured alcohol and didn't do any scuffing except on the places where there were chips on it that has gone down to the metal.
 
I've painted a few different things including my rear bumper. Painting over powder is hit or miss, but the good news is you have a lot of surface area to test it on first that is out of sight.

Spray on the new coating and then give it a few days. You're in wisconsin so after cleaning the main thing is having the metal at a temperature the paint can cure on (55*+). I think spray paint goes on better at much warmer temps. I ran a space heater in my garage for the night to get my most recent project warm enough (and dry enough so no condensation was forming). I did a similarly prepped part without letting it warm up enough and the paint cracked like a dry lake bed.

If you are looking for perfection, I'd bring it in and have it blasted prior to laying down paint. It may not be as pricey ad you think when you start looking at your own time and materials to prep it.
 
Excellent insights on painting the bumpers gents. I will call around to see how much the sand blasting would really cost. I wonder if it would be more cost effective to just invest in a air compressor and sand blast it at home!

I've had pretty good experience over the years painting OVER powder-coating that is faded like that but not rusted. My 4x4Labs rear bumper has been on the truck since 2008, and a couple of years ago I painted it right over the faded powder-coating and it's holding up very well. Paint adherence was fantastic after wiping down with denatured alcohol and didn't do any scuffing except on the places where there were chips on it that has gone down to the metal.

I've painted a few different things including my rear bumper. Painting over powder is hit or miss, but the good news is you have a lot of surface area to test it on first that is out of sight.

Spray on the new coating and then give it a few days. You're in wisconsin so after cleaning the main thing is having the metal at a temperature the paint can cure on (55*+). I think spray paint goes on better at much warmer temps. I ran a space heater in my garage for the night to get my most recent project warm enough (and dry enough so no condensation was forming). I did a similarly prepped part without letting it warm up enough and the paint cracked like a dry lake bed.

If you are looking for perfection, I'd bring it in and have it blasted prior to laying down paint. It may not be as pricey ad you think when you start looking at your own time and materials to prep it.
 
More updates. Got a fresh alignment and was told, the steering rack needs new bushings. Guess what! new poly bushings were included. All I need to do id find some time to put them on. For extra encouragement the local dealership quoted $360 to just replace the bushings :eek:
New numbers look pretty good!

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One more thing that has been a mystery from get go was that both headlight low beams were inop. I figured both bulbs can't be busted at the same time, so started looking at the wires. Found both headlight wiring harnesses were chewed through :flush:
Well long story short, I spent some quality time rebuilding the harness and then found out both bulbs were indeed busted o_O. Two new bulbs later we have working headlights!!

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Lol damn critters wth.

Not the first time she lost both bulbs at the Same time either. That set has like 10-20k miles of use on them. Was gonna do a projector retrofit to HID native projectors but I never got around to it.
 
Lol damn critters wth.

Not the first time she lost both bulbs at the Same time either. That set has like 10-20k miles of use on them. Was gonna do a projector retrofit to HID native projectors but I never got around to it.
Yes the critters had a ball with under hood wires! The whole dual battery system is going bonkers because of the chewed up wires. I guess the more time I spend on these wires, the more familiar I get with all the upgrades!

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More updates. Got a fresh alignment and was told, the steering rack needs new bushings. Guess what! new poly bushings were included. All I need to do id find some time to put them on. For extra encouragement the local dealership quoted $360 to just replace the bushings :eek:
New numbers look pretty good!

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Where'd you get the alignment done? That report is way more detailed than the one I got from Tires Plus, and they didn't give me any feedback at all afterwards!

Also let me know if you need beta for the bushings – I just did mine in January. A real PITA....
 
Where'd you get the alignment done? That report is way more detailed than the one I got from Tires Plus, and they didn't give me any feedback at all afterwards!

Also let me know if you need beta for the bushings – I just did mine in January. A real PITA....
This was at the local Toyota dealership. It was quite funny to see the tech guys all coming over and checking out the truck - A couple of them even came up to me and asked about different upgrades.
BTW our local Tires Plus are the scum of the earth and I won't send even my worse enemies there.
 
More updates. Got a fresh alignment and was told, the steering rack needs new bushings. Guess what! new poly bushings were included. All I need to do id find some time to put them on. For extra encouragement the local dealership quoted $360 to just replace the bushings :eek:
New numbers look pretty good!

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Those look solid! I think you mentioned somewhere asking them to maximize camber and that you got 3*, but it looks like the caster that's at 3*, camber barely less than 0*. Can you even get -3* camber with the stock UCAs?
 
Those look solid! I think you mentioned somewhere asking them to maximize camber and that you got 3*, but it looks like the caster that's at 3*, camber barely less than 0*. Can you even get -3* camber with the stock UCAs?
Caster is the number you want high, camber is set to 0.
 
Caster is the number you want high, camber is set to 0.

That's what I thought. For some reason I though I had read mention of camber though as well and was curious how and why. But clearly I dreamt it.
 

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