It looks the part and feels the part. I tested it out in his truck today and ordered one myself (Amazon prime ftw) before I got up, lol.
Paving the way for us! Thanks Chris.
The factory rubber isolator and plate increase the diameter of the locating pin, like a sleeve that encompasses the spring pack. The spring perch then has a large hole in it to center the whole assembly. If you remove the rubber isolator and encompassing plate, then the spring center pin is...
I never ran the rubber isolators, but they came from the factory. Just sing your heart song, it doesn't matter, as long as you retorque your u-bolts after 500 miles or so.
Pulling the skin down probably won't work. If anything we probably didn't put enough butyl tape up there.
IMO let it relax in the sun for a bit then squirt some heavy body seam sealer between the butyl and roof skin.
You we're by yourself for the bodywork sanding mostly. 45-50 man hours is my guess, maybe as much as 60.
The amount is highly variable for other jobs though, depending on how much rust in the "halo" structure there is to repair. If none of the gutters have to come off it would go faster. Also...
It's basically the same as caulking your bathtub or a toilet. Same process. You can use a tool to smooth it out, or just your finger. I prefer the finger route because I'm not fancy. It smears a little if you don't tape the edges of the caulk seam, but it's getting painted over anyway, and...
Couple more pics from this morning if I may. The blotches you see are where the bondo skimmed areas soak up the primer coats a little more than the rest of the already primed metal. Color won't soak into them now that they've been primed.
We're super proud of how the sides came out.
Oh yeah, this is what the paint looks like after the stripper sits on it for a day. I used this stripper when I did moonshine a few years ago, it works very well.
There's plastic over the stripper to prevent it from drying out too quickly, so it can work longer.
Order is:
Epoxy primer right on bare metal
Final hammer work, skim coat of bondo (1/32" thick or less) wherever needed
Another coat of Epoxy primer
Single stage color, 2-3 coats depending on our patience
Edit: Nason color matched single stage, and Eastwood direct to metal Epoxy primer.
Lol, repeat after me; "a grinder and paint makes me the welder I ain't"
Seriously though, lots of prep and some prior experience to get it to finish out like this. The goal is always to make it look like no repair was ever done.
Nope, mig welded and careful sanding the weld down flush. Nothing special for the fold in the gutter either, that just gets welded solid and reshaped too.
I can't think of another example (on the forum anyway) where someone has taken the roof cap off to repair the upper body structure like this. I'm super stoked that @Hokie LX chose this path.
One neat thing I learned today is that the entire rain gutter is spot welded to the body stampings from...
Somewhere between 2 and 6 is the sweet spot in my experience. My truck drove well with flat caster, but it drove better on the highway with 4* shims added. Like dog above said, much less wander with ruts/grooves in the highway, and easier steering return to center.