Builds Vinyl Seats 100 Series Build (1 Viewer)

[VinylSeats]

Installed some Old Man Emu 2865 rear coil springs and cranked my front torsion bars. All other suspension components left stock.

After

Before

OME vs. OEM

Fitting First Spring

Important Numbers (Driver/ Passenger)
Old Front: 18.75" / 19"
T Bar Turns: 7 / 5
New Front: 20" / 20"
Front Increase: 1.25" / 1.00"
Front Wheel Suspended: 23.25" / 23.25"
Droop: 3.25" / 3.25"
Old Rear: 20" / 20.25"
New Rear: 21.75" / 21.75"
Rake: 1.75" / 1.75"

 

[VinylSeats]

After 20 years, my truck's white paint had become pretty dull. With the right products and some elbow grease, it's amazing how much better an older vehicle can look.

Spent a few hours working on the exterior and did the following:
-Sanded small chips and gashes that developed a little rust with a fiberglass pen
-Painted spots with Dupli-Color Scratch Fix All in 1
-Applied Meguiar's Ultimate Compound to revitalize old paint
-Applied Nu Finish polish

You know your paint looks better when you can now easily see the mild hail damage on your hood!

 

[VinylSeats]

 

[VinylSeats]

Telltale signs of a poor windshield install. Fortunately, the rust didn't extend too far. Some sanding and primer got me ready for paint and clear.

 

[VinylSeats]

 

[Luke111]

Keep an eye on your CV boots. Some leak some don’t..... mine started leaking after my lift. Added a diff drop and new CV boots and had to clean the grease mess it created

 

[VinylSeats]

Keep an eye on your CV boots. Some leak some don’t..... mine started leaking after my lift. Added a diff drop and new CV boots and had to clean the grease mesh it created

Will do. What lift did you go with? When did you notice the boots leaking?

 

[Luke111]

Will do. What lift did you go with? When did you notice the boots leaking?

Running OME and just happened to have the truck on a lift about 400 miles after the install and the tech indicated both side were leaking. I bought the diff drop at the same time as the lift but we ran out of time to install it that day so I really didn't think about it. Easy to install and I felt it was worth the money as it returns the axle angles back to stock

 

[VinylSeats]

Running OME and just happened to have the truck on a lift about 400 miles after the install and the tech indicated both side were leaking. I bought the diff drop at the same time as the lift but we ran out of time to install it that day so I really didn't think about it. Easy to install and I felt it was worth the money as it returns the axle angles back to stock

Got it. I'll keep an eye on it. I did not purchase a diff drop kit but will if it seems necessary for the health of the CVs.

 

[Flipped Bezel]

How's the radio reception with that Amazon shorty antenna? A tree branch bent mine again and have been considering that same replacement but curious if it will be as sensitive as the retractable. Your recent paint chip/polish looks great!!

 

[VinylSeats]

How's the radio reception with that Amazon shorty antenna? A tree branch bent mine again and have been considering that same replacement but curious if it will be as sensitive as the retractable. Your recent paint chip/polish looks great!!

Thanks! I was thrilled with how good the paint cleaned up.

As for the shorty antenna, it's worked great so far. However, most of my listening in the truck is on a Bluetooth to FM transmitter which, of course, isn't a proper test. When I do listen to the radio, the reception seems to be comparable to the OEM antenna but I haven't performed any solid tests to justify that claim.

 

[MongooseGA]

Looks great after the paintwork. Any shots of how the touch ups came out? I'm planning a multi-stage paint correction over the winter and have a touch up pen to do the same you did. Curious if you were able to get them looking pretty good or if they're still somewhat visible. Did you wet-sand the spots after building paint up a few layers?

 

[VinylSeats]

Looks great after the paintwork. Any shots of how the touch ups came out? I'm planning a multi-stage paint correction over the winter and have a touch up pen to do the same you did. Curious if you were able to get them looking pretty good or if they're still somewhat visible. Did you wet-sand the spots after building paint up a few layers?

Thanks.

This was definitely a "fix tiny rust spots, cover bare metal, get it looking good at 5 feet" paint job.

You can see below that the paint pen went beyond the bounds of the small divots on this front fender rash. I actually built up paint layers and wet sanded on another section but my truck's paint and the Dupli-Color still didn't match like I wanted it to. That probably has more to do with my automotive paint skills than anything.

After that, I decided simply to apply paint as conservatively as possible and simply cover the spots I wanted to address.

It's far from perfect but you need to be pretty close and know where to look to see anything out of the ordinary.

 

[VinylSeats]

I decided to address the incorrect moulding left by a poor windshield install under the previous owner.

@aging fleet's windshield post was really helpful to me when tackling this project.

As with many 100s, mine had a windshield incorrectly installed. Instead of the proper rivets, someone installed the side moulding with big screws. On my truck, they not only used screws, but drilled additional holes (3) and plugged the correct ones with black silicone.

Three extra holes drilled into the A pillar.

Here was my situation:

Driver Side
4 correct holes
0 OEM rivets
1 large screw

Passenger Side
4 correct holes (filled with silicone)
3 additional holes
0 OEM rivets
2 large screws

 

[Kabanstva]

I hate seeing hack work! Way too many windshield replacement hack stories on this forum. Had to deal with it with our Sienna which rusted so bad along the top windshield edge, water started pouring into the cabin.

 

[VinylSeats]

In order to fix this, I did the following:

• Ordered 10 OEM rivets (the extras came in handy as I broke 2 during the install); part # 90269-04053
• Removed all screws
• Removed black silicone blocking correct holes
• Added black silicone to 3 holes incorrectly added
• Cleaned all surfaces
• Secured moulding with 8 OEM rivets

Passenger side with OEM rivets in place and silicone covering additional holes

Driver side complete

 

[VinylSeats]

Completed the install with moulding cover (part # 75543-60020) that sits on top of the rivets.

This diagram helped me determine proper orientation:

I initially struggled installing the rivets because the space was too narrow for my rivet gun head. I attempted to use a metal spacer but the opening of the spacer was too wide and caused the rivet to pull up through the spacer.

My solution was to use two of the rivet gun heads to allow greater narrow reach. I put the "second closest to correct size" head on the gun. I then stacked the correct size head for the rivet on next. With the OEM rivet inserted, the additional head was held in place and gave me enough length to apply it in the narrow space. Excuse the strange looking rivet. That is one that I damaged early on in the process. I inserted it just to show how I stacked rivet gun heads.

Completed driver side (without moulding cover) once more

 

[VinylSeats]

I hate seeing hack work! Way too many windshield replacement hack stories on this forum. Had to deal with it with our Sienna which rusted so bad along the top windshield edge, water started pouring into the cabin.

That's SUPER frustrating. I had to deal with a bigger rust spot above my windshield myself. I was just lucky that it hadn't spread too far. Thank god for dry Colorado.

 

[aging fleet]

@TheAshenWolf, nice work cleaning up that trim install.

 

[VinylSeats]

@TheAshenWolf, nice work cleaning up that trim install.

Thanks for doing it first and making my job a little easier!