Builds COS80's 1997 LX 450 Build Thread

[COS80]

Since I bought it, the gas tank has built up pressure as the tank empties and/or the temperature rises. Today I replaced the canister, which is original but was relocated under the floor by the PO, with an ACDelco 17113148. I like that the hoses are all up top. All I needed was a hose clamp for the larger "air" port and a couple longer screws (it's bigger in diameter). Very easy job. I hope it makes a difference.

 

[COS80]

Productive day! I drove up to the moguls on Mt. Herman and took pictures of the tires stuffed into the fenderwells, then came home and trimmed the plastic. I was amazed that almost all of the interference in the front was actually just the bolts. The fronts never made a sound, but I have observed that the trim pieces at the rear of the flare were getting clipped when backing out of the driveway. I expect there will be contact with the revealed metal, so I'm considering this Phase 1.

On the downside, my fuel economy, with the new tires, is down to 9.3mpg.

 

[COS80]

I am very happy with the new ACDelco canister. There is no hiss whatsoever when I open the gas tank. The surprise bonus fix is that my exhaust no longer reeks - it smells normal now. Maybe it was never the exhaust at all, and the stink came from the canister. On the downside, the pressure relieved from the tank made no improvement on the noisy fuel pump, so that'll be my next project.

With the new canister, less stink, bigger tires, and freshly-trimmed fenderwells, the trail ride today was super-satisfying! Here's a nice glamor shot some took of me.

 

[COS80]

I forgot about these after the upload issues last weekend. I wanted to share just how little needed to be trimmed to eliminate 99% of the interference to run 315s with a 2 inch lift. If I didn't say it before in this thread, my wheels are -25 offset.

Rear/rear of flare

Rear/front of flare

In the front, it's just the bolts and this trim piece at the very bottom of the flare. I'm not sure if this is a factory piece.

That's it! No big deal at all. It took me far longer to get the wheels stuffed to see where to cut than it did to cut. The trimming took no more than a half hour with an oscillating saw.

That's the whole trim pile.

 

[COS80]

I like my new negative battery terminal so much, I made a positive to match. It looks great, but now I'm just a dropped wrench away from an "event", so I'll need to devise some sort of cover(s). I thought about melting some thin thermoplastic sheet over each side with a heat gun... other ideas?

I made up some caps (finally). I was going to try to make a flat plate, like someone suggested, but that would have been much harder. The material was supposed to be clear, so you could see the purty copper, but it's not. I tried two clear materials: PET, which only curls up under the heat gun, and polycarbonate, which barely warped, so I stuck with this white stuff, which molds beautifully.

You can see I did a lousy job of trimming these, so I remade them and then I decided to paint them. This is the finished product.

 

[COS80]

Because I scored a free pair of sway bar mounts, and the extended ones that came on the truck are shot, I made a pair of 2" sway drops from 1/4" 2X2 structural tube for about $17. Captive bolts on the bar side, because now I have a welder. Two inches might be excessive, as the bar hangs below the radius arms now. If I started bashing the bar on rocks, I'll make shorter ones or buy real ones.

 

[COS80]

Last weekend, I replaced my noisy Walbro fuel pump with the actual, original pump the PO pulled out for the Walbro. That really quieted the interior down, and removes the worry about having a pump failure in the middle of nowhere.

This weekend, I replaced both u-joints on the front driveshaft, which solved a clunk in the front end, but not that godforsaken squeak!

The faulty u-joint fought me, but I won.

 

[COS80]

This weekend I replaced/upgraded my rear sway bar links with Landtank HDs, because whatever was in there was hammered. The bushings were so smashed, there was 1/4" vertical play on the DS, and the PS was cracked with a bent base . The new ones weight twice that of the old ones. I'm glad I got to them before they broke on me.

EDIT: Wow, what a difference! I wish I'd realized all the clinking and clanking in my suspension could be silenced for $100 a lot sooner. Between this and solving the rattle in the hatch, this thing is now riding like a Cadillac on the streets.

 

[COS80]

Welp... back to the drawing board....

Anyone have a recommendation for a material (clear, preferably)?

 

[COS80]

Those were a real pain to remove. They completely liquefied.

 

[COS80]

My truck arrived with a pretty hammered roof. The factory rack was removed for the Prinsu, and three of the four oval contact areas had both failing paint and bondo, with some light rust. As the original intent for the truck was a full Raptor job (which I aborted when I saw how nice it actually was), I kept the plan to Raptor the roof. Splitting the job seemed like a good way to perfect the method where it's not so noticeable, should I c*ck it up.

A couple months ago, while waxing the paint, I discovered four little rust bubbles forming at the top edge of the windshield gasket. When I peeled that back, it looked bad, so windshield rust repair and roof paint became one project, and next on the docket. This is, by leaps and bounds, the biggest bodywork project I've ever undertaken, so if anybody sees mistakes, please feel free to offer your suggestions for improvement.

I began by having the windshield removed at a local shop. They had it done in eight minutes and stored the windshield for me. This is what I found - thankfully, not terrible. There's not a lick of sealant on the pinch weld (thanks, major windshield company with the big ad budget).

I then drove it - sans windshield - 40 minutes to my friend's shop (he has 12' doors; mine are just 8'). It was unpleasant. I had another friend follow me in my pickup with basically all of my tools.

WEEKEND ONE

I started with the roof, removing the Stupid Factory Roof Rack Rails (SFR^3), and immediately found my first unexpected challenge, with about half of the nutserts spinning on rusted screws. I drilled the heads off, but the plastic ends still wouldn't come out, and I hadn't brought adequate cutting tools, so I was only able to remove three of the four SFR^3 on Day 1.

I removed the Wonder Tape under the SFR^3s in many stages of scraping and soaking with 3M adhesive remover, finishing up with a 3M adhesive eraser wheel. At some point, I realized the headliner needed to be dropped, so that got added to the docket, and it was at that point that I discovered that the PO had added insulation to the entire underside of the roof. I also found more rust under the mounts for the rear wing-thing, so I removed all the nutserts and will replace them to remount the wing-thing.

I was concerned that the holes from the factory roof rack were just Bondoed shut, so I was relieved to find that they were indeed welded. These still need some more sanding, and then I'll finish with a glaze before priming.

I hauled another load of tools out on Day 2. I hacksawed off the plastic ends on the fourth SFR^3 to free it, and then moved on to the nutserts. All but two ended up trapped in the body, either in a support rail or the insulation.

With those gone, it was time to weld the holes shut. I'm grateful that my new welder has a 120V adapter. It took me a bit to get my settings and technique right, but they're shut. I'll finish these with a glaze before priming.

Next weekend, I'll finish all the roof prep, tape off and address the rust around the windshield, and with any luck, have both areas ready for prime and paint.

 

[COS80]

I just got this from @TK470

 

[COS80]

Son of a monkey! Rust hole!

It looks like it has been there a long time, cleaned up previously and covered up with some kind of silicone or something. As of now, I intend to weld it shut, unless somebody has a better idea. Thankfully, it's not actually in the windshield frame - it's under the cowl.

 

[COS80]

WEEKEND TWO

Many new, unexpected challenges this weekend. Over the week, I got it mostly ready for bodywork. On Thursday night, I went to mix my filler, only to find the cream hardener already hardened, and therefore, useless, so I bought a new filler and some glaze, which was a terrible idea. On Independence Day, I filled all the welded places on the roof and the rust hole under the cowl. I used regular filler on my welds, and the glaze on the PO's welds (for the original roof rack main standoffs), thinking I was just smoothing imperfections. It was supposed to harden in 20 minutes... well, that didn't work at all, so I spent the next six hours sanding off a layer and waiting 20 minutes for a new layer to harden. When I finally got back to zero, I started over with the regular filler and got the job done.

Once that debacle was over, I cleaned things up to paint the windshield frame, which is Stage 1 of the job. Only after I shot the first bit of primer did I realize that I hadn't even finished masking, and as it was well after dinnertime, I was forced to accept the fact that I'd already overdone it for the day, and threw in the towel, wasting that can of 2k primer.

Today, I got to the things I expected to do yesterday - finished masking, primed and painted the windshield frame, and partially primed the roof (I ran out, of course).

I'm making my tape lines with the support of a laser level, which is HUGELY helpful. I would otherwise not be able to do it.

Another cool trick I'm trying is inserting a rope in the rear window seal, which is supposed to help to get a seamless transition around the rubber. This is looking down on the hatch from the PS corner.

If my new primer arrives tomorrow, I might get to shooting Raptor, but it's going to be cutting it close.

 

[COS80]

I got the Raptor shot yesterday, but not without more trials. Raptor primers lay down really rough. Since it sat for a day and there was overspray everywhere, I though I'd drag a tack cloth over and remove the dust. WRONG! The tack cloth basically shredded and covered all the primer spots with fibers, most of which didn't reveal themselves until I laid down the first coat. Infuriating! I was able to gently pop some out with a ScotchBrite pad, after the first coat flashed off, but more appeared after the second coat.

Oh well. Nothing can be done about it now, short of starting over, and that ain't gonna happen.

On the bright side, it would appear I succeeded in achieving the result I wanted - a nice, even, fine texture with a matte finish. The tape lines aren't quite perfect, but they're pretty good, and they match the curves of the body while appearing straight and level from all angles. It looks like there's overspray on the rear window seal, but there isn't - the rope is still in there (to keep the rubber off the curing paint), so that's just light playing off the unevenness.

I'll take detail pictures when it sees the sun again. I'm nervous for "the big reveal" since it was sprayed in inadequate light.

I have to wait three days before I can reassemble (wing, rack, and the plug for the roof light), and I need to wetsand the DS A-pillar. Windshield goes back in next week.

 

[baldilocks]

The roof looks excellent from here. It’s a cruiser man, if it looks good from a thousand feet …………… I’m liking the all black theme with white roof to reflect heat. My current build is emerald green but 3/4 of the paint is bad off. I’m thinking about spraying it with black rattle can bed-liner mainly bc it’s a bit more durable than paint and easily touched up cuz it’s in a rattle can.

Is that your pole barn?

 

[COS80]

The roof looks excellent from here. It’s a cruiser man, if it looks good from a thousand feet …………… I’m liking the all black theme with white roof to reflect heat. My current build is emerald green but 3/4 of the paint is bad off. I’m thinking about spraying it with black rattle can bed-liner mainly bc it’s a bit more durable than paint and easily touched up cuz it’s in a rattle can.

Is that your pole barn?

That was the idea: decrease heat, increase durability, appearance not critical... but the show car perfectionist in me will not go away quietly.

It's not my barn, but i wish it was!

 

[CalnSam]

9.3mpg you say! is that accounting for speedo/odo correction? also, how did the fuel tank pressure issue work out after the canister retrofit?

 

[COS80]

9.3mpg you say! is that accounting for speedo/odo correction? also, how did the fuel tank pressure issue work out after the canister retrofit?

That is accounting for speedo error which isn't much, because the PO evidently installed a new gear for 33s.

The new canister worked beautifully, solving both the pressure issue and the stink issue.

 

[COS80]

More aggravation tonight. I went to reinstall the roof rack with the new-style mounting kit I bought from Prinsu. They shorted me 40 washers, so that went nowhere.

I moved on to wet sanding the A-pillar, and it's going to need to be repainted. The primer bled through, so it looks like absolute garbage. Tomorrow I'm going to attempt an emergency respray of the a-pillar before the new rubber is in the way, assuming I can get the materials.

At least the roof looks pretty good. I got the doors up in the daylight and it looks like, with the exception of all the dirt from the tack cloth, I nailed the matte finish I wanted.