The 2001 we purchased for my wife had more issues with the suspension than I originally thought. I bought it intending to eventually replace the shocks and springs, but after driving it for the last month, we decided to bump the schedule up. I planned to swap the rear shocks and springs today also, but there were a couple of bumps in the road (ha...) that slowed things down.
This was a MD/DC Beltway truck in its prior life before we got it. AKA the place suspensions go to die. The truck has 125k miles, so I mistakenly thought this truck still had the OEM original suspension. Nope, Maryland's beltway roads ate that up sometime ago, I found out the hard way this was an aftermarket setup. No big deal, except I only had a 22mm flex head wrench available for the tight spots, not a 19mm. After that, my son's GF called him and lured him away, so off went my helper, too. We settled for completing the front. While we were at it, I decided to address some of the surface rust issues the truck had from living in the beltway.
None of the rust has perforated anything yet, so I was not worried about it when I bought the truck. Scrub it down and get some rust inhibitor on it. We don't get enough bad weather here for salt to be an issue, so I'll treat with Fluid Film or T9 after getting some rust inhibitor paint on it. But this is what I started with.
Cleaned it up with the grinder. I hit the crannies and crevasses with a wire brush. I didn't want to risk cutting/snagging any brake lines or boots with the grinder wheel.
FIrst coat of rustoleum rust reformer. Did 2 coats, waited a while then top coated with Tractor Supply Farm Implement flat black. Not trying to go for show truck.
New OEM shock, it came with a new 22mm nut. It came with two shock bushings, but did not include the 4 washers. I hit the old ones with the wire brush, and reused them. If I had time to do it again, I'd have ordered new washers too. I didn't realize they didn't come with the shocks.
This was a MD/DC Beltway truck in its prior life before we got it. AKA the place suspensions go to die. The truck has 125k miles, so I mistakenly thought this truck still had the OEM original suspension. Nope, Maryland's beltway roads ate that up sometime ago, I found out the hard way this was an aftermarket setup. No big deal, except I only had a 22mm flex head wrench available for the tight spots, not a 19mm. After that, my son's GF called him and lured him away, so off went my helper, too. We settled for completing the front. While we were at it, I decided to address some of the surface rust issues the truck had from living in the beltway.
None of the rust has perforated anything yet, so I was not worried about it when I bought the truck. Scrub it down and get some rust inhibitor on it. We don't get enough bad weather here for salt to be an issue, so I'll treat with Fluid Film or T9 after getting some rust inhibitor paint on it. But this is what I started with.
Cleaned it up with the grinder. I hit the crannies and crevasses with a wire brush. I didn't want to risk cutting/snagging any brake lines or boots with the grinder wheel.
FIrst coat of rustoleum rust reformer. Did 2 coats, waited a while then top coated with Tractor Supply Farm Implement flat black. Not trying to go for show truck.
New OEM shock, it came with a new 22mm nut. It came with two shock bushings, but did not include the 4 washers. I hit the old ones with the wire brush, and reused them. If I had time to do it again, I'd have ordered new washers too. I didn't realize they didn't come with the shocks.
