RXFORD

Thought I may as well get the shock mounts done before pack up time too. Flipped one of the stock upper shock mounts and used that on drivers side, then used some lasered brackets I had left over from another job on passengers. Shocks sit nice and more upright than stock so should ride a bit better. Can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

Loaded the front up a little too to compensate for it settling etc. Set the pinion and fizzed the perches back on after a bunch of measuring.

Cut the spring perches off today so I could set the pinion angle. Needed to compensate for tray/tailgate and gas tank weight, so stacked some shit on it...

Fastforward to this weekend. Lay under it out in the sun for a while on Sat thinking about the notch in tank x-member for diffhead and figuring out shock setup. Ripped the tray off and got stuck in. Got the tank x-member notch done and gusseted before days end Sat.

Been chipping away on the B-truck this week. Trying to do something on it every day, even if its just ordering a part and installing something minor. Got the bumper assembled and fitted up, made a joiner for the upper radiator hose and put a new lower hose on then filled with coolant. Found a leak from a split intake manifold coolant hose so swapped that out, brought and fitted all my front end light bulbs and ditched the stock fan and hid a 14" elec jobby behind the grill to clean up the bay amd made some spacer to shim some more negatory camber into the front.

I think people just have too high of an expectation. Its not a miracle 'rust be gone' liquid, its just a coating that slows/stops the growth of rust. Its better than nothing, and there are not many other products thay are easy to use and don't have a stupid proceedure where you have to wash it off with water. And yeh, you don't top coat over it. Its a good product to spray in pinch weld seams and cavities that are hard to get thicker paint/primer into.

I generally thin brunox 1:1 with gp thinners when I spray it through the airboy. Helps it go furthur because its expensive and also helps it run into the tight pinch-weld seams. Also, brunox requires multiple coats to do its thing. Once its turns a dark purple/almost black on rusty areas its good. Good work though.

Threw the pedestrian deflectors on too because doors mirrors look ghaeeeyyyyy Also, extra points for old stock nz post rego label pouch..

My buddy Adam came over on Sunday and finished off the buffing on the blue waffle. Safe to say he brought that paint back to life! I hit the bumpers with the butane torch too and Adam put some fancy Auto-glym bumper treatment cream on it to hopefully stop the black from fading off in a hurry.

Made the most of the mint weather today and gave the engine bay and motor a wash, then tidied/wrapped some wiring on passengers side of bay. Need to do the other side still. Got my stainless headers fitted up too, so as soon as my hoist is free I can whip up the rest of the system. Getting keen now, nice to finally see the front end coming togethor.

Brought new headlights and corner lights off Kent Dist which got sent when Chch went back to Lev3. Was a bit of a mission but tracked down some headlight adjuster/mounts and the correct bonnet latch/support. Got the grill/lights mounted up on wedenesday just been, and the painter had my bonnet/bumper ready to collect yesterday. Got the bonnet fitted last night and adjusted the latch/cable. Also collected the leaf springs from Archers yesterday. They reset them 2" flatter so threw them back in last night aswell. Need to mod the fuel tank x-member as diffs hard on it now, but at least with springs back I can work out shock heights.

Finally managed to find all the facelift swap front end bits for the b2000. A buddy in Upper Hutt hooked me up a bonnet, grill and bumper, and a local mate managed to collect and bring up while we were in Lev4. Did a quick test fit of bonnet then as soon as Lev3 happened it was off with the bumper to the paintshop.

Those will definitely help, I mean it looks like its saving fuel just sitting there.

Ah shit, I was meant to check my stash for those tailgaye straps eh. My bad.

Toilet plunger... Just make sure its a new one because I probably have shit on my hubcap now.

Sweet, where did the pullmax come out of and what model? I fizz over old metalshaping gear. Pullmax are so versatile.

Pullmax & Waterjet... what shop is this?

Mine and Clints party areas actually measure up the same. We compare regularly. Hes just got the ability to fit a few midgets in the back of cab. I'l slide into ya dm's with the dirty pics.

I could sell you my one instead...Its shorter, so will be easier to park at the stripclub.

Are you doing the old 'mexican day-labourer rachet strapped to roof with a squeegee' wiper mod?

Just chiming in on your driveshaft dilemma... About a month ago I had Russel at Driveshaft Specialists shorten, assemble and balance a customers shaft for me. I prepped, painted and fitted new universals in the front half (d21 navara 2pc), and he shortened the rear section, then added a hilux slip joint that I supplied, then fitted new universals which I also supplied. It only cost $250ish for his portion of work. And the 3 new uni's that my customer supplied cost less than $100 for the lot. What I'm getting at with that novel, is that if you buy and fit your own uni's, getting the shaft shortened then balanced once you assemble it would only be a couple hours work for the shop doing it.

I've lined a fair few trays in my time, and one thing I have learned is that the hippo liner and underbody sealers make a horrible mess and make your clothes all sticky so I put my poncho on and got involved.

Finished the prep today and thought fuck it, I may as well just carry on and get it lined. Spent a lifetime prepsoling it then shot some epoxy and put a little seam sealer down. Then after another coat of epoxy I smashed down the hippo liner.

Not the nicest looking pockets I have made, and I feel kinda lazy by not radiusing the inner top corner, bit I really didn't want to spend another half day plus on them. The reason I didn't make them the same shape as notch is to hopefully allow for some form of shock mount to come off notch, which I havn't figured out yet.