Today, I picked my truck up from the body shop, as the roof repair is done. They told me that I need to keep an eye on the roof gutter, as it's most likely.... well almost likely..... okay, it's going to bubble up somewhere else at some point or another in the future. The area they fixed is guaranteed not to have an issue, but then again time will tell.

Looking forwards to using up some fuel, as I put my winter skins back on and now you can hear the truck's tires humming a mile away. Now I can see if the KSB Spacer was worth it or not..

 

Today I did some hand sanding (scuffing) on my interior and peeled the wood grain veneer off my spare interment panel. I haven't decided exactly what I am going to do with it yet though.

 

With the old veneer?

 

That may have been the problem. I wondered why it wasn't working very well.

 

So those shiny covers are just stock covers that have been polished ??

If I had one extra cover, I could one-at-a-time manage to get the covers on every truck on the place polished.

How coarse should one start with; I imagine 80-grit sand-paper ??

Once one gets them as shiny as those pictured, how long will they stay so on a daily-driven engine ??



This is from post #26 on page 2

Thanks for posting the picture.

 

Google "how to polish aluminum" and you will find your answer. Do not use 80 grit, as you will be sorry....


If I was doing that, I'd use a chemical stripper that removed the paint, and then use different coarses of polishing compound and a buffing wheel. They'd come out like brand new.

I can't imagine they'd last very long with that new finish, even if a clear coat was applied.

 

You have to touch them up once in awhile. I had some wheel polish with wax in it that works pretty good for finish polishing.

I used kleen strip aircraft remover then 80 grit and 120grit in the deep scratches(only). I think I used 320 then 400 followed by 600. Wet paper works best
From there I use a buffing wheel mounted on an old washing machine motor. with that you can get aluminum to shine like chrome.

 

Thank you both.

Now I just need to come up with an extra cover to start with.

 

In the process of replacing my battery cables. My terminals have cracked over the years and JB weld was the fix at the time. Lasted a year till I was able to source cables and such

 

The alignment tab is missing.

From the looks of the tabs on that folding-tab-lock-washer, it has been used several times.

Amazon has the best deal I have found on the complete set, two nuts and a lock-washer.

Replacement lock-washers can be had just about everywhere.

The double-nut/lock-washer system was used on just about every floating Dana rear ever built and many front spindles, until some brainstorm discovered that about three assembly-line steps could be eliminated by using those silly ny-lock nuts with the little key.

I have managed to get about half of our fleet changed over to the double-nut system.

 

Well, T, how is the spacer suiting you? Should've stayed in the toolbox? I too haven't drove my truck much. I use a 98 Camry to commit to and from work for economy reasons and its killing me cause I want to drive my truck bad! Just feeling that bit of performance from that spacer mod makes me glad it takes 4 hours to get home on Friday nights after work! I guess to appreciate this mod you have to reflect on bits of things that you didn't pay attention to before while driving the truck and compare it to now. In my case noticed I had to take my foot off the pedal on those tite curved freeway on ramps cause my past pedal pressure almost caused me to spin out after the mod. Also cruising at 70 mph I noticed less pedal effort to get there and hold speed. Boost at cruise is down to around 4 psi. Passing others has gotten effortless with the spacer also cause the speed pick up is slightly better

 

Sounds like a worthwhile modification.

 

Here ya go....Ebay # 291005592331

 

I was on the move today. Fixed sagging headliner, replaced HVAC controls, cleaned up some gauge wiring, replaced NP205 Rear output seal, determined root cause of inop Speedo/odo, adjusted rear brakes & washed it.

 

You sure were motivated....Nice job!