Thanks, I did my with bed liner paint

 

Onwards. Frame looks good from the shop, everything lined up and fell back together after that fiasco I had getting the front diff bolts out because the frame was squished.



Got the transmission all sealed up (new seals on every rotating shaft) and cleaned the body aggressively.


In she goes


Axles bolt on, everything else on the chassis gets a torquing down and the once-over.

 

Also tested my usually ATV/motorbike-use-only bead breaker, which popped the tires right off the beads.


Then after some generous soaping and levering and the glorious Handrail of Power, off they came.

 

Frame looks great. Front diff bolts dont have much room without the frame being messed up. Could only imagine what it was like before. Great job on that.

 

Keep us posted, again nice work on the frame.

 

wow love the build man. It's nice to see another yota guy in the stl. Fell free to pm me if you need any hard too find parts for that truck or if you need an extra set of hands to help out.

 

I'll tell ya what... I am a man in need... So, if you have taken apart an IFS front drive system, where the CV axle enters the back of the steering knuckle, there is a grease/oil seal. It presses into the rear of the knuckle and seals on a smooth area of the outer CV joint cup. The purpose is to keep grease in the bronze bushings the CV axle runs in, and keep dust out. I need these, and I have no idea where to get them. They are hilarious expensive at the dealer, and the discount autos don't know they exist. Any hints? (made this a public post in case ANYbody knows anything. This is super annoying and is the only thing keeping me from putting my CVs in and calling the drive system done.)

Where in the STl are you?

 

So some things went down. I rebuilt my old abandoned "waterblaster" made of half of a harbor freight siphon feed "sandblaster." (in quotes because it literally does not work on air power)

I just pinched down the spray nozzle to accelerate the water flow and run the pressure washer in its sweet spot. The flow out of the black guide tube on the end creates low pressure and draws sand in the bottom silver tube out of the 5-gallon bucket.



This was so I could paint up my sweet wheels with my favorite aluminum painting recipe I developed! I use VHT epoxy paint.
Picture 1 is pre-blast and picture 2 is post-blast, but pre-etch.



I use mag wheel cleaner with the flouride in it for a pre-paint etch.
Then after paint...



I absolutely love painting things I prep like that. It takes like 3 coats until I can't see aluminum. It soaks the epoxy semi-gloss I use up like a sponge. I go through can after can of paint. The jetta wheels I did this way have ZERO chips after 2 winters and being neglected. I think I cleaned them once just to see how they held up.

 

More on etching.... I know I should use alodine in between the blast/etch step before paint because aluminum is considered to be unpaintable from a professional finishing standpoint without a conversion coat or interface of some sort, but that epoxy grips like mad after a super-clean etch. Really, I can tell when I'm spraying that if the bond was mechanical alone and there was no adhesive properties, it would probably still stick. The pool filter sand I use to blast leaves an unbelievably complex surface, that almost feels like sandpaper. It is incredible. Very uniform looking though.

Check it out. Left is pre-Mag wheel cleaner, right is post cleaner. Lighting is fairly uniform. Both wheels have been blasted with the "waterblaster"

 

Nice work on the wheels, thanks for sharing

 

Jim, I'm close to 170 and ladue road. I'll check with my guy here in a week or so and get back to you on the seals. As far as i know they are a dealer only part. Might want to get the part number and check trd parts for you and see what kind of price you can get.