Tonyrodz
Resident Resident
Nice work.
My From Start to Finish 6.0L Build
- Thread starter RAMurphy
- Start date
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OP
OP
A couple of more pictures. Paint expected to arrive sometime this week. Going in tomorrow to verify alignment.
OP
OP
Just heard back from my alignment appointment. Looks like the driver's side front strut is slightly bent. I suspected this could be a problem and it is why I took it in for an alignment check. So, ordered left and right complete strut assemblies from Rock Auto and will be changing those out when they get delivered.
OP
OP
My new full strut assemblies that I ordered from Rock Auto were suppose to be delivered Thursday. They were not, but they were delivered today, unfortunately very late in the afternoon after I cleaned up for the evening. Spent most of the afternoon, after work, pulling the old struts off. For the life of me I could not break loose the nuts holding the sway bar links to the sway bar. Same issue, on both sides and top and bottom. Tried everything including heat. It's like they were welded on. Poor design too, you use a allen wrench to hold the center of the bolt and a box wrench to loosen the nut. Ended up cutting the sway bar link in half so I could remove the strut assembly. The top part of the link came off with the strut assembly. I used a reciprocating saw to cut off the bolts on the lower half. It took a bit of time but worked perfectly. No, I could not use an air powered cut off wheel - not enough room. Tomorrow, I will install the strut assemblies and post some pictures.
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- Dec 8, 2016
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I agree 100% with that comment!
@RAMurphy You are a one man army. Your entire family is Blessed to have you.
OP
OP
@Miami-Dade Thank you for those very kind words. They are very appreciative and quite frankly they bring so much joy to our lives. I will continue to help where I can and provide guidance and instructions to my son-in-laws so they can feel comfortable and have the confidence in taking care of their rides. Besides, somebody needs to take these tools I've accumulated when I move on from this world.
OP
OP
The new strut assemblies are installed. Hoping to get the Vibe in on Monday for alignment. The first picture is of the driver side with old strut and sway par link cut in half (i did use the air cut off wheel for that). As you can see, I already cut off the bolt on the sway bar side. The second picture is the new strut on the passenger side installed. The driver side turned out blurry.
OP
OP
Still waiting on the paint for the fender. Ordered enough for both fenders, hood and bumper cover. Although I'm liking the look of the black bumper cover. If I leave it black, do you think I need to paint it? Thoughts?
Since I had the time, I ended up painting the body side molding. Looks pretty good. Hopefully I can get her in for alignment tomorrow. Actually drives nicely - straight down the road, no pulling either side and steering is centered but I know I need to get it looked at to verify and adjust as necessary.
Since I had the time, I ended up painting the body side molding. Looks pretty good. Hopefully I can get her in for alignment tomorrow. Actually drives nicely - straight down the road, no pulling either side and steering is centered but I know I need to get it looked at to verify and adjust as necessary.
iamdub
Full Access Member
If the sides and rear bumper are already an accent color, I'd paint the front cover to be the same. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're asking?
OP
OP
Yep, I can see the confusion I caused. So the front bumper cover was delivered as “paint ready” and is essentially a flat black. The body side moldings have been painted flat black to match the current bumper cover color. I like the look of the black front. So the question was - should I slap some paint on the already flat black bumper cover.
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