What have you done to your rig today?

[fyffer]

All in stages,but. Out with the old and in with less old thats rust free primed and painted. Touched up the frame with POR as well, love it there but not on my hands and hair..

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Well I haven't even gotten my truck in and I'm already liking Tru. Talked to them today and they said it shouldn't be a problem that they could redo my misclock of the steering wheel and the rack included in the price. I'm looking forward to what they can do and hopefully the 4runner rides even better on the highway.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Bleh, decided to do some checking before the alignment to see if they would have issues with stuck alignment cams on my LCAs. Sure enough passenger side is seized up both front and back. Hoping PB works in there enough to get em moving otherwise I'm boned ><

 

[DaveInDenver]

Bleh, decided to do some checking before the alignment to see if they would have issues with stuck alignment cams on my LCAs. Sure enough passenger side is seized up both front and back. Hoping PB works in there enough to get em moving otherwise I'm boned ><

That does suck. Based on the seized ones I've removed PB Blaster is like spraying a wildfire with a garden hose.

They form into a really nice homogeneous cylinder of oxide without liberal anti-seize and periodic disturbance. Thankyouverymuch CDOT for getting away from mag chloride and back to regular salt.

The last couple of times I just bought new bolt and nuts (most recently cams, too) with the expectation of a Sawz-All in my future.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

That does suck. Based on the seized ones I've removed PB Blaster is like spraying a wildfire with a garden hose.

They form into a really nice homogeneous cylinder of oxide without liberal anti-seize and periodic disturbance. Thankyouverymuch CDOT for getting away from mag chloride and back to regular salt.

The last couple of times I just bought new bolt and nuts (most recently cams, too) with the expectation of a Sawz-All in my future.

Wait CDOT is using salt now? I'm really hoping PB is going to be enough. The bolts inside the cam sleeves are not rusted shut and don't have much corrosion so I'm hoping the cam sleeve to bushing sleeve interface isn't too bad.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Wait CDOT is using salt now?

They started pre-treating the roads over there a few years ago with a brine solution. Lucky you.

CDOT to Implement New Pretreatment Strategy Before Snowfall in Denver Metro Area — Colorado Department of Transportation

www.codot.gov

"We're constantly looking for ways to further improve the way we fight snow and ice," said Mike O'Neill, deputy director of maintenance for CDOT's Denver metro region. "We've seen the anti-icing brine mix solution be very successful throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, and knew this was the right product to use in the Denver metro area."

CDOT makes this product in-house, at a rate of 42 cents per gallon, by mixing rock salt and water to make a 23.3 percent brine solution. A corrosion inhibitor is also added to the mixture before crews begin applying it to the roadways.

Salt-brine mix great for the roads, damaging to cars if not washed

DENVER — The Colorado Department of Transportation is using a new product to keep drivers safe on the roads during the winter months. It’s a salt-brine mix that CDOT trucks spread on the road…

kdvr.com

 

[rushthezeppelin]

They started pre-treating the roads over there a few years ago with a brine solution. Lucky you.

CDOT to Implement New Pretreatment Strategy Before Snowfall in Denver Metro Area — Colorado Department of Transportation

www.codot.gov

Salt-brine mix great for the roads, damaging to cars if not washed

DENVER — The Colorado Department of Transportation is using a new product to keep drivers safe on the roads during the winter months. It’s a salt-brine mix that CDOT trucks spread on the road…

kdvr.com

Makes me feel that much better that I wash my truck after everytime I drive on the salted roads taking the time to really get it off the frame.....

 

[DaveInDenver]

Makes me feel that much better that I wash my truck after everytime I drive on the salted roads taking the time to really get it off the frame.....

Par for the course. A lot of us clean rust, touch up the paint and treat with Fluid Film every fall. Tacomas especially have a serious frame rot problem but anything that runs a long time like a Toyota is eventually going to have to deal with under side rust. Used to be people in Colorado were competent winter drivers but now if just a single flake hits the pavement it's a chaos on I-70. I like Montana's approach. They spread gravel and let it freeze into a gritty ice sheet. The whole state is like that. I drove back from White Fish in late December and I kid you not did not see asphalt until Idaho. Sure, most people were taking it easy by slowing down to like 75 MPH, though.

 

[Corbet]

I much prefer MT approach.

 

[Johnny Utah]

I don’t drive my 80 during the winter. 🙁


Edit: only when the roads are dry.

 

[Lastresort576]

id gander to say putting down a brine is still better than rock salt/ sand & rock salt mix.

 

[DaveInDenver]

id gander to say putting down a brine is still better than rock salt/ sand & rock salt mix.

It's only better in terms of volume, the chemistry is what it is. So if they use 1 lbs of salt to make a brine pre-treatment per road unit (mile, areas, whatever it is they use) compared to spreading 3 lbs in rock salt post snow and that results in a more dilute solution over a season on your truck then it's better.

https://grandavebridge.codot.gov/programs/research/pdfs/2004/corrosionprotection.pdf

https://www.cement.org/docs/default-source/fc_concrete_technology/durability/is536-types-and-causes-of-concrete-deterioration.pdf?sfvrsn=4

 

[rushthezeppelin]

PB let me down. Passenger cams are still frozen. Good news is they were still able to get the alignment decent (don't have the numbers yet). Asked for a quote on installing the bushings, $800 (6 hours labor is what they quoted) 😭. Looks like I have a real pita job to do in the vaguely near future. Two jobs in a row dealing with rust. Seems like it's unavoidable that there would be a few rust issues with a 25 year old truck even if it is a CO only truck.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Well they didn't do too bad all things considered. I'm still a little miffed at how they got any adjustment out of those frozen cams but looking at them they did get some movement compared to what it was last night. Centering on my wheel is much better now, wandering steering is basically gone now. Also surprised how close I got on the driveway toe adjustment after the rack install. They also fixed my mistake with not clocking the input shaft to the rag joint properly. All in all I'm super happy with Tru Automotive (one of the desk guys also had two 3rd gens and knows about the club). Highly recommend if you are on the south side. Great prices too. 125 for the alignment and 30 to mount and balance the new spare I got at the meeting.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I'm still a little miffed at how they got any adjustment out of those frozen cams but looking at them they did get some movement compared to what it was last night.

Ya never know. With a big enough cheater bar you can sometimes break the bolt loose or, worst case, if the bolt doesn't break, you tear the sleeve from the rubber bushing, which may be hardened and crumbling at this point anyway. I'd put it in the sooner-rather-than-later replacement schedule just the same. Probably lower urgency than an unknown ball joint or tie rod end but higher than a cracked tail light lens.

 

[Stuckinthe80s]

Added a Gullwing window to the rear. It’s from solvefunction. Terrible experience with that guy for the window. Took forever to get, no communication, missing pieces, etc. I like the window. Time will tell if the seal is waterproof or not.

View attachment 112205View attachment 112206

It sucks that he’s like that now. I bought something from him several years ago and I thought the buying experience was great.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Ya never know. With a big enough cheater bar you can sometimes break the bolt loose or, worst case, if the bolt doesn't break, you tear the sleeve from the rubber bushing, which may be hardened and crumbling at this point anyway. I'd put it in the sooner-rather-than-later replacement schedule just the same. Probably lower urgency than an unknown ball joint or tie rod end but higher than a cracked tail light lens.

They said it was still seized up so I'm guessing they've got that bushings kind of bound up. The condition of them didn't look bad at all so I'm guessing they aren't torn......yet. I'm betting that accelerates their demise though, either that or my alignment will slip. They definitely bought me some time though. Kind of thinking I'm going to go grab some control arms at a pick and pull and be able to take my time swapping the whiteline bushings I already have into them. There's a lot of unknowns when doing this job so I don't want my truck on a lift in the garage for a long time trying to do it on the arms already in there. Plus this will give me time to really clean it up and maybe paint it or grab parts if need be. Bet I can get a set of arms for pretty cheap.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Yup definitely going that route. Littleton U Pull has 4 3rd gens in their yard and they said it would be 20 an arm. Crossing my fingers that at least one of them has arms I can pull easily that don't have seized cams lol. I guess I could probably take a big enough pry bar too and just destroy the LCA mounts to get them out. Either that or does anyone down South have a sawzall I could borrow to take with me there? Or you could join me? Probably would help to have an extra set of hands and who doesn't love going to pick and pulls. If you find something there you want to grab parts from I can return the favor.

 

[damon]

It’s the little things in life…

 

[MountainGoat]

What does the green box around the D mean? Never seen that before.