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'88 Eliminator... Feb. 2009 - Nov. 2024


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  • 2 weeks later...
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What a day! What a day! What a day! My fingers are numb. My arms feel about three times longer. Tennis elbow has got nothing on me. I have a huge new found respect for those people who spent their living washing and detailing cars. There is no f'ing way anybody could pay me to do that for a living. Today was spent fixing sins from last fall along with so many little things that have bugged me since I first painted the truck. There's always been trash in the paint... and there still is. However, it's never looked this good even immediately after everything was put back together the first time! It's started with a long over due wash...

 

 

... then things got a little carried away. Never have I ever really taken the time to learn how to properly clean paint. I highly doubt I did anything close to "proper" as far as polishing and waxing, but I'm happy with the results. I did some reading around online about what to use for cleaning up single stage paint. I used all Meguiar's products. Starting with their Ultimate Compound, that quickly came to a screeching halt. This was way too aggressive for what needed to get done. The roof of the truck never really looked all that great, so i started there. I've really been avoiding this for a while just for the being terrified of burning through layers of paint... and after a quick use of the compound, I was terrified even more! After a little more reading around, I came to the conclusion that my paint was very dry. Single stage paint has no barrier to the elements to it happens quickly. That's fine... I now know that more care needs to be taken with it also. Would I have gone with a single stage paint given I could go back and redo things?... nope. But, here we are and hind sight is always 20/20, eh? I moved away from the compound and switched to using Meguiar's Ultimate Polish followed up with their Deep Crystal Carnauba Wax.

 

 

The polish creeps into the paint like lotion does to skin. There was a couple coats of this all over the truck and it desperately needed it. Poor thing... after the first coat, the gloss came right back and then some! I started with the roof and then the tailgate. Ordered up some decals from Spence and got those yesterday. Thanks again, Spence!

 

 

I know... I know... the taillights look awful. That'll get taken care of soon enough. I just can't believe I went for so long without putting some proper silver letters back there. As for the rest of the truck, the entire truck got a couple coats of polish, one coat of the wax, and then the hood and roof got another coat of wax for good measure.

 

 

The results? You can clearly see the recycling can and other such junk sitting in my shop...

 

 

There is miles of improvement from where I started this morning! Everything was done by hand. There was a huge learning curve for me today and I really wanted the control of doing it all without a buffer. As I already said, I'm very happy with the results regardless of the physical aftermath on me. Couple drinks, and I'll be right as rain... maybe. As for the truck...

 

 

I would imagine that if I really spent the time with a clay bar and did everything all over again, I could have an even nicer finish. On the other hand, there's a bunch of little dings in the box that never really looked all that bad. Now that everything reflects off of it, they look bigger! The box was originally off of an '89 (I think?) and it was white, then it was primer gray, then it was red. Never did they really look all that bad being that I had and still have full intentions of using it as a truck. Ah well... it's still the same old truck. It's just a little more shiny now! Debating on whether or not to put the freebie decal from Spence on the truck or not. Thoughts?

 

 

Now I have a big pile of stuff that needs a fresh coat of satin black before it goes back on.

 

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Changed the oil this morning. That was uneventful other than the fact that I've been meaning to change out the oil filter adapter for the last few years. That got done today. Not a real big deal... now I can run HO filters which really opens up a bunch of options should I ever want to run an oversized filter. That, and the threads on the original one were majorly screwed up since I got the truck. Hopefully it'll stop the eternal oil filter leak that the truck has had since I built the engine.

 

 

Then all the little fiddly-bits got a fresh coat of satin black. Went back and forth a number of times whether or not to paint the bumpers black. I was thinking silver as the truck originally had silver to go along with the stripes, but I really didn't want chrome and I thought that the silver would be too close to that. Then I was thinking a darker gray but I didn't want to add a new color to the mix. Between mine, the wife, and then Rob, the majority voted for black.

 

 

Had to give myself things to do to get my mind off of putting it all back together this afternoon. Wait... just wait for the paint to calm down and harden up before handling everything.  :fool: Maybe tomorrow? Maybe not? We'll see what happens. There's the local car show that I took this and the camper to last year tomorrow and the Beetle will be joining me.

 

 

... need to be fair between the whole gang anyhow.  8)

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Had a really nice day at the car show. Seems like EVERYONE has a story about their own or their friend's or that one time they did this or that in a Beetle.

 

 

... but that's not why we're here, are we? After the show we went straight home as there was absolutely no way I was going to let all those freshly painted parts wait another night. Granted, the front bumper is hanging on by about half its hardware because I couldn't stand to use the crusty bolts that I had on hand. Otherwise, I haven't been this crazy about this truck since it was put back together the first time around. THIS is the truck I should've built. Gentlemen...

 

 

I... love... my... Comanche. Sure there's a bunch of things I would still like to do with it this year, but there isn't any reason I can't finally start my MJ season!

 

In an attempt to keep me on track with those little things, here's a list...

  • New front bumper hardware
  • C101 delete
  • Radiator swap
  • Redo the exhaust so it routes around the spare tire under the bed instead of just hacked off before it
  • Do away with the load sensing valve
  • Mount some tow hooks under the front bumper... brackets already there
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Do you plan on putting lights on the sport bar ?

 

Nope. I'm done with the glare off the roof. I'd like to find a nice set of lights to put back on the bumper though. Something along these lines...

 

 

:drool:  :drool:  :drool:  :drool:  :drool:  :drool:  :drool:  :drool:  :drool:

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Do you plan on putting lights on the sport bar ?

Nope. I'm done with the glare off the roof. I'd like to find a nice set of lights to put back on the bumper though.

I understand , the sport bar looks kind of bare without them to me . What lights do you have in mind for the bumper factory or aftermarket ?

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What lights do you have in mind for the bumper factory or aftermarket ?

 

I'm really not all that picky. With everything that's been done with the truck, by no means am I after "factory perfect". Square... I'm after a set of square lights. Thought about recycling a couple of the round lights I had mounted on the bar, but the only other round things on the truck are the wheels and tires.  :shake:

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Great job!  Looks awesome.  I agree that Meguiars makes the best car care products out there.  In my younger years my older brother(prob 16 at the time) wanted to take the parents car out so he thought he would wash and wax it.  He applied wax to the whole car before he started to wipe it off, couldn't figure out why it wouldn't come off.  He had used Johnson's paste wax, yes, the floor wax.  My mom was not very happy, we all had to pile in the car and drive to auto parts stores while she went in to ask what to do.  One guy at the counter yelled to someone in the back to come out and look what some kid did to his mom's car!   Anyway Meguiars car cleaner wax was suggested and it took it right off.  I have used their products since.  

Buck

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  • 4 weeks later...

For everyone that has ever said that getting rid of their C101 was the best thing they've ever done to their MJ, they were 100% right. I did that today... took a little while... very nerve wracking to make the first few cuts... but I did that today. Other stuff on my list of getting done today was installing the Putco harness I got for Christmas, an EGR delete (not there was anything wrong with it, I'm just tired of all the vacuum lines going every which way), and swapped in a copper three core radiator. Runs better than it did and I wasn't complaining before by any means! Engine operating temp is still the same, but I noticed that the trans temps are lower. The idle smoothed out a little too. I'm debating swapping the ECM with an '89 ECM that I have per Cruiser's list of Renix upgrades. We'll see.

 

 

All that's left of my list of other stuff to do...

  • Redo the exhaust so it routes around the spare tire under the bed instead of just hacked off before it
  • Do away with the load sensing valve
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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Bummer... it's that time of year again. I'm happy to report that I put more miles on this truck than I have in recent years. No issues either! Still need to do away with the load sensing valve, and I never finished the exhaust all the way out the rear. I like to think that I was spending too much time enjoying it than working on it... and that's just fine in my head.

 

Bath time!

 

 

Nap time!

 

 

Happy slumbers, Eliminator.

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Washed... fuel stabilizer... batteries disconnected... dryer sheets under and behind the seats, on the floors, and around the outside of the engine bay/trunk... car covers washed and on... clean tarps for the bulk of the dust...

 

 

Sweet dreams you two.

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  • 3 months later...

Looks like this little truck is getting a set of Treadwright Wardens. Been doing a lot of looking around for who's got a better deal on BFG ATs, and 4 Wheel Parts was the best I found at about $600/set. Treadwright is having a sale on their Wardens right now that'll put a set on my doorstep for about $460. Slightly bummed that they don't have a raised white letter, but I guess it'll be better than the current look of advertising for my no-name cheap-@$$ tires.  :oops:

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Wow... I was thinking about the last time I put tires on this truck and it was 10 years ago. What's sad is that I still had the old receipt from them and the price was $461.13 for just the tires. Just ordered up a set of Treadwright Wardens and never would I have ever thought that I would've purchased tires for this truck for cheaper than I did 10 years ago! How much you might ask?... $455.81 after shipping!  :banana:

 

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  • neohic changed the title to '88 Eliminator... Feb. 2009 - Nov. 2024

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