September 22, 2003

On the road again...Yay! It's finally streetable. September's been a busy month. I finally got the paintwork finished up (there is still some minor stuff to do) but Taz looks better than new. After getting the rest of the body sprayed, I began color sanding the paint to remove the "orange peel" texture and any imperfections, and then continually sanded with finer sandpaper, and lastly, cutting and polishing. It goes like this:

1) Wet-sand out the texture of the paint with 400/500 grit paper (being careful not to sand through to the primer)
2) Wet-sand again with 600 grit to remove the 400 grit scratches
3) Keep repeating the process with 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit paper.

The object is to get a surface smooth as a baby's ass. Once that is accomplished, I use Meguiar's 3-stage polishing package, which begins with a cutting compound to remove the sanding scratches, then a polishing compound to really bring out the shine. It makes a HUGE difference in the surface quality, and pictures don't do it justice. This would be about a $2000 -$4000 paint job with any reputable body shop. I sanded through the paint in a few places, so I'll have to re-spray those areas, but it's no big deal. I've got it down now. I'll do some re-aligning of the fenders and hood once all that is done.

Outside of the paint and bodywork, I've also installed a new leather Grant steering wheel, and upgraded the ignition with a Pertronix Ignitor II pointless distributor kit. This eliminates the points and condenser in the distributor with a magnetic trigger which makes for a hotter spark, cleaner burn, instant starts, and better fuel efficiency. This also included a new coil and plug wires, which I still have to install. The biggest improvement to driveablility was the installation of the drop pitman arm, which lowers the drag link and makes the steering more precise. Without it, the angle of the drag link is too steep (on account of the 3.5" lift) and it was very darty on the road. I also had a new steering stabilizer installed, and this thing handles dead on the money now.

The next order of business will be to get the front end aligned, and then have the transfer case looked at to get it to engage 2HI. I am driving it in 4HI with the hubs unlocked right now. Seat belts, a new horn, and a rear view mirror will be next to get this thing an inspection sticker so I can quit looking over my shoulder for the cops when it's on the road.

I've also polished the Bronco logos, and repainted the red areas to blue to match all the other blue goodies on the truck. I ordered a new tailgate handle, and the rest of the trim will most likely get replaced down the road as well.

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