New England B.S. Thread

I'm looking for a new front bumper for my 2012, I snagged it and too much plastic to make it worth salvaging. Id replace it with stock again if someone had a used one available to sell but I don't want to pay $1000 for a new giant piece of cheap plastic. Are there any aftermarket replacements you all would recommend or is anyone selling something different. My truck is silver mica so but for an aftermarket I'd probably prefer black.

Thanks

 

I survived a colonoscopy......

 

The prep is the worst part. The procedure is really easy, especially if they sedate you before hand. A friend refuses to use sedation for some dumb reason. He's been my friend for a long, long, time, but I still can't figure out why he does some of the stuff he does.

 

Prep wasn't to bad. My in laws vomit from the prep. I just shoot geysers out my ass lmao

 

Different doctors use different types of prep. Some are worse than others, but none of them are enjoyable. Of course the end point is to clear your colon for the scope.

Pun intended.

 

I find it’s a shitty time

 

Fronts are in and a quick swipe with the wire wheel and a lick of paint on the LCAs. They're pretty bad, so I'll take them out all the way next time they need uniballs and do a good job... this is just to keep up appearances and make prep easier for a better job later.

I do hope the coils settle a bit - I gained 3/8" or 1/2" over the tired-assed 5100s/885s/0 clips, which doesn't seem like much but if anyone understands it would be ya'll. It doesn't squat like it seems in that last pic, it's just about level and I would prefer a little rake given that this truck actually hauls shit.

 

Hope you had a big meal after..the reward. Not fun but I have to go every year due to family history

 

They are going to settle a little bit......like about 3/8" over the next 6 weeks but you do have them on their highest settling though. What type of paint did you use for your LCA's? POR?

 

They aren't at the highest, they're at 9/7. I used Headstrong's nominal lift values (650lb coil plus these perches for nominal 1.7") to match the nominal values for what I had going on previously (5100s with 885s on the bottom perches for I think 1.9"). I wanted to go with taller 600 lb coils and keep them at the bottom perch because that worked great with the 5100s, but I got caught up in the billions of coil options and really didn't want to mix and match too much, it's asking for trouble unless you know way more than me about this stuff.

The paint is actually just some heavy duty Rustoleum, just to get me through for a little while. I wire wheeled what I could (there's definitely still patches of well-adhered powder under there), degreased/rinsed, and then VHTd any remaining brown rust in pits or creases. I was going to POR them, but I decided that doing that with them still on the truck was not going to give good results mostly due to the difficulty of getting them really, really clean in all the nooks and crannies, and I only have one big can of POR right now - I couldn't find the little cans to split jobs up (still need to do back half of frame when I do the rears and Archive shackle hangers) and I don't like to leave POR open unused too long. I'll POR them when I take them off again for a uniball replacement, although I usually do that on the truck as well - I'll probably do a full rebuild next time, bushings and all.

The powder on them was actually pretty good until this last winter, it all just suddenly came off at once and looked like hell.

Edit to add - I did a local friend's LCAs before they got put on (some lowish miles factory takeoffs I got locally) with POR including the whole prep routine, and two bad winters later they still look great. She lives on the other side of some really bad dirt roads and rides them daily, so if they were gonna get chipped or scratched, they would have. That plus my frame makes me a believer in the stuff.

 

How do the uniballs fare for you? Figured the salt and dirt would obliterate them up here

 

Those look like ball joints....

 

the uppers have the uniball, not seen in the pics

 

Salt doesn't do them any favors and you have to be careful when cleaning them and making sure you don't leave mud on them for a long time. I use to have to do them every other year but haven't done then in a few years now

 

BJ uppers, uniball lowers.

The uniballs actually have been fine. I got about 40k on them, which surprised me. Most guys seem to be getting 30-40 regardless of salt.

Here's a thread I've been keeping updated - Front End & Suspension Rebuild, UniBall vs Salt Belt long term experiment

 

I had to make my way to New Bedford this morning, f-in a this place is a long ways away! I forgot how long of a drive it is to get here.

 

Clearly I didn't have my coffee yet, and didn't read every word. Just looked at the pics, and could see the BJs on the UCAs. Missed the uniball on the LCAs....

I'll go back to my corner.

I used to do a LOT of work in NB... kinda miss it, mostly don't. The drive is a huge reason.

 

Im kind of shocked by that, I wonder how heims would do. I probably would do something like johnny joints for what Im thinking

 

That's wild, good to know though...

 

Loaded the wood, boss.