What did you do this weekend? Participation required

[Kjhadfield]

Koda, what are you soaking with? Have you tried 50/50 atf and acetone

http://addto.it/Remove-Broken-Stripped-Rounded-or-Damaged-Bolt-Heads-and-Nuts Some of these might not work as you said little room

 

[mattZ]

Bought a 96 explorer sport with 134k miles on it. And (with the help of you guys): changed spark plugs and tested for spark, changed oil and filter, changed fuel filter, purchased air shocks to fix sag, cleaned all sensors (maf,iac, etc) cleaned out throttle body, replaced plemun gaskets and camshaft positioning sensor, replaced crankshaft positioning sensor, pulled lower steering joint from juckyard and refurbished /installed it along with rubber firewall boot, replaced rotors and brake pads and fixed "buzzing" from brake booster by replacing ABS sensors, changed trans fluid and refurbished manual stick shift, found cause of heater issue and am in the midst of repairing it.

Its a long list, but it was all accomplished in the last couple weeks. I can honestly say I have learned so much and wouldn't have been able to do it without you guys. Total cost for all of these repairs has been about $350. I'm guessing all this work at a shop would have been about $3k just a fraction being parts. Most of it being from the hourly shop costs.

Just want to say thanks to everyone who has helped!

 

[BrightWhite]

Just finished front and rear sway bar links, front and rear diff fluid change and painted my radio bezel.

Plus 4 tie rods on my quad, productive weekend

 

[N2FORD]

Mounted and balanced the used tires I got last weekend. Put them on the white ST and then took a picture with both of them together. The red one has Cooper Discoverer STT 285/75/16's and the white one is on Goodyear Wrangler authority 265/75/16's. $200 for the set of used tires and they are in good shape as can be seen in the picture.

 

[koda2000]

I removed my intake manifold on my '01 ST to replace the leaking O-rings and in preparation for my 00M12 noise abatement kit install.

 

[01STrunner]

Went on a trip to Uwharrie National Forest in NC. Got to test out the new lockers and man, what a difference. Between that and the SAS I was able to do better than everyone else in the group. Then I broke an axle shaft u-joint this afternoon, so that will get replaced soon. Thank god for manual hubs and I was even able to get up a hairy hill climb in 3 wheel drive. I'll throw up pics on the Show off or lifted pic threads when I get some from other people. Unfortunately most of the wheeling was at night, so not a lot of action shots.

 

[429CJ-3X2]

Before and after pics of my console. I first sprayed it with gray Rustoleum Fabric and Vinyl paint, but it was flat and kind of the color of gray mud. Then I sprayed it with DupliColor Bumper Coating, which was intended for things like our plastic bumper covers, and then 2 coats of matte clear after very light wet sanding with 1500 grit paper. The final color is a shade or 2 lighter than the underside of the console piece (which is a different shade than the top was originally).

I first sprayed a test piece with the above paints and Krylon Fusion. The Fusion looked almost identical to the Krylon Maxx that Koda used. That wasn't the look I wanted. My experience with Fusion on this piece and the Rustoleum Vinyl paint on previous pieces is they spray very unevenly. They'll be spraying normally, then suddenly spray too much solid content resulting in thick paint that wants to run. Maybe I should have shook it longer. The Bumper Coating sprayed evenly like you'd want.

 

[koda2000]

It looks good. My concern with Rustoleum is that I've never found their paints to be very durable, plus they take too long to dry. For those reasons I stopped Rustoleum many years ago. Maybe they've improved since then. The Krylon Maxx I used is a bit bright, but it's extremely durable and I like the slight texture of the finish.

 

[KajunBndit]

Looks great 429CJ-3X2 and Koda 2000, I like the textured look koda, what other colors is it available in, I am thinking about going 2tone grey when I start to paint mine radio bezel and console. I have been sanding my console now for about a week and a half or 2 weeks, I still have a lot to do, my radio bezel is primed already just need to decide on colors.

 

[429CJ-3X2]

Krylon Fusion and /or Krylon Maxx are available in most colors and can be purchased most anywhere that sells paint. The difference between the two seems to be Fusion is specifically for plastic, and Maxx is for most surfaces including plastic. I found a can of satin black Krylon ColorMaster paint + primer "with durable Covermax technology", also for most surfaces including most plastics. I have 2 spare consoles, and I might spray one of them black just for a different look.

The Bumper Coating I painted my console with is gray. Found 2 cans of med silver yesterday. Don't know what I'll use it for, but it was only $1.50 a can at the ReStore.

 

[koda2000]

Looks great 429CJ-3X2 and Koda 2000, I like the textured look koda, what other colors is it available in, I am thinking about going 2tone grey when I start to paint mine radio bezel and console. I have been sanding my console now for about a week and a half or 2 weeks, I still have a lot to do, my radio bezel is primed already just need to decide on colors.

As I recall, the Krylon Maxx is available in a variety of colors. I bought it at Walmart, but I'm sure other places sell it too. The nice thing about the texture is that what you start with doesn't have to be perfectly smooth, I had gotten my parts pretty smooth, but they weren't perfect. I painted everything that was originally silver. Console, radio bezel, instrument cluster surround and even the door pulls. They all came out great and look soooo much better than what I started with. Like I said, the durability of the paint was a huge bonus. My dog scrambling across the console hasn't hurt it a bit.

 

[koda2000]

I waiting on my Ford 00M12 to arrive in the mail for my ST. Maybe tomorrow. I'm also going to pick up the Mobil 1 0W30 full synthetic oil and a new filter tomorrow. 2000streetrod has me a little concerned about removing my old tensioners, but if it all goes to hell maybe I'll start thinking about doing a V8 swap.

No guts, no glory.

 

[KajunBndit]

Thank you 429CJ and soda, next time I am in Wally World I will have to check out the paint section. When I had primed the radio bezel I was testing, it was Rustoluem made for plastic, I am impressed how it covered with 2 light coats and the durability. As a matter of fact, I am taking a break from sanding the console right now to check the comments on a few posts that I am reading!

 

[koda2000]

Thank you 429CJ and soda, next time I am in Wally World I will have to check out the paint section. When I had primed the radio bezel I was testing, it was Rustoluem made for plastic, I am impressed how it covered with 2 light coats and the durability. As a matter of fact, I am taking a break from sanding the console right now to check the comments on a few posts that I am reading!

"soda" who the heck is soda? LOL

 

[crankyjew]

Swapped a blaupunkt radio from a focus into my truck. A couple of metra harnesses and some aluminum u-channel is all it needed!

 

[429CJ-3X2]

The nice thing about the texture is that what you start with doesn't have to be perfectly smooth, I had gotten my parts pretty smooth, but they weren't perfect.

As I just posted on his other thread, I did very minimal prep on mine - basically just a good cleaning - and mine was badly scuffed and worn. I can see some flaws, but they look to be from the 1st couple of coats of the vinyl paint that sprayed very unevenly and seem to have dried the same. The Bumper Coating and clear sprayed smoothly. The finish is smooth with no texture, and you can't see the original scuffs and wear. It turned out well enough, but I wasn't going for perfection. That would defeat the purpose of this truck, which is it's for anyone in the family to use. If it was too nice, I wouldn't want anyone else using it, as is the case with the other truck.

 

[koda2000]

I received my 00M12 kit yesterday. I was puzzled about why it came with 2 oil galley plugs and why the intake O-rings were much thinner than the ones I removed (which leaked a bit when cold). Turns out the gaskets that come with the kit are for the older 2-piece intake manifold. I went to AZ this morning and purchased Felpro intake manifold O-rings for a 2002 ST and they are the correct ones for the 1-piece intake manifold. I'll use the O-rings that came in the M12 kit on my '97 SOHC Sport (which needs them) and the purchase of the new O-rings plus a small 39 cent Slim Jim (which my dog thoroughly enjoyed on the ride home) got me my $20 AZ reward.

The weather is crummy today (and the ST is outside, disassembled right now) so I'll wait until the weather improves to put everything back together. I'm also curious how the Mobil 1 0W30 oil I bought will work with the new front chain tensioner and oil galley reducer.

Oh, the extra oil galley plug shouldn't have been in the box. Someone else probably will not receive one.

 

[KajunBndit]

Sorry yoda, my fingers do get away from me from time to time, lolol. This weekend Nov 7th and 8th, I have done a little more sanding on my console, getting closer to being finished with it, I mean sanding. LOLOL. Right now my wife is watching the New Orleans Saints playing the TN Titans, I don't think the Saints will win this week. LOLOLOLOL What I have left to sand on the console is the rear vent facia of the console and the passenger side of the console. I think I will lightly sand the cargo pocket and freshen with a new coat of paint

 

[Kjhadfield]

So a couple hrs here and there I've been poking, cutting, grinding at my rockers (still on the drivers side) and while I been grinding and cutting I never masked anything off or covered anything- on my WHITE st! Big dummy!! So a day after I noticed orange rust specks all across the drivers side and hood (nothing on the passenger side). Researching the best ways to fix this, I started to just try and clay bar it. I used magiuars bar in the box, so it's probably a light to mid (if that) and I had to really work it to get any results. From what I read you really shouldn't used full elbow grease to get the job done so I knew I needed something stronger. Also after all that work i removed majority and if felt smooth by hand but there were still rust specks and it failed the bag test.

I ended up ordering iron x (wasn't expecting much if anything) and a heavy clay bar. Had about 30 min down time at work and wanted to test a panel. Washed w/ dawn then sprayed iron x. And wow… it removed 99 if not 100% of all the specks. Very impressed. Can't wait to do the whole vehicle now. After I'll still clay with the heavy duty stuff- since it is over 10yrs and most likely never been done, follow with a compound/polish/wax. Obviously like everything else I'll have to work couple panels at a time.

Also need to install the new fuel filter I bought- hope it will take care of some of the bad mpg I get (about 12ish the last I checked but with bigger tires guesstimate 13ish)

 

[koda2000]

I installed my 00M12 kit, new serpentine belt tensioner and idler pulley and changed over to Mobil 1 0W30 oil. Now I've created a fuel leak on the left fuel rail fitting I need to fix.

Update: Fuel leak identified and fixed for free with a used fuel injector O-ring.