Big Sky Euro

Started working on the rear bumper. With these cars there's "Diving board" and "plastic" bumpers. The plastic are more desired and came on 89 or 90+ year cars. They sit more in on the car and are typically color matched to the paint. For those who don't have access to good junk yards or don't want to pay out the coconut for someone else to pull them and ship there's a intermediate solution. Tucking.



Remove all the bolts. The hard part was figuring where they were hidden at

Behind the marker light


This one couldn't hold up to my kate beckinsale size muscles. (everybody say "MMMmm kate")

Once they're all out, the trim will come off and you can just pull the bumper out.


Once the bumper's off I removed the shocks. (who ever though carriage bolts in aluminum was a good idea )

I sanded the tubes to help them compress post drill, then loaded them up in the drill press

and put a plastic bag over it to catch some of the spray (actually wasn't bad)


These are pressurized emulsion type (nitrogen? air? I don't know) so
Yea, even though this is the second one, I still jump when it hisses at me.
And the juice inside. Looks like regular shock oil to me.


Naked Rear End

The trim is sun worn, kind of ruff and pitted. I got some 3M glazing putty that I'm going to try and use, then coat the whole piece with plasti-dip.

MMMmm kate

Any pictures of that full rear once it's been lifted and tucked?

This evening update.
So my super awesome UV activating 3M glazing putty. Yeah, dried in the tube. Took it back, opened all the remaining tubes of the stuff at O'reily's and they were all junk.
Went to Napa and got some Napa brand stuff. Not UV activating, though it does not require any activator, just dries quick.

At first I used a light flexy spreader but I couldn't get a thin coat with it. That just means too much sanding.
So then I tried a stiff spreader and much better. On the bottom, too heavy, top, nice thin coats

I think I ended up doing about 4 coats each with sanding sessions between. Stuff is dry sandable in like 15 minutes so that's pretty awesome.


Then I did 3 coats of Plasti-Dip


And also prepped the hardware. I know, it's covered but I'd know there was uck underthere.

Thought I'd try official "Bumper" paint out. I'd done the front in Plasti-Dip and that looks good, but I did notice a chip the other day so I thought maybe I'd try this out and see if it's more durable.
Yeah, it's actually called "Bumper Coating" Who'daThunk

Doesn't say anything about priming or even what the recoat times are.
First I tried just spraying on the alum. (I'd sanded it with 220 grit and wiped it down with acetone)
I got pinholes though which are typically a symptom of either contamination or incompatible base coat.

So... I thought maybe the acetone wasn't good to clean with, so I stripped it all off, then wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol.
Still pinholing, though I did notice it seemed to only pinhole around tiny dings in the alum.
Stripped it down again. This time my theory was that I couldn't strip the incompatible base or whatever in the recesses of the tiny dings so I put a wire wheel on my drill and scrubbed the bejeebers out of it. Then the DA sander 220 grit again. Then alcohol wipe down. Then as extra precaution, I put a thin coat of primer on.

Then I did real light coats, the whole can, 4 coats.

I'm satisfied with the results. Next up assembly. edit: I guess you can't really tell in the photo ^^ the black part in the picture there is a shot of the flat top side of the bumper

looks like new! Nice work

Got up at 8 this AM to get this reassembled before C&C. Draggn butt, due to being out late late towing a friends lifted 4runner back from Norris.




And here's side by side (don't have editor on this PC.. had to use mspaint )

That's about 3" poke to 1".

Nice and snug with a clean look. Nice job man.

Okay. Not to proud to admit mistake here.
So I have GC Koni yellows, top adjust.
Before let me stress that... before you install your awesome Lukebox, drill the trunk side panels so that you can get your adjusters on and actually access your fancy shocks.
I absolutely forgot about this and getting the LB out was a PITA. Not just the box, but I had all my wires... bla bla. Anyways, trust me, drill first. I used a 2 1/2 hole saw running backwards, Going forward grabbed too much, backwards works just fine.
You start with this

Drill hole

Tada, now you can get your adjuster knob on there to adjust the shock.


Yeah, I'm a dumb arse for not thinking of this before but... yeah. Do it. Heck, just do it even if you're only planning on top adjust in the future.

Back to the whole phone by the A pillar for music and navigation goodness.
I found that my radio takes over the iPhone when it's plugged in, really I just wanted to use if for DAC and 5VDC power... EG use my phones app to change the music, show whats playing, rather than use the head unit to show what's playing and change the song. So, I thought I just run a audio extension from the phone to the head unit. Pop a little bulkhead 3.5 jack in the A pillar next to the USB and run a short M -> M extension from phone to pillar.

Made an extension cable today after work.
All low inductance and sh*t with silver braid shield because that's what the internets say about good analog audio signal transfer (I also have a TT fetish so.. yeah) <<edit that's not a reference to an Audi
The guys over at TNT-audio seem to be pretty knowledgeable if you're interested in audio interconnects.

Started with some nice LMR190 coax cable.

Stripped off the plastic sheath

Using 30ga solid core for the L & R channels

Chucked up a bent paper clip in a drill to twist it

Turned out good (note ease off the wire when down and let it untwist just a bit or you'll end up with a knotted mess)

Pulled the center core out of the LMR190 and pulled in my 30ga pair

Soldered it to my connectors (admittedly these aren't super quality)

Put a little heat shrink tubing in place

All together



And...

..
..
..


..
The connector base is too large a diameter to fit through the phone case hole.
It don't fit


Cheers,

Well that's still cool