Nice Brian, probably wouldn't hurt for me to do the same to mine either. How is that rear sway bar working for you? Any noticeable driving difference with the bed empty?

 

Well I still have plenty of crap in the bed. At least a few hundred pounds with the cap and stuff I have in there. lol

But yes I can feel a difference with the sway bar. It's a little weird going from no rear sway bar to this. Before, the front followed the shape of the road and the rear just floated along. Now I feel the rear end follow the contour of the road more, you can feel the rear bar pushing back against the body roll. Now the front seems a little on the softer side but I guess that is to be expected, they do sell a bigger front sway bar as well.

The rear sway bar diameter is still smaller than the front, and the rear axle seems to move fine when I flexed it a bit in the driveway. I'm sure the air bags will limit the suspension before the sway bar will limit it.

 

I was just thinking, I haven't really cornered the truck hard yet with the rear sway bar anyway. Since I found play in the inner tie rod end I've been driving it as little as possible. Hopefully the tie-rod ends and ball joints will go in quick tomorrow so I can get it aligned, then I'll drive it a bit more and see how it feels. Actually I should be pulling the fiberglass cap off soon as well so that should be a more accurate assessment.

 

Looks much better. I like the semi-gloss look better. I'd finish it with that.

 

Yeah the semi gloss would be better. It will have to wait though for now. I need another free weekend with reasonable weather and plenty of patience. lol
I wish I could do it now over the (mostly) clean paint. I didn't want to spend all night painting and drive it in the rain first thing in the morning.

 

I didnt read every post, but is that just Rustolium flat black rattle can Brian?
If so I am going to have to do this mod

 

Yes I used rustoleum auto primer and rustoleum flat protective enamel.

I do really like the way the flat black looks but I would go with semi-gloss, or umm, probably will cover it with semi-gloss later. It should clean up easier. I cleaned up a small amount of rust on the frame with a wire wheel, just where it was flaky. I pressure washed the underside, rinsed as much as I could, sprayed the diff with simple green to degrease.

The rust reformer I sprayed was duplicolor because they were out of Rustoleum. The instructions with it say to spray and leave it for 24 hours. You can paint over it or leave it. I did spray some of the rust on the driver's side frame with this stuff the day before painting it too. I didn't use it on the axle because it says not to use on surfaces that could exceed 200 degrees. No idea if the axle gets that warm, or why it would be bad over 200 degrees but whatever.

 

Oh ok cool deal. Thanks Brian. Truck looks great by the way