May 18, 2013
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"It's only 8 bolts...."
... but oh, the troubles!
I found a good price on a replacement chrome bumper for the truck and ordered it. Only 8 bolts held it to the frame, so I figured it wouldn't be too hard a task.
Right.
So -first thing, one needs to remove the headlights to get to the bolts. Not a big deal, except that I did lose one of the bolts that hold it in place, and have yet to find a replacement for it.
So, I get to the bolts and discover they are metric.
I don't have metric wrenches. I do have combination english/metric crescent wrench.
Doesn't work, as the room requires sockets or a hex wrench.
Fine.
I buy a socket set and a combo wrench.
I'm able to get 7 of the 8 bolts free. No matter how hard I try the 8th won't come free, and I begin to damage the nut.
I should mention that I did this over the course of a week or so, because I kept having to reassemble the front end to go to work, or ministry work, etc.
I bought some Blaster PB Penetrating Oil.
It worked!
At last! The bumper is free.
I try to remove the plastic lower bumper, which I intended to reuse, along with the fog lights.
Too rusty. I tried everything to break the two pieces apart, but to no avail.
I had to buy a new lower bumper and two new fog lights, and all the fasteners.
Oh - no one sells the fasteners.
That took several trips to various stores before I finally found all the "these will do" bolts and nuts I needed to replace the bad ones.
For a while, I drove the truck with only the chrome bumper. It was fine, except that the lower part of the radiator was exposed.
Oh yeah, and two of the holes in the new bumper were off by just about 1/4 inch (... or 0.6 cm, whatever.)
I was out one night with my ministry partner, Donna. I said this:
"We should be fine unless I hit an opossum or raccoon."
On our way home, a suicidal raccoon did a double-thump under my wheels.
Donna is still cringing at the sound of it.
As for me - I thanked God for a clean kill and that it went under the tires and not against my radiator.
Eventually the lower bumper arrived at home, and I was able to put it on.
And today, as we are on the verge of heading to Arkansas, I finally got the right bolts to put the fog lights back in.
Now .... it goes to the shop for A/C repairs.
Ugh.
Comments (8)
Oh, the joys of a "new to you" truck! I had a wheel noise I didn't like this week -- took the car to Toyota, and they found a bad hub cap, but had to order the part. On the first try, they were sent the wrong part -- try again next week!
Have a great trip to Arkansas!
@slmret - Oh no... this is the OLD truck.
And it looks like it'll be mine for a while, yet. Thanks for well wished to Arkansas.
Have a safe trip.
It seems to me that having an automobile is more trouble than it's worth... especially if you have multiple automobiles that seem to always break down at the same time...
j just went through this while performing a complete front end replacement on his thunderbird.
DITTO!!!
That surely was rusty, and what a job changing all that out ended up being, but now, just look at that last picture, shiny and pretty, and probably safer too.
Since I'm late in finding this (been off of Xanga ~10 days) you probably have already returned from your trip. I hope you had a good one and maybe we'll get to hear about it in your next blog, and maybe you will soon finally be blessed to find the right new truck for you, when you least expect it. You'll just drive by it and have to turn around for a double glance.
I hope your memorial day wknd was pleasant.
Good job, I do like that truck!
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