Mr. Pickles

True that. I remember my brother coming home banged up years ago, as a lady got distracted on the road and hit him *gently.* That's at 40mph, but it was a gentle blow and left him down and a scratch on her car. He jumped up like WTF?!?!@#$%&* and she actually drove off. The point being, F that. Our population is filled with too many assholes to get me on 2 wheels in traffic, even on a motorcycle. People around here are too stupid for me to trust them with my life.

$0.25-.30 would be nice, the usual fare here is $1.50-2 per area. The commuter rail is more like $4, but less per zone of travel. My wife takes the rail (the Sounder), but its great for her as she works a mile from the downtown station in Seattle. Luckily, the station is 1/2 mile max from my office, and her employer covers the transit bill. Carpooling is gooooood.

More excellent points. Clay bar is awesome, you really see the nasty muck your're removing. As far as using dish soap (or other cleaners, Simple Green, etc.), yeah, *do not* use unless you intend to strip the wax and re-do. On a side note, Simple Green and a brush can do wonders for white lettering and walls on tires, without the bleach. Its also not a bad idea to scrub your tire sidewalls every once in a while, especially if you use a shine product on them. Clean off any excess build up and dirt, then start with a clean base.

32's will be fine as long as the rest of you suspension is in shape. Mostly, are your torsion bars adjusted to give you a level ride - stock and even front to back, or is the front sagging down? You're really only looking at 1/2" tire size difference between the top and bottom with the new tires, and you're installing a 3" body lift. It will be fine. Its the Hardbody steering shaft longer? The regular Pathfinder one extends in length on that slip joint, as I'm sure you know. Just wondering why you swapped them. As far as the shift lever, they can be a pain to remove. You can leave it as-is, as I have for about 4+ years now, although its not ideal. If so, you'll have to pull back pretty hart to get down to 4-low, but its no biggie.

I honestly find the best interior window cleaner is no cleaner at all. I usually use a damp towel or cloth, and just let the H2O do the work. Its fine for regular cleaning, and leaves no residue, just be sure to go back and wipe dry with a clean towel aftward to remove any streaks and such.

I don't use a cleaner all the time, sorry about that, that was more of a "start here" suggestion. Once there's a good base to go off of, maintenance is polish and wax as needed, maybe once or twice (or more) a year. Agreed, the cleaner is a bit agressive. It takes out scratches by rounding off the edges of a scratch to blend it, and bringing down the clear coat to level things out. If you go over and over and over, or too many applications, you'll "sand" through your clear coat and be into a whole other pain in the rear. Good call.

If we're going into interiors, get a product for interiors. There are products that will clean and moisturize your dash and trim vs. leather care vs. plastics or rubber. I'd recommend a separate interior product (mostly for dashes and plastic), and a separate leather conditioner and cleaner (if you have leather). Meguiars, Mothers, ArmorAll, and many others have different products for different needs. Some work on one surface or more, none really well on all. All should be applied independently with a separate cloth or aplicator, just in case. In all honesty, if your windows are fairly clean, a wet (clean) towel works best. There's no residue left behind, nor lint. In the long run, this kind of care won't find its way to many Pathy's. We'll see. But it carries over to all other cars too. If you're not used to this sort of car care and products, it can seem an expensive pain in the rear side. But really, you could buy one round of this stuff and have it last you the life of your vehicle, and you might end up ahead in the end vs. paying for detailing or reconditioning.

Oh, I forgot our recent plan. The Pathy is PARKED, has been for a few weeks now. As in, no move, go to Home Depot maybe, trail possibly, but commute = nada. It figures out that if I give up a half hour in the morning to drop the Mrs. at the commuter train and then chug free coffee at the office, then a half hour after I get off to pick her up when I'm usualy wrapping stuff up anyways, I can drive her car, cost me almost an hour but save her over 2 per day, and save well over $100 a month in gas in the process. Did that just hurt your brain like it did mine? Oy

Move on out, we need company. We're in Bonney Lake, she rides the Sounder out of Sumner, and I work just over on the edge of Puyallup.

300 miles on a tank with all your stuff?! I can't nurse mine to 250 on flat highway cruise control if my life depended on it. Purrs like a kitten, 31x12.5 tires and 3+3. WTF?!

I trail run my truck. I thrash it if I'm in the mood. I don't give a @!*% about mud nor dirt nor any other bull@!*% Mother Nature can throw. But on the down days, I do like it to shine... First off, if you drink mud and @!*% rocks, and don't give a damn about shine and paint polish... well, why are you still reading? Move along there, lil' partner. For the rest of us that run what'cha brung, then realize you're stuck driving that scratched up mess for the weekdays, yet you don't know what to do about it, well here you go. First thing's first: this will cost you a couple bucks, more or less depending on what you choose. The basic car wash soap in the local shop is probably $3, make it $4 for the Turtlewax wash/wax. Skip that as the better soaps are a just a few bucks more. Don't worry, a couple bucks extra and some elbow grease will make a ton of difference. There are tons of companies out there, and I couldn't list them all, but I can steer you clear of some. The general all-in-one, TurtleWax/Wash, one-stop-shop types of products are a waste of time, in my opinion. Same with the midnight infomercial miracle-wax where you can set your hood on fire, then buff it away. I'm a fan of Meguiars and Mothers brands in particular, but there are plenty others out there. The same basic principle applies to all: rub in with a clean applicator, rub off with a clean applicator. Its the details that matter A good start is to (of course) thoroughly wash the rig. Depending on what terrain you run or live in, this could be as much as a simple spray and soap (city/Cali), to a full-on scrub, spray, get places the sun don't shine kind of thing. Regardless, I hope this is the kind of thing you're doing already, because it helps avoid lots of nasty issues like bad paint, rust and repair down the road. Here's where the train usually runs off the tracks. A "wax" is just that, a coat of wax on top of a surface, whatever the surface is. If its a scratched up painted mess, and you wax it, you end up with a shiny surface on a scratched up mess. When that wax washes away, the mess is still there. That is where the traditional industry has you searching for the wrong stuff. Most of the people who read this have a rig that either: a) is old and has some abuse has been run on trails c) is a perfect show quality truck in a museum d) any of the above. Regardless, wash it and then look for a good paint cleaner. *Note* not a wax, a cleaner. This will help remove scratches and impurities in the paint, and clean the paint's surface. This is where the most labor comes in, but also will equal the most reward. This is also time to for a basic method. Think of the Karate Kid movie. Wax on, wax off. Only more so, and harder with a cleaner. Get aggressive, but only until the "mission" is done. I really use a hard circular motion when trying to rub out a scratch or swirl, rubbing hard with the compound and across the grain of the scratch, and follow with a gentle circular buffing motion with a soft cotton cloth or towel. Start scrubbing the paint with the cleaner per manufacturers instructions. If you really want detail, use a clay bar (web search). The cleaner (especially a liquid cleaner compound) is what you use to rub out scratches, hard-water marks, bird crap, all the stuff that makes your teeth grind every time you look. If there's a nasty scratch or something you think you can wet sand out (not on this thread, kids!), this would be the place to look into it. Other than that, just do it. Rub out the scratches, then repeat if needed. This *will not* cure a bad paint job, nor badly damaged paint from oxidation or other damage. It will clean up much oxidation, and other minor damage before it becomes permanant. Next is polish, which buffs out and polishes the work from the last step. Again, get a decent product. You're essentially looking to polish the surface you worked in the last step. A polish is going to go over the edges you just smothed over with the cleaner, as well as the other rough paint edges, and make for a smoother surface for your WAX. Yes, all of this, and finally WAX!!! People look to wax as a cure, a fix for a blemished item. Its actually more like a preservative if you think about it, a skin that covers paint and all the work that goes into it. Its the same principle but after all of the cleaning and polishing work that goes into it. It must be applied properly according to the instructions, and then buffed out by machine, or better by hand if you're patient enough. I'm not that patient, but nothing can beat a hand-polished rig. Daniel-san, wax on, wax off.

You should get a little "killed Chevy" sticker, something like the old fighter pilots would put on their planes. One down, a bazillion to go. Ditto above, no go on the rear light. Junk yard is your friend.

Ditto, or just a rag underneath and unscrew quickly. No biggie, no mess, MUCH less that stock for sure. Mine's from Summit, I believe same as Slick's, only single vs. dual. She gave me the part #'s and such...

Mine comes by way of our 97 Acura CL 2.2 VTEC. A little power, mid 20's around town, low 30's highway.

Thanks for a fairly worthless post, T.O.M. What exactly happened to your alignmentand/or truck? With that kind of wear, something has *been* happing for quite a while.

Sheesh, that looks pretty close. You might adding/subtracting material to those mounting tabs, or simply boring out the holes if they're close enough to match up to the bumper mounts. You really want to be solid there, and/or otherwise tie into solid metal or the frame. The later rigs don't have those bumper bolts to tie into, so you have to come off of the tow hook bolts below the bumper. Regardless, those type bars often are not very strong anyways when attached to the bumper, unless you tie into the tow hook bolts. They should hold a set of lights and look just fine, though.

X10 When in doubt, rip it out ... or bypas, at least. The stock wiring is barely adequate for the stock setup, whether "regular" stereo, or the Clarion or other systems, so don't bother with it for aftermarket needs. You're talking about a 198X (or even 199X) stock truck, not exactly what you would expect for a rolling stereo demo. My vote is to rewire it from the head-unit and/or amps back out to your speakers. If you're already at that point (pulling the stereo out), then the cost is negligable.

Find a spot where it fits, won't get damaged, and you can easily access it. That's about as much though as I can provide. Almost a year later, no issues or leaks whatsoever. The old girl takes about 4 1/2 quarts now, which is great in my book, as the stock 3 5/8 is to tight a tolerance in my book, especially if you use any oil at all. Soon after the swap, I dropped in some Restore, and then switched to full synthetic. Haven't looked back, oil changes are quick, all is good.

ya mean like this?

A chunk of foam, pillow or upholstery filling, rag, potato, etc. up the tailpipe is another quick, fairly harmless, but quite irritating bit. May I suggest a fish? If not up the tailpipe, then strategically located elsewhere stuffed into anywhere you can find on the car's body (behind a bumper, underneath, etc.), allowing it only to be found after a couple days to allow for aging. This is particularly good for the upcoming WARM summer season...

WTF?! The worst part is, it looks almost like mine!

Um... why... where's the rest of it?

Stealth, grasshoppa... you can drown out certain sounds with a handy rag or other such item.

Here's mine, I wanted to keep the storage pocket under the stereo. I cut an angled wood block, wrapped it in leftover carpet from the speaker box which matches close enough, then mounted the cb radio to it so its up at an angle directly to my eyes for easy operation. There's still plenty of passenger leg room.

FYI- I bought the bushings a while back, after I heard it was supposedly a simple disassemble-reassemble kind of thing (not!). Its still on my to-do...eventually list. The bushings were only like $4 from the stealer, no idea on the pins though.