It was at this point I decided to install a new hood release cable while I had the access



I was excited to gain a nice pair of vice grips in the process (pic prior to painting)



Turns out you don't need to pull the whole mechanism but I wanted to clean & grease the latch



I can't leave "good enough" alone so a full wire wrap & tuck was in order



Pulled back without breaking a single fastener



Detailed



20 years of buildup



Post pic of the cleanup, once again I got carried away and stopped taking pics



Hood release installed and working properly



Everything wrapped and secured



Sanitary



I had sealed the air filter housing during this process



JB Water Weld seemed like a good choice, hit with a coat of SEM Trim Black after



Going back together



One final replacement while I was working on this side of the engine compartment



Luckily I had pulled this from the donor truck



Home stretch



Not sure if this is intentional but there is a nice hole and grommet available for running the hose



Some slight clearance required



It ended up taking an entire weekend but project complete.

 

Nice work!

 

Fixed pic upload sizes, not sure what happened there.

Does anybody think this thread is too pic heavy so far?

 

Nope! I love all the pics!

 

More pics please

 

After months of sitting on the shelf It was time to remount the LED's, bonus points for spotting the bottle opener



Custom offset..



Final mockup, prior to assembly



Rings painted black, yellow parking rules applied



I had replaced the window ECU with the one from the donor, and that failed... so I took the easy route and installed the bypass, works great



Also came up with an ultra clean bike rack design using the PO's non hub centric spacers, more details later



Logging miles



More direct pic of the lights

 

Pix are good. Keep 'em coming

 

It's on MFers...lol.

Great pictures and progress. Keep up the good work.

Brian.

 

Next up was the driver side rocker / slider



Something to be desired



Another area doomed to fail



The worst of it



1st coat



The slider was in good shape, just needed some touchup



Naturally I stopped taking pics, I'm halfway through the other side and will fill in the blanks..



Backing plates and the rocker got two coats, plan to buff the powder coat to a shine

 

On to the passenger side...



This would also include the area below the washer bottle



And rocker



Thankfully not as bad as the driver side



And easier to access



Step 1



Minor rust treated



A single rubber grommet causes this section to rot...



Painted the inside rocker where the backing plate sits



5.5"



Finished rocker with refreshed slider



Wires got a fresh wrap & top surface painted



Underneath prepped



Skipping ahead slightly



Finished product



What you didn't see was the lock mechanism breaking and my key getting stuck in the door



Was a good excuse to finally adjust the inner door handle and install a new vapor barrier



Then to top it off I fall through the seat... I'm 175lbs on a good day



1 roll of duct tape later



Seat now feels 50X better than it did before!!