With her valve covers being powder coated we are now able to tend to portions of this project that we can complete in house.
Here we are converting her arse to one of the wonderful rear bumper delete systems; in this case we removed the OEM frame rail extensions that the OEM rear bumper used to hang from and replaced them with modified OEM frame rail extensions. Once the process was completed the results appear as if OEM.
Because we removed her half shafts to facilitate the removal of the OEM exhaust and ultimately install the new Ford Racing exhaust we agreed that this was the time to upgrade the half shaft hardware to the failure free AccuFab/ARP hardware as created a couple years ago by John at AccuFab. We are always a bit anxious when it comes to removing this particular OEM hardware because the inner cup bolts have been regularly found broken and even worse have broken during the removal process. In this case we were able to remove the inner cup bolts with no significant issue "however" whoever installed them failed to seal the stud axle splines as instructed by Ford as such both side were leaking. Then add to this we inspected the compression washed once removed and one of them had already started to cup as such failure was eminent.
Here is the inner cup hardware as removed; you can see that there is no TA-16 sealant and that the compression washer is coated with fresh oil.
Here we are carefully preparing the inner cup so that the TA-16 sealant will properly bond/seal and we also ran a tap through every hole to insure that there is no residual debris. By doing this we are able to install the hardware my finger until fully seated and then with no secondary friction apply the proper torque.
One of the personal touch items as associated with this project was to custom paint the calipers; in this case red color with our custom script. These calipers were prepared and then painted red after which the white script was painted on and then they were clear coated. Once fully cured they were color sanded to create a flat surface meaning that the script is not felt if one was to slide their finger across it and then buffed to a mirror finish.
Here the custom painted OEM calipers have been installed; in pictures they look wonderful however up close they look phenomenal.
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