Waterless Wash and Welding Project

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My truck doesn’t fit through automatic car washes anymore. With the suspension it is over 7′ tall, and with the antennas it would be a huge hassle anyway. I’d have to remove them all. I’m not a big fan of the car wash bays, or washing in my driveway, because all of the water around here is really hard and leaves to bad spotting, even if instantly dried. So I decided to try some waterless car wash that I found with good reviews, and see how it turned out.

[amazonjs asin=”B00X04JRMU” locale=”US” title=”Waterless Car Wash Wax Kit 144 oz. Aircraft Quality Wash Wax for your Car RV & Boat. Guaranteed Best Waterless Wash on the Market”]

I washed the truck in the dark, so I wasn’t able to see the results until morning. It took forever to go over the truck with two rags (one wet, one dry), panel by panel, and get into all the grooves of the side steps, bumpers, and wheels, but the result I found this morning seemed worth it. The truck hadn’t been washed in at least six months, and started yesterday as a shade of greenish brown from all of the pollen and dirt it had collected.

The same company also makes interior products for plastic and leather care, which I purchased and will be trying out today. I ran out of time to address the interior of the truck yesterday.

Since I’m done with the house, and starting to work on welding projects again, I decided to take up adding a winch to my front bumper. When I purchased it, I went back and forth several times between the winch and non-winch version, but ultimately chose the one without to save a couple hundred dollars on the bumper, several hundred on the winch, and a 150lbs or so from the front of the truck. I didn’t have the front suspension mods at the time and I was concerned it would pull the front down too far in addition to the heavy bumper. It’s one of the few decisions on this truck I’ve regretted. I decided that, instead of swapping the bumper out, I’m going to fabricate a custom winch mount onto the existing bumper. I’m going to start by cutting out the expanded steel where the license plate is, and mounting the winch roller there. I’ll fabricate mounts for the winch behind the bumper and wire it all up. The winch I am looking at is one of the least expensive heavy models on the market, a Smittybilt X2o Gen2 15,500. I’m not buying it yet, but waiting for a good deal or sale to come up.

[amazonjs asin=”B00K150VBC” locale=”US” title=”Smittybilt (97515) X2O Waterproof Winch – 15500 lb. Load Capacity”]

I’m not sure where I’m going to move the license plate, but might end up using a receiver mount for it.

One other truck-related thing I’m waiting to buy is an Airdog lift pump. Specifically, the A6SABC413 model. It does smaller micron fuel filtering, fuel/water separation, prolongs the life of the problematic CP4 pump and (less of an issue) injectors on these trucks, and keeps rail pressure consistent which reduces turbo lag, all without a tune. It retails for $739, but I saw it for $600 or so on Black Friday, and have been regretting ever since not grabbing one at that price. It’s something I want to get before the truck has too many miles on it, because it is well proven to reduce fuel system wear on these trucks and that is known to be a problem.

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