May-June 2017 - Cleaning the engine bay

During the engine pull It was discovered that the cross member had been bent at some point. I have always assumed it happened during an adventure in the Rocky Mountains but I'm now wondering if it is from another incident that happened one winter when I was driving involving sudden back ice and making the quick decision that a ditch full of snow was preferable to the fast approaching telephone poles as the fish tailing became unstoppable. Regardless of how it happened I wanted to take this advantage of getting it fixed. I had a local body shop come tow it and do the repair. This is also part of why I created that rig to hold up the transmission.

I was pleased with the results. Now the power steering hoses will be less likely to get cut on that bent frame.

The grille hardware and headlight buckets had seen better days.

I also repainted the blackout on the grille

And then the engine bay..

All the grille mount hardware was repainted as well as the A/C condenser.

And the grill was installed

This was also a good time to refinish the Ram Air plate.

And a few days later the call came that the engine was ready..