[brossow]

Took the day off work today and got a little bit more done. Kinda killing time waiting for the LCAs, which are supposed to be here tomorrow.

Did the headlight buckets first and they turned out spectacular -- just as good as the brake pedal assembly.

Then I started in on the hood hinges. Got one hinge completely stripped and ready to powdercoat and got both springs coated. I've purchased (years ago) a couple sets of powdercoated hood hinges for my other trucks and was very disappointed in how the springs were done -- rust in between the coils and peeling powdercoating -- because the springs were apparently completely compressed when they were prepped and coated. I wasn't about to do that kind of shoddy work on my own parts, so I media blasted the springs while they were still on the hinges (and therefore slightly spread out). Then to get the powdercoat everywhere, including between the coils, I built a little spreader out of a couple bolts and a nut, just a quarter-inch or so longer than the compressed spring. I used a grinding wheel to slot the heads on the bolts so the spring wouldn't slip off, then stuck the assembly inside the spring, seated one end on one of the hooks, then used my god-like strength to pull the spring far enough apart that it would slip over the other slotted bolt head. That kept a slight gap between the coils, which not only ensured complete coverage but also made it a LOT easier to make sure the inside of the spring got completely coated as well. After the first coat was done and had cooled, I removed the spreader and added a second coat to cover the spots that were covered by the bolt heads on the first pass.

Hope this info helps someone else do a quality job on their hood springs, even for painting if not powdercoating. There are probably better ways to do it, but I made this one up based on my frustration of paying for other people's sub-par work.

Hope to finish prepping the other hinge tomorrow but may not jump right into powdercoating them. Have to think about how to approach it, since I can't disassemble them like I did the brake stuff and there are moving parts with tight clearances. Gonna take at least two coats, possibly more. No perfect solution short of disassembly, I'm sure.