[njsteve]

I found a really nice used bumper on Craigslist for $120. It came off a 1996 Tahoe. I spent the week descaling the back of it and then painted the back side with POR15. Those things a really heavy! The mounting bracketry is welded to the bumper core. No wonder they are so expensive. After getting it all ready I then removed the original bumper off the Suburban. Planned obsolescence by GM created a nice area behind the licence plate mounting point that is unwashable and unreachable with a hose, so they just start rustng internally from day one.

I also spent last weekend replacing the tranmsission cooler lines, which, Iike the factory steel and rubber oil cooler lines, leak fluid at the crimp joints where the steel and rubber lines meet. BTW, Dorman makes better replacement trans and oil cooler lines than the AC/Delco lines, which leak after only a few months. They are also held in with those crazy little, wire C-clips.

So now every steel line that was rusty or could rust in the near future has been replaced: brakes, fuel, oil cooler, and transmission cooler.

Next week I install the last of the gifts: a new Diamond Eye high flow exhaust with a 3&quot; turbo down pipe and 4 inch exhaust and muffler. This is the system that all the 6.5 guys use. Got it from Summit Racing with free shipping. According to the guys who have installed the system, it's good for an extra 1 mile per gallon. When your'e getting 14.5 mpg, every little bit helps. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]