They did get most all of the paint problems out of my hood with polishing.
Upon closer inspection at the gas station, lots of scratches on the driver's
side fender. Called the service manager on my cell phone and told him how
happy I was taking my Dakota in Monday morning to get fixed, then told
Tuesday
afternoon, it wouldn't be ready until Wednesday. Come to find out, the
Paint Shop
had it all day for the rear bumper. What was accomplised in this 8 hour
day?? They
removed the bumper from the truck. That's it! I had them bring the truck
down, and they
could 'paint' the bumper and give me my Damn truck back. The other paint
problems
were supposed to have been taken care of on Monday. Still, I find more
scratches
while I'm on the phone... Raving like a lunatic, he tells me to bring it
back, and have
the body shop manager go over with my the problems: Looks to me like it
needs to
have the fenders and hood repainted. I'll be back tomorrow after work to
give them
a piece of my mind, and to get my Loaner car.
ARRH!!
So, while I had the bumper off, went by Ed Hanson's muffler shop to show him
the
new ride. They had be drive it right onto a bay, and was able to take a
look from
below. My wife followed me to Ed's shop, so we both took a look (they liked
the Solar
Yellow RT better than mine :( Some interesting things about the RT that I
didn't know:
o The RC has the standard wimpy size driveshaft, vs. the BIG Beefy
driveshaft on the
CC
o The Exhaust system, is a 2.5" from the CAT to the muffler, through
the muffler
and 1" behind the muffler it expands to 3" tip.
o Ed recommends (if it isn't already done) that down pipes that
replace the stock
pipes should cross after the transmission pan, so that heat from
the pipe doesn't
flow across the transmission pan (could keep it a little cooler),
plus the added length
until the crossover could have some performance gains.
o The rear sway bar is mightly small... Only 3/4" in diameter at
most. Gary needs to get
a group purchase on a bigger rear sway bar going!!!
So after about 15 minutes of looking at things, and with no rear bumper,
the choices for exhaust
changes were:
1 Replace the 2.5" with a Flowmaster and 3" from CAT to Tip (oem
location)
2 Replace the 2.5" with a dual outlet Flowmaster and 2- 2.5" pipes
exiting on
both sides (one oem, the other a mirror location on driver's side)
or
3 Replace the 2.5" with a dual outlet Flowmaster and 2-2.5" pipes
exiting through
the ROLL PAN with ROLLED Chrome TIPS....on boths sides of the
license plate
section. VERY COOL!!!!
I am going with #3 I believe.... Now, I need to track down a metal roll
pan, and get the
dealer to paint that too with the viasco I have on my hands.
Sam '99 RT
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