Just a couple of notes incase I forget to post about them.
I pulled the hinge springs off and installed the WAM rod shocks on the new hinges the shop put on with the new hood. I still struggled with getting the hood to sit flush with the fenders. The springs were way too stiff and I was worried about kinking the hood so I have to use the shocks. If I push down on the hood on both sides it sits down nice and flush and stays. So Ill just keep doing that for now. Until it bothers me enough to fool with it.
The body shop did a great shop on everything except for whoever washed and cleaned the truck up. They swirled a large majority of the rest of the truck.. ugh. But I did a small test spot with some fine polish and they are coming out so they should remove easy but it sucks I have to go back over the whole truck. Ill get add the sealant to the hood and fenders to match the rest of the truck.
I took the wife out Sunday morning to get a xmas tree since it was almost 60* here in Ohio. The truck ran good except I keep getting a lean misfire under heavy load about 1/3 times I go WOT in 2 & 3rd gear. Im going to plumb up a fuel pressure gauge to the windshield so I can drive it around and keep and eye on fuel pressure. My fuel pump is plenty big enough but I dunno if my fitech sump is causing issues. If it is fuel pressure I've made up my mind that Im dumping the sump and going to make my own sump that fits inside the existing fuel tank. Most likely using an '87 sender and some AN fittings and lines. I regret thinking I could make that sump work correctly. I feel like the misfires started happening after I switched pumps but don't know for sure.
I was able to fool around with the shift paddles a bit driving the truck around Sunday. I also had made a phone call to Compushift to try and understand the capability of the controller and trans. So the paddles will downshift the trans in manual mode as long as there is throttle input. Its a little weird to do in person but it works without any issues. Its not fast by any means but it works easier and better than using the column shifter. You can upshift as normal and its pretty quick and fun. At anytime you can put the trans back in auto mode by holding either paddle "in" for like 3 seconds.
I decided I wanted to be able to see the trans controller to see what gear I was in and to keep an eye on trans temps. I didn't want something permanent so I just mounted it to an existing hole on the bottom of the dash. Its not pretty but its mostly out of the way and easily viewable.
And the best for last. My wife didn't have super awesome ideas for me for xmas so she said just to pick something out for my truck that I wanted... So I pulled the trigger on a TrueTrac differential and some 3.73 gears along with an install kit. The more I drove the truck with that solid locker the more I hated how it drove. It didn't want to steer at all! So Im hoping this is a big improvement. Now to figure out whether I want to attempt the install or take it somewhere.