[JohnIL]

Once the stereo bezel was fitted to the dash, I spent the better part of an afternoon smoothing the steel bezel out with body filler and primer. While waiting for the various layers of filler and primer to dry, I took care of another little project. The original door limiting straps were toast. The passenger side was only worn out. The driver side was just plain broken. Based on advice that I found here on the forum, I ordered a new set of limiting straps for a Jeep XJ. This design is an improvement on the factory straps because they include a semi-open position which should help keep me from bashing other vehicles in parking lots. The only problem with the Jeep straps is that they are significantly shorter than the factory straps. The doors don't open far enough to be comfortable. They would work OK, but you would have to squeeze in and out of the truck, even with the doors fully opened. The fix was actually pretty easy. I lopped the eyelets off of the new straps, and grafted on the eyelets from the factory straps. On my first attempt, I added 1/2" to the total length of the strap. That was just a bit too much. The door opened about 1 1/4" further than it did with the factory strap. On my second attempt, I only added 7/16" to the length. Believe it or not, that 1/16" was worth 1" of door opening. Now, the doors open almost exactly as far as they did originally, the have a semi-open position, and they have new squishy rubber bumpers to cushion the doors when they are flung open.