Pitman arm was the hardest part by far, but wouldn't have been nearly so bad had I not spent hours trying to cut it open.

I assume so, but I didn't actually use heat - I did it the hard way. @raysorenson could did better answer this.

Yeah, my truck is almost like new after all the work I've done. I was surprised by how far off center the steering wheel was after the front end rebuild, and my alignment was actually not terrible, so I must've put the new Pitman arm on at the wrong angle (I didn't think that was possible but here we are). Now the wheel is off by half as much in the opposite direction after alignment.

There's a thread on here about correcting the powdery door panels with a heat gun, and they make interior paints that work wonders.

 

@COStruck how did you torque down the new pitman arm nut? Before or after rebolting the steering box? Did you just use a torque wrench and standard depth socket?

 

I started it by hand, remounted the steering box (I don't think you could possibly tighten that nut without holding the box), wound the nut up with a pipe on an adjustable wrench (I couldn't get the socket on otherwise), then finally switched to the torque wrench and this socket. I think you'd be better off with a 33mm, and an extra shallow one if you can find one. If your torque wrench is any thicker than mine, that could be enough to blow your chance of getting it on. I had to adjust the position of the nut with the steering wheel to get the socket on, too.