More
painting and finishing touches! Once
the wheels got turning, everything just started to fall into place.
The painting went much easier than anticipated, and also turned out
pretty good (if I do say so myself) even though I was assisted by a
die hard Jeeper, my father-in-law.
My revised goal was to have
the rig ready for my club's annual Spring Fling run at the end of
April to the Badlands Off-Road Park in Attica, IN. I am proud to say I
made it! Follow along
below and see what it took to get this to a usable state.... |
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| After
painting all the jams and trim, those areas get masked off for
painting the main panels. The panels got scuffed with Scotch-Brite
pads, then cleaned and dust removed with tack cloths. |
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My father
in law had this brilliant idea for masking the hard to wrap areas...
use aluminum foil. We wrapped the suspension parts with it. It was
much easier than trying to use paper. Again, we coated many areas with
WD-40 to prevent over spray from sticking. |
| I applied
3 coats of primer, then scuffed afterward to get a good surface for
the paint to stick to. I avoided priming directly to the trim painted
areas, I'll just shoot the color coat there to prevent to much
buildup. |
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You can
see the aluminum foil here on the rear shock towers. Nearly everything
got primed, even the cage, even though it will be painted black. |
| 2
people+8 hours= yellow truck. The paint laid down beautifully with
only one minor sag. I sprayed 3 heavy coats onto the body. There was
some over spray past the paper, but most of it seemed to wipe right of
because the misting of WD-40 prevented it from sticking well. |
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| I even
painted the interior, but avoided spraying directly onto the cage. The
hood is not on at this time, but one did get cut and sprayed black for
temporary use. |
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Next,
a trip to the local K-Mart going out of business sale netted me a
gallon of Herculiner and that got applied to the inside. Be careful
using this stuff, it is very messy and the fumes are as bad or worse
than the paint! Definitely use outside,
and a respirator is a good idea. It
hardened to a "pebbly" coat in about 6 hours in a heated
garage. |
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Now, to
finish the wiring. First I wanted to make sure everything ran before I
cut and moved some wiring. What a mess, but it cleaned up easy. The
ECM is mounted up high, behind and above the glove box now. |
| Some things are done that
aren't pictured here. I installed a new windshield from Roadless Gear.
It was fairly easy, once I figured out the new piece was 1/8"
larger that the old one. I cut it down to the same size and it made
life easy. Also, RCI seats were installed following
the instructions here. It was fairly easy also, but keep in mind
the mounting holes on the bottom of the seats are not consistent or
symmetric, so measure twice! A nice coat of Rust-Oleum was brushed
onto the cage (masking this was way too time consuming) and big-truck
lights mounted into the tailgate, using a trailer wire converter to
allow only 2 lights. I also put padding onto the cage, purchased
through Summit Racing. CB, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, tow
points and other safety requirements
were also added. |
| Well, here
it is. My local club has inspection required before going on any club
4 wheeling trips, so we loaded it up and took it to the meeting. The
spare tire mounting is a bit difficult to see around, so mirrors will
be a necessity. There isn't really another good place to put it, so I
have to live with it. |
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Another
view, from the front. Here you can see the seats with yellow inserts (ya
gotta be fashionable on the trail!) and the shiny new windshield. I
was still being lazy at this time and hadn't bolted the hood on yet.
It makes my Audi look small back there! |
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| So,
off to the meeting we go. One thing we also do is ramp competition at
the meeting. I used it as an opportunity to check for rubbing at full
flex. I was sad to see that my tires still touched my fenders at full
flex, so a little more chopping was in order.
So, still to come is the first trip on the
New Bee! See ya next time!
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