Project Blue Jeep

[Snboarder113]

Sad day, summers over.
Learned a couple things today.
First being buy drill brushes holy shit this top has never been so clean. Hard to tell in picture but both sides were soaped and scrubbed right side was also drill brushed. The difference in person is huge.

Second being put on Jeep first, then wax. That was slippery lol. Turtle wax trim restorer.
Before


After




Don’t know what happened to the spider shade. If it melted or something. But it’s sticky like tape here, I don’t think Michigan is hot enough to melt mesh tarp? Anyone else have an issue with sunshades?

 

[JKbrick]

It was Global warming that ruined your shade

 

[wjtstudios]

Really cleaned up well!!

 

[Jsouder53]

That looks like new! Glad to see how well it came out!

 

[Snboarder113]

Picked up a few projects to tinker with “, thanks again Elroy and rst8rox.
I was excited for this one, I’ve missed doing fun things instead of just maintenance and repairs.
That being said this fought me a lot, but I finally came out victorious.


Step one was grinding off the powder coating and smoothing out the finish. Used a twisted wire cup brush on a grinder for most the work to get rust off and flaky bits then followed it with a sander to smooth out.




Got the plastic fenders off and threw one side on just to look, I like it.

step two, paint
I used an automotive epoxy primer that mixes 2:1 and hardens fully in 3 days from Omni. Scroll back a few pages to understand why I hate rust so much and why this extra step is worth the extra investment.




Got 3 coats and left to dry for a day.
The inside edge of the tube underneath is especially hard to paint so I ended up flooding it a bit and letting it dry

 

[Snboarder113]

Step three was mocking up, drilling shit ton of holes, a lot of rivnuts, a lot of liking shit up, fighting the radius of the armor against the corner of the tub. Etc etc.

Marking and center punching holes
Drilled a shit ton of 9/16” holes painted the edges and then installed the rivnuts





Then repeated on the other side. Then worked on the fenders getting lined up and drilled straight through both the body and the armor to line up perfectly (way harder than it sounds) and installed more rivnuts.

 

[Snboarder113]

Today pulled everything off and gave everything another coat of primer from the marks and scuffs and then the raptor liner showed up from Amazon.



Had some plastidip spray laying around, figured what the hell Cant hurt to have a layer of paint protection not sure it’ll do much.

First time using Raptor. I fucking love how it sprays and how easy it is to use and clean up. Gives an extremely even coating without any spray patterns showing up.



I didn’t take many pictures of this step, as it only took like 15 minutes to spray everything. And I only used one bottle, covered the corners the fenders and a bumper multiple coats.

It was 32* here so took awhile to dry, but then it was assembly time, including a run to the hardware store to get longer screws for the tail lights





Really happy with the looks and the raptor liner finish, will definitely be using on other parts.

 

[Bullwinckle]

Fenders and skins turned out great!

 

[WJCO]

Looks great.

 

[Elroy231]

Well played! Those look better than the factory coat. Nice job. Looks great on Bj

 

[Jsouder53]

Looks awesome!!

 

[Cousin Clyde]

Wow that came out damn clean. Looks amazing. Those corners are certainly a pain, but we’ll worth it….wish I had that nutsert tool. Looks efficient

 

[Snboarder113]

Wow that came out damn clean. Looks amazing. Those corners are certainly a pain, but we’ll worth it….wish I had that nutsert tool. Looks efficient

$30 on Amazon, just make sure your thread size is listed in the description. Honestly the hardest part was just trying to get it to sit flat. For whatever reason it seems to be radiused out at the corner so you have to push it in and then tighten it. Let’s just say the 3/16” is stronger then the sheet metal and it was trying to pull the jeep to it instead of pulling the armor into the Jeep. Got there though, now I’m looking around at all the stuff I wanna raptor liner as I bought a full kit and only used one bottle. Wish I would’ve sprayed some on a scrap piece I could beat up with hammers to see how it holds up, I am honestly rarely impressed with a product and I absolutely loved it.

 

[wjtstudios]

Damn I missed this, those comers turned out great! You know, if you hang out with those guys too long, you end up on 40s and wontons..

 

[Snboarder113]

Damn I missed this, those comers turned out great! You know, if you hang out with those guys too long, you end up on 40s and wontons..

haha yeah... I'll have to work on the truck and trailer first I think before it hits that levelI already don't like taking it offroad more than a couple hours or so away, my network of friends with trailers isn't that deep if I break it too far out of town, expensive uhaul rental to get it home haha

 

[wjtstudios]

haha yeah... I'll have to work on the truck and trailer first I think before it hits that levelI already don't like taking it offroad more than a couple hours or so away, my network of friends with trailers isn't that deep if I break it too far out of town, expensive uhaul rental to get it home haha

If you ever have an issue and can’t get back home, don’t hesitate to give me a call. I’ll PM you my number