PWNY TRK

[JustinG]

paint all your diamond plate black :-P

What he said.....

Diamond plate is for fire trucks, and dog boxes.

[Jeff]

And it looks really good when it starts to come back off. Seems like no one fixes it after it starts either. Their box ends up looking like a diamond plated Dalmatian.

[Kaan]

bed line it then.

[Ryan T]

looks good. My vote would have been for no running boards at all, but if they are a must for you, gotta be shiney diamondplate. Black is only for black trucks, white trucks and grey trucks. Embrace the inner redneck. I'd vote for a nice headache rack. And if you really want to go HARD RED, diamondplate bed rail covers and mossy oak seat covers.

[JPolen01]

Why stop at mossy oak seat covers? Do the rocker panels.

[Jeff]

I just went to the local place I got the boards and put in a quote for bed rails. Anne wants maximum diamond plate. We are going to do herculiner with bed caps. The top of the bed is damaged so i can't line over the rails. I like the look of no steps as well but Anne really needed them so she didn't have to jump into her truck.

Tags came in!


As for seat covers. I'm having the driver's seat redone. I'm not going to cover over my $100 repair. Now that I have the stepsit is less likely to happen again.

[Jeff]

Got the seat back on Tuesday and got installed. Man is an artist.


I pulled the bedliner out to reveal the horrors that lay beneath!


Damage that made over the rail impossible


Junk.


After 30 minutes of scrubbing.


Yes...I really did.


I think it turned out nicely. Since this pic I polished the tool box and put it back on (that was a huge pain in the ass btw)


So now all that is left for awhile (until I start doing lights) is the bedliner. With a sale price and an online coupon I was able to get a Duplicolor Bed Armor kit and a cut in spray bomb for $54.89 after tax! Freakin Sweet. The kit alone was $100 normally. I will do a complete write up on that.

[D_Eclipse9916]

It looks better with the rails. But I'm just not a big fan of chrome diamond plate (just like you probably aren't a big fan of my huge wing )

[Jeff]

I didn't say I didn't like it. I just said it was soooooo big.

[Jeff]

I am actually going to talk about something in this thread people in MM might actually care about! Roll in truck bedliner. It obviously has applications all over the automotive world so maybe someone will learn something useful from this. After much looking and soul searching I decided to "roll my own" rather than have a spray liner done to the old truck. I looked at Herculiner, RustOleum, and both of Dupli-Color's liner options. My decision was mostly made on economy as I was able to get online coupons to Advance for Dupli-Color's "Bed Armor" line. The kit and a spare can of the aerosol version was $54 with tax included, normally $115 value.



It was hard to find reviews on the Bed Armor because it hasn't been out as long as their lower market "truck bed coating" has been (normally $49.99 per kit). Most reviewers hated truck bed coating but the new Bed Armor has Dupont's Kevlar name on it so I am hoping it will perform better. It is water based and I was able to do it in a closed heated shop with no mask....try that with Herculiner.

So anyway, PICS!

You saw the bed in previous pics. It had some rough spots. The worst was around the B&W convertible gooseneck ball.






Prep is key for this project. You want the finish of whatever you are coating to be well roughed up and all the loose debris gone. I chose to discard the scouring pad that came with the kit in favor of 180 grit sand paper. First you should tape off the areas you don't want sanded just to make sure you don't bone anything up.



I took an air powered grinder and knocked down all the rust to bare metal.



Then sanded the whole bed with 180 sand paper. Also fixed two of the large dents. Obviously washed the bed out after I did all this.



Primed all the bare metal with a high quality etch primer. Later that night I cut in all the corners and tight areas with the spray can. Waited til the next morning to start the rollin. Did I mention I removed the cargo tie down hooks and put tape in the holes to protect those small threads?





Lets Roll. Stir that shit up for like 5 mins. Metal paint stirrer > wooden stick that comes in kit. I made a poor spout from 2in masking tape. This really helped cut waste and limit the mess. The stuff cleans up with just water while it is wet and all the tools are re-useable.



First clean the surface with an acetone or paint prep wash. Make sure there is no dust. Apply one thin even coat starting with the front of the bed, then each side, then the bottom. Don't wear clothes you like. I did the rolling in my sock feet to cut down the dust I was dragging into the bed.





First coat, at least one hour then the second heavier coat. I used all the stuff and it worked out 100%. I let my first coat dry over night then came back and hit the second. I gave it 48 hours of dry time before I so much as touched it. Leaving it inside with the heat on 80 for most of that time. Obviously in summer just outside in sunlight would be best after the first hour.

So all done!




Initial impressions - Stuff is pretty rugged. I like the line-X look better then the Rhino but this will have to do. Its that rubbery Rhino looking type stuff. I think it will last pretty well. Its clear it bonds really well to itself and staying rubbery will fight peeling and cracking. I will update in 6 months and we will see.

[Jeff]

My next big project poking out of storage. The box is 16ft long and the overhang makes it nearly 24ft long.

[Kaan]

How is the bed? Some finishes are "gripy" and others are just a hard shell and slippery.

[Jeff]

It is very grippy in that rubbery sorta Rhinoliner way. Its not looking good for the home team though. I already had to touch up a few places. I put some front seats from a Nissan Murano in the back to take them to have some leather replaced and the base of the seats cut right through the stuff right down to the metal. So I touched those spots up and they look fine, but bottom line already, not as tough. I have never really worked with a truck with Line-X but clearly it is much harder. I would still worry about making it look like crap though. Most trucks I have seen with Line-X are babied anyway and the liner looks new. I would have though I had given it long enough to dry so it couldn't be that. It just cant handle sharp (and very heavy) objects. Plastic really is the best if you can bare what it does to the bed under. I guess I will just let it get hacked up and maybe once a year or every 6 months go around and touch it up to keep it looking fresh.

[.RJ]

I had Line-X on my F150, and that shit was indestructable.

[Apoc]

In a recent episode of Mythbusters, they coated a plywood house with it and blew up a brick of C4 like 5' away. The house was basically untouched.

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[Jeff]

Tossed a 2.5in Thrush Super Turbo muffler on last night. Sounds pretty tough. Not loud but better then stock. Not to bad for less then $40 all done. First time I have ever used youtube...here goes nothing. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://youtu.be/FOMaPnN5AOA">http://youtu.be/FOMaPnN5AOA</a><!-- m -->

[Jeff]

Re-update on the bedliner. Shit is actually pretty tough. It seems like I am resisting it and it's only getting HARDER (internet joke there...) It has gotten pretty hard at this point. You still can't drop heavy shit on it to much but it hangs in there better and better as time goes on.

I recently fixed my water leak some hopefully it will stop smelling like ass. The left rear window was leaking like a big dog. I have the carpet out for 4 days to dry and I fixed the leak, rust sealed, and cleaned out the interior really well. Smells like a new car (seam sealer) now so I am good for a bit anyway.

Ordered a DZ-95 "Pork Chop" toolbox for the drivers side but I am going to install it backwards on the passenger's side front. I think it will be perfect for what I need to store. That should be here today.


Only think left to do before I am into the real marginal stuff with the truck is lights. I recently did a little bit of a project with rear lighting. The only think left I want to do is a set of cab clearance lights and OEM style fog lamps.

So if you have read/followed any of my projects you know I am pretty queer for lights (yes I know Mike will quote the "I'm pretty queer" later, I am aware.) I like lots of lights because nothing sucks more then not being able to see what the heck you are doing at night. So the first order of business was fixing a stupid gripe I have with the OEM wiring. The factory made it so the dome lamp in the truck turns on before the cargo lamp for the bed. To have the cargo lamp on the dome light must also be on. This is a bitch when you are hooking to a gooseneck in the dark. You can't see out the back window with the dome light on. So I rigged up a single pole toggle switch to turn on the cargo lamp alone. It was really simple, just grounding a wire when the switch is on to turn on the cargo lamp. It all turned out pretty nice. Then I added a set of driving lamps under the rear bumper to serve as back up and hook up lamps. They are also wired to that switch so they come on with the reverse lights as well as the switch. Pretty sexy setup.

[Jeff]

Well the toolbox came in and I got it installed. Pretty easy install. It has a neat little trap door in the bottom to keep your important stuff up top and the bottom for stuff you need less often. It was optional so you had to drill and install it yourself. That was a bit of a bitch to get right but other then that it was easy money.







Also some pics from that lighting project.


The switch install was so sweet. It fit perfectly.




Anne gave me one of my Christmas presents early. She bought this off of the fellow that keeps cows out at her moms. NOS Mopar Brush Guard he bought when he purchased his 2001 2500 Cummins brand new. He put it on and decided he would rather have the grill guard version after just standing back to look at it. Never been run on the road until now. As you can imagine I am trying to decide where I want to mount the lights.

[Jeff]

SOLD! - New toy thread sometime.

2007 Ram 2500 Quad Cab w/ 6.7L Cummins. All kinds of stuff already ordered. Should be fun.

[Kaan]

SOLD! - New toy thread sometime.

2007 Ram 2500 Quad Cab w/ 6.7L Cummins. All kinds of stuff already ordered. Should be fun.

You are the new .RJ the revolving garage door never slows down!