Casper's Broken Down old Grumpy Assed Build

I agree! I guess Tonto explored most of the North American territory or maybe he learned it from is crow

 

yeah - a hard top is out for me for the same reasons you mention... What's the setup/takedown like on a soft top? Otherwise, i have been imagining a tall-ish bed rack that is just wide enough to hold a 2p Tepui that I could slide forward for driving and back for camping, and take off on my own w/o help... But, doesn't solve the keeping gear out of weather issue. Currently i have these huge heavy duty plastic bins that are weather proof, which also sort of works, I'm thinking a soft top would be nice to be able to park in a small town to resupply and not tempt theft...

 

Gonna have to check the credits and see if there was a "continuity supervisor" on the show. Somehow I doubt it.

 

Put up and take down for a soft top is supposed to be only minutes. They only weigh like 10 pounds and completely collapse

 

The fit a square light in a round hole mod:
Damn @Kemosabe asking me what I've been doing. I got outside today and decided to tackle something that's been bothering me. My fog lights hiding in the bumper which is what I was asking @Acerwin about yesterday. What a fiasco that was. It took me most of the day with my limited tools here to make half decent cuts in the bumper, fab up some aluminum fill plates, and get everything remounted and pretty well lined up. It's no fun trying to cut this stuff on a plate that's angled in 2 different directions. I may go back and make some adjustments but at least now I should get full bennifit from the lights. I'm going to do this a little different and do it with captions for the pictures.

Bumper had round holes and with the swept back design the square pods wer forced to sit back in the bumper and were partially blocked


I decided the best route here was to cut the holes out to a rectangular shape alowing the full light to be exposed. In the pictures it looks weird because of the multiple angles of the bumper surface I'm assuming. They kinda look more trapazoidal or something but they're really not. These pics show the marking and cutting of the hole.




If the hole was left as it were there would have been a large open gap to the center of the bumper which would have looked like crap and let some of the light from that side of each light stay trapped behind the bumper defeating the whole purpose in this. I grabbed some cardboard and fabbed up a template for a blocker/ filler bracket to go in the bumper it runs across the bottom of the light allowing me to relocate it further forward and then up the inside to fill the void. With the brackets painted I mounted them, drilled a hole to relocate the actual light, mounted the lights, and touched up the cut edges. Like I was saying in the pictures the shape will look a little weird but everything was cut square perhaps that's the issue.


Filler plate fit to shape and broke to 90 degrees you can see the multiple angles



Cut hole with the filler plate you can see it along the bottom and up the rt side this was the passenger side.




Everything mounted pics from both sides.



here you can see the filler to the left of the light



That was a job. I may get some edge trim just to dress it up some and may end up trimming a little more later. When the bumper comes off for a winch or reinforcements I may weld in the filler plate as a gussett but that will mean stripping and recoating the bumper.

 

Looks damn good!

 

Thanks Chad I have issues with something not looking exactly like I want it to so it may get screwed with again

 

Trial and error, props for the DIY sir

 

Metal fabrication is part of my job probably why I'm not entirely happy with it but it works

 

Thats awesome man, always wanted to learn how to work with metal.

Have to get some shut eye big doggy, much love.

 

Good night Chad

 

Yeah, being able to make anything is sort of a blessing and a curse...

 

Yep it's handy I need to get a welder to have here at home. I had a small one and trded it for a plasma cutter. It is nice to be able to see something you want and be able to figure it out and make it or just like today be able to modify something to make it how yu want it

 

cutting this bumper really threw me for a loop the pictures make it look all wonky but it's really pretty square. It was a catch 22 kinda thing I couldn't tell what it would look like in comparisson with the lights until I could get the lights in place yet I couldn't get the lights in place until I cut

 

Yeah, I remember a little project I had where the only way to make it look right was to actually make a pretty unsquare hole.

 

What a contract! But it definitely looks better like this!

 

Good morning Louis

 

Better than I could have done.

 

Y'all are crazy trying to fit squAre lights on round holes!

I took the easy way out!

Nice job making a round hole squAre C!

 

Paint the wheel mod:
A beautiful weekend so I decided since the pollen is done to take care of another one of those projects that has been nigggling at me for a while. Last year when I found my Tundra wheels I was in a hurry to get them cleaned up and painted before the tires came in so I stripped them and went with the cursory black for a white truck. I'd wanted the wheels to be color matched to the truck from the beginning but it's a little bit of a job If your going to actually paint and not plasti dip them. Don't get me wrong I don't have anything against Plasti Dip as my front grill surround, emblem, and rear bumper are dipped it's a good product if used correctly. I gathered my materials yesterday while my wife and daughter were shopping and when we came home I went to work on them. All this takes about twice as long as I can only still use 1 arm and rt now the right arm is sore and worn out.
So I pulled the truck into the garage, put it up on stands, and removed the wheels and tires, this was easy even with 1 arm. I rolled them out to the driveway and started sandng, and sanding, and sanding until I got them all straightened out and how I wanted them. I was black from head to toe after that go round so time for a shower. I went back out around midnight and got a good start on taping. I got back out there early this morning while it was still cool and finished taping and got all my materials ready. They're sprayed with 3 coats of Krylon white, oversprayed with 1 solid coat of Duplicolor 040 superwhite, and top coated with 2 coats of clear. The clear makes them a little glossier than I wanted but will offer up protection from the white staining from dirt and brake dust.
I've had several people tell me I was stupid nobody has white wheels anymore and it'll look dumb. I know bronze or gold is all the rage rt now but just not my taste especially the washed out bronze. There's nothing wrong with these colors it's just not my taste. Everywhere I go around here it seems almost every white vehicle that has had anything done to it has black wheels from cars to big diesel trucks and everything in between. And me generally not giving a shit about what others think I chose my own path and since I'm a painteer I guess you could call it an occupatonal hazard. Oh well I like it now just gotta keep it clean, then get it dirty, then clean ,then dirty, ha it's something to do.
Pics are of the wheels black and then the order of progression to a color matched white. Not bad for a hand full of spray cans.





After first coat


done





Y'all have a great day!