It has begun.......

Where are you located? I like how your land looks.

 

Yeah...definitely no chopping on my rig. She's just a pavement princess anyway. I just liked the look of it. Kinda breaks up the front end

 

Northern Arizona

 

I knew it! Check out the AZ regional thread sometime!

 

Looking at your place and what it takes to get in there, my guess would be that you're located here in Rim country or close to it! Right out my back door there's miles of rugged track like what you showed us, stuff you can't negotiate without a good 4x4 and knowing how to drive it. We have more ponderosa up here near 7,000 ft., lots of juniper too. But the rocky hillsides look just where you are!..

 

From the I40 it's a few exits west of Ash Fork and southwest through the brush from there, but until the road is built fully and the cabin up I actually live in Flag.

 

And with morning comes the front bumper. My worst fears came true with the super high humidity slowing the cure way down. As such after several hours of waiting, I flipped the rear and hours later when I picked it up some coating stuck to cardboard and I have touch up to do. That is ok since I don't care about looks but function, as this truck goes through the ringer....alot. So today I will let the front sit till night, flip, coat and pull it in come morning. Then I will touch up the rear, let it sit most of the day before pulling it back in.





Here you can see how the red oxide lets you know you have an area in need of attention, as well as gives it a cool rust look ( I like it others don't). Since the primer is ok to leave without top coating I will leave a few areas like this. Mostly in hard to see areas. The front will look good, but as the coating wears and exposes primer I may start leaving the front looking like that. Again I like the rust look, this does it without actually rusting your bumper

 

I suck at keeping threads updated but here it is. Lets take a look at the front and rear bumpers from a few angles.







I am super happy with it all. Shout out to Pelfreybilt for the fab work.

While I am lazy at internet I have not been sitting around starting a new project. Behold the sleeper platform.



The squares underneath will be fitted with foam board insulation that extends all the way to the shell walls. This will make a warm platform that the big airspace underneath does not affect.


I love having the whole bed for storage. No more loss than a Tonneau cover would force.



I used gel stain and will use the rest on the fiberglass inside to create a partical board look to it. Coffin or small cabin feel, it is all in the mindset. Either way for a two day build on it I am beyond happy with how it turned out. This solves the still unsolved minor water leaks from the tail gate area. I plan to use a generic seal kit just haven't gotten to it yet. But even if it does leak at this point the bed and platform are above any leak points I have identified. The use of storage bins for gear underneath will also be employed here, again just in case. No sliders but a stick with a hook to grab far back items is also on the list. I have a mattress that fits perfect in the recessed area and leaves the raised areas as shelves for keys, phone ect. The "shelves" also lock the mattress in place while driving.

 

Nice work! Hope the paint holds up. Sweet lookin gear nonetheless

 

Why thank you. I have questioned durability. If it becomes an issue I will finish this with a marine spar varnish. While gel stain is way different from penetrating stains, they topcoat just as well. A marine grade finish will make sure it last, but I doubt it comes to that. Once dry a mattress sits on it and I sleep. It won't be used for alot of stuff that can damage it on top. When camping I will use a tarp setup to allow the tail gate to be dropped and the area behind the truck to be used as a "camp", so water will not be able to get on it very easy, even with the sliders windows open.


edit...I just figured out your talking about the bumpers most likely. I don't intend for it to. It is meant as a easy to upkeep coating that can be rattle canned to new with minor masking of the truck itself.