My kid lost interest so I'll build it for the Lil Mrs. build

After having gotten everything cleaned up yesterday. @Pella made a donation to the cause today. This will be a game changer for me keeping organized, and also getting the tools located closer to where I need them.

 

Finger painting is fun

 

More new stuff

And bumper is fully welded. I'll be cleaning it up to start painting tomorrow.

 

Headlights and corner lights are ordered, and on the way.

 

Light bar bracket and ditch light brackets arrived.

Hood latches should be here some time this week.

 

Took a little fitting, to make the winch fit.

 

Painted the entire core support with Rocker Guard paint. It's slightly textured, goes on thick, and stays a little flexible. Shouldn't have many problems with it chipping.

Black behind high clearance bumper hides a lot. That light gray would have looked dumb.

 

Cleaned up the bumper and wiped it down with acetone. It has gotten a full coat of (green) self etch primer, and one side of (gray) sandable primer. I'll let this side dry for a bit and flip it.

Hopefully I can get the Raptorliner on tomorrow and put this part of the project to bed.

 

Applied Barrier Bond to all the pieces of patch metal. If you've never rubbed before, and don't know, it's a good idea to apply a thick, rubberized, product to the bare metal... unless you want to hear all the tings and pings from the rocks getting kicked up and hitting the metal.

 

Who else keeps aluminum foil in their paint prep kit?



Undercoating complete

 

Bumper got first coat of Raptorliner. I'll let it sit till tomorrow, then I'll turn it over for final coat on the front.



Pro tip. Just paint the inside of the winch cradle with good paint. And then just let it get the overspray. That area would take a lot of Raptorliner to cover completely. Paint is cheaper than RL.

 

I got a starlink mini with the PCI magnet mount to contribute on race day. Ideally we'd need a second unit, one on the car and one in the pits. It pulls about 21w once it's connected if you wanna leave an empty switch for it. I'm really happy with the performance so far.

 

We have actually been heavily considering a Starlink Mini. You're the 3rd person, I know of, that has one and is happy with it.

I've also been mapping out the electrical/switches. Good call on a switch for that.

 

It hadn't occurred to me to bother with a switch for ours (we just plug it straight into a portable battery pack), but we would definitely want that if it was hard-wired. We're super happy with ours. Gotten way more use out of it than I expected. The lady simply wouldn't be able to go on many trips without it, and I even used it at work last week to call in my lane closures. Would have had to make a 40-mile round trip (in the wrong direction to be headed home, too) to start/stop my lane closures.

 

Well... now you're the 4th person, I know of, that's happy with it. LOL

 

make it 5 happy starlink mini owners that you know.