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MJ on 42 Boggers continued

So I did a little research on satin finish lacquer paint and found out that there are very limited color choices. And lime green is defiantly not one of them. I've checked with a couple paint suppliers with little to no luck. Just for the hell of it I stopped at the auto parts store in Townsend to see if they could help. The guy there suggested that I wait for his partner to return and talk to him. Well I waited about 20 minutes for him to get back. Well, it was worth the wait. After explaining what I am attempting to do he came up with some flattening additive for epoxy paint which he thinks will work with the lacquer. So for the tune of $37.00 for a pint, I bought it. I'll try it out on some samples to see if it work. Hopefully, otherwise I just pissed away $37 for nothing and will have to paint it with gloss anyway.
 
Awesome progress man!

Two thoughts..

1- Could you just use a piece of plexi for the windshield? Probably a lot easier than trying to fit a windshield back in.

2- Paint, you could look at this https://www.durabakcompany.com/colored-bed-liner-paint-for-your-truck/

It's a bedliner type paint but in a smooth finish. Personally I think it will be a PITA to shoot 2/1 stage paint on the uneven surface and as you said with the gloss finish exaggerating the damage same with spraying paint. It might get runs and then your're back at the start scuffing. With the bedliner you could roll it and it will be a lot for forgiving of the surface imperfections. Just a thought.
 
Awesome progress man!

Two thoughts..

1- Could you just use a piece of plexi for the windshield? Probably a lot easier than trying to fit a windshield back in.

2- Paint, you could look at this https://www.durabakcompany.com/colored-bed-liner-paint-for-your-truck/

It's a bedliner type paint but in a smooth finish. Personally I think it will be a PITA to shoot 2/1 stage paint on the uneven surface and as you said with the gloss finish exaggerating the damage same with spraying paint. It might get runs and then your're back at the start scuffing. With the bedliner you could roll it and it will be a lot for forgiving of the surface imperfections. Just a thought.

Thats a great idea, I wish I saw this before I bought everything to paint it.
 
1/2 day at work yesterday so I was able to paint the green on the cab & bed.After some experimenting I was able to find a mixture (10 to 1) that worked pretty good. But like an idiot I forgot to mix it in when it came time to spray.



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It was very shiny when I sprayed it but is now more like a semi-gloss. I'm not sure if it was the slow lacquer thinner I used, the cold temperature, I turned off the heater before starting, or the humidity, it started raining as I was painting. Whatever the reason I like the end result.


I started taping off everything to get ready for bed liner and black paint. Hopefully I can get that done tomorrow.
 
All I can say is that I am so glad that I'm done with the cab. Taping off around all that tubing was miserable. It was especially fun around the tubes that only have about 1/32" clearance, or less. But I can say that the cab is done. It certainly didn't come out anywhere near perfect but I'm pretty happy with it. And I learned a lot, like spend the money for the proper tape. I bought a couple rolls of 3m green 233+ tape but is wasn't anywhere enough so I grabbed some of the painters tape from the house. That stuff was fair at best, some of it blew off causing me to get black on the green. Plus I screwed up in a few spots and just left it open to let paint in.

Now I need to prep and paint the nose, grill, cowl, tailgate, doors, tube doors and wheels. I'll try to do most of it this weekend but not sure if I can get it all don't or not.


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Holy crap, it's been a ridiculously busy weekend, but I was able to get almost everything done. I wasn't able to paint the factory doors or tailgate but I did get everything else painted and re-assembled. I also brushed on one coat of the Raptor bed liner in the cab, really wish that I'd sprayed this, kinda looks shitty. I'll try to hit it with a textured roller when I do the next coat.


I think that if I really thought about just how much work this was going to be I might have gone with a single color design. Then again, I don't usually take the easy route. And I never could have gone with one color. Now that it's 90% done I'm super happy with how it came out.


I'm hoping to get it all back together by next weekend, then I can move onto the mechanical stuff. I finally bought the 3/16" steel for the skid plate so that will probably be my first project once all this paint work is done. I've got an idea to modify the front winch to be able to use it as a suck down winch, as well as making a suck down winch for the rear. Oh ya, and I have a ton of wiring that needs to be done.


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Look at that mean green beast! Looks damn sexy. Now go bash it on some rocks.
 
Look at that mean green beast! Looks damn sexy. Now go bash it on some rocks.

Thanks man! It's been an absolute ton of work, but worth it. And ya, I cant wait to get it back in the woods. I've got a couple weekends at Field & Forest scheduled next month so it's probably gonna be tough keeping it this pretty for long, but I'll try.
 
I was able to get another coat of Raptor brushed on last Monday. It seems to be totally cured so I started putting the interior back together. Things go back together way slower than they come apart. But I was able to get all the behind seat wiring, air compressors, seats, harnesses, tranny cover, and shifters are all back in. 12" rear LED is mounted & wired. Tail and back-up lights all installed.


Tomorrow I'm hoping to paint the engine bar mounting points and install it, finish the door latches (have to modify one), rear shocks, rock lights, forward LED light bar, forward lower 12" LED light bar, and a ton of wiring modification to try and get all this additional lighting working. Then its ready to wheel, I'm getting pretty excited now.


I still have the front diff cover to replace and need to fab a skid plate, and anything else that comes to mind, but none of that will keep me off the trail.



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I was able to get a few things done today. Got the roll bar padding and grab handles in, I added a small handle to the dash for passengers. I made harnesses and installed the CB, 42" LED light bar, 12v and USB outlets. I used a Littlefuse HWB60-AL Series power distribution module to help rewire the lighting through the accessory circuit of the ignition switch. Here's a pic from Littlefuse website. And of course it took the better part of the day to do. But at least I can run the lighting without the ignition, fuel pump, or fan on. It feels like a small gain, but in the long run I think it will be well worth it.

I installed the rear shocks and had no clue what pressure to set the nitrogen at. So I looked at the specs online and they range from 100psi min to 250psi max so I figured I'd start roughly in the middle and set them at 170psi. I'll probably throw the nitrogen tank in the truck or trailer, at least until I can get decent pressure figured out. I also bolted the engine bar in place, and got the car trailer ready to bring the Comanche to get a new windshield.

Like everything else, thats turning into a pain in the ass. Since I had the bright idea to add those corner gussets to the cage they want to do it at the shop and not at my location. So I need to bring the truck to work Tuesday so I can drop it off Tuesday afternoon because I get to work 2 hours before they open. And of course, since we are on mandatory OT, I had to request to get out early both Tuesday & Wednesday because they close at 5:00pm, the same time I get out of work. Then I'll have to go get it Wednesday.



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Got the truck back from the glass shop with the new windshield installed. The installer said it was very difficult, there's only about 1/2" clearance to the roll bar and the cab is very tweaked. I said that i thought that was strange, the truck hasn't even been off road yet LMAO.




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Installed a few more switches today, I should have just made a switch panel, the dash looks like shit now. At least the bright side is that now I have all (or almost all) the lights working. I figured state inspection laws state that any light on the vehicle must work so I figured I might as well hook them all up. And of course I can't have dingy yellow lights so I replaced all the bulbs with 6000k LED lights so everything is nice bright white light.

Now when that guy in front of us wants to run his rear lighting just for the hell of it I have my own deterrent lol. And I have the green option for lighting so I'm not that asshole lol.




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I was telling the wife that we need to name the truck, well my cousin suggested "The Green Goblin" which I liked from the start. When I looked it up and realized that it has purple accents (my sister's favorite color) I knew that it was the way to go. now that we came up with a name she said that we have to put the name on it. I didn't agree at first but figured, what the hell. And now I also have a mascot lol.



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Got the truck back from the glass shop with the new windshield installed. The installer said it was very difficult, there's only about 1/2" clearance to the roll bar and the cab is very tweaked. I said that i thought that was strange, the truck hasn't even been off road yet LMAO. Even with all that they did a great job.

Installed a few more switches today, I should have just made a switch panel, the dash looks like shit now. At least the bright side is that now I have all (or almost all) the lights working. I figured state inspection laws state that any light on the vehicle must work so I figured I might as well hook them all up. And of course I can't have dingy yellow lights so I replaced all the bulbs with 6000k LED lights so everything is nice bright white light.

Now when that guy in front of us wants to run his rear lighting just for the hell of it I have my own deterrent lol. And I have the green option for lighting so I'm not that asshole lol.




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Untitled by David Nichols,


I was telling the wife that we need to name the truck, well now that we came up with a name she said that we have to put the name on it. I didn't agree at first but figured, what the hell. So now I also have a mascot lol.



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Buttoned up a few things and although this project will always be evolving and never done, it is now ready to wheel party1:.

Finished the door latches, the passengers side works great, but the drivers side latch works kinda shitty, go figure. I'll just deal with it for now. Did a bunch of green touchup on the small and not so small spots that I got black paint on. Unfortunately there were quite a few, so it took a bit of time to do.

I completed wiring all the lights, switches, fuses and relays, what a mess. But at least everything is finally working. So now I have (2) 6" and one 12" LED lights for back-up. 7 LED rock lights, LED head lights, fog lights and a 12" LED for my regular front lights and a 42" LED light bar. So apparently I'm that annoying asshole with the ridiculous lights :gee:

I installed a few footman loops and ratchet straps for tool box mounting and installed the tool boxes. Re-located the CB radio and put a few stupid accessories in the cab.

Now time to get it on the rocks!
 
Very cool!
 
I just realized that its been two months since my last update. Well it has been a busy two months. I've wheeled Field & Forest 4 times, Belleau Woods 3 times, once at Brookridge and did the rock crawl course and UTV obstacle course at the NPD Jamboree. One of the most fun things I did was the UTV obstacle course, theres just something about the adrenaline you get when pushing your limits to the max flying around the course at full throttle. On the other hand I'll probably never do it again. it absolutely destroyed my truck, I broke the rear traction bar, both front bump stops, bent one of the bump stop mounts, cracked the frame at one of the bump mounts, cracked a motor mount and tweaked the front frame section. Everything is somewhat taken care of, I did some rush fixes to be able to get back on the trails.

My favorite place the wheel is by far Field & Forest. We've done all the black trails and all the little red sections off of them so far. I also did Nelsons Crawl and it kicked my ass, I made it through but had to winch 4 times. There were a few of the tight sections that made me decide that I'm not doing another red trail until I do some major modification to the nose of the truck.

The only downfall to wheeling the hard trails is that its destroyed the body. The truck was looking beautiful and now its beat to shit again. Oh well, I bought it with the intention of using it and I'm certainly doing that.


Brookridge
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Belleau Woods
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Field & Forest
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This is a big reason for needing to modify the nose, the fender flair is locked into the bolder
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I forgot to mention that I joined Rockaholics Offroad Club. This has had a few benefits, not only do I now have access to a bunch of wheeling locations that are legal and inviting but I've also met a bunch of awesome people to wheel and hang out with, it was defiantly a good decision.
 
Facelift Mod, stage 1

After doing Nelson's Crawl at Field & Forest I told myself that I'm not doing anymore red trails until I change a bunch of the hang up points on the truck. Well, I'm going back to F&F the weekend of July 13th with the Rockaholics and I know some of them are going to hit red trails and I don't want to be a pussy, so I figured I'd try to see if I can make some changes to help me make it through.

Facelift mod stage 1 will be ditch the front bumper and build a winch mount that will improve my approach angle. I'm raising the mount and moving it backwards a little bit This will also open up the area outside the frame rails. This will also drastically alter the appearance of the truck. Hopefully it doesn't look like shit when I'm done.

Of course once I tore into this I realized that the passenger side frame rail is bent to shit. So this, like most my projects on the Comanche is going to be fun :banghead:.



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Facelift Mod Stage II
This will include some tube work and STICKIES :party:. More details to come.
 
Project Facelift Stage I
I added a D-ring to the front axle for a suck down connection point. Also modified the axle skid plate to accommodate for the D-ring and clearance for the Solid front diff cover. The new winch mount is about 90% complete now. The old bumper held up well to the rock bashing but the mounting plates on the frame were bent to shit. I tied the new one into the frame and cage and gusseted it pretty heavily. With any luck this will hold up better.



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Project Facelift Stage II
It was 98 degrees and humid as **** today and I needed a break from welding so I started on the Stage II part of the project this afternoon which might be a mistake since I need to be done by the 12th and I don't have a ton of time available to work on it. Apparently I like to work under pressure.

I cut the nose section to allow clearance for the new tube flairs. The plan is to cut the existing fender flairs at about the halfway point and taper them in and under the nose section, then down to the winch mount. I trimmed down the headlight bezels and grill section too. I'm not exactly sure how all this is going to come together yet, it will depend on how close together I can get my bends in the tube.



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I gotta say that I'm more than a little excited about these finally arriving, 42" x 14.5" x 17" Goodyear MTR Kevlar non-DOT. And new rims, beadlock kit should be here tomorrow. I've got 10 days to complete everything, the pressure is on.



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