What did you do TO your Gladiator today? [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS, NO GUN TALK]

[DublF]

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[Hutzell]

How difficult was the Voswitch install? That looks clean and just what I need.

Very easy. Took about an hour and a half to do, only thing I would suggest is getting a ground stud to go with the kit to add over on the drivers side where it mounts under the hood. Would make grounding everything much easier. It’s on my list of to do’s!

 

[Dryfly24]

Got the tent all mounted up.

 

[Challenger85]

Am I the only one that reads the thread title every day and gets annoyed by the fact someone capitalized to? ?

 

[Spartacrush]

Can you walk us through how you did this - my body shop guy told me anything textured plastic doesn't work well for painting and my assumption is the fog light trim is exactly that.

Popping the trim off the bumper was easily done by removing the 5 plastic trim rivets and one hex head screw on each side. Some may not have to remove all 5 plastic rivets to get to the screw, but it made it easy to reach in there for the hex screw with my big ol' mitts. There are some pictures and more specifics on how to get them off here on the forums in a thread titled "Fog Light Bezel Swap" started by XraytecH: Fog Light Bezel Swap.

The silver trim pieces themselves are painted plastic, so painting over them is pretty straightforward. It was pretty obvious they were painted once they were off, there was poor coverage with the silver and the black plastic was showing through in fog/mist patches. I ordered the Nacho (PY5) spray paint from the local CDJR by giving them my vin, but there are plenty of online places to order the paint too. The 5 oz. Mopar can was the perfect size for covering both pieces. Once the trim pieces were off the bumper, I cleaned them with some surface prep, laid down some adhesion promoter, and used about 4-5 coats of paint until I was happy with the coverage. I'm not a body shop pro but I read that lacquer might soften some plastics. Figured I'd stay on the safe side and use the adhesion promoter for plastics. I let them set for a few hours and then used a micro fiber towel with some compound to smooth them out and get them to gloss. Before the compound treatment, they looked flat and too light in color. The compound darkened them a little and gave them a decent gloss.

Not going to pretend to be a body shop pro by any means, I'm more of a driveway painter , but I tried to do my homework before tackling. They seemed to have turned out pretty good and have already survived the salt air and afternoon Florida showers for more than 24 hours.

 

[iammacey]

Am I the only one that reads the thread title every day and gets annoyed by the fact someone capitalized to? ?

It was intentional to separate this thread from the "What did you do WITH your Gladiator today" thread. It was just done as a way to add emphasis.

 

[Challenger85]

It was intentional to separate this thread from the "What did you do WITH your Gladiator today" thread. It was just done as a way to add emphasis.

Well, yes I get the emphasis and that explanation makes sense. I just kept reading it and wondering why someone wouldn’t add emphasis to your instead lol.

 

[Dryfly24]

Am I the only one that reads the thread title every day and gets annoyed by the fact someone capitalized to? ?

I asked around and yes, you’re the only one… ?

 

[mtudb24]

rancho front and rear diff gliders

 

[Challenger85]

I asked around and yes, you’re the only one… ?

 

[Puttyandnapalm]

I finally did the big boy seat mod shown here
https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/big-boy-factory-seat-adaption.27136/

I tried the misch brackets to extend my seat but losing the inch of headroom wasn’t really worth the inch of knee room

 

[Garemlin]

Quick question. Are the grill inserts (between the grille and the mesh) the same color as the grille? I painted my grille yesterday but realized afterward that the insert should probably have been painted as well....

Are you talking about the pieces that would be silver on an Overland?? If so yes they are satin black as well.

 

[GreyCanuck]

Put these on yesterday after I picked it up from the dealership (KMC Brute rims with 35s). Not a fan of the centre caps that come with these rims but might put them on regardless. Drives well enough. Liking the gladiator so far! And thanks for having me.
.

*Figured I’d let Stephen take it out for a bit

 

[BruinsGladiator]

Popping the trim off the bumper was easily done by removing the 5 plastic trim rivets and one hex head screw on each side. Some may not have to remove all 5 plastic rivets to get to the screw, but it made it easy to reach in there for the hex screw with my big ol' mitts. There are some pictures and more specifics on how to get them off here on the forums in a thread titled "Fog Light Bezel Swap" started by XraytecH: Fog Light Bezel Swap.

The silver trim pieces themselves are painted plastic, so painting over them is pretty straightforward. It was pretty obvious they were painted once they were off, there was poor coverage with the silver and the black plastic was showing through in fog/mist patches. I ordered the Nacho (PY5) spray paint from the local CDJR by giving them my vin, but there are plenty of online places to order the paint too. The 5 oz. Mopar can was the perfect size for covering both pieces. Once the trim pieces were off the bumper, I cleaned them with some surface prep, laid down some adhesion promoter, and used about 4-5 coats of paint until I was happy with the coverage. I'm not a body shop pro but I read that lacquer might soften some plastics. Figured I'd stay on the safe side and use the adhesion promoter for plastics. I let them set for a few hours and then used a micro fiber towel with some compound to smooth them out and get them to gloss. Before the compound treatment, they looked flat and too light in color. The compound darkened them a little and gave them a decent gloss.

Not going to pretend to be a body shop pro by any means, I'm more of a driveway painter , but I tried to do my homework before tackling. They seemed to have turned out pretty good and have already survived the salt air and afternoon Florida showers for more than 24 hours.

Really appreciate you taking the time to articulate this, thanks very much.

 

[zxd9]

This weekend I added the full height Rebel Off Road bed rack and 67 Designs Dual Cell phone, GoPro and sPod Touchscreen mount.

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