Where have you been all my life, Gladys?

[Rex3rd]

Had the windshield polished before ceramic coating..... Apparently jeep put an Easter egg into the windshield because this came through the polish.

Well at least it didn't say "failed unit" lol

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[ksh67]

You might also look into a piece of the composite deck material as well. Designed for heavy traffic so might hold up better.

Well the wheel arch 2x4 has twisted now, so all that work to make it perfect is lost, or maybe not.........
Didn't know this existed. looks like I have another project coming up.
https://www.menards.com/main/buildi...2-plastic-lumber/n28146br/p-1478957147121.htm

 

[steffen707]

You might also look into a piece of the composite deck material as well. Designed for heavy traffic so might hold up better.

i'm not positive but i think this 2x "board" is made of the same composite deck material, just different color and dimensions.

 

[steffen707]

OMG i'm so happy how this turned out. Now I can relax for a bit.

I found that Gladiator helmet on Shutterstock and bought the vector file. My sign guy was able to make the letters from a pretty high res photo I found of an old tailgate.

The matte black "Wayout" wrap looks great with the matte charcoal. I like how its subtle. Makes me think its kind of like a relic from the Roman Era, lol.

My wife said if I made it out of silver it would look "d'baggy". And i don't want to look "d'baggy" so matte charcoal it is!

Tinted front windows and windshield banner, and AVS bug deflector.

 

[SleepyJeep]

OMG i'm so happy how this turned out. Now I can relax for a bit.

I found that Gladiator helmet on Shutterstock and bought the vector file. My sign guy was able to make the letters from a pretty high res photo I found of an old tailgate.

The matte black "Wayout" wrap looks great with the matte charcoal. I like how its subtle. Makes me think its kind of like a relic from the Roman Era, lol.

My wife said if I made it out of silver it would look "d'baggy". And i don't want to look "d'baggy" so matte charcoal it is!

Tinted front windows and windshield banner, and AVS bug deflector.

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She is right, more often than not less is more... It looks great. Subtle cues are the best

 

[steffen707]

just pulled the trigger on a 2"x10"x12' black plastic board from Menards. making plywood tailgate halfway down supports out of plastic AND my own Steffen707 Trail Rail system!
https://www.menards.com/main/buildi...2-plastic-lumber/n28146br/p-1478957147121.htm

maybe i'll license the build plans to @BuiltRight j/k, he's working on a better than Mopar rail kit that i'm ultimately waiting for. I'm just fearful his trail rail won't ship in time for Jeep Camp in October, but hoping his front and side racks will arrive by then!

 

[WhiteJT8541]

Most likely hollow. I'd bet he's got thousands of mice in his deckboards having crazy sex orgys that is causing the warping/twisting.

I'd give it a definate maybe on the mouse sex orgy theory.

Probably a mouse version of dirty Mike and the boys. Only thing missing is the Prius.

 

[steffen707]

Well the last 2 days have been interesting.. I made wooden trail rails, then took a look at @BuiltRight photos again and realized his bedside rails mount outside of my 2x4, right where i had my tonneau cover mounts. DOH!

Not to worry because my plastic 2x10 arrived at MENARDS!

SYKE! Turns out they really tried making it look like a weathered 2x4 and so in order to make it smooth and not wobbly I would have to plane it. Don't want to do all that work, especially when it'll probably destroy my planer knives, AND the board was $50. It took them 30 minutes to find my special order, then 15 minutes to return it......

Back to real wood. I just used a premium (cherry picked) 2x4 and ripped it in half making sure the uncut side was going to face down. the cut side will face up because its super straight (with my track saw) and will sit nicely against the plastic bed rail cap.
I went with the recommended 51.5" from @BuiltRight which gives a maximum amount of space for the rail. Kept the board 1.5" thick. If his bedside racks need a thinner "rail" I can always plane the backside of the board a smidge.

If you'll try this like me measure from the far backside of the box (by tailgate) to each hole. Don't measure from hole to hole like I did on my first board. If you're off by a smidge it can multiply to being off by quite a bit. When I measured from the edge to each hole, everything lines up first try, didn't have to "hog" out any holes. Used the depth stop on my drill press with a type of paddle bit to countersink the bolts and made it big enough to get a 10mm socket in there.

Also do not ever try to hold small pieces of metal that you're drilling. Luckily I wasn't holding the aluminum when it got cock-eyed in the drill bit, swung around and got tweaked against the board i had below it. Imagine the damage this would have done to my hand?! Should have clamped that one down, did with all the others.

@BuiltRight also said in his write up of the Mopar kit that the bolt holes are M6 1.0 Thread. I used 40mm bolts from Menards. I thought about getting nice flanged head T30 torx head black bolts from online, but that's like $15 shipped, and i'm going to end up buying @BuiltRight's trail rail anyway. This wooded one is just a temporary setup, maybe i'll sell it to somebody. Any takers!?

I then took some 1.5" L brackets cut down to 1" L-tabs so I can modify the mounting of my tonneau. Worked really well actually.
Make sure you use tape to mark the outline of where your tonneau brackets are before you undo them. Saves a BUNCH of time re-aligning it.
Ripped another 2x4 in half and cut down for the backside rail.

Painted with leftover krylon fusion matte black. Turned out pretty nice for a cost of MY TIME + $15 (wood and bolts).

 

[BuiltRight]

Clever thinking! I like the DIY bed mat as well. Itching to get a thick rubber one for mine.

Matt

 

[steffen707]

Alright, @Bekah 's door off footpegs gave me the idea to get my first tattoo on my left leg. My buddy/artist Jonah killed it.
After 5 hrs we've got 3-4hrs left.
@pilotpat, when you going to get a 7slot grille tattoo?
Concept

Half done

 

[steffen707]

Holy crap I like Krylon Fusion! I didn’t scotch brite any place that I painted and it adhered solidly. It went on super easy, no drips/streaks/runs. I put on 3 coats of Satin and decided I didn’t like the sheen, so I put 3 coats of matte black on over it. I’m not a paint guy, so I dunno if that mixes them at all or if the matt will completely cover up the satin. After doing this with the first panel, I decided to do the same thing with the 2nd, just in case there was a variation in the final look that would drive me batshit crazy for the rest of my life. 3 coats satin then 3 matte for all panels now……..ugh

Wanted to provide a little almost 1 month review of the panels.

They fricken rock! I've gone through a high pressure car wash a few times now and holy cow the rear is a lot louder than the front. (havn't done the headliners to the rear yet).

The Krylon paint is the bomb. Smelly at first, but after about 3-7 days it stopped smelling completely and I don't notice any odor in the car AND I HATE ODORS!

I think for the rear i'm just doing 3 coats of the matte black. the seam is mostly above the center speaker bar so it'll be super hard for anybody to ever see the potential variation in not having the 3 satin base coats.

As for the fabric, its awesome. Matches well with the tan interior, I don't mind the dark panel. I prefer it actually, because the white sticks out. The black looks like it was intended to be there from the factory. The white looks like the factory forgot something, lol.

Expensive??? HELL YEAH, but as I just learned, "buy once, cry once".....thanks @desertfox73

 

[Proximo]

@steffen707 I came on to check out your tattoo bc I've been seeing all of your decals. Told ya tats and decals...... addictive. I see "half done" WTH. Let's go man, finish it up!! BTW your rig is looking great. Did you plan on going all out right away?

 

[steffen707]

@steffen707 I came on to check out your tattoo bc I've been seeing all of your decals. Told ya tats and decals...... addictive. I see "half done" WTH. Let's go man, finish it up!! BTW your rig is looking great. Did you plan on going all out right away?

HA! you were right about the tats and decals. Don't worry, its getting finished this coming Tuesday. The first 3.5 hours wasn't bad, but the last 90 minutes of the 5 hour session was kinda rough. Hopefully we can just power through the next 3-4 hours, lol........

Thanks for the compliment on Gladys. are you saying i've gone "all out", or asking if I plan to still "go all out"?

I did plan all the mods I've done so far to be done within 2-3 months. The last mod I'll do this year is likely to be Roam rock rails, but they're not being produced yet. I'm pretty sure i want an Alu-Cab topper, but @Bobs85Reny and @ralphjjr are cooking up something, so i'll likely wait to see what's for dinner before pulling the trigger on alu-cab.

 

[steffen707]

Quickly forgetting my impending head cold and sinus headache that’s annoyed me for the last 48 hours, I carve up County road Z after 180 minutes of night driving. Anakin Skywalker would be jealous of the pseudo 2019 Pod Racing I’m enjoying.

From low beam to instantaneous hi beam, I fire my LED rail gun after each car passes by. The curves and deer are no match for the max LUX output of the Supernova V.4 bulb. For some reason I desire to drive faster than I normally would in the daytime. Like a fresh winter snowfall, it’s more fun to drive faster than normal. The intake growl and exhaust note sing in unison as I plant my foot down. I desire to prove Gladys has the skills/equipment to conquer this situation, but common-sense kicks me in the brain and I slow to 60mph on the windy county road.

Tearing ass at a good clip I fly over the Menominee River into Michigan on the G18 in pitch black and then suddenly HOLY CRAP!!……. Conditions have changed captain, must reduce speed!!!

Michigan needs to levy some more taxes to fix this stretch of road. Like a washboard after a weekend of heavy partying, this road is ROUGH. Unfamiliar with this type of bumpy high speed fun with Gladys, I gradually shave off mph after mph. The very place that created the pristine beauty and reason for my trip is also the destructor of my exuberant happiness.

With only 7 miles left until my destination I proceed cautiously. No need to wreck Gladys this close to the finish line. I settle down, flip to the next metal track on the Warthog mix and coast to The Farm. Ready for beers, Nat Geo and relaxation until I can fix my deer stand once more tomorrow. Gladys and I enjoy another chapter in our planned 3 years together. Content, impressed, satisfied…….

This one is part Gladys, part LED bulb, part what did I do TO/with. I wrote for the student newspaper “The Daily Cardinal” at UW Madison my senior year, so I enjoy flexing my word smithing skills from time to time.

In the U.P. (upper peninsula of Michigan) its still legal to bait deer. Like it or not, we still do for a few weeks out of the year. Anyways, I needed to install a window into the newly installed 2 layer ¾” treated PLYWOOD door I fabricated last month. My dad asked me to carry the “corn spreaders” as we call them and about 200lbs of corn up to The Farm. Excellent test of the hauling capacity of Gladys.

WHAT WOULD I DO WITHOUT THE @BuiltRight RACKS? HOW COULD I HAVE HAULED THOSE 1X2S TO MICHIGAN? But seriously, they’re pretty convenient to lash stuff to quickly and with racks on 270degrees of the bed its super quick to find a mounting point. If you don’t own some of those yellow industrial twisty ties, buy some. They’re super convenient!

I’ve been putting off the headlight and fog light install for some time, and like most projects that are procrastinated, I was stuck installing them in the cold and partial rain on Wednesday night, but just in time for my fun drive. We live 3 hours from The Farm and though you can take a 4 lane highway for 80% of the trip, I prefer the winding county roads, especially in the fall with all the beautiful Wisconsin leaf colors.

Gladys is the first vehicle I’ve owned with LED or HID bulbs. WOW…..just WOW, the high beams are amazing! If you didn’t opt for the LED package, go buy these bulbs. They helped me easily avoid 2 doe and a large 6 pointer tonight. I had like 500 feet of warning, so avoiding them was apple pie with melted cheddar on top. (YOU DON’T MELT CHEDDAR CHEESE ON YOUR APPLE PIE? WTF is wrong with you?!)

With the stock low beams, turning the fog lights on actually helped light the road. With these led headlights, the LED fog lights only light up the far most edge of the ditch and 15 feet up in the trees. The LED low beams of the Supernova V.4 bulbs are THAT GOOD.

Though the low beam is impressive, the high beam is what has me giddy. The instant flip from low to high and BOOM the next ¼ mile is bright AF! There’s no going back now…..

The 2nd surprise is how awesome the AVS bug deflector is. SERIOUSLY, everybody should go buy these bulbs and the bug deflector. As others have mentioned, it appears the bugs tend to hit higher on the windshield and are fewer in number.

3rd mod on your list should be ceramic coating the windshield. They have DIY kits for this or for $75, my sign guy did it. Bugs come off pretty easily and at speeds above 30-40mph, you hardly ever need wipers.

4th mod, replace that shitty old blue windshield washer fluid with Rain-X bug and ice or an equivalent. I love this stuff, been using it for years. A little application of Rain-X every time you use it. This coupled with ceramic windshield coating is a Tyson ONE-TWO KNOCKOUT. LMAO

 

[Proximo]

HA! you were right about the tats and decals. Don't worry, its getting finished this coming Tuesday. The first 3.5 hours wasn't bad, but the last 90 minutes of the 5 hour session was kinda rough. Hopefully we can just power through the next 3-4 hours, lol........

Thanks for the compliment on Gladys. are you saying i've gone "all out", or asking if I plan to still "go all out"?

I did plan all the mods I've done so far to be done within 2-3 months. The last mod I'll do this year is likely to be Roam rock rails, but they're not being produced yet. I'm pretty sure i want an Alu-Cab topper, but @Bobs85Reny and @ralphjjr are cooking up something, so i'll likely wait to see what's for dinner before pulling the trigger on alu-cab.

I'd say that you already have gone all out, but he'll, you have more planned. Quite the build, impressive

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