01 DRW total bed sheetmetal failure

[JeepBuilder]

Well a tad bit bittersweet. The paint is pretty decent albeit soft as I gained a couple rock chips in the clear coat on the gravel road home. I am not sure how long I will need to wait before it toughens up some. I am parking sideways to the sun. Several things that that got discussed and were to be done were not. It was 3 grand out of pocket. Maybe I am just picky. Todays good enough standards are not good enough for me. While the paint work is pretty good, it does have some flaws, they missed the bed liner on the tailgate. The gouged my brand new tail light housing three times with a buffer. I put it in right before taking the truck to them. And kind of a biggie, I got to the post office to mail something and walking out noticed there was not one decal on the gate. We talked about that and if I need to source that. Nope I will get it.... uh yep sure... I am not interested in going back. I ordered the correct Dodge and 4x4 decals today. Anyway, kind of bittersweet, but I got my truck back. And I have some parts in the shop waiting to go in and on. So that is a good thing.

Some pictures as promised. I sure like the color.

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Looks better than all that raw metal from a month ago.

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Missing decals and it could use some more bed liner on the top of the gate. Any product suggestions on patching that?

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The melted gouges. It WAS a new part.... Must be a fast spinning buffer. There is lots of white buffing residue everywhere. it does not remove easily.

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Hey at least the dents are gone.

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I will put the decals on the tailgate and it will be as good as new. I sure wish I had a paint booth and more available
time. Onward....

 

[JR]

Looks good from here!

Have a look at Monsataliner if looking for a DIY kit. They do alot of different custom colors, it held up well on my 98. I did the bed, over the rails and along the bottom to try and keep the rock chips at bay. It is rollable but spray is recommended.
Gotta have a schutz gun to spray it.

http://www.monstaliner.com

https://www.shop.monstaliner.com/main.sc?page=1

 

[GAmes]

That's pretty funny. One of the first things I did when my truck was new, after I pulled the wheel rings off and put them in the attic, was remove the tailgate decals.

 

[JeepBuilder]

Thanks for the monstaliner link. I put the bed caps on and the missing portion shows up like a sore thumb. So I will be working on that. And I have been looking for undercoating and a spray gun .I need to under coat the restoration I am almost done with. Plus the Dodge and two other rigs for road salt protection. I am very fond of 3M products. So a shutz gun was not to far away from getting ordered. And I will get some monstaliner for the missing patch. Again, thanks..
Washing the truck yesterday I found the old cracked license plate surround was put back on. I had a new OEM surround still wrapped in plastic there to go on and it has vanished. I just love this stuff. I will stop there today and see if I can reclaim it. On a good note... It is a super nice day out!

 

[JR]

If you end up using something other than Monstaliner on the bed liner research what the actual product is. I landed on Monstaliner because at the time it was the only DIY bed liner I found that was 100% epoxy. The others used some type of additives -like rubber beads for example - to create the texture. The texture in the Monstaliner comes from spraying and can be made coarser or finer (smoother) by changing the fan pattern and air pressure. It is also UV resistant which not all products were. This was many years ago and things may have changed with other products by now.

 

[JeepBuilder]

That is great feedback on monstaliner. Thank you JR. I plan on using it. I was looking at spray guns this morning. I have not picked one yet, but want one capable of thick material. I need to spray several rigs here. The hiway near us is a test bed for different de-icers I was told recently. Some cars in town have football sized holes in them. Nuts..... I stopped by and with a smile asked for my new parts that did not get put on the truck. I feel I was lucky to get them back. It stuns me that you can stand there and discuss something in detail and it just gets blown off or forgotten. At least I can put the new parts on myself and enjoy the like new appearance.

On a side note. My clutch is not disengaging all the way. It is a southbend dual disc. I have a new married master and slave cylinder to put on hopefully today.
Are these trucks maintenance hogs? I get it is 18 years old. But it seems like I am having new things surface. I have plenty of other things in line for repairs.
I had better get busy...