Rebirth of Monster Mudder

[NakeDiesel]

Finished stripping off some more body panels and getting weights tonight. Removed the rear fenders and dropped 40lbs and then removed the rear bedsides and dropped another 125lbs. getting the truck down to 5007lbs.

Ordered some supplies today to start making some molds of the body panels as I have time. The front and rear fenders are going to be smaller versions of the ones I have now as all they do is collect mud between runs, they don't keep it from flying onto my windshield or anything.

 

[NakeDiesel]

Limped the truck out of the shop tonight now that it was torn down and washed the bed and engine with the pressure washer to get the remaining mud off. Then my son and I took some scrap lumber off the shelf and built a stand for the front fenders so I can start laying out the new smaller fenders and start getting them prepped to make fiberglass molds of them. I still need to mount up one of the rear fenders as well and get it prepped.

 

[NakeDiesel]

Had our end of year MAMR banquet and trophy presentation this past weekend at my shop, ended up 3rd in Super Street, 3rd in Pro Street and tied for 3rd in the cut tire class. I guess it's not too bad considering all the transmission problems I had. My daughter placed 1st in Street Stock and 3rd in Modified Stock.

Also took some time and started on the patio for my wife's gazebo, have the main part under the gazebo done, the area around it will be done with concrete and big rocks from our land like I did the walkway with a short edge wall of rock around the perimeter and along the flower bed.

Last night I finally made it out to the shop after a 14 hour work day fighting server issues and layed out the new front fenders off of the old fenders. Had my son help me hot glue plastic sign board around it to make flanges. I will have to do a little more work on the mold once it's made to create the lip on the inside of the fender.

 

[DieselWrencher]

Congrats on your placings! The patio looks great! I like what you're doing with the fenders. With CF, do you use a resin like with fiberglass matte?

 

[NakeDiesel]

Thanks.

The first step I'm doing is to make molds for the CF parts. I will have to apply 3 or 4 coats of paste wax to the fenders and let each one dry, then two coats of PVA release. Once that's dry, then a coat of tooling gelcoat will be brushed on and let it get to the point where it's tacky. Once the gelcoat is ready, then I start in with layering in fiberglass with polyester resin till I have it thick enough to use as a mold.

Once I have the mold, for the fenders, I will have to do a little modification to them to create an inside lip and then I can begin making CF fenders off the mold.

You have to do the same paste wax and pva steps and then I will layup the CF dry, the peal ply, flow media and then the bagging material with sealant tape around the edge. Epoxy will be sucked into the mold from one end with a vacuum pump sucking on the other end with a catch can between the pump and mold...

It's going to be an interesting learning curve.

 

[DieselWrencher]

Sounds interesting to me!

 

[NakeDiesel]

The supplies I ordered to start making the molds came in today, 3 big boxes worth. Spent a little time out in the shop and worked on making the flanges for the other front fender and then making the flanges for the rear fender. I only need one mold for the rear fenders since they are identical.

 

[kubotaorange76]

I envy your work ethic

 

[NakeDiesel]

Spent the last couple of days applying 4 coats of release wax with atleast an hour in between each coat, then 2 layers of PVA release agent with an hour between each coat. This morning I attempted to brush on 2 layers of Orange tooling gelcoat, then waited for it to become tacky and then laid up the first layer of chopped strand mat fiberglass.

Not sure if it's going to turn out right to be able to pull a good part off of it or not. I should have spent the money and bought a spray gun to shoot the gelcoat, but you live and you learn. Going to run by harbor freight tomorrow and pick up a cheap gun for the gelcoat. Need to add about 6 more layers onto the molds after this first layer hardens then I can pull it once it sets and see what I have.

Made some progress on the patio area, have one outer edge rocked, had the boys haul up more rocks today and started laying them out and covered the rest of the ground with layer of sand. Will start mixing more concrete tomorrow to rock around another side.

 

[NakeDiesel]

Spent a couple of hours out in the shop tonight applying 3 layers 1.5 oz chopped strand mat fiberglass to the rear fender mold. Didn't think I was ever going to get it all wetted out and air bubbles out. Hopefully tomorrow I can put 3 layers 10oz fiberglass weave on it and then it should be done and ready to pop apart from the actual fender.

The last 2 days I've mixed 40 - 80 lb bags of concrete for the outside portion of the patio and almost have this portion done, need to pick up six more bags tomorrow morning and that should finish it off. Then I can start with building a small wall on the house side for the edge for my wifes little flower garden.

I broked my little wagon again. 2nd set of wheels I've broke. Axle is bent in multiple places, undercarried has been replaced with thick steel twice. Time to make a sturdier axle for it. I've hauled many ton of rock and dirt with this little trailer around the house.

 

[jasonc]

You are a definite jack of all trades, I enjoy your updates.

 

[Bodacious]

You are a definite jack of all trades, I enjoy your updates.

x2 on this plus getting it done!!!

 

[NakeDiesel]

Thanks, maybe not a master of most, but too cheap to pay someone else to do something I can atleast attempt to accomplish. I guess growing up money poor and having to do everything yourself just sticks with you even when your not considered poor anymore.

 

[NakeDiesel]

Finished up the patio weds, so phase 1 and 2 are complete. Then started building a hand rail out of rock on one side of the steps and also starting the raised border for the flower bed. Weds night, spent some time and layed 3 layers of 10 oz fiberglass fabric onto the rear fender to complete that molds. Popped it out of mold thursday. Doesn't look too bad for my first attempt. Need to do some work on it to make sides and then going to use I think plaster of paris or something like that, then I can work on smoothing and getting it perfect before I make a new mold of the exact part I want to create in CF.

Spent today working on playing rock tetris building the hand rail and almost have it complete, but needed to let what I had done harden before I attempted to add more rocks on top for the final rise. Just finished putting 3 layers of 1.5 oz chop strand mat on one of the front fenders.

 

[NakeDiesel]

Finished up the first rock hand rail yesterday and started on the other one. Have the end cap done on the flower bed and ran out of mortar, decided not to get more yesterday since it was supposed to rain and it did. Last night I put the final 3 layers on one front fender and the 3 intermediate layers on the second one. Today I finished laying the last 3 layers on the second fender and popped the first front fender mold off. It looks horrible on the inside, quite a bit of wrinkling of the gelcoat.

The rear fender mold was trimmed up and I developed a plan to make a casting of it so I can do a little body work on it, smooth it and make it look better than the actual fender does with all of it's chipped paint and bolt holes from mounting it. I mounted the rear fender on a board, cut a piece of sign board plastic to cover one side and hot glued it on. Then cleaned the inside, waxed it twice and coated it in PVA. Once those three wait times were done, I took cans of great stuff spray foam and filled the cavity up with foam. Then put more sign board on the top and weighted it down with boards to help squeeze it in to the crevices. Will see tomorrow night how it turned out. Trimmed up the front fender that is done as well and trying to come up with a plan to make a new mold for it. I'm running out of scrap lumber in my shop, so may pick up a piece of MDF or plywood tomorrow.

 

[NakeDiesel]

Well, I seemed to use way too much foam in the rear fender mold and had a little overflow. Got it seperated today and spent time hacking off excess foam and then had to use a razor blade to get all the pva off of the top side of the fender so that I could hit it with a sanding block and shave a few mm's off of it. Then allied a couple of thin coats of body filler to it and will hit it tomorrow night and sand it down and then recoat it.

The one front fender that I put a base on so far and prepped it, filled it up with foam last night but didn't use as much foam, leaving space for it to expand inside the mold. Then hit it with another can today to finish filling it up. I didn't get enough pva on the inside of the mold and it stuck a little tonight when I took it apart. Had to use a hacksaw blade to reach in and saw though a few places to get it apart. There were still some "raw" areas that were still drying, so will rough trim it tomorrow night, remove any remaining pva coat from the foam and then block sand it and give it a coat of filler.

Getting exited about getting them finished out and then attempting to pull another mold off of them. Need to put together another order and get more resin for the fiberglass, some chemicals to thin the gelcoat just a smidge so I can shoot it through a cheap HF 2mm tipped gun and maybe order some of the CF supplies I will need.

I think I have the grill figured on how I will pull a mold off of it. Will pull the front bars sections off of it and then replace it with a sheet of aluminum to pull the mold off of it.

 

[NakeDiesel]

Been working on the fender molds and researching and ordering some parts for the truck. Found that the filler I'm using does eat into the polyurethane foam a bit, as the rear fender has about 4 areas where the filler sunk in. Been working those areas out and filling and rough smoothing with air power sanders to get it all level and a consistent profile. Hoping to have it where I can start with detailed filling and sanding in the next day or two.

I tried something different on the front fender I've made a foam mold of, I covered it in a couple of layers of plaster of paris before starting on the filler. I applied the first coat of filler to it last night before I had to run and take the wife to go see Trans Siberian Orchestra. Hopefully it works out with the plaster of paris separating the foam and filler. Waiting to make the other front fender till this test plays out.

On other fronts, ordered new weld in tube adapters for the longer front control arms, already have the dom tubing here at the shop that's left over from my track bars that I built last year. Looking at moving the front coil spring buckets 16" forward on the frame, and will have to move to full hydraulic steering so I'm trying to decide on the route to go with either buying a complete setup or piecing one together.

Planning on ordering new front springs from Dodge Offroad, a pair of their progressing 3" coils, waiting to hear back from them on which would be the right ones for the weight on the front of my truck, since it's not a standard application.

The front Bilstein 5160's are going to be sent to bilstein and get revalved to a 90/10 setup.

The p pump is getting turned into a 13mm pump and maxed out and balanced and will probably order a 1.10 ar housing for the s475.

Ordered a spool gun for my tweco 211i and got it in yesterday, need to pick up a bottle of argon and then I can start playing with aluminum mig welding to build the frame for the front one piece clip and possibly new mounts for all the bed components.

Also planning on changing gears from the 5.13's I'm running now to 6.17's to see if I can get the transmission to live. After talking with a few people I trust, we think that's the root cause, I jumped to too high of a ratio. Most gas fast trucks try to be around 9 to 1 overall diff + transfercase low range, my old setup with 3.55's and the np205 put me at 7:1 overall and the trans was living then.

 

[NakeDiesel]

Sand - New Filler - repeat. Gone through 1 1/2 gallons of putty on the 2 fenders I'm working on right now and am out again. Might pick some up tomorrow if I can find it at a decent price, if not, will pick more up on monday at my normal place. The rear fender is starting to look really good. Had some low spots at each bottom end that I added more filler too tonight, shot some rattle can primer on it and then sanded with 180 grit, looks good for the most part. Made me a profile template for the outer edge so I know how far to build the lip up too so I can affix the wider fiber board piece when I'm ready to pull a mold on it. Need to work on the back edge in a few little places to get it filled in on some areas and then give it a slight rounded edge.

Front fender needs alot of work, the inside part didn't fill up completely with foam when I made it, so its very low, will have to build it up. It's making progess, will just take a few more layers to get it close.

 

[NakeDiesel]

spent the day sanding and filling on the two parts, rear fender going slower as I'm hand sanding area now that just needed touch up bits. It's getting close, working on building up the flange to an 1/8" of where I want it so I can then put some wider fiber board on it.

Front fender is getting closer with the severe low spots gradually working out. Had a couple of places where the there were high spots and I was going all the way down to foam, punched through the foam and filled it with filler so I could get it level.

Built the form for the other front fender today and started filling it up with foam, only had 3 can's so will let it set / dry out over night and then pick up a few more cans on the way home tomorrow.

 

[CorneliusRox]

Man that's going to looks sweet. It's going to be so easy to make replacements too!