This is about 9 months worth of work. I had a rig like this about 15 years ago that I have missed ever since I sold it. I searched craigslist for probably two years before I found the rig I wanted in my price range.
It runs and drive ok, bought for $1700 in Seattle.
Mechanically it was pretty good with only 160000 miles on it but the body was pretty rough. It had primer all over the glass, trim, logos and rubber seals. My wife was thoroughly unimpressed when I brought it home. I set about cleaning, scraping, stripping, sanding and scouring craigslist for parts. Along with planning how to build bumpers from scrap steel. Building rear bumper
Finished rear bumper, also bought wheels and tires off craigslist.
I found nice factory alloy wheels with 31" tires for $500 on Craigslist. I eventually want 33's or maybe 35's after I do a gear swap. This is a low budget project. The tires it came with were completely bald, I had to find something just so I could drive it.
Next project was rock sliders. Built nerf bars
I tech screwed angle iron to the frame rails then welded 2" sch40 pipe to it. I like them but I think I will add on to them soon. I saved enough money for some new fenders and I am about ready to paint. Painted the top, the boys like washing it as much as they like getting it dirty.


I removed every piece of trim, rubber logo, door handles, locks, lights you name it. It was a rediculous amount of work, I don't plan on every painting another vehicle. Im not trying to build a show truck I just didn't want to do a rattle can job. I was thinking about doing a camouflage paint job but my wife had a color in mind. Paint was so much work i hope i never have to do it again. Wife picked the color, i wasn't sure about it at first but i like it.
$300 for a half gallon of paint, all the flies and bugs in my shop came back to life when I got the heat going and they landed all over the new paint. I spent about 30 hours in two days painting, sanding and buffing. It turned out pretty good, I couldn't stand the primer gray.
It wheels pretty good, stock as it is. The kiddos love going out and finding mud or snow.
I scrubbed the primer off of the glass, logos, rubber door and window seals for days. Worst thing was, there appears to be a nice factory gray paint under the spray paint. Fresh paint, new lenses in the tail lights.

The front bumper was beat and I always wanted a winch although I never needed one. It was time to start building a front bumper. Got a smittybuilt 8500 winch for Christmas. Time to build a front bumper.



HSS 5X3X1/4 that i got from the scrap bin.
Lots of trial and error.
Slowly coming together. So much cutting, welding and grinding.
Im pretty happy with it except there are only two bolts holding it to the frame. It needs some more reinforcement.
I added to the rock sliders and bought 5.29 gears and a spartan locker. This truck had come a long way and it has a long way to go.
This is how she sits today, soon to come bigger tires and gears and lockers. My wife doesn't mind driving it now.

 

forgot to mention, it's 22re 5 speed

 

I plan to rebuild the motor soon, I'd like to find one to build on the side so I can just swap them out on a weekend. I want to bore it .40 over and put in a cam and header. No clue yet what cam or header to go with.

 

Excellent work! I love the bumper and the paint looks good. Are you a painter or is that just a thorough garage job? What kind of paint rig are you using? Is it single stage or did you clear coat it? I am dying to paint mine but for the level of quality I'm wanting (maybe a 7 out of 10) I cant see paying the couple thousand bucks that shops want around here.

Really outstanding work.

 

You have done a great job of where it was to what it is now.

 

I am not a painter, this was my first try. I watched a lot of youtube and got the paint from napa. It was a single stage paint. It took just over a quart of their martin senour paints. You have to follow directions very closely. I tried to re-coat the hood the next day and it would not stick to itself,that caused many more hours of sanding and buffing. No matter where you do it or how good you are I think you will still have to wet sand and buff. Luckily I have a friend with a buffer and a variety of compounds othe wise you will have to buy one, a real one for a couple hundred dollars and a bunch of money for compounds. It's nice that you can fix the runs and flaws ie bugs and dust after spraying but it's so much work. I used a $50 gun from Lowe's and my little air compressor.

 

I am not a painter, this was my first try. I watched a lot of youtube and got the paint from napa. It was a single stage paint. It took just over a quart of their martin senour paints. You have to follow directions very closely. I tried to re-coat the hood the next day and it would not stick to itself,that caused many more hours of sanding and buffing. No matter where you do it or how good you are I think you will still have to wet sand and buff. Luckily I have a friend with a buffer and a variety of compounds othe wise you will have to buy one, a real one for a couple hundred dollars and a bunch of money for compounds. It's nice that you can fix the runs and flaws ie bugs and dust after spraying but it's so much work. I used a $50 gun from Lowe's and my little air compressor.

 

You really did a great job painting that thing, and those bumpers are nice.

 

paint looks great!

 

Kawasaki green is awesome! Good job!

 

I had our painter spray mine over the course of 3 days. We used machine paint like what you would use on dump trucks and front loaders and all that. There was a hardner formula that makes it shine and makes it smooth that came with the paint. The pait wasnt to much and we payed our painter 350 for him to professionaly spray it. You could for sure do it yourself. Then I waxed it with turtle wax and all of that adds up to about 600 bucks. Just a idea. I know auto paint is $$$.

 

That green is unique. I like it a lot.

 

Nice work, I really like the bumpers and the paint color looks great! Have you thought about adding new decals, I think it would really make it pop and go well with the black top!

 

Those would really look sweet

 

Jamesdeancreations.Com

 

Nice work!
And the bumpers are tastefully-done. Subtle.

 

that's a good idea, I'm going to look into that

 

Thank you everyone for the compliments and input. I will post more pictures as this project progresses.