Jeep 20 - A TJ Build

Showcase your Jurassic Park vehicle, or build progress.
Mastodon
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Jeep 20 - A TJ Build

Post by Mastodon » May 8th, 2016, 10:04 pm

EdynB wrote:once you get to paint there is now a stripe layout guide that is sized for tj's (i did 2) viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5861 if it would help at all. :)
Thanks for the info. Still got a long time til paint happens. I don't trust any of the shops here to do a halfway decent job, and I don't have an enclosed space to do it myself. Doesn't stop me from imagining though. Thought about painting the stripes on with black plasti-dip, as a temporary thing, since I have the black fender flares and all of the other black trim. Spent 10 minutes or so in Photoshop and came up with this...

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Thoughts? Kind of a more subdued version of the JP Jeeps, without going as militaristic as the InGen vehicles in The Lost World.

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Re: Jeep 20 - A TJ Build

Post by EdynB » May 9th, 2016, 9:02 am

I really like it actually, there are a number of people that have done the red stripes in plasti dip, the red with black doesnt look bad at all. check out my build and see for yourself viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2553 i did do two of these, the first was plagued with problems and i ended up being able to trade it in for a different vehicle on condition that i help sell the old one which i did, to a very nice gent in texas, so page 2 i think has m new one with the black flares. again, so happy to see another tj!

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Re: Jeep 20 - A TJ Build

Post by ratrace427 » May 12th, 2016, 5:31 am

Even thought the light rings look cool they are going to make a load noise. If its as bad as i think you might have to remove those =(. I went with #18 so that i could go canon without top lights. Even with no lights i have a noise coming from the light bar. I think it whistles between the window frame and the bar. What about trying different positions on the lights? Turn them all 45 degrees or maybe pointed down some?
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Jeep 20 - A TJ Build

Post by Mastodon » May 12th, 2016, 6:03 pm

Alright, so I've done some experimenting over the past few days. At first, I took a piece of cardboard and taped it to the front of the light bar, simulating a wind deflector. You can imagine the looks I got while driving it around. The important thing was that it did help a little. Started a few miles per hour later, and maybe half volume at highway speeds.

Home Depot sells large sheets of clear Lexan plastic, but something long enough to fit across the width of the Jeep was going to be $60. Not something I felt like paying, for what seemed to be only a bandaid.

While I was out, I realized I had a large air compressor with a blower nozzle, and wondered if that would let me reproduce the whistle at home, in the driveway. It took some playing, but after blowing air around multiple parts of a light, I heard a faint whistle. Seemed to be coming from the bottom two corners of the light rings.

Begrudgingly, I removed one of the light rings and tried the air gun again. If anything, the whistle seemed louder, but it was definitely coming from the bottom and sides of the lamps.

Since those 50" LED lightbars have whistling noises coming from their cooling fins, I thought maybe the two would have the same fix. I took some rubber sealant, and filled in the gaps between the rubber rings on the front and both sides of the base, and let it sit for a few minutes before trying the air gun again.

The noise was still there. No difference whatsoever. At this point, I was confused. There was no noise before, with just the light bar, and even after adding the 6" wide mounting plate to the bar, there it was still silent.

I took the blower to the light again, moving it around to get the loudest sound. Then, I started blocking the air with my hand, moving it closer and closer to the light, until I found the source...

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On the underside of each light are four screw holes, two on each side. Covering one with my thumb, the whistle stopped. Remove my thumb, and the whistle returned.

I took to removing the sealant, and ended up removing most of the PlastiDip too. Really is amazing how it peels right off.

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Filled in all four holes on each light with that same rubber sealant. Would've been easier to do with the lights off the Jeep, but I didn't feel like redoing all the wiring. Besides, it's only gravity.

After each hole was sealed, I waited a little and started to re-dip the light. Four or five coats later, the lights all looked like the did before. But did it work?

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I started up the jeep, and pulled out of the driveway. Seemed silent driving through the neighborhood, which was an improvement over the faint beginnings of the whistle I had heard before. But, maybe the winds were at my back. Merging onto the highway, as the speedometer swept past 40 and towards 50, I noticed it was still quiet. As I approached 60, there was no whistle, only a turbulent wind noise. At 70, the same, only a little louder. I can live with the wind noise. It's only a little more noticeable than the standard cloth-top noise the Jeep's always had. I turned around and headed home, my lights fixed. Best of all, I didn't spend the $60 for the plastic!

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Re: Jeep 20 - A TJ Build

Post by ratrace427 » May 20th, 2016, 6:59 am

good work!
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Jeep 20 - A TJ Build

Post by Mastodon » May 21st, 2016, 5:40 pm

After seeing that mockup earlier, with the black stripes on the Jeep, I've been unhappy with an unpainted Jeep. Since I had some leftover Plasti-dip, I figured I'd experiment a little more. I grabbed my tools and took off the rear fender flare. Using the guide EdynB posted earlier, I taped off the edges and got to work.

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In hindsight, I should've done it a little differently. Instead of using several light coats, like I did for my lights, I should have done a thick coat along the tape. The way I did it, the dip sticks to the tape, making for a jagged edge.

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From a distance, it's not noticeable.

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I'll try the other side tomorrow. If that ends up not looking like I wanted either, then I'll just peel it all off and wait until I can get an actual paint job.

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Re: Jeep 20 - A TJ Build

Post by ratrace427 » May 27th, 2016, 5:27 am

could you pull the tape right after you spray before it dries? you could also take a exacto blade along the tape edge after it dries.
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Re: Jeep 20 - A TJ Build

Post by halowarmor » May 27th, 2016, 8:15 am

This is looking good. I have an 06 LJ in the same color and was looking to do the same color sceme but my rig has a bunch of black on it already so I'm going with an OD green.

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Re: Jeep 20 - A TJ Build

Post by Valvany » May 31st, 2016, 3:03 am

When removing the tape,use a razorblade along the tape edge (don't push too hard obviously),DON'T remove the tape when the plastidip is still wet.

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Jeep 20 - A TJ Build

Post by Mastodon » June 3rd, 2016, 5:04 pm

Well, "tomorrow" came a little later than I expected. There's been a rash of storms lately, and I don't feel like painting in torrential downpours or when lightning is striking nearby trees. Anyways, I used the time to do some research, and I found this video from the guys at DipYourCar.com, describing how to mask off areas for plastidip stripes. https://youtu.be/2kBWaSDmj0g In case you're at work or a library or somewhere else you can't watch a video, pretty much it says to lay down 4-5 coats all at once, without letting it dry between coats, and to remove the tape while the dip is still wet.

I took off the fender flairs and, using EdynB's templates as a guide, started laying down my tape. For whatever reason, my dimensions didn't quite match, and instead of starting the paint at the base of the hood hinge, I had to go mid-ways through the hinge in order to meet the fender line. Minor thing, and honestly I doubt the difference is noticeable.

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There's not enough dip, and too much. Not enough, and you can see the vehicle's base coat through the dip. Too much and it starts to run. You really want to be at that sweet spot between the two, and there was definitely a time or two when I wasn't. Luckily, plastidip is really easy to remove, letting me tackle a panel a second or third time.

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Eventually I got it all painted, and then rehung the doors and reattached the fender flairs. There's a few spots where, if you look at it from a certain angle, you can tell it's a paint job via rattle can, but for the most part I'm happy with it. Like I keep saying, this paint is only temporary. Eventually it'll be professionally done in the standard Sand Beige and Ford Red.

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