Mike-in-Kingston

Yeah well I guess crap really does happen eh...oh well, just another speed bump in my way that will make me slow down is all.

I was also thinking about the pulley system, you could also do what I did and was install a small winch. This one is a 200lb one that I use to load and off load my tires. You could get a 400lb one that I'm sure would do the job for you.

Gladehound

I'm sure the 200 pound one could do the job. I haven't weighed it yet but it feels remarkably light. Definitely closer to 100 pounds than 200, and quite easy to put on and off the truck by myself. We'll see how it is after the spray - which we are setting up to do tomorrow morning! Can't wait!

Mike-in-Kingston

Excellent. Either way, make sure you post pics of the completed project, I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Gladehound

Today was the big day. We got into the spray booth early. But before that, I did go over it once and in some spots twice to fill / sand. My advice to anyone doing this is to repeat this process until there are no visible seams or indentations. I can still see more of them than I thought I would have. Here is the cap during the filling / sanding process.



Next we went into the booth. We taped up anything we didn't want to spray and used rough sand paper on the aluminum roof rack rails to give more for the bed liner to adhere to.



Spraying went smoothly and here is how it looked when we were done...

Gladehound

After letting it dry all day inside, I went back around 5PM to put it on the truck. This next picture is poorly lit but I like it because it reminds me of something Batman would drive "does it come in black?"



I pulled it outside and took more pictures but the light was fading. You can get an idea of how it is.








So that's it! It was a fun little project. Unfortunately my Christmas vacation is almost over and it's nearly time to get back to the desk job.

Yonash1987

That came out really good looking, a project well done!

earl60446

You did a good job and it looks good. I am surprised the bed liner stuff did not fill in all of those seams. I for one would like to know if it does help with the gas mileage.

Gladehound

I'll report on the trip mileage in time. However, it will be hard to compare since I don't expect to have the cap off much and I only have 1,300 miles on it now so not much history. But will let you know how it does. Has 3.73 gears and all the heaviest running gear so should be on the low end of MPG to start with. My current lifetime average is 18.0 MPG.

Mike-in-Kingston

Wow...nice work Ron, I'm very impressed on how it turned out. Now you have that 'Humvee' look going on. So are you using hydraulic arms to open the lid or what is your plan for that?

Gladehound

No hydraulic arms. To open, I lift to parallel with the top and slide it in. If you slide it in about 1/3rd to half way it will stay there so you don't need to slide it all the way in. If it's latched, I need to lower the tail gate to undo the bolts on each side, so if the tail gate is locked, the cap is locked.

Being 6'3" with relatively long arms, the design is easy for me to use. If I didn't have the reach I probably would have considered a different design. My girls (10 and 12 years old) can also do it easily the only difference is that they do it from standing on the tail gate. I do have the tail gate step so easy for my wife to do as well.