Johnny_bravo00

All your parts are coming out beautifully, huge improvement! I sanded my mirror caps and bumper caps down to prep for paint, Just those took a few evenings and some sore arms. Nothing but respect L.I.T.O.W, keep up the good work.

LowIsTheOnlyWay

Thanks bud!! It's been one hell of a process for sure. I totally underestimated it when I decided to take this on but seeing the final result takes that "ugh" away . How are your bumper caps holding up after painting them? Someone had brought up durability in an earlier comment and it was also something that had been in my head as well.
Also, sorry to sound dumb, but what does L.I.T.O.W. mean?

Summers22

iTrader: (2)

I am guessing L.I.T.O.W. is LowIsTheOnlyWay........, just a guess though.......LOL

LowIsTheOnlyWay

Oh boy.... talk about an epic fail of realizing THAT

Johnny_bravo00

Just abbreviating your name.
Caps have held up like it was from the factory. I did have mine painted and cleared at my local Ford body shop though. Did the grille, bumper caps and mirror caps and I cant see any chips or peeling.

LowIsTheOnlyWay

Yeah I totally didn't put two n two together with that abbreviation hahaha. Maybe I should lay off the paint fumes for a day or two

That sounds promising to hear about your experience with the durability. I still haven't laid clear on any of the pieces yet. That's actually next up here over my "weekend" starting tomorrow. I wanted to heed the label suggestion of 5-7 days cure to plastic before I did a finish sanding & clear coat. Part of it is a little fear of screwing them up after all the work has gone into them. When I experimented with the small trim pieces that lay on the bottom edges of the truck I laid clear to those and it had caused a blotchy/milky like finish. Not sure what could have caused that. One thought was it was the primer I had used to base it, or that it was because I didn't let the paint fully cure and it caused a reaction.... So I hope that by going about those two ideas differently it will turn out correct, and if not........

Summers22

iTrader: (2)

Some times with clear, its milky if there is too much humidity in the air. Give it a couple hours to dry, should "clear" right up.

LowIsTheOnlyWay

Oh look at that pun you stuck in there hahaha. It very well could have been too much humidity in the air since this is only being done in my garage. So no temp or air control taking place. I know the day I did those it was during a nice and rare warm spell for where I live. I let em sit for a couple days to see if they would correct as they dried and they didn't. I ended up stripping all those pieces a little over a week ago. Maybe I'll finally get around to those during my "weekend".

But, it just depends on how much I can accomplish before that. I just laid matte to the backplate and bar for the fender badges this morning. I'll get those glued back together here this evening and install tomorrow. Then I plan to tackle the finish sanding/clear of the mirrors/handle wells/floglight housings/front bumper insert. Those in itself could take a good chunk of time (I hope not). I'd like to try and get my hands on the cowl tomorrow if possible so I can put that back on Thursday. Really doubt I'll be able to get to the bed-caps and rear bumper cover with that kind of to-do list already so those may have to wait until next week.

I guess I have PLENTY of time to get it done before going into the shop. Was informed that the proper rear sway bar made it's way into parts dept yesterday. Went to finally set up my appointment and the earliest I was told it can go in is October 13th...

tareed94

Why not install the sway bar yourself? It's not too hard from what I read.

Also, clear is VERY finicky. It sounds like it was laid on too thick. Gotta do very light coats of clear to make it look right. When I've done previous parts I've done 2-3 coats of primer, 2-3 coats of color, then 3-4 coats of clear. It's held up good (did my TI-84Plus cover (Texas A&M) and my brother's TI-84 Plus cover (University of Houston)) a few years back. Mine was the first and it's just starting to show some wear. His I think looks better. I did the same process when I did custom retrofits in my '07, came out nice. I did it on some shackles, but they see use so that's all gone. Lol

LowIsTheOnlyWay

I'll keep that in mind when I start to lay clear. I do recall I did "coat" it rather than doing small passes.