OK we were having some great weather the other day so I decided to tackle my rear bumper. The plan was to remove the class 3 hitch and sand it down to repair some rust spots. I also needed to raise the Bumper to match my Lift. Oh and one big thing that I totally forgot about was to raise the spare tire crank so I could get the handle back into it to be able to lower it. Otherwise I would not be able to get my spare tire down.
So I started by basically removing everything on the back end, Bumper, Trim, and Class 3 hitch.
Here is what I was left with and you will notice right off that there is plenty of rust starting to form on the frame. This is courtesy of my hard winters and plenty of salt on the roads.
Notice the rust on the hitch I was starting to get peeling and some major pitting so it was time to get this cleaned off and coated with a good rust preventative primer and paint.
This is the Spare tire crank removed it is also quite rusted up.
I went back and forth on whether to try one of these "rust converter" type products since they are very controversial. But I decided to give this product a try. The important thing (RTFM
) Is that you only apply it to the rusted areas. I hope this works out, I am only testing it on this area.
Here is the rear cross member/frame after cleaning it with a wire brush and some paint thinner to remover grease. I then applied the rust converter to the rusty spots. Here is what I ended up with.
After waiting the recommended time for the rust converter to work I then applied some Rustoleum not the spray can crap. I got a gallon of Rustoleum Protective Enamel in Black. I've used this stuff on a rusted camper frame about 4 years ago and it has done a remarkable job of protecting the frame and not chipping. This is what I am going to use on the entire truck frame in the next part of the this build/restoration. This Was applied with a brush and this product is very thick and takes a long time to dry. The slower dry time proved a much more durable durable finish once dry. This is much better than any of the spray on quick dry products. The finish ends up looking like a powder coat since it is so thick. I highly recommend the product... Anyway here is the frame
After that was painted I moved onto the class 3 hitch. here it is completely striped, brushed, and wiped with thinner. This is ready for the primer coat. I decided to use a two part coat on this one. As part of my frame restoration I also picked up a gallon of rustoleum rusty metal primer. This and the black rustoleum should provide protection that is on par with Trojan!!! No this is not going to turn into a "I got rustoleum on my hootus" thread!! I digress here's the picture....
And here is the Hitch with both the base layer and the top coat applied drying in the sun on an awesome day with low humidity, no wind and awesome temps in the 70's I was in my glory!!!
OK so I moved onto the spare tire carrier winch. as documented by others around here I just used a pair of shims 1.5" long to match the lift. Here is a picture of the two shims plus the old bolts and the new longer bolts.
Here is the tire carrier installed and painted with the new bolts and shims.
OK so all that stuff is drying so it's time to move onto the bumper mounts and figure out what I needed to do to raise it 1.5" to match the lift. Fortunately I hit the jackpot as you see from this picture the bolt holes are exactly 1.5" center to center. So all I needed to do was move the bumper up one bolt position and add another bolt hole to the top. This is perfect
here are the brackets after I added a piece of 3/16" to extend the top of the bracket and add another bolt hole. Sure I could have used one bolt but I like to do things at least somewhat correctly, and I enjoy welding so here is what I ended up with.
I then painted the brackets with the same black paint and now moved onto painting the bumper. I started to run out of time so I quickly washed, brushed, and cleaned the top deck with thinner. Then I sprayed it down with a thin layer of adhesion promoter. This is a critical step when painting on any plastic unless your using one of the newer specialty plastic paints. In this case I could not fine the flat black I was looking for so I used the adhesion promoter and bumper paint in a flat black. here are the results (yup its black
)
I then decided to coat the bumper with a layer of the same brush on rustoleum so it had a durable base layer. It was late in the day and I needed to use my truck that night so I put a coat on and ran in to get a shower. When using this rustoleum you need to have plenty of dry time with NO RAIN in the forecast for at least a day after the application. Well it turns out that the weather man changed his plan and we ended up with 4" of rain the next day. This completely messed up the entire bumper and I am now applying stripper to pull the messed up layer of paint. It's frustrating but I am picky and I cannot leave the bubbles knowing that I will always see them when I walk around the truck.
Anyway the stripper is done cooking so I need to go scrape my bumper
Hmmm.. That doesn't sound good
