Flare/Roof Durabak Project Complete!

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Brentbba

Former Golfer
Joined
Mar 27, 2003
Threads
444
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11,010
Location
OC, CA
A little history - love the look of blacked out flares and what Tyler and Clark did with their roof's once the factory rack was removed. After reading about Durabak here, I finally got around to doing the flares and roof. I'll post a few threads here with pics from start to finish.

The roof rack came off with very little trouble. Soaked the screws with a little PB blaster begining a week or so in advance of removal of the rack and still had to cut thru two of the screws. Even a pampered SoCal truck had some rust on the nutserts and surrounds. That got ground off with a dremmel.

Flares came off very easily a couple of weeks ago. I spent a good deal of time preping the flares. Sanded with 60 and 36 grit sandpaper to really get them roughed up and clean. Spent even more time with a razor blade carefully removing the old adhesive left behind from the flare gaskets. It was worth the time to prep everything right.

On the roof, I used a grinding wheel for a drill and sandpaper to clean off the clear coat and rough up the surface well. Clark graciously traced his pattern around the rack feet, which I transfered to the roof with a sharpie. Taped off everything prior to the sanding and grinding to ensure I didn't harm the exposed roof.

As we all know the devil is in the prep time and I spent plenty of it over a couple of weekends getting ready.

Sunday of memorial day I layed down two coats of black rough Durabak on the flares and roof. Took the tape off about an hour after the second coat. While the lines aren't perfect on the roof, they are just fine.

Memorial day, I started about 9 am cleaning the truck. Stripped the old Zaino with Dawn, then clayed and rewaxed with Zaino, all in prep for reinstalling the flares. New black flare gaskets from Dan went on very easily (again good prep on the surface helped alot here). Flares went right back on. Finished up about 6 pm and the truck just shines.

I really LOVE the blacked out flares against the white truck!

Lots of pics to follow. First three here are what the truck looked like after removing the flares for the first time - 12 years of dirt and grime!
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More pics of prep.
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And more of the prep work
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Down to the Durabak. It went on very easily with the supplied rollers. Final prep cleaning the surface with Xylene was important as was clean up afterward.

Total I used about 1/2 gallon for the roof and flares. I've put the remainder in two quart cans hoping, as per their instructions, that I'll be able to save it for touch up by limiting its exposure to air.
LC work 9.webp
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And the finished product! Thanks Tyler for your very original idea and Clark for your tracing of the pattern around the rack feet. Total cost for the UV Durabak, tape, Xylene, new gaskets, etc. was about $250. My sweat equity was the fun part and I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome, and yes I proudly flew my flag on Memorial Day as a small thanks to our service men and women!
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C'mon Brent. This is worthless without pictures of the final product!:flipoff2: It turned out great. I am now chomping at the bit to get mine done. If the Durabak would just get here. :crybaby:

EDIT: Damn, I thought I would beat you.
 
slomo said:
C'mon Brent. This is worthless without pictures of the final product!:flipoff2: It turned out great. I am now chomping at the bit to get mine done. If the Durabak would just get here. :crybaby:

Damn Mo - you were too quick - final pics are here now.
 
Not quick enough, but I almost got you! Looks very good in photos and even better in person. Strong work.

:cheers:
 
Well done Brent, I'm proud of you.



:cheers: D-
 
THat looks great! Kudos to you for actually keeping the flares on. I'm sure as you realized that the prep work is really the hardest part.
 
Nice work.
What did you use to seal the flare against the sides?
Double sided foam tape like OEM?
I am on the fence about taking my flares off and durapak or try to salvage them.
 
Congrats!! It looks great, I'm also glad you kept the flares. How thick is the roof portion?
 
nicely done!


how did you plug the holes in the roof?

and you used regular tape, not the wire kind, then?
 
That looks great. Sorry for my ignorance, But would you fill me in on the roof rack part? I think the flares look great, but I'm not getting the black stripes sans roof rack.
 
Any thoughts to putting Duramax on your sliders or bumpers?
 
fzj80kidpen said:
Nice work.
What did you use to seal the flare against the sides?
Double sided foam tape like OEM?
I am on the fence about taking my flares off and durapak or try to salvage them.

Brand new OEM black flare gaskets from Dan. Real work there was removing all the old adhesive from the original flare gaskets. New ones went on like butter and seal the body to flare nicely.
 
clarkrw3 said:
Congrats!! It looks great, I'm also glad you kept the flares. How thick is the roof portion?

Two coats IIRC from reading everything is 25-30 mil thick. Probably not as thick as the Linx or Rhino on yours.


BTW - HUGE THANKS to you for your time and stamp on the tracing of your job you sent me. It really helped alot. Appreciate the selfless act on your part to do that for me. I appreciate it!
 
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e9999 said:
nicely done!


how did you plug the holes in the roof?

and you used regular tape, not the wire kind, then?

I purchased some 5mmx12mm socket screws at Home Despot and used a little blue loctite for reassurance. Flushed them to the nutserts and put just a dab of the Durabak in the socket before the actual application to ensure a smooth finish.

I did use some wire tape on the straight edges. Had too much trouble getting it to sit around the corners. I just ended up using a razor blade and two layers of tape and then shaped the corners to my liking with a razor. Durabak came up just fine with the two layers of tape. I'd skip the wire tape if I were to do it again Eric. That was the only wasted money on this project in my mind.
 
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That looks great! I have a white 80 just like yours and have been planning on doing the flares too. I think you just gave me the extra little kick I needed to get started!

How long does it take to remove the flares? What are the flare gaskets for and is it necessary to replace them?
 
Lucy said:
That looks great. Sorry for my ignorance, But would you fill me in on the roof rack part? I think the flares look great, but I'm not getting the black stripes sans roof rack.

Hehehe - :flipoff2: Look up some threads from Tyler and Clark. Tyler originally did this, Clark copied and so did I. I just like the look. The center two stripes just cover where the center roof rack ribs had been and the outer two cover the outer two ribs and rack feet thus sealing all 16 of those damn little nutserts. Seeing what they aren't made of, I'm actually amazed they held the stuff I had up there on the Death Valley trip with all the washboard roads we flew over.

Personal taste I guess. I like it - and w/o the roof rack I can get the truck back into the garage with the OME lift I'd put on.
 

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