LX 450 Body Armor Removal (10 Viewers)

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NorCalDoug

NorCalDoug

problems solved daily...
Joined
Oct 27, 2003
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Location
uhhhh...duh...Northern CA
Although I made it through the Rubicon Trail again without major damage, the flares on my rig didn't fare as well this time around. The right rear flare (which had been broken and repaired in the past) broke a clip again and the front left flare popped off when the ARB front bumper flexed upward a bit into it.

It was time to remove the flares.

The problem with this is that the flares on the 450 are more or less integrated with the body panels bolted to the quarter panels and doors. Essentially, removing flares on a 450 means removing body panels too.

Here's how she looked on the trail -- just at the beginning of the granite slabs...
before0.jpg
 
And here's a shot of the rear flare -- I removed it before beginning the second day on the trail -- I didn't want it to get ripped off, which coud've caused some minor body damage.
before1.jpg
 
A couple shots of the side with all flares and panels removed. There are well over 50 holes per side. Removing the clips and screws holding the panels on were easy. Because I didn't plan on ever using the panels again -- and they were not in sellable condition, I just pulled the panels off. Removing the adhesive used to seal the edges of the panels was a MAJOR PITA!
before2.jpg
before3.jpg
 
Finally, here are a couple pics of the rig with the bed liner material sprayed on. I lost a lot of pic quality when I shrunk the pics down, but you get the idea...

I had the guy spray the stuff on the same area that had been covered by the flares and body panels. I went with a local company called Tuff Coat. He sprayed the liner material with a clear coat afterward, so the finish is a little glossy.

I also upsized my tires to 315/75 R16 MTRs on black steel rock crawler rims. I killed a tire on the return trip from the Rubicon -- ran flat on the freeway during the ride home. America's Tire replace the tire (gotta love that free replace warranty I bought). I asked if they would replace the 285 I had with a 315 -- no problem. I paid the 20 bucks difference for the 315.
after1.jpg
after2.jpg
 
Looks awesome Doug! You'll enjoy the extra clearance th 315's give you.
What did you fill the holes with?

:beer: :beer: :beer:

Curran
 
Wow Doug!! It looks so different! I like it!! BTW, I have a Snap-on air tool just for removing body cladding adhesive that would have made your job alot easier! Too late now! Next person to remove their flares can use it!
 
Good Job

Mr. Johnson,

Your rig looks really good. Good job!
Who did this job for you?

Regards

Alvaro
 
That looks sweet Doug. I just got mine sprayed by Mudrak, gotta get some pics, but it came out excellent.....
 
Wow Doug, you're crazy! I gotta check it out at Pismo. I like how it matches the window trim now- it's all black&white.
I really like how your truck used to look too- even missing parts of the fenders all ghetto-fabbed out- looks pretty cool. It looks like a NATO truck now!
 
You've definitely got the his and her's thing going.

:cheers:
Rookie2
 
Thanks for the compliments guys.

I had planned on having Mudrak do it, but Mudrak is a couple hours away, so I checked around town to see if I could find someone closer to me -- if not, I would wait until I could get a slot in Mudrak's schedule. As it turned out, Gary called me the day after I got it done to tell me that someone had backed out and that he could fit me in the next day.

The holes were covered with metal tape. I toyed with the idea of filling with metal or tack welding in some carriage bolt heads (for a kewl "riveted" look :D) or filling with metal plugs, but all these ideas meant a lot of extra time and/or $$$.

The work was done by Dave (don't recall his last name) who has a shop in Roseville, CA. Tuff Coat is the name of his business. He does spray on bed liners and sells aftermarket truck-type accessories. Just for kicks, he sprayed my sliders too. It won't last long on the rocks, but for now, it looks good.

I checked with the local Line-X dealership -- got the kid to write up a quote for me -- $1,200! :flipoff2:
 
Oh...one last thing for me to do is to color match the panel on the rear tail gate to match the liner. Black shouldn't be too hard to match...I have the stuff to do it, just waiting for a non-windy day (when I don't have other stuff to do) to spray.
 
Lookin good Doug. Giving me something to ponder. BTW are you still running Js with no spacers?
Cheers,
Sean.
 
No, no Js right now. Will be either getting Js or adding spacers (maybe both), extending lines, lowering bumpstops, etc. soon. Definitely before I do any serious wheeling.
 
Alvaro - slow day at work? Those look awesome though!
Doug - your truck turned out really nice, way better than the original cladding. Can you take a photo around the door sill, etc. where there's a lot of wear from getting in and out. Just curious how "clean" that liner went on in area where there's not a lot of clearance space to begin with.
Mike R.
 
Alvaro, the grey version looks really good too.
 
NorCalDoug,
Rig looks great dude. Is this tough coat a national chain or product? I take it their price was lower than line-x based on your other comment and :flipoff2: about the cost?

Any way you could email me a high res pic? email is in my profile. thanks.
 
Junk said:
Any way you could email me a high res pic? email is in my profile. thanks.
Click to expand...
Incomming email... :)

Cost was $400.
 
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