Rebirth of Monster Mudder

Those turned out awesome! I think it will look good with the rest of the bed painted although the carbon is still really cool. You'll be leaving the fenders raw i take it?

What are you using to cut the carbon fiber?

Yes the fenders will still be the raw carbon fiber.

Cutting it, for these straight lines I used my small air body saw. Worked great against a straight edge. I've also used a scroll saw and even a cut off wheel on my dremel or die grinder. It's pretty easy to cut.

Just a couple things:
1) Is that greenhouse a kit? And if so, where did you get it from? I might need one.
2) For fastening the carbon fiber, you should either use compression limiters at 20% crush max (probably too expensive), or some sort of thread locker. I've used CF and plastics in an application like that before and it acts as a soft joint, even with big washers, and will likely loosen with vibration.

Looking awesome though. When does the season start?

Yes the greenhouse was a kit. Got it off of amazon, it's 6'wx7'hx8'l

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OIYFD2Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Yeah, I plan on securing it good once the panels are painted and they are ready to install. Just used some bolts from my bulk buckets for mock up.

Season starts in April, not sure if I'm going to have it all done by then though with the way it's looking.

Guess it's been almost a month since I last checked in. Mainly been working on smoothing out little imperfections on the bed sides. Got the stickers ordered for them, they might be ready next week, if they are, I can shoot color on the bedsides then.

Been trying to figure out how my hoods going to be. Got it kinda roughed in some. Need to cut off the old grill mounts on the frame. They are in the way of where I want the grill. Once I get the rough framework shaped and tacked together, will pull it off and fully weld it up. Coat the steel in por 15 and then skin it in aluminum. Need to order some quick release pins to hold it in place as well.

Got in my new stainless steel .120 injector lines and my new damper. Dropped the damper off to a friend tonight to have him machine two more notches into it for magnets to be epoxied in.

Still don't have an engine. Head and a bunch of other parts were dropped off to him a couple of weeks ago, but still waiting. It's really holding up a lot of things on the truck getting finished.

First race is in 3 weeks, doubt I'm ready for it.

I was voted in as the new commander for the legion post I'm a member of, so that's really going to eat into my time come this summer when I take over. Not sure I'm ready for that.

Found out today that the company I work for sold, so now it's a waiting game there to see what happens.

Green house is going and have quite a bit planted already in the garden except what's in the green house.

Also been trying to get the new flooring finished in the main hall of the legion, just have around the wall in a 1/4 of it left to go now.

Bought a cool birthday present for my grand daughter Turbo. It's a hot wheels roller coaster car ride. She loves it.

Just a quick update. Still working on the truck as I have time and not frustrated with it. Worked on shooting color on the inside of the bed panels, fighting more pinholes I didn't see with the clear. Hoping to do a final wet sanding on them tonight and shoot clear coat on that side and be done with the inside. Then I can focus on the other sides of them.

Fighting crap weld issue with my welder, but have the hood frame mostly finished I think. Need to make mounts to the body and the frame to hold it in position and then I can take it fully off and see if I can get the mig to give me good welds.

Have the balancer back from my friend with the 2 additional notches cut into the outer edge and the magnets I ordered are in. Just need to get them installed.

Word is that I should have a built engine by mid week, but not going to hold my breath, it's holding up a lot of little things that need to be done.

Calves are being born, plants are trying to grow, was 80 something Saturday and 31 degrees this morning. Gotta love our bipolar weather.

Tuesday night, my wife got to use her Christmas present from me and got to meet K Flay and get an accoustical performance before the concert from her and then we were on the front row for the main concert. She was in heaven all night.

Saturday was my grand daughter's birthday party, we hired an Elsa impersonator to show up at it and she was in awe of her there. Think she had a great time, all she would say was Elsa...

First race is the 13th of this month, not looking like I will make it. Will probably be sometime in May before I make a race.

Body panels:







Front clip progress













Us and K Flay

Awesome fab work on the hood frame man!

Dude! Lookin so cool.

"winning"

Got the outside of the panels cleaned up and did a light 800 grit wet sand and cleaned again before masking off and putting the stickers on last night. Went out in the shop a bit ago and shot a light coat on them, will let that dry and then hit it with several heavier coats in an hour or two as I get time today and hopefully get them wet sanded tonight and see how they look.

Been fighting some runs on the angle part, finally have it decent and calling it good. Just need to get the panels cleaned up with a tiny bit of sanding needed on one panel where I had some color get into the carbon area, then will get both sides coated in several coats of clear.

On the hood frame, I have all the inside welds done, just need to finish grinding the welds flat and then I can finish up the outside and get it coated in paint.

Managed to get a little bit of time this weekend and shot 3 coats of clear onto the outside of the bedsides. Letting them dry for 24 hours then will flip them tonight and shoot another 3 coats on the inside. Overall they look pretty good.

Welded up the outside joints on the hood frame yesterday as well. Just need to finish grinding the welds smooth and then give it a quick coat of por 15 inside and out then I can start skinning it in aluminum.

Really need to clean my shop floor up.

Looking really good. Love the updates.

Shot clear on the insides of the sides last night and then had to take a sick leave day today while turbo had surgery this morning to have her tonsils, adnoids and new tubes put in her ears. Hopefully this will help her eating and gaining weight. Got home about 2 and been out in the shop almost that whole time. Put the stickers and fenders on the bedsides before I installed them.

Before putting them on, I ran the water lines down to under the bed and clamped them. Ran the transmission lines up to the coolers and tied them down. Ran the fuel return line as well.

The bed is done, bunch of minor defects and if I had a better area to paint and more time, could have gotten them much better but they will do for a mud truck.

Bed looks good, hopefully you'll be making some passes before long. As always looks like you got your plate about twice as full as it should be lol

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Turbo's had a rough go at it since the surgery, keeps throwing up and hadn't want to drink or eat anything. She is hopefully turning the corner and was doing good yesterday when she was with me and the wifey running a legion booth at a town shindig.

I do have to say today has been the coldest I've ever mowed my yard... temp said 51 but the wind was blowing out of the north about 30 miles an hour it felt like and supposed to get down to 29 tonight. Did oil change on the bad boy, sharpened the blades and aired up the tires on it today as well.

Friday I picked up a bunch of lumber and some steel for a couple of projects. I'm building a pole and frame to house digital signs for the legion post, one of the guys that runs a cnc place is cutting out signs to go on top of it. Also making 2 8' x 3' x 1.5' tall flower beds for the front of the building. Also building a frame for 2 4x8 lattices to go on the south side of my wife's gazebo so she can plant some climbing stuff.

On the truck, made a little progress. The hood framework is fully welded inside and out with all the welds ground down flat.

I did have a brain fart when I was putting the fender bolt bars on, I welded them on the outside like an idiot and so they would have played hell with running a smooth sheet of aluminum down the side. Had to cut the welds off, and move them inside the framework. I then prepped and painted the inside and outside over the weekend.

Tonight I made a rough template out of poster board for the upper and lower pieces on one side and they will work for the other side as well. Now I just need to get the pieces cut out of the sheet of .050 5052 aluminum I bought.

I added a piece of pipe into my steering sector today, hope it's going to work. Wish I'd had my motor to make sure it clears everything. Guess I'll eventually find out if it fits and clears everything.

Worked on the grill, it had a few places where there were defects on the rounded upper part so I worked them over a little and got them filled in with epoxy. Before leaving the shop tonight, I shot a very heavy coat of high build clear coat on it to fill in pin holes and give me a good thick coat of clear to start wet sanding and filling any little voids.

Do you ever hear any complaints from any power wagon purists?

I don't envy you building all of those panels, but they all look good!

No, I don't think I've gotten any complaints from PW people, I did have a thread over on the PW advertiser page but haven't been on there in a few years. They all seemed to like it when I was posting build pictures back then.

Not much of an update, just spent time sanding on the grill and working out those pin holes and some runs I got from the heavy clear coat layers I put on it. Need to shoot a few more layers on it tonight or tomorrow night when I get a chance and order the new graphic for the front of the grill, going to bury it in clear coat when I finish up the paint.

worked a bit on the truck. Shot another coat of clear on the grill and sanded it down again, then masked the front off and shot orange on it. Wet sanded it this evening and then shot another several coats of orange on it. Will check it out in the morning, but think I will need to wet sand it down just a bit and then shoot another coat on it.

Also cut out the first panel for the hood. Started getting it attached with pop rivets. Lot of drilling left to do.

Finished painting the grill and clear coating it and ordered the skull and crossbones sticker for the front.

On the hood, really wishing I'd bought .025 instead of .050. Was a bit of a bear getting it to make the curves on the top, but I've got all of the aluminum on the frame now. Doesn't look perfect, but should work. Now I need to build the front mount pin points and weld in the piece for the rear. Hopefully it will all work out. Set it back on the truck at the end of the night just to see what it looked like. Think it will look decent.