Prep, Paint, & Sound Deadening | The Peanut Build Out - Part 1
Sanding away silicone residue that was used (unsuccessfully) to seal the hatch before.
Re-sealing the Roof Hatch
One of the very first projects that we tackled on Peanut was resealing the hatch on the roof of the cab which in its former military life was meant to have either a large caliber gun or grenade launcher mounted in (wtf?!). We got to work pretty quickly removing the old steel plate that the former owner made to cover the hole, repainted the underside of it, and removed any rust that had formed on the cab from the steel plate rusting. After taking care of the rust, we sealed the hatch with closed-cell foam weatherstripping. It has held up great through multiple storms and no longer leaks!
Prep and Paint
Masking off the wheels with a little index card trick that I learned several years ago.
Up next we started the process of cleaning the truck and starting to prep some of the exterior parts for paint in the weeks to come. We first decided to paint the wheels. We used Rust-Oleum Professional High Performance Enamel Spray Paint for the wheels and eventually used the same paint in gallons to do the frame. We decided to use that paint because it is easy to find at most hardware stores for when we need to do touch ups or want to paint other things on the truck as well. It is also fairly inexpensive to purchase.
Repainted seat brackets, and repainted turret cover.
Interior Dash Paint & Sound Deadening
After painting the wheels we started to work on repainting the interior of the truck. We really can’t wait to get rid of the military green drab interior. We are currently leaving the military green floor mats until we are totally finished with the inside.
After we finished spraying the interior used Dynamat Dynadeck for the flooring with a sound deadening layer beneath it.
Old nasty olive green dash panel looking very military and ready for an upgrade.
Dash labeling nightmare while I prep for painting the dash display.
Still lots of painting to be finished in the dash and inside of the cab but this was a huge step and made such a difference in the look and feel of the truck.
Inside the cab we are using a semi-gloss paint that will be a little easier to clean than the flat finish that will be on the exterior of the truck.
We repainted the handles for getting in or out of the truck yellow, and this made such a huge difference. Our friends no longer have such a hard time figuring out what to grab onto as they climb in or out.
Exterior Truck Paint
Our last big project for the year before winter closed in on us was to get the underside of the truck, including frame and bed, painted flat black. Thanks to the generosity of one of our friends, we were able to borrow some garage space to tackle this project, which we would have had a hard time doing otherwise.
Having access to this garage space was invaluable! Huge thank you to Chip Griffith for his generosity in letting us use this space to paint our truck!
I feel like this, really more than anything so far, has changed the appearance of Peanut. It looks so much less military after changing the underside from desert tan to black. We did all our spraying on the truck with a Graco Cordless Ultra spray gun. Going into this project I was really scared about how challenging it might have been, but the spray gun made it all go so much smother and faster. If you plan on doing anything like this, I highly recommend going and picking one up. We ordered ours through Amazon and have been extremely pleased with it!
-Brian
Full disclosure, we’ve included some links to products that we used and recommend and if you purchase those items through the Amazon links in this article, we get a (much appreciated) little kick back. It’s a great way to help support our build though purchases you might already make without any extra money out of your pocket. Thanks in advance!
Rust-Oleum 7578838 Professional High Performance Enamel Spray Paint, 15 oz, Flat Black
Dynamat 21212 DynaDeck 54" Wide x 12' Long x 3/8" Thick Vinyl Waterproof Non-Adhesive Floor Liner