Thread: Project 2003 Dodge Dakota

Yes, so far the bondo has stuck to the MDF and the plastic quite well. My bondo is drying right now and I am using a "Easybake oven" that I picked up at a yard sale to cure it quicker. Quite an impressive little machine if I do say so myself, the temperature gets very hit and assists in curing process. So far, my work has been mostly trial and error but I think that it is coming out rather well. I'll post more pics when I make more significant progress.

looking good keep up the good work

Yev

Well, the past few days I have been sanding and discovering the magical wonders and properties of bondo. Man, this stuff is a little harder to work with then I thought!



I spent a few hours with the file and the sandpaper, refining the curves to prep the screen fascia for bondo filler so that I make all the edges come together. My goal is to make this look like one whole unit without and seams which requires filling in the fine cracks with bondo and the round edges rounded as well.



The bondo is very...............goopy for lack of better terms but for future reference to everyone, don't use very much hardener because the more hardener makes the bondo dry QUICK!!



After sanding down the bondo and smoothing out the edges, I noticed that there were still areas that weren't as smooth as I'd like so I sanded as far down as I could and just marked areas that woud need to have bondo re-applied.



This time around applying bondo was a bit different of an experience because I used very little hardener, and this permitted me more time to work the bondo into the areas that needed to be filled deeper. I have a few details that I would like to be "rounded" better which requires me to build it up with bondo. The bottom and top edges do not need to be perfect becuase I am going to use textured paint to make it appear as if a the screen had a built-in mounting plate applied. I think that more patience, more bondo, and more sanding will refelct better results in time. Till then, I'll be sanding, filling, and cursing.

Today I sanded the second application of bondo down to smoothness and decided that I was satisfied with the look of the screen bezel. I wet-sanded the piece and refined all of the edges until I was comfortable.



Upon satisfaction with the smoothness of the seams and edges I started applying the clear plastic primer that I picked up yeasterday. Normally I would gray "colored" primer but I didn't realize that I was purchasing clear primer. It looks like its doing just as good a job though so I am not concerned with it being clear. The bondo brought all the edges and seams together to appear as one unit when it is finally painted and I am using the primer to create a sandable layer which will take care of any imperfections along the way. I didn't have any masking tape so I had to improvise and use clear tape which doesn't seem to make any difference.



There were some areas that I didn't want to have much additional primer on so I masked them off. I will likely pull them when I apply the final 4-5 layers of primer. Yes, I am using many many thin layers of primer so that I can build up all areas and sand them down as I need.

Back to work!!

So today I put in MUCH sanding and priming and my project was looking absolutely excellent!! And then I decided that it would be nice to take the wife out to dinner and have a nice quiet evening with the woman I love while the screen bezel is out drying and the fumes are dissipating. Well, upon my return home I am making my arrangements to enjoy some.................extracurricular activities and what do I get but several rounds of consistent knocking at my door. After the 4th round of annoyance I answer the rapping to see a very angry parent holding their child at the wrist and I'm thinking to myself: "Okay, I'm not a liscensed Psychologist." Turns out the litle *****head decided to climb into my back porch and and play "destroy Eternalodyssey's hard work and then brag about it to his friends." Lo and behold a quick check on my back porch indicates that the little brat had smashed my work to peices good and proper for whatever little deviant reason. From the looks of the little devil it appeared that operation a$$ beating had already been executed so what else was there for me to do but ask the little kid if it was worth it. After sobbing and incoherent whining, he said he was sorry. Long story short, the mother offered to pay for a new screen and I decided not to jip her out of an outrageous amount of money so I asked her for $200 to cover the costs of a new screen. She wrote me a check, returned to giving her son the royal flush and I closed my door with a check in hand for $200. I figured I would just look for another TM 868 like the one that I had been working on but then when I was perusing the local ebay offerings, I stumbled across this little puppy:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=280029714999

Looks like a defenite upgrade has been obtained. The TM 868 only supported resolution up to 640 X 480. The new one supports 1024 X 768 and has a native resolution of 800 X 600. It is made by basically the same housing as the old screen and will likely fit the exact same. I anticipate the new screen arriving in just over a week and the new stereo bezel to arrive shortly before that. I won't bore everyone with more pictures of building the bezel, I will just post the next steps I take as I go with the new bezel assembly. Hopefully everything will go as smooth as it did before and I will have a nice screen mounted in my truck within the next few weeks. Till then, I shall damn the earth that brat treads upon!!!!

I'm no longer that upset about it. Just a little peeved that it ruined my night. But I guess as they say: It could always be worse. I will just work on the new screen and get it looking right hopefully within the next few weeks. I am significantly upset that all of the work I put into it is gone but I know I wasn't a little angel gorwing up either. So I guess I'll just tighten my belt and get right into the hacking, slashing, cutting, bondoing, and sanding that will make this project look good. I just hope everything this time around goes as smooth as it did the last time.

You have a valid point, FC3S