Had a few spare hours this weekend between work, holidays and everything else to sandblast, prime, and paint the roll bar.

Using the RAPCO black phosphate primer and their 383 CARC replacement green in rattle cans. So far happy with everything; reasonably priced, shipped quickly, and great coverage as well as color match (though it will take some time to cure and lose some of it's gloss I'm told). Still has to catch up with the old CARC paint job that's been sitting outside for 5 years, so we'll see.

Hopefully I can get this all mounted up later this week, and perhaps the new seats will be in as well.
I replaced the rear seat belts already, and will need to fabricate mounts for all the seats when they come in.

Yep- I had done a small section and it definitely rejuvenates it and brings it closer to new paint. Truck was painted in 2011, so paint is good throughout.
Once I get the rollbar on there we'll see how it looks and what the next steps are. I'm not necessarily looking for the brand new paint look, so maybe I just need to get the new bar dusty which should be pretty easy around here. Truck hasn't even been washed since I got it.

Caught up on some more work...

Roll bar is mounted and looks good. Paint is not 100% match, so we'll see how everything settles in after a while. I've heard to let it cure as long as 90 days before it looses some of it's gloss and hardens... not sure if any of that is true, but we'll see what happens.

Added the recently painted radio shelf with some new hardware. Not sure what I'm going to use it for yet.


Rearranged the battery box with Optima Red Tops; I got the 6TL adapters and they fit in there nice, but the arrangement was a bit off, so I had to swap some wiring around to fit better with the new layout. Now everything is routed well, tightly held down, and I feel comfortable nothing is going to short. For ~$30 for a pair, I definitely recommend them.


Got a pair of 4x6' horse stall mats (3/4" rubber) as a bed liner, and I replaced the old plywood pieces. Still working on cutting the front section (was waiting to see where the seats would end up), but it protects the bed, is comfortable to stand on, and I predict will do wonders for soundproofing and insulating the passengers. Two 4x6 mats cover the bed and center, with enough spare pieces to make floor liners for the rear passenger footwells.

Also got the seats today... I know some of you have already gone through the installation of MRAP seats, but there's a lot I wish I had known before and so I'm working through it all. I was considering and willing to build all new bases for the seats, but after brainstorming for a while the ideas evolved into the simplest solution.

First, everything has to be based on the passenger (commander) seat, as the battery box is a fixed item that I was not willing to move. As such, the height for everything else (assuming you want everything to match) is based on this seat.

I determined that the existing MRAP seats with their bases were WAY too tall. Putting one on the battery box put my line of sight almost at the top of the windshield, and my head above the roll bar/windshield. That would not work, so I considered giving up the sliders? Making a shorter base? Bottom line was that ANYTHING more than the seat cushion on the battery lid was too tall. Time to take the seats apart and put the seat base directly on the battery box... (haven't figured out the backrest yet)

I moved on to the rear seats, and similarly explored making new bases to equal the height of the commander seat. Then tried fitting just the seat base onto the existing lid, and that actually was a perfect height and allows access to the storage below without having to remove the whole seat. OK. Now how do we attach the back of the seat? Tried several options, including brackets, hangers, and other ideas, but in the end using the existing seat backs and bolting directly to the seat back frame worked best and maintained ability to remove those as well.

So now the rear seats are done, and I basically threw away the entire seat structure. I lost the ability to recline the seats, and lost the sliders (but I wasn't going to be using those anyway), but I kept passenger's head inside the vehicle, and a lot more comfortably. I just put the new seat cushions on the original mounts.


So now I have to figure out the back of the commander seat (probably some sort of bracket similar to how the original was mounted, only stronger), and the driver's seat. For the driver, I think I'm going to maintain the whole seat with the sliders, and either put a mount on top of the existing base, or I'm leaning towards removing the whole base and building a custom mount. If I do the latter, I think I can gain enough space between the seat and the door to put a rifle mount and a fire extinguisher next to the seat.

Unfortunately not going to be able to work on the seats again until next week...

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some time to finish the bed liner. When I get front seats figured out, I'll post more pics.
Also ordered last two gauges I needed to replace (new ones look too nice to keep originals) and working on an LED gauge cluster lighting solution (go the bulbs, but needed to order new bulb covers which are on the way).

EDIT :: 1/5/2016
Laid out the mat, and did all the rough cuts to get it in place (just needs a little trimming here and there).
Looks kinda blah from this angle, but it really fit nice and will serve to quiet some rattles (it fits tightly against the rear seats and prevents them from rattling).

I have the option of screwing it in place (using existing holes and countersunk bolts so nothing sticks up) but I'll see if that's even needed.
It's in there so tight that I don't think it can move.

Initially tried a circular saw like most people recommend, using a course blade to keep it from plugging up.
That caused a bunch of smoke and the cut wasn't straight or smooth.

Regular utility knife worked best with a straight edge to use as a guide.
Took probably three passes to cut all the way though: first 1/3 carefully establishing the line, a second about 2/3 through the material, and for the final pass we put a 2x4 under the mat to open the cut and did the final 1/3 or less. This resulted in perfectly straight and clean cuts as long as you keep the blade upright. Another option would have been to use a hacksaw, but I think the utility knife leaves a much cleaner and straighter cut.

In a couple of spots I removed some material from underneath the mat to fit over protrusions in the bed and let it lay perfectly flat. For the most part thought it's sitting pretty flat on top of all the d-ring tie downs and even the existing insulation. If I want to use the tie downs at some point, i could cut openings to expose them. As mentioned before I may use existing holes in the body, drill up from underneath, and bolt the mat down. I just have to figure out how to countersink the bolt/washer from above (cut a perfect 1" circle about 1/4" deep) so the heads do not protrude above the mat.

I have a piece of mat left over that I can bolt to the inside of the tailgate when I bolt the gas can trays to the gate. As mentioned before I also made floor mats for the rear seats (fronts have original insulation).

Ryan- I'll post pics of my seat bases tomorrow. Maybe what I got is totally different than what you have. I'm only 5'10". There was no way to make those seat bases any lower, and when I tried just the cushion, that was perfect height. Wouldn't have wanted to add another inch or more, let alone 5 or 6. Believe me I considered hacking them up and rewelding components, but there was no real winner. In the end simplicity won, and I didn't really need any adjustability in the commander or rear seats to justify keeping sliders and seat back tilt. Plus just using the cushions makes access to the battery box and rear storage as easy as possible so a whole seat doesn't have to be lifted. Also kept overall weight gain down.

If there's any specific pics anyone wants to see with any of this, just let me know.

Sounds like a perfect plan; let me know how you make out!

Found this picture on eBay. Same seats and how high they sit on the battery box:

Here's some details on my seats and how they would have fit.
As we have discussed, because the battery box is the immovable object, everything I did was based on that.

Here is the seat base.

They have mounting studs on the bottom, so it's about 3/4" higher than it would end up.


Here is the whole seat as it would sit (your butt would be 8-9" higher than stock?!?)



So those where the problems I encountered with these seats. It seems like the ones Ryan and others got were lower profile?

While I'm here, here's a pic of the mat facing rearward. You can see the scrap piece of mat I'm considering putting on the inside of the tailgate.

Yeah that's the whole problem. I looked back at your seats and they were much lower profile bases. I'm ok with this solution, as I can get access to the various boxes without having to remove whole seats, and I don't really see a need for adjustments on the 3 passenger seats anyway. Drivers seat will maintain full functionality as I will be fabricating a base anyway so I can adjust size and position.

I "mocked up" the final look:


I'd like to get/create a cargo net what will wrap around both sides of the rollbar down to the rear fenders.

I also forgot I ordered one of those pulse tech battery maintainers which came in today so I need to figure out where to mount that.
I'm more concerned with desulfation than maintaining charge, but it can't hurt... or can it?

I keep looking at the triangle where the data plate and MWO tags are on my vehicle... this is the area where I tested the WD40 paint rejuvenation, and I'm contemplating doing it to the whole thing.

OK... there was no voice of reason to caution me against it so I went ahead and did it. Used about an 18oz Family Size bottle of WD40 ($6.97? at Walmart) to do the whole thing, and some areas I went back and hit a couple of times. I sprayed directly on the surface and used a hand towel to wipe down and leave a thin even film on everything and to prevent drips everywhere. The towel did leave lint everywhere because of the rough CARC surface, but that will blow away once everything is dry.

At first, it will look wet and glossy and your wife may walk in and say "Oh no, what have you done?!?!? It looks so shiny!"


But in a short time, all will go back to normal minus the oxidized look (this is maybe an hour after- I'll get another picture tomorrow morning of the whole thing). You can see it made a significant difference in the color.


So while I have a while to wait to see what the overall look will end up being after it's had a chance to even out, I am confident it will be matte but "like new."

I also did the engine while I was in there (I had the hood up to do it vertically, and I also did the underside).
I like to hit all the areas that show any rust, but also any hoses and plastics; it cleans them right up and leaves everything looking like new.


So that's it- under $10 and about an hour of time.

I'll have an update later today on my project, but in the meantime if anyone's looking for the hard to find SF c-pilars, there's a set on eBay. They came up last week and were sold, but looks like they're back. special forces c-pillars

Not a lot of time to work on the seats this evening, but the bracket for the commander's seat is done and primed (I didn't get a pic before painting, so I'll post one before installing). Because I decided to split the seat bottoms from the tops, the commander's seat requires its own bracket, bolted to the horizontal support beam right behind the battery box. Seat bottom is mounted to the battery box, making it easy to access the batteries without having to remove the whole seat.

As far as the driver's seat, I got the old base removed by drilling out the rivets. After looking at it for a while, decided not to remove the whole base, but instead to leave the front and rear angle brackets in place and use them as a base for the new mount. These two sections were well structured, and in addition to being riveted to the bottom they are riveted to the tunnel and the outside body on the ends.

The plan here will be to put 4 vertical 1x2" rectangular tube legs bolted to these supports (2 bolts per), and then an angle iron frame welded on top of that to bolt the seat to. This will allow me to position the seat exactly where I want it, and still maintain maximum space underneath for storage. I'll have to find some sort of box or zippered case to keep under there. This will also free up a bunch of space between the seat and the door where I plan to put a fire extinguisher and perhaps a rifle mount along the B pillar. This seat will get installed complete to maintain back tilt and front to back sliders to adjust for different drivers.

At the rear, I had two old jerry can mounts that came with the HMMWV and a couple of water containers laying around. I've been debating whether or not to install new mounts here for fuel cans, so this let me get an idea of what they would look like before I order them. The holes were already in the tailgate. Tradeoff is making it more difficult to use the gate, so I'm still debating it. What I eventually need is an airlift bumper and spare tire carrier back there, but probably not any time soon.


Lastly, the paint looks good and like new, with a much richer deep matte OD green look. Hard to tell the difference in pics, but in person it is significant. In this photo I was playing with a rear cargo net over the sides of the roll bar, as this is what I think I'm going to try to achieve.

At this point it looks like I'm going to have to have a custom net made, and then I can attach some of the footman loops back onto the new roll bar base to attach to. Anyone know a reasonable place to get some nets made?

Not much progress... got a little time to work on the seats.

On the commander's seat, this was the bracket made to hold the seat-back finally primed and painted. It bolted directly to the horizontal support, and then to the metal frame of the seatback itself.



Moving to the driver's seat, we ended up using 1x1" tubing rather than the 1x2". Two pieces are laying on top of the existing angle that was riveted to the body, and span the full width from tunnel to body for maximum weight distribution. These will be bolted to the existing angle aluminum using four of the existing holes in front, and 4 in the rear.


On top of that we're welding the 4 1" square tube risers with 1" drop from front to rear, and on top of that is welded the 2x2" angle iron base that the actual seat will bolt to.



Hope to have time to finish this up tonight, paint tomorrow, and hopefully have the full set of new seats installed by the end of the week. What a pain in the ass.

Definitely more comfortable. The biggest problem is more padding means you sit higher and further forward, so that's a tradeoff I've tried to minimize.


Trying to do the best possible job! The bracket for the commander's seat back is just a re-implementation of the original mount that was there, so I can't take any credit for that.


the Rapco is a bit glossy still, and I think part of that is that the surfaces are smooth, and the paint goes on smooth, so it's smoother. Color-wise it's close, but not perfect. The Walmart camo green is a bit more gray, but seems to be flatter and less glossy. I'm hoping this will blend in more with time.

Today I got the driver's seat base finished, painted, and installed.



While the seat itself maintains adjustability, the seatbelt spool behind it limits leaning back unless you slide the seat forward, which you'd have to be very short to enjoy. I could have mounted the seat more towards the center, but then it would have been really off line from the rear seats, and would have had to go higher up to clear the center tunnel. Right now it's touching the tunnel in the front of the seat base. So for the most part, the seat is fixed even though the adjustability is "available".

I took off the CDR (PCV equivalent) hose yesterday due to cracking and ordered from Kascar, so I won't get it until tomorrow otherwise I'd take it for a test drive.

I did however get some battery terminal covers that fit the bigger terminals (had to send the previous ones back) and got them installed. Nice thick rubber, large enough to cover the terminals and get the thicker wires into.


Makes me feel a little better about the battery box. Even though the batteries are better adjusted and positively held in place, the terminals are alway close to the hold down bracket and it makes me nervous that something would shift and short. Now I just need to find something to cover the positive terminal on the sidewall of the tunnel and I'll rest better.

So that's the update. Going to be a busy end of the week and then we're off to SHOT for next week so probably not much going to happen for a while. A few small parts are due, so if I get those they'll go in, but nothing major.

I have decided I need to learn to sew, as I think I'm going to have to make my own cargo net for the back of this thing. That should be a learning experience... I did watch these videos and got a little motivated. How hard can it be?

I forgot I'd seen that. At one point I was looking at putting a kill switch connected to that, and mounting it in the hole next to he commanders left knee (next to the radio tray). I assumed that hole was for another radio connector?


My experience is sewing on patches and buttons in basic training, 20 years ago. Off to find this tactical gear section which I guess I should know about...


Yep- been there and looked around. After SHOT I'll experiment with some ideas and figure out what I'm going to do. There are usually a few companies there that sell webbing and hardware. I've ordered some samples of various materials already as I have to determine color (ranger green, forest green, and olive drab are all options, so I want to compare) and material, order some webbing, and mock it up to determine opening size and layout as well as hardware and attachment points. Then I have to find a sewing machine and learn how to use it. Should have taken those sewing classes in grade school more seriously!

I hit mine a few days ago and of course they didn't have anything, but I'm confident I'll find something I can use.

Each night I sit up and make a list of things I'd like to get done the next day; otherwise I won't remember them in the morning. Last night's list included:

Finish the floor mat with the leftover stall mat for the driver's side rear seat. While I was doing that I added one under the driver's seat, and went ahead and put some under the rear seats in the storage boxes. That should really dampen any noises coming from underneath.


That exposed positive terminal in the battery box was bothering me, especially after putting in those nice terminal covers, so I took some self-fusing tape and covered it up. Kind of an ugly solution, but for now it will do.


I did replace the factory rear seat "boards" that my seat-backs are bolted to with brand new ones just because the old ones had a few dents and the locking hardware was rusting. I saw them on eBay and ordered them without thinking. Really didn't need to do that, as it just increases my pile of take-offs that I now have to save and they were functionally fine.

The new oil pressure and water temp gauges came in today too, so I went ahead and installed them, so now all the gauges are new and matching.


One of the benefits of the new gauges is the transparent housings which allow more light in from the dash lighting. Combined with LED bulbs and the new clear bulb covers, I think everything will be usable at night.


Final Pic:


Next steps involve a bunch of sewing after designing the cargo net so someone else has to start posting in here.
Oh, and I need to design some sort of a front brush guard. Not happy with anything I've seen anywhere, and I don't want to seriously affect my approach angle, so that's another project to think about.

Plus some weapon mounts, both for shooting and carrying rifles. Perhaps something at SHOT Show will provide some inspiration...