Project: Dually Conversion on the Pickup—Fenders Primed, Painted and done

Well, the fenders are finally white!

My luck, being what is, its been raining on and off and down in the 60s since my last entry, preventing any painting work on the fenders, until today, that is.

Today, the weather was clear, the wind was calm and the temperature was 75, ideal painting conditions!

So, after slathering myself in SPF 50 sunblock and 40% deet bug repellent, I papered up the sides of the truck, pulled 50 gallon garbage sacks over the tires and got those fenders, primed, painted and clear coated.

The direct sun and warm temperatures sped the drying process of the paint, coupled with fast-drying Rustoleum Automotive Primer, I had the fenders finished in under three hours.

Here’s the finished product from the passenger side. I managed to get the tape off from around the fender on this side today, but decided to let the paint harden more before I attempted to take the tape off the drivers side.

The white will never be a perfect match to the existing paint job, shy of going to a professional paint shop where they can age-match the paint, one has to just settle for close-enough when working with a rattle can.

Looks good to me, and that’s really what’s important .

I still need to get the tube of white automotive sealant out to lay a bead along the edge between the fender and the truck bed, as while they’re a perfect contour match now, they’re not glued together, so a bead of sealant will be needed to keep road spray from coming up between the truck bed and dually fender.

As I was saying, driver’s side still needs me to come along with my sharp razor knife to clean cut the edge along the truck bed and remove the last of the painters tape so that it’ll look as nice as the passenger side.

Last, but not least, a nice from-the-front shot of my “new” dually .

Next up, adding all those extra pesky clearance lights! Well, that and finding those oh-so redneck appropriate rear mud-flaps.

Technically, if I’m reading the DOT laws correctly, I don’t need the extra marker lights, my truck is only 94” wide and the extra marker lights are supposedly not needed unless your 102” or wider, but given that I seem to have the worst luck when it comes to LEOs, I’ll just spend the time adding the extra clearance lights .