Reunel rehab Part II, rear bumper
It looked pretty rough.
The plan was the same as the front, matte black finish and truck bed liner/non skid coating on the surface. Also, adding an Aluminess spare rack and ditching the older style SMB A-frame carrier that kept my door from opening more than halfway.
I'll skip the grinding, brushing, rust removal filling and sanding. It was pretty slow and boring, and every time I start doing it on something I'm too cheap to buy new, I hope I will never have to do it again. Here are a couple of pics of the process though.
Oops, sorry for the sideways pic.
Why do you labor, Master? You could just relax like me.
Finished product before install.
What I removed.
Also ditched the leaky, rusty Transferflow. I was going to add an underfloor storage box here, but instead I'm opting for 25 gallons of fresh water and onboard air in this location. Also, this is the only part of the underside of the van that was not sandblasted and painted/undercoated this past winter because the tank was in the way. I'll be addressing that before installing the new goodies. the good news is the angle iron cross members added for the Transferflow to strap to are perfectly spaced for the water tank. No need to do any welding under there at all.
Removing the upper door hinge pin was the most difficult part of this install. Thanks WVvan for lots of pics etc. in your build, but mine was still really tough. I wound up removing the hinge completely and getting some help from a friend with a bigger hammer. Dave from Aluminess has since given me the quick, easy way to do this. Air chisel with a pointed big. Dammit. I have one and didn't even think about it!
There was much less drama mounting this one, except for a really good fit I had to notch out the Reunel for the Aluminess carrier. This involved lots more grinding and cutting, then REsanding, REpriming and REpainting. Ughhh. Anyway, finally on.
I'll get the lights wired up eventually.