I got a Wildernest!

[adrenaline503]

Well, I finally made up my mind and bought a Wildernest for 350 bucks yesterday. It seems to be in excellent shape for the most part, the only pieces that are missing are the aluminum v shaped pieces that push out the ventilation windows. The shell itself is in good shape for its age, but It will probably need to be repainted. It came with the gear net, curtains and the original mattress. The foam will of course need to be replaced. So, the only real task other than replacing some rusty hardware will be the paint job. The fiberglass is pitted here and there, like the resin has broken down somewhat. Is there a way to re-glass it or do you paint over it? Its not severe, but it does drive me nuts and I do want to fix it. I think the can remove the tent and windows easily enough, so that should save me some money. As usual, any advice will be appreciated. Oh, thanks to Kermit as well for answering all my questions and offering excellent advice.

[DaveInDenver]

What color is it? It's probably not painted if it's white. If the shell is badly pitted, then you can re-gel the skin, but that would be a pretty big job. I've only tackled spot get recoats and a few structural re-glassings. If it's bad, I would probably fill the pits and paint it rather than attempt to put a new gel coat on. If it was in bad shape, then I would maybe fill the cracks or pits with something and then paint it.

FWIW, fiberglass needs to be waxed just like any painted surface. For gel coats that are just dull and starting to get oxidized, I personally use a 3M boat polish which is abrasive (#09005) or a cleaner/wax (#09010) that lightly abrasive. And once a year I give mine a coat of plain marine liquid wax (#09026). I apply both with a random orbit polisher.

[Rezarf <><]

I have no idea where you live but if you are in a marine/boat environment then you might consider getting a few coats for someone to re-gelcoat your nest.

Sweet score, can't wait for a few pics.

Rezarf <><

[adrenaline503]

Luckily I live in Seattle so there are a million boat places, plus I am in the CG so that helps. Has anyone totally removed the tent portion before? I want to replace some hardware, and of course when I get it painted or glassed I'll need it tent out. Weather permitting I will some photos tomorrow.

[adventureduo]

Dang $350!? That's a smokin' deal. Waiting patiently for pics also over here! :friday:

[DaveInDenver]

Has anyone totally removed the tent portion before?
I have, but to replace the tent on a truck years ago. It's not something you want to do often, it's a huge pain to get back on. Also just about every one of the screw holes will need to be filled since the screws rust and strip. I personally drill them up a couple of sizes and epoxy in new pieces of dowel when it happens. To do that the hundred times or whatever the number of screws there will take some time. I personally do repairs with the tent in place. I close a big piece of round foam weatherstrip (the stuff designed to be stuffed between walls and door jambs) between the lip on the shell and the edge of the top (where the black edge guard is). This keeps out most of the dust and liquid, a lot better than the regular weatherstrip.

[kcowyo]

Congratulations! :jumping:

The Wildernest is a great solution and it sounds like you got it for a steal. Hope it works out for you.

Put me on the waitin' for pics list, too -

[adrenaline503]

Congratulations! :jumping:



Put me on the waitin' for pics list, too -

I'll get a few when I get home.

[adrenaline503]

The outside:

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6938/006zh2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/340/007qt3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8007/012dz3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/9310/010eg0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I will post some more later, I am going to use the daylight and get some work done.

[adrenaline503]

Inside pics:

http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/1098/014qz2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/906/015us0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/7366/016nf6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7729/019fd0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/4118/020di6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/6084/022tm4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Kermit]

You're welcome and....Awesome! Has anyone mentioned you're a BOLD guy? :p $350!!! Duuuude, killer deal!

The tent looks like in better shape than mine. I think with a good cleaning/polishing on the 'glass, you'll be good to go.

Remember to BOLT, the 'Nest to the bed rail of the truck, DO NOT use those topper clamps. I use grade 8 cadium coated on mine.

If you want some measurements on the tent window braces let me know. Should be easy to make yourself.

As I mentioned earlier, DaveInDenver is an expert...(what doesn't Dave know!?, he's smarter than the average bear)...on the 'Nest. If I can't answer a question he surely can.


Ok, what does your girlfriend (wife?) think? :D

[adrenaline503]

The Bad:


There is a sizable gap on both sides:
http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/8303/024vq5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Because the giant plastic piece in the center is in the way:
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/426/025vk1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Some damage to the fiberglass on the rear edge:
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2746/028mv7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Some of the pitting in the gelcoat:
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/2041/027wi7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Typical Northwest flora:
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/9987/032ls4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[adrenaline503]

My wife is pretty excited, its nicer than she had expected. The downside is that thing is heavy. Like you, I will need a few buddies to help load and unload it. I tried to polish the glass today without much luck. I might try a gel coat paint. Damn my perfectionist streak.

[DaveInDenver]

My wife is pretty excited, its nicer than she had expected. The downside is that thing is heavy. Like you, I will need a few buddies to help load and unload it. I tried to polish the glass today without much luck. I might try a gel coat paint. Damn my perfectionist streak.
What did you try to polish it with? I use a Porter Cable 7336SP sander with p/n 54745 pads. This thing will take oxidation off in no time and you have to be careful not to take the gel coat off completely if the polish has any sort of abrasive in it! Gel coat is not a paint, it's thin layer of smooth resin without fiberglass in it. It's used as the release layer (and it looks attractive and does not need to be painted, it's tinted...BTW, WilderNest used a tint called Toyota White, which I can't find anymore) when they mold the shell, it's sprayed in the mold first, then they spray in chipped fiberglass and resin to build up the body of the shell. I would do all you can to protect the gel coat because it's what protects the structure of the shell from chips, chemicals and UV. If it's in that bad of shape that it can't be polished, then I would lightly sand the whole thing to clean up oxidation, then paint it with a good filling primer to make it smooth and then paint it. But it's important to keep the gel coat in decent shape.

[DaveInDenver]

Your shell does look pretty oxidized. I would personally hit that with something stronger. I've had good luck with 3M #06011, which is a finishing compound. It works like the Dickens with power tools and anything stronger would eat the gel coat too fast. Follow with #09010 and it will be smooth. If you want it really smooth, I would wet sand after the 06011 using 1000 grit sandpaper, but that's seriously like glass. The boat polishes won't make it like paint, but it will be smooth because of the fresh wax. The key is to be careful of how fast you work on it, the gel coat isn't very thick on these.

[Kermit]

Mine doesn't latch either, it has a really bad spread. What I do is take a long bungee cord, hook it to the inside if the bed on the tiedown hooks, reach in grab it, then loop it around the handle. Not pretty, but, it works.

[DaveInDenver]

Here's some of the other stuff you'll need to repair the gel coat. Make sure you get gel coat and not regular resin, the color will be wrong. Also don't forget to add surfacing agent otherwise it will take forever for the resin to set. Fiberglass resin only cures in the absence of oxygen, so I use a surfacing agent and cover the gel coat with plastic. The surfacing agent rises to the skin of the gel coat and creates an air barrier. I use the styrene monomer as an additive to the resin, helps it stick better to wood. The little bottles are Kerox tints, one is sandstone and the other regular white. The gel coat I use is called Cloud White and I try to match the 'Nest color, so far with no success. I've made some nice colors, nothing anywhere close to the original though. Oh, I just use regular MEK as the hardener for the resins.

BTW, yes, I do 'Nest repairs for hire. If anyone was wondering...

[Kermit]

BTW, yes, I do 'Nest repairs for hire. If anyone was wondering...

Want to sew up a new canvas for me...for 2 cases of Fat Tire? :D

[adrenaline503]

Want to sew up a new canvas for me...for 2 cases of Fat Tire? :D

HA HA, I was wondering how hard it would be make a new tent. If you used the old one as a pattern it should be doable.

I think that if I use that gap filling primer I should be good. I have tried buffing with compound and then using a polisher. Its far better than it was, just more discolored than anything. I certainly do not want to mess up the gel coat. Denver, what paint would you recommend to go over the primer?

[DaveInDenver]

Want to sew up a new canvas for me...for 2 cases of Fat Tire? :D
Hmmm, two cases of Flat Tire you say? I'll get back to you...

[adrenaline503]

I'll pay 3 cases....

[adrenaline503]

So I got some 100 and 320 grit foam sanding blocks and went to work on the WilderNest. The blocks work very well, slow but steady. I found an old repair, it looks to be of decent quality. Sadly, it means that I will either have to paint the whole canopy or at least over the repair. Thats a shame because the rest of the glass is in GREAT shape.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5075/wildernest002cr9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/4546/wildernest003jq2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/3170/wildernest004iz6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6316/wildernest005of4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[DaveInDenver]

Repairs on that corner are very common. The kicked back section on the short box 'Nest often bears the brunt of being backed into stuff.

That does not look too bad, it could be gelled over. I would also put down the 100 grit sandpaper and back away. I never use anything more course than 400 grit unless I want to take off significant amounts of the gel coat! In some places the gel cost is only about 50 mils thick, particularly on the flat parts of the sides, the outer layer is pretty thin. Although hitting it with a 60 or 100 grit before spreading a new gel coat will help the resin adhere.

But since you've started, what you could do is work the repaired area with the course stuff until you've taken the top layers down to the chipped fiberglass underneath and build a new top layer. I've done that a couple of times on my current 'Nest, mostly because of inopportune meetings with trees... :-)

[kcowyo]

Nice 'Nest. :beer:

I like that gen of d-cab Frontiers too. Nice set up. Hope it serves you well.

[adrenaline503]

Nice 'Nest. :beer:

I like that gen of d-cab Frontiers too. Nice set up. Hope it serves you well.


Thanks! I have been working on it for a few days and it is coming along.

[Ursa Minor]

Fun project! Just an observation, but in the picture where you show the filled dent, the feathered edges show a layer of gray on top of the gel coat that is probably primer under a outer layer of white paint. I'd interpret that as a sign the whole cap was painted once upon a time.

If so, you might consider just block sanding it & have the whole thing primered/painted rather than re-gel coating large areas. Repairing damaged gel-coat in spots is fairly straight forward, color matching and/or spraying over large areas for repair & then smoothing out is much harder than just painting with an automotive paint that you can have matched to your vehicle. Most poly-urethanes do very well in this application.

The micro-pitting in the gel coat was probably there from the day it was made, several things can cause this, including too much MEKP or water vapour in the air line of the spray gun. Eh, ok, that's too much composites talk for today...enjoy your new nest!

cheers
John

[adrenaline503]

I have actually made some major progress on the canopy. I do believe that it was once painted, perhaps from WilderNest. The reason I say that is because the side decals were over what seems to be paint. After trying a buffer and rubbing compound (not powerful enough) and an angle grinder with a variety of pads (too powerful) I settled on a random orbit sander and foam sanding blocks. I used 120 grit to get the paint off, the followed with some 300, the wet sanded with 320. I have not come even close to penetrating the gel coat, thank god. The repairs seem to be limited the rear corners, so I will mask those areas off, prime with white and then spray it with a high quality spray paint. Hopefully I will be to feather the edges with wet sanding and achieve a close match. The only lingering issue is that I cannot remove the paint around the windows since it is recessed into the window mounts. I am debating if it is worth removing the windows. Can anyone recommend a pretty serious wax? Since the gel coat is bare I would like to do all that I can to protect it. I do plan on waxing it every few months, I know maintenance is key.

[DaveInDenver]

Can anyone recommend a pretty serious wax? Since the gel coat is bare I would like to do all that I can to protect it. I do plan on waxing it every few months, I know maintenance is key.
Two that I use:

3M 09010 Marine Cleaner & Wax (this has a fine polish in it, so only use periodically)
3M 09027 Marine Wax (this is just wax)

Both are boat products, about $20~$25 per quart and last around a year here in UV-intense Colorado. I apply both with the random orbit polisher and foam pads.

[adrenaline503]

Great Dave, thanks for the tip. I am about 80 percent done with the the shell, then its time to get the tent cleaned up.

[DaveInDenver]

then its time to get the tent cleaned up
Something to keep in mind, just a FYI. The tent material is nylon with a urethane coating, so there aren't a lot of cleaners that work. The stuff that's safe for nylon is usually tough on urethane and vice versa. If the material is just dirty the best option is plain old dish soap, mixed just strong enough to create light suds, and a soft nylon brush. NEVER use a petroleum product on your tent, it will delaminate the material. Also be very careful with most chemical spot cleaners, bleach or degreasers as most will either cause the urethane to lose adhesion or ruin the nylon. Good luck and let it dry before folding. I generally do this in about May on a day when the humidity is very low and there's a light breeze. I let it sit open all day to dry out after washing it.

[adrenaline503]

So does anyone know where I could find some replacement Wildernest decals?

[erod]

nice nest', looks like its in great shape...not sure on the decals...seems like those would be really hard to come by...make sure to post some pics of it all set up at camp...great set up, i miss mine!

[adrenaline503]

Hopefully it will be done soon. The 30 degree rain has not been helping.

[erod]

we found that by covering the front sliding window with and old thermarest and the back window with a blanket or piece of reflectix and using our portable buddy propane heater we could stay reasonably comfortable in the wildernest in the fall/winter/spring...moisture was always an issue with us though but we had 2 people and 2 dogs in there contributing...nice purchase, i am sure it will bring you lots of good times...cheers!

[Kermit]

Decals, maybe take a photo of the old one, a vinyl decal shop might be able to make you one.

I might be able to draw one up. The graphic is simple.

How is your girlfriend liking it?

For the cold, you could get colder rated bags.

[adrenaline503]

Decals, maybe take a photo of the old one, a vinyl decal shop might be able to make you one.

I might be able to draw one up. The graphic is simple.

How is your girlfriend liking it?

You, its criminal, but we havent even been out in it yet. I am getting deployed in a month for a long time, so that has been taking up a lot of time at work and around the house. Hopefully when I get home on leave for a while this summer I will be able to take it out. My wife's mother works at a sign shop so I am pretty sure I could get them made if I could get a good enough image of the design. Any help is appreciated.