Chevy Express Plastic Body Kit Removal & Spray On Raptor Liner

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I finally got around to removing the clearance hindering street racer looking plastic skirting around my factory conversion van. Its a 2005 Chevy Express AWD with a factory Explorer Limited SE Package. Though the plastic was still in good shape, I bought this van for trips to the hills. In the handful of times i got it off the beaten path with the skirting installed, it wasn't pretty. I basically plowed a parking lot of snow with the poor clearance back in February (though the awd kept me chugging along just fine). Then, I accidentally scraped the back bumper cover up and got it stuck on the hitch when crossing a creek bed last month... So, I knew it had to go. Since I'm learning so much from this forum, Im thinking I'll give you all a few pics to show how easy it was to pull off all this plastic.

 

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Before:

 

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Started with pulling the rubber strips off down the middle of the panels.
Then, out with the phillips head sheet metal screws resting in these little fiberglass insets.

And, the drilling out of a bunch of pop rivets across the bottom seams of the doors.

Then the panels basically just fell right off.

Then, it came time to drop the step attached with about 10 bolts holding on to the under side of the van, again with holes just pierced in the metal, but this time with something more like 10mm bolts.

 

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The reer bumper had suprisingly few screws holding it on. Though I dfidnt get any pics, i had to peel back some of the rubber step material on the top side to reveal hidden screws.

I had all of the plastic off in a less than 2 hours.

That was enough for a day, so off to the lake with the boat... i think just pulling the plastic gave it much more of a mountain man van kind of look.

Next, I hit the left over holes with a drimel tool grinder disk and significantly reduced the little protrusions in the metal caused by the screws pulling it outward.

 

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Then i filled the holes by hand with JB Steel Stick and sanded them down a day or two later...
The sanding also helped rough up the paint for the coming bed liner application.

I quickly taped her up to avoid any overspray problems.

And on with two coats of U-Pol Raptor Liner. I opte to apply with their $15 spray gun.


And, boom! There you have it. I was surprised I only used one of the four bottles I bought in the $115 raptor liner kit.

I'm going to go back and do the top part of the bumper there, but planning to keep the chrome. My wife likes it and im still not on the "murdered out" bandwagon... may never be.

 

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In all I think I have about 8 hours into this project. I suppose one could do it all in one day, but I felt good about giving the Steel Stick a few days to fully cure before sanding.

 

[marret]

Nice work.

 

[whith]

Lookin good. I’m a huge fan of Raptor and the more I see the lowers and fenders on Express van done the more I’m leaning towards doing mine.

 

[eporter]

Looking sharp. Is there any market on CL or similar for the pieces you took off? Not sure if anyone really wants them?

This van would look much better with your treatment. It's got the black plastic front bumper already. The high roof is nice on yours!

 

[Raul]

Big improvement.

I'm going to go back and do the top part of the bumper there, but planning to keep the chrome. My wife likes it and im still not on the "murdered out" bandwagon... may never be.

Oh, you will. How else are you going to cope with the zombie apocalypse

 

[grampswrx]

I really want to build one of these out with a kitchen contained in drawers that slide out the back. Would make a great camper with a RTT. Nice work!

 

[Captn-See-Had]

Looking sharp. Is there any market on CL or similar for the pieces you took off? Not sure if anyone really wants them?

This van would look much better with your treatment. It's got the black plastic front bumper already. The high roof is nice on yours!

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I have yet to post the kit for sale... im hoping to fetch a few hundred for it. Someone on here suggested posting on Vanning.com Ill try CL too. What do you all think the kit is worth?

 

[eporter]

$300 seems fair for a local pickup. That would be a nice upgrade for a 2WD van with rusty door bottoms and such. Guessing shipping would be a bit much.

 

[Corneilius]

AWD high top with Driver side doors!!! Love it!

 

[yondermeister88]

Just tossing up a THANK YOU! Appreciate the photos and post