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So my day job is site work and excavation. We were opening up a new job last week and clearing off a field to put up some apartment complexes. I left a guy there to scrape up weeds with a large wheel loader. he calls late in the evening to tell me he ran over a rifle on the job. It was in a scabbard and had likely bounced off a truck or side-by-side at some point. Said he smashed it pretty good. I go over the next day and have a look. It's a fairly new Ruger American Predator series chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor. Has an upper level chinese scope and a bi-pod all in a decent scabbard. Stock is broken but just at the shoulder all there rest is fine. I say "Cool find dude. Finder keepers." He says "Oh I quit hunting a long time ago you take it." (he didn't have to ask me twice!) Had the local cops run a search for stolen or lost and no one had turned it in so they say it's mine now. Just needs a new stock. I start looking for a used one or replacement and have a hard time because its a fairly new model and specific stock for the barrel. Finally give up and call Ruger about it. They ask why I want a new stock. I tell them it got ran over (didn't tell them it was by a large piece of construction equipment) they say "we will have one out to you in 6 to 8 working days for free." Mic drop..... No way. free I say? She says yep, have a great weekend and good hunting. You better believe I will lady! Happy day indeed. I looked up the equipment and there's between $700 and $900 right there depending on actual prices vs list. Way cool. Has a little rust on the barrel as it had been laying out there who knows how long but I did the barrel re-black kit thing and it cleaned up pretty good. Somehow the scope is totally fine even being nearly squished and laying around getting wet, all the rest is in great shape. Supposed to be real nice shooters.

We do things all the time that shouldn’t be able to be done... the trick is being able to see what the vinyl wants to do and being able to persuade it to do otherwise...then accepting the comprise (the guys I work with for installs have done this much longer than I and I just recently introduced them to wet applications...they didn’t know about it and rarely needed it. It amazes me the things 20 years of experience does to people)

with the trouble that it took conforming 751 I am sure I would never had gotten a decent application with anything less - it has to give in too many ways and calandared vinyl just wont do that being thicker and in the vary nature of how it is made will cause trouble not long down the road. the c&d was from somewhere else.

2 things - one someone with experience doing it gave a tip but we all have to learn somehow - first time I tried this on my 2003 ram I found that there was a slight compound curve that I really hadn't noticed - the bed actually narrowed slightly behind the wheel besides the curves going up and down. first one took 3 tries wet and with heat as part of the learning curve. add that to I bought the 751 so it would contour and whimpered at each one thrown away. getting that first one straight was easier than getting to to lay right - then try to match the other side. it wasn't as easy as the video made it look. maybe your truck won't have that much of a compound curve but I have seen lots of do it yourselfers that have exactly what Mr. Joel described. but again we all have to learn by doing . . . and paying for our mistakes. That and when I posted the pics that was the first cease letter I ever got Turns out Chrysler owns the copyright/trademark to Hemi and the Rams head even though other manufacturers have made hemi's and the tribal rams head was never used by them . .. . MIL was a state attorney at the time and said I might win but it would cost me more than my house x2 to find out. I decided to find something new

If you go 751, don’t just heat that bottom crease in... you have pop it up and work it in. I do a lot of fleet work and quite a few stripes too... every time we get a truck in with a groove that deep that was just bridges and heated in, its popped up and cracked.

Knifeless tape would be an option as well. Although I believe it is intended more for wrap vinyl, it should work with cast vinyl.

I actually only do chrome and Reflectives in my little niche so I’m a blade eating machine!!!