What Did You Do To Your Jeep Today?

Got everything prepped and ready, had to cut a larger hole to fit the actual metal to install the light.



So Much rust,

 

That is a dang good idea! A square body taillight on a CJ!

 

Used to see that a lot back in the day. Those, and Mustang taillights....

 

I put these on in 80, or 81. Back then I just cut the hole, put one piece on each side of the opening and screwed it together. A company named Enterprise Inc made a fiberglass formed overlay, but I couldn't afford it at the time. Later when I could, they were out of business. Finally when I scrapped the 90 Suburban I cut the tail lights out, .... Now I'm getting them installed.

I considered going back to original tail lights, but when I talked about it at the dinner table, the rest of the family said they are so used to seeing the Jeep with those tail lights they couldn't imagine it any other way, ...... so ..........

 

I'd think your ability to be seen from the side is vastly improved over stock lights.

 

Fixed

base is now 1/4 in thick instead of 3/16 thick

 

I tested out new tires in time for CO trip. 33x10.5r15 General Grabber x3. They are only a touch louder than prior Big O ATs 31's.

 

That's going to a fun trip!!!!!

 

poor duck

 

I saw that

 

That very duck has been hangin from from one of my jeep's bumpers since 1989. The short story is that the ground squirrel finally desiccated after a month and a half after a Jeep trip and the girls made us switch it out for a rubber duck

 

Well,

I started out to make a lower bracket for the new steering column at the floorboard. Turned on the power to the welder. Turned on the gas... hmmm. Dumaass forgot to shut off the valve last time and no shielding gas.

Tried to make some welds on galv pipe that I sanded down and then used stainless 1/4 nuts to make a bracket... SUCK. Nothing stuck, welds kept cracking and breaking. Weee Haaahhh. I had a big-A fan running behind me to move out the fumes. I'm sure stainless and the green fairy smoke makes for good times breathing if it's under yer hood...

Drank a beer. Considered a second. Abstained. Still running an angle grinder, want all my personal parts and digits working when I'm done...

Upped the voltage, slowed the speed. Burned the metal. Got it to stick, a little. Mostly tack welds. Nothing I'd write home about (thus why I'm writing it here). Little use though, bolts not long enough to reach through... Shazam. Foiled again. Broke the welds by torquing on the nuts to try and close the gap.

Tomorrow morning: get gas. Wait. Take care of business after coffee. Then trip over to AirGas for new shielding gas. Then over to make a donation at the cancer center store (bags of clothes and small home-items). Then back home. Then off to work at some point. Sigh. Jeep will have to wait.

Will re-engineer my bubba-glory-fabrication a little before I get the metal melter back out.

Oh, and stop somewhere and get more 1/4x20 bolts, need at least 1.25" to make my magical fabrication work.

 

Same 'Ol story , Dane. BTDT. We have learned that we need the right tools & equipment.......but we still forge ahead into frustration ? Thanks for posting , Brother . It is look'n good, that's a nice column you've got there.

 

Well, I'm not real proud of this one and I hate the fact that I had to do it, but I built myself a (hopefully) temporary step so I can get in the CJ. Between my left knee and right hip both giving me trouble, getting in and out of it has become very difficult...at least I can get in easier now, and didn't lose ground clearance.

 

Weld the links together if needed .

 

So we will see you Monday?

 

I have to sell truck parts Monday
I'm getting a steroid injection Tuesday, if it works enough for me to drive the Jeep, ll be there Friday for Grizzly Lake!

 

New shoes on my son's Wagoneer, he's joining the group headed up Mt Antero tomorrow. Need good brakes!

 

' Rosie's' been working very hard & successfully lately...... So she got a new Decal.

 

I put new shackle and spring eye bushings in the rear of the '71 today. I put new OEM style rubber bushings in the rear spring hangers before CO 2 years ago, I think. Don't think it was before last years' trip. In any case, they are shot already. Some hard miles but they should have lasted longer than this. The right rear at the spring hanger was really spent. So, I went back to poly bushings. I ordered Energy Suspensions bushings from Summit.

The spring eye bushings were old poly bushings that had been in there for a LONG time. Figured I replace them while I was at it. They came out with ease but, the rather recently installed rubber bushings were the typical PIA that they are. Easiest way I found to get the out is with a 3/4" hole saw with no pilot bit installed. It will drill right through the rubber with ease at low speed and fits in between the inner bolt sleeve and outer spring hanger sleeve.

I also made a simple tool to help with pushing the bushing in and out.

The outer sleeve of the OEM style rubber bushing is the now the only real PIA. I used my air hacksaw to slice most of the way through it and then finished up with a blade from that air saw clamped in a needle nose vise grip. If you do it right, you saw almost entirely through the sleeve without getting into the spring hanger. Then you can get the sleeve to collapse away from the hanger and drive it out.

New bushings. 6 in a pack. Enough to do all the bushings at either end of the JEEP. I have not done the front end of the rear springs yet. I might do it. I might not. Honestly, those old poly bushing I removed from the rear of the springs didn't look horrible. I'll probably go after the other 2 rear spring bushings because it seems like the right thing to do.

I had to trim the new sleeves down a bit. My shackles are smashed shut a little at the top where they mount to the spring hanger. Apply the supplied grease to the outside of the bushing and push it into place. Then, I applied some of the grease to the inner rim of the bushing and the outside of the sleeve and pushed the sleeve into the bushing using a C clamp to help push it in.

I decided to replace the bolts as well. I had to trim the grade 8 fine thread bolts to length. Then I applied anti seize to the shoulder area of all the bolts and installed them using the old washers with new nuts. I'll probably switch them to nylock nuts as soon as I get some.

More repairs needed include fixing or replacing the wiper motor, fixing my homemade front fender bracket and ditching the front locking hubs for a set of spring loaded AVM hubs that were given to me. Hoping this will help with locking and unlocking the hubs as I have trouble with the old Selectro style since installing the Powr-Lok.