Automan2164

Finally got a break in the weather today and finished up the detail blasting. All that was left was more or less some thick stuff here and there, and the real stubborn stuff. Boss gave me the idea to heat it with a torch and then hit it. Worked like a charm. Little blaster I borrowed from work. Actually worked great for touchups. I'd have been there for ages had I tried using that to do the whole thing though. Hopefully, I can start the POR15 process this weekend. I can't wait to start laying down some paint... Rob :cheers:

I've used those tie rod hooks before... Work like a charm. Harbor Freight even has some now: http://www.harborfreight.com/5-piece-tie-rod-pitman-arm-adjustment-set-66796.html Rob

In 'bama!? Rob

I voted. Rob

Got the sand blaster from work today. Holy blessed mother of sand. It has been awhile since I actually went that hot and heavy into sandblasting... Wow. I got everything out and setup, and loaded it down. Rolled the truck out to the end of the driveway and went to town. Took me about an hour and a half to burn through 100 lbs of sand and a ceramic tip, but I like the progress I made. I was getting way too close to blowing out the ceramic, so I had to call it a night, but I picked up another 100 lbs of sand and will pick up another nozzle tomorrow. I should be able to finish up what I cut short tonight tomorrow. Until then, I have to get the 25 lbs of sand off in the shower. Yowza. My boss broke down because he was bored this Saturday and had the house to himself, so he said he pretty much got the fenders, header panel, and tailgate ready for paint. He was about to move the bed in and start on that. It sucks that he's doing all that prep without me, but it's good to know it's going good. I will have plenty of time to learn when it comes to the cab and the rest of it. Rob :cheers:

I hadn't planned on doing anything over it. Er, put much thought into it. From what I have read, the POR15 is super durable, but just not UV resistant and might chalk a little. Rob

Over it. Probably have 4-5 hours worth of detail work to get it to where I want it with the air grinder and flap discs. It's not the open stuff that's troubling me, just the pesky stuff in the corners I have to really get creative with. I'll see about bringing the small sandblaster home from work tomorrow and see what that does. I'm already not going to make my weekend goal. Rob

Been out spending waaaaayy too much time getting the areas missed that I shouldn't have to. So irritated. Deep breaths. Deep soothing breaths. I wanted to be able to have the Marine Clean on and hosed off, as well as the Metal prep on today to keep on schedule... Not looking like it. Sort of mad at the situation... broken belt at the blasters, no way to pick it up if I were to leave it, and an incomplete job. It doesn't help to think that it's going to start getting dark around 4 PM now, leaving weekdays pretty much shot. Sorry, just have to vent. Rob

I'll add something to what has been said already... The five or so nuts/studs on the firewall - Don't get down if you can't stop the stud from spinning. If you just end up turning the whole assembly, it's fine. The stud isn't molded in, it threads in. If you spin the nut/stud as a unit, it will just be unscrewing the box on the other side. Then, after you remove the box, you will be able to grab the stud from the interior and get the nut off. Rob

Well, he assumes that when we get it all mixed we will end up with over a gallon of prepped paint... We are buying a whole gallon, but he was trying to guesstimate how much we might actually use. Rob

Ugh. Bought the stuff to clean up the frame where need be today at harbor. Picked up some flap wheels, rollock discs, foam brushes for the POR15, paint cups, moving blankets for moving the painted parts around, tarps to protect the garage floor... etc. I got the flap wheel mounted up and started going to town. It does a great job and makes really short work of the missed spots, but it was just on the edge of dark, my garage lighting sucks... And everywhere I went on the creeper, I managed to get caught up on the cord for the grinder, or the drop light... Anger ensued. I needed to walk away. I will continue tomorrow. Rob

Had to get a picture of the garage in there before I destroy it in the madness. Last time it will look like this for awhile! Rob

Today was the day. Got off a half day, rallied the troops, and headed out. While I was on my way home, I got a call from the metal prep place. He started by telling me that there was a problem. Yikes. The belt that fed the media back into the machine had broken, and he had to stop working. Thinking of the worst and the truck not being finished, I was a bit concerned. Then he laid the good part on me. He basically had the truck done, but was trying to detail the extra rough spots to ace it out. He told me that he was going to get the belt replaced and would get all the spots again Monday for no charge, but I was already cocked with all the borrowed truck and trailer. He said he understood, added that he may just be being picky, and told me to come and check it out. We got there to a pleasant sight. It turned out great. Other than a few spots here and there that he couldn't detail with the machine going down, it's all clean, rust free, grey metal. He did make a comment about some of the splotchyness of the frame, and how you can notice some shiny spots that seem to have a different shade. He said that it was most likely a galvanizing coating they probably dipped the frame into when it was made, and that he wished he had found more of it on the frames he does. It sounded like they seem to fair a bit better over the ones without. All the glass is perfect, even the windshield as they did a good job getting everything covered up. He was super concerned with me being happy about the job, and said I leave it or bring it back and he would spend however much longer it took to get it perfect at no charge. I kept telling him it was ok, and that I really liked the job but he insisted that if I should need any more blasting or something powdercoated, that I just bring it by and they would knock it out at no charge. All that on top of knocking $75 off the job... They are just some super nice guys that are determined to make sure you're happy. I would recommend them to anyone. I also managed to drop off all the body panels at my boss's place, and have him give me a quick run down. He's made some calls and thinks we could get the whole truck done with 2 quarts of paint. He wants to get everything sanded down to a good base, apply a sealer to keep the old paint underneath, some primer, then some base, finished off with a nice clear. A friend of his has a booth at his company's shop, and he plans on painting it there in pieces. Once all is said and done, he's going to show me the art of the cut and buff to get the paint to perfection. He seems pretty pumped to be tinkering with some paint again, I can't wait to learn it myself, and start spraying. To Harbor Freight for POR15 painting supplies! Rob . :MJ 2: .

Old S-10's are a close enough fit for tonneau covers... Just make sure you measure everything before you plunk down the cash. Rob

You have the Meyer plow too, which is the factory approved plow, and IIRC, just happens to match the plow rating number exactly in the owners manual. Pound for pound. Rob

Well! Been super busy with getting my ducks in a row, cleaning the garage up for the arrival of a very stripped MJ, and getting all the parts together to take to my boss's house so he can teach me the finer arts of bodywork and paint. Last Friday was the day to take it to the blasters, so I called on a friend and a trailer. He showed up willing to work, and we got to it. First time it's seen the street in a long time! My buddy Steve and I stopping for a breather. (I'm on the right, winter beard time) It was about an hour drive through back country roads and little towns. It was going ok, when it dawned on me that we were going to pass a fellow 'Jeep Aficionado's' homestead. I like to tell people he's what I would be with land. He's got acreage, and it's nothing but Jeeps rusting away in the trees, waiting for their turn... Pickups, Wagoneers, CJ's, XJ's, Wranglers... And one MJ. I stopped by his house cold one day and we talked for hours. great guy. Anyway, I digress. As we were about to pass his place, I told my buddy about him, and to look as we pass. We were almost past his property when I saw him out raking. He looked up, stopped dead, and stared at the whole shebang rolling by at 60, as if he were trying to paint a picture of it from memory. I got a laugh, and about 2 minutes later I got a call... 'A truck that looks like yours just passed by my house behind a truck and trailer I don't know. Did someone steal your truck?' After a good chuckle, I told him what was going on. I also made it a point to demonstrate how nuts we Jeep guys are to my buddy... We were in the next county down some random back road and there was a Jeeper that knew who I was, that I was into MJ's, had my number, and most importantly, could tell what my truck looked like stripped down to the shell without any other clues like a familiar tow vehicle or trailer. You never know who might be watching... Hahahahahaha. My procrastination almost ruined the whole thing though, as I forgot to check when the blasters closed. I quick got on my phone and checked, in time to realize that we were on track to show up in a half hour, after they close. A quick call to them confirmed this. I asked if they might be willing to stay late, and they couldn't, because they had to pick up their kids. He told me Monday would be better, and to make plans for that. After telling him that we were already over halfway there with the truck in tow, he was gracious enough to shuffle things around. You would think that they would be kind of mad about my poor timing when I got there... NOPE! The two brothers that run the metal prep place were just as excited as I was to see it! And there it goes. I left it to them with my instructions, they seemed really excited about it, and told me to pick it up in a week. They quoted me 3 hours at $125 an hour, but pretty much figured they would have it done in 2. We will find out tomorrow. This also brings me to the current task at hand. Color. I've known I wanted to redo a white for awhile now, but bring it into the current century. The original "Olympic White" is more of an off white, and had more of a yellow hue to it. Almost cream. My boss is a self taught body guy who is going to help me paint the truck, and we started flipping through his stacks of paint chip books. I wanted to keep the color in the Jeep family, found a few nice whites from '96 but couldn't trust a small square on a page. I started google-ing the paint code for those years, when my boss pretty much asked what colors are available now, and that's when it hit me. I could just go down to the dealer and see what the current white looked like in person, and get the code right off the vehicle in front of me. Bam! I think I found the bright, crisp, into the 2000's white I was looking for. Let me introduce you to PW7 'Bright White'. Bright white on the close one, other is a pearl. And that's all I have for now! Picking up the truck to bring home tomorrow, and dropping off the doors, fenders, bed, gate, front clip, and flares at my boss's house after that! Ball is a rolling now! Rob . :MJ 2: .

Sorry for the delay here guys. I know how you get twitchy when you don't get your MJOTM on time... Turns out this one was running on a rain delay on account of Sandy. This month's honoree filled in the blanks via cell phone, proving you can't keep a good member off the site. Enjoy. :cheers: DIRTEATR717's 1989 Comanche Pioneer MODEL AND YEAR: 89 Pioneer ENGINE & PERFORMANCE: 4.0 all stock, K&N air filter DRIVETRAIN: Ax-15, 231, stock Dana 30 Factory Dana 44 with larger tow package brakes and LSD COOLING: Original closed setup, new 3 core radiator ELECTRICAL & IGNITION: Just have a 10 blade electrical fan and lots of old wires that go no where! STEERING: stock and original except tie rod ends! SUSPENSION: lifted 6.5 but probably sagged to 5.5ish has what I think are rustys 4.5" lift coils then added a 2" puck and did a SOA in the rear, rustys HD trakbar and bracket, Clayton longarms, 12" travel whitebody no name shocks. INTERIOR: Mostly original darker blue, cutout bench seat, hockeystick arm rests! Idiot light gauge cluster. Added a Uniden 520 xl CB radio and a Sony xplod deck. Also made the same cupholder as the one in the DIY section, It's VERY useful! BRAKES: All stock and works okay, I'm using YJ brakelines up front and Dakota rear LIGHTING: Autopal headlight housings and the DDM 5K raptor HID kit, LOVE IT. Also have two 6" round KCs up front with plastic amber covers which are also awesome! WHEELS/TIRES: 33" Good year MT/Rs with Kevlar on soft 8s MISCELLANEOUS: XJ soundbar behind the benchseat, Euramatec B pillar lights with Blue LEDs. 97+ XJ mirrors, removable doors and made a set of YJ soft half doors fit. Custom front stubby bumper with stinger, OR-Fab XJ tube bumper in the rear. New floor pans! Best MJ story I drive it everyday and have wayyy too many stories to tell, I have some of the same stories as some of the guys on here like how many people stop us to say they love our trucks and that they should've never stopped making them, the looks on people's faces when you tell them you drive a Jeep pickup and the classic "nice Cherokee dude, how did you make the bed part? " My Dad bought my truck in September of 90' and I was brought home from the hospital in it as an infant in 92'. I have the original window sticker and all the paperwork too ;) Not many people can say they grew up their entire life riding in their current vehicle. I would never sell it for any amount of money. What owner loves best about CC I love everything about CC , the ability to share your obsession and one of a kind bond with a rare truck with plenty of like minded gentleman who are willing to lend a hand/advice whenever you may need. Also being able to see all the ideas/modifications people share for our little niche is just incredible. One day I hope to meet a few of you guys! Just wanted to say I'm honored to be picked for Manche of the month! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bravo sir. Bravo. Not many can say that they were taken home from the hospital in their MJ, and still have it. Keeping it in the family for sure. Your 14 page build thread started from the ground up. It was almost like watching you and the MJ grow. First you started small with just the BB, adding upgrades and tweaks throughout, finally bringing us to the current day. You post very detailed information, complete with pics, explanations, and insight. Because of this, you are one of the members worthy of the spotlight. You are a great example of what can be done on a basic budget, an inspiration to current and new members. Enjoy the spotlight. :cheers: Rob Click here to view the article

I would hold out for a factory rollbar. While they don't come around often, they aren't as unobtainium as some think. Usually can find one for about $100 when they surface. Rob

Yeah that. Rob

It helps having Brent pushing the way with his super nice MJ... Now they can't get enough of them. Rob

Only way to correct that problem is to make the truck better with it. Get high quality bushings and ends, and rebuild the whole front end. Rob

Hit reply to this topic, or the quick reply box at the bottom. Rob

Don't you have some FSJ's that are hanging around? Rob

I'm still on board. While I am not the biggest fan of him, Romney scares the $#!& out of me. If he wouldn't change his stories so much I might be on the red boat, but Obama has my vote for this one. Who knows what Jeep may have been without the government backed bailout. They've paid it back now, and are making some good cars again. Locally by me, they build the Dart/Compass/Caliber/Patriot. Before, the lot was pretty empty, now, the place is a metropolis of action. Good to see them get back on their feet once again. Rob