Comanche County Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 Love watching Ben work! I get smarter every time! :bowdown: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted August 3, 2013 Author Share Posted August 3, 2013 Thanks Jay! :cheers: I had a little bit of time to fill today. Got the doors, cowl, a-pillars, and tons of over spray on an already terrible windshield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted August 10, 2013 Author Share Posted August 10, 2013 Another day of a few hours to fill... that means more paint! Hood, fenders, cowl, other such front end parts... that sort of stuff. In remembrance of its past self, I managed to get a couple of the saw tooth stripes off without totally destroying them. They need a little smoothing out, but it's nice to have another Jeep oriented decoration on my tool box. :D Next will be to get the front sheet metal hung on the truck. Then I've got a good axle out of a '98 XJ that needs to go in. While that's out, I've got a RMS to go in along with a new oil pan gasket waiting to go. Brake lines to the rear... rear brakes... front brakes... metal work on the bed... paint the bed... and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted September 21, 2013 Author Share Posted September 21, 2013 I bet you forgot about this one! Well... I know I have been lately. :roll: Been really busy trying to do some last minute house work before the winter when I need to get this done before winter also. Local place had an awesome deal on some tires this week so I had to partake. Picked up some Cooper Discover HTs in a 235 variety on some steelies. Need to work on some garage stuff so they're staying in the ZJ for now. I'll take a picture later on... probably. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted September 21, 2013 Author Share Posted September 21, 2013 From earlier... I hit them with some graphite color paint and I think they look good. Oddly enough, I've wanted to have a truck with these wheels on it for some time now! :rock on: I think they'll fit in with the dorky simple feel of the truck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted September 28, 2013 Author Share Posted September 28, 2013 Another day of work on the hybrid mutt! The front end finally got hung. Took some real patience to get everything all lined up well enough. Even after a few hours of trying to get body lines close, the hood is still a little sticky and there's more of a gap on the left side than there is the right. Oh well... I know that this truck has been hit. The left bumper mount is a little wrinkled but I went in to put the air box in and it hits the radiator. Had to put some spacers (washers) behind the four studs along the top of the header panel to get a decent front gap too. The frame is square, but I wish I would've taken a closer look at things before I put it all together. Anyhow... here's some fun pictures: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xjrev10 Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 Gorgeous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted September 29, 2013 Author Share Posted September 29, 2013 Gorgeous Now that it's coming together, I think I'm finally taking more of a liking to the color. It's still a rattle can paint job, and not all that outstanding of one at that. Lots of smoke and mirrors when it comes to taking a picture of this thing... especially from 20' away! :yes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComancheKid45 Posted September 29, 2013 Share Posted September 29, 2013 Theres nothing wrong with the 20 footer paint jobs ;)....lol I think it looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted October 12, 2013 Author Share Posted October 12, 2013 Hoping to have a big weekend on this. I spent today (with only one trip into town) swapping the front axle, dropping the oil pan, changing out the rear main, and installed some new motor mounts to replace the old two piece units. Had a nice surprise finding the crank bearing looking fantastic. I was told that the XJ it came out of had 220k on it. I'm not so sure about that! Axle came from a '99 XJ. Came with the coils so I decided to use them. Ordered some shocks from RockAuto also. Never ordered anything form them before but I just might do so more in the future. Seems like anytime I need something, I need it yesterday. We'll give it a try anyhow. Until tomorrow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted October 13, 2013 Author Share Posted October 13, 2013 Another day... ... another one tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted October 13, 2013 Author Share Posted October 13, 2013 Little more done this morning but still more to go this afternoon. I got tired of seeing half a face on this thing so today started with hanging the grill and trim. When it came to the bumper, it got the same graphite paint. Mounting, on the other hand, was another problem. The twisted frame rail really put a bind on getting the bumper on straight. Spacers... long, mismatched hardware... twisting... a fair amount of foul language... Never taking this off ever again as long as I own it. Getting the front all put together made me notice that it sits crooked. Hmm... figure that out later. Next on the list was to make it a truck again. As much as I'd love to be able to say... ... "Yup! Looks good!", I really should do something with the impromptu shed in the yard. Then there was a new problem. Ever try and put a pickup bed on by yourself? Super sketchy. Don't remember the rear sitting so high either. :hmm: Might loosen the spring hardware and see if the bushings are holding things up being that they were tightened down without the weight of the box on it. Those front springs really bug me. It is nice seeing a mostly empty corner of the yard though. Probably more later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted October 14, 2013 Author Share Posted October 14, 2013 I was looking at that crooked front end all day and I'm not so sure what to do about it. I measured from the center of the hub to the bottom of the fender flare and on the left front I have 16.5" and 17.25" on the right. The rear sits at 20.5" on the left and 20.75" on the right which is another head scratcher for me. There's no way the rear of the old chassis sat that high. I compared it to mu Eliminator and it only has a couple inches over it. I went through and loosened all the hardware expecting it to settle a little... nothing. Maybe just let it sit for a few days and remeasure things hoping it'll come down some. As for the front, here I thought I was doing the truck a favor by going with the coils from the '99 XJ. The only other coils I have are the mystery coils that came with the truck, a set of 2wd 6 cylinder coils, and some well used and probably saggy 4.5" coils. Maybe try the putting the mystery coils back in and see where things are at. Here's what I have left before it goes back into its daily duty: Swap coils Bleed the brakes... again Figure out why I have no high beams Finish the harness to the taillights Align the brake light switch as the rear stay on unless you pull up on the pedal Top off the tranny Minor metal work on the bed Paint the bed... which may or may not happen before it gets too cold to paint Bedliner... really? Who am I kidding... that's not happening this year Fix the hole in the dash to the light switch can mount in properly Misc. interior finishing/cleaning Build a rear bumper Hang an exhaust Install shocks when they come in Throw some cheapo mirrors on the doors Get a new windshield I'm sure more will pop up as that's my luck with things like this. I didn't get as far as I was hoping this weekend... but that's typical also. Came a long way though as far as little stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComancheKid45 Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 Lookin good, Anxious to see the whole thing painted up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted October 14, 2013 Author Share Posted October 14, 2013 We'll see about that. Cold snap in the north country this week putting us no higher than 50* or so. Might be rockin' a green truck with a gray bed for the winter. :ack: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted October 17, 2013 Author Share Posted October 17, 2013 Funny how some things just work out right. This is a very rare occurrence for me and it always works out that things go just right are the things that really don't make a huge difference other than maybe saving me a few minutes worth of work. Well, this evening I wanted to get the exhaust done under the truck and I lucked out a little. It started with stopping in at the local muffler shop asking for a stick of 2" pipe along with putting three bends in one end so I had something to work with. Just so happened that two of those random bends were put in just the right spot to get between the trans and the bell housing. Back it all up with a Cherry Bomb Turbo muffler and she sings like a sewing machine! I also ran the rest of the harness to the rear, aligned the brake light switch, and swapped the coils back to the mystery coils that came with the chassis. Sits a little better, but the rear is still a bit high. It'll come down some with a bumper... probably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xjrev10 Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 You have knocked this out of the park! Awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 Very nice. I don't suppose you plan on keeping that windshield? :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted October 18, 2013 Author Share Posted October 18, 2013 Very nice. I don't suppose you plan on keeping that windshield? :D Ah... no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted October 19, 2013 Author Share Posted October 19, 2013 Really pushing to get this done enough to drive this winter. Yesterday and this morning were a couple more days that things were accomplished, but mostly was just a fight the whole way. For whatever reason, this little truck has been putting up a fuss the past week of working on it. Probably due to the fact of putting things off and finding other things that need to be worked on instead of finishing this thing weeks ago. So it goes... Here's a recap of where I'm at: Swap coils Bleed the brakes... again Figure out why I have no high beams Finish the harness to the taillights Align the brake light switch as the rear stay on unless you pull up on the pedal Top off the tranny Minor metal work on the bed Paint the bed... which may or may not happen before it gets too cold to paint Bedliner... really? Who am I kidding... that's not happening this year Fix the hole in the dash to the light switch can mount in properly Misc. interior finishing/cleaning Build a rear bumper Hang an exhaust Install shocks when they come in Throw some cheapo mirrors on the doors Get a new windshield I wanted something more relaxing in terms of ease of working on today so I decided to tackle the one thing left that I had total control over how well it goes... a bumper. I think it's no secret around here that I love building just about anything with a torch and a welder. Metal work is very relaxing to me because it's more like an art project as opposed to mechanics. I started with taking a set of my typical bumper brackets off the shelf and just went from there. Obligatory close up of a weld: Went with the same graphite color again. Not totally sure I'm 100% crazy about it. If I were to do it again, I think I would've staggered the tubes so they weren't one on top of the other. Then there's the whole "if I were to do it again". Maybe next time. On a side note, I was moving the truck into the garage and Robyn was standing in the doorway. She made mention of how the exhaust sounds a little weird. I agreed... I think it sounds almost agricultural. Neat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earl*t Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Agricultural... :hmm: Is that "tractor-like"? :dunno: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted October 19, 2013 Author Share Posted October 19, 2013 Agricultural... :hmm: Is that "tractor-like"? :dunno: Yeah! "Tractor-like". :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComancheKid45 Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 The 4.0s seem to put off a tractorish sound with certain exhaust setups ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 The 4.0s seem to put off a tractorish sound with certain exhaust setups ;) It's really odd how different you can make a 4.0 sound with exhaust. So much better than the typical piped trucks we see down here. I've never heard a 4.0 that sounds anything like mine and I have a (theoretically) stock exhaust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted October 20, 2013 Author Share Posted October 20, 2013 Took it down the road today... and drove it back too! Everything seems to work fine minus the speedometer. Always something... this thing just wants to fight all the way to the end it seems. :fs2: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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