eaglescout526 Posted June 13, 2020 Author Share Posted June 13, 2020 23 minutes ago, SoCalManche said: You finally snagged those Huggies I see! Lol. I wanted to take chunk but ended up taking my girls moms RAV4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastChief Posted June 14, 2020 Share Posted June 14, 2020 🙌🏼 Sooo awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted June 14, 2020 Share Posted June 14, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted June 26, 2020 Author Share Posted June 26, 2020 Don't ya hate it when your fixing something and you end up breaking/damaging something in the process? Yeah I messed up the wire for my NOS turn signal/CC stalk(crunched while tightening the column holding nuts), so now I have a new one on the way along with what will hopefully be the right switch for the key in/w door open switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted June 27, 2020 Author Share Posted June 27, 2020 Old FEY bumper is finally broken down into many pieces for use. Goal is to use most of it to help armor up the OEM bumper Also got the mounting brackets made up for better support. Now to weld them in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted July 5, 2020 Author Share Posted July 5, 2020 So its been a week, with retuning to work sooner than I expected, doing anything to this bumper will be slow now. I spent the past few days removing surface rust anywhere I could get a flap disc, cut off wheel, wire brush and sanding wheel to remove the rust. Most of it is gone with the exception of a couple areas. I did manage to get the bracket plates welded to the factory ones for better support. First weld was not bad but not good but its together. The second one after showing my father tells me to turn up the wire speed on the welder and I got better results that time. All in all its coming along. Right where the support goes I left some vinegar in there and was able to get all the rust inside removed. Now to beef it up and make it better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted July 20, 2020 Author Share Posted July 20, 2020 Well I have the main center support bracket for the bumper made but progress has stalled since the air compressor blew its head gasket so I can't do much more at the moment in terms of building the rest of the support. In the mean time I got the ZJ gear box rebuilt so I will be upgrading that this weekend. Woot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted July 25, 2020 Author Share Posted July 25, 2020 Let the gear box swap begin. Once thats done, I hope to get over to the T-bird and see if she will fire off with new plug wires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted July 25, 2020 Share Posted July 25, 2020 looking forward to the opinions on the ZJ box! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted July 25, 2020 Author Share Posted July 25, 2020 When all you want to do is have better steering but nothing is going your way is a metric ton of fun!! First, no air compressor, it blew its head gasket. Barrowed my neighbors compressor to use the impact gun to break the nut loose on the pitman arm, done. Go to O'reilly, rent a busted tool that you had no idea was bent up from the last person until you try to remove the arm, done. Buy new puller and successfully removed arm. Now its time to eat while I have the oil draining from the gear box and pipe. On will go a NOS hose and obviously the rebuilt ZJ box. I have another hose I can put on but I don't think I have the right hose clamps. On the bright side, the notorious spacer isnt broke and neither is the frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted July 25, 2020 Author Share Posted July 25, 2020 Gear box is out, NOS PS line installed. Now to let all the components soak before reinstalling them, just to not infect a new gear box with old fluid residue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted July 26, 2020 Author Share Posted July 26, 2020 The ZJ gear box upgrade should be labeled as dangerous lol. I had a blast only turning half the wheel for a full turn. This is a fantastic upgrade! I spent about an hour driving around, getting the steering wheel as straight as I could get it and got comfortable with how she feels and got damn does it feel like I'm driving a new truck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 I'll add that to the to-do list Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 Been a few weeks so here’s an update and an opinion. Opinion: the ZJ box was a damn good upgrade. My thoughts after a couple weeks. I’ve noticed less groaning from the steering but occasionally I’ll get a load pop and steering will go wonky. Probably something needs to be adjusted somewhere, not sure where though as the steering will pop on fast turns from time to time so it’s not easy to catch. But once it does this it will return to normal after a bit of driving and turning. Update. It’s been way too damn hot to do anything. No T-bird, no bumper, no nothin. I did add that rear window louvre and by golly that was hell of an upgrade. Significantly helps with cooling of the cab in these rough temps. Also since it’s been so damn hot the glue is failing on the headliner now but I’ll fix that and add insulation to the roof one day maybe soon like winter. Anyways here’s a pic of the louvre at night: I’ll have to get a good day pic. Really weird to drive with a dark cab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiatslug87 Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 Which window louver is that? How's the visibility? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 7 minutes ago, fiatslug87 said: Which window louver is that? How's the visibility? The Astra-Hammond one with hinges, took about a month to get and my guess would be covid and it ships directly from supplier. Actually visibility at first is really weird but after a bit of driving with it on, you get used to it but it has good , not entirely obstructing, visibility. I would say you can see way more out of it than you can inside, like if your driving behind me, I can see you but I'm sure you couldn't see me sitting in the cab, I'll have to snap a pic of what I see in the seat in the rear view and turning my head. But overall well made plastic, helps keep the sun off your back and helps cool and protect the interior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 more pics are required Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted August 18, 2020 Author Share Posted August 18, 2020 In the light: Looking out the rear view: Turning your head as far as you can: And taking a glance out the rear: All in all its got good visibility, keeps the cab cooler and keeps the sun from burning your neck. Honestly this thing would fit hell of a lot better on an OEM window which I do not have sadly(silently looking). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted August 18, 2020 Share Posted August 18, 2020 Looks great! How does the louvered screen mount? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted August 18, 2020 Author Share Posted August 18, 2020 Just now, neohic said: How does the louvered screen mount? This is actually the only thing I do not like about it. You get four machined plates with thread sticking out and 3M adhesive tape on the other side of the plates. You stick the plates to the window(glass in my case because its not a factory window) and once theyre on there you thread on the plastic nuts you are given and its on there, it even survived some strong monsoon winds last night so a plus! I opted for the hinge package which you get two machined hinges that allow you to undo two nuts and just let it hinge down into the bed, but at that point you ought to just completely remove it if you go that route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89 MJ Posted August 18, 2020 Share Posted August 18, 2020 1 hour ago, eaglescout526 said: In the light: Looking out the rear view: Turning your head as far as you can: And taking a glance out the rear: All in all its got good visibility, keeps the cab cooler and keeps the sun from burning your neck. Honestly this thing would fit hell of a lot better on an OEM window which I do not have sadly(silently looking). I have an ORM solid rear window. A little hard to shop though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted August 18, 2020 Author Share Posted August 18, 2020 1 minute ago, 89 MJ said: I have an ORM solid rear window. A little hard to shop though. Thats ok, i shipped a rear glass piece up to Chunk and it got there safely with the 20lbs of bubble wrap. But I'm just lookin out for a slider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted September 2, 2020 Author Share Posted September 2, 2020 Über excited to throw the bumper on! Now a little story. Now I know I’ve kept everyone in the dark on this project and to be frank I’m not incredibly proud of what I did. I spent weeks trying to figure out how to do the center support bracket. After fabbing the center support and reinforcing the mounting points my father suggested to me not to do a bar in case if the bumper suffers from dings and stuff like that. Without the center bar you can easily knock out that stuff without trying to remove the bar and re-weld it back in. So that’s what I’ve went ahead and done. Now I probably don’t trust my weld job enough to slide a ball through the center hole for towing but if I ever had to it probably wouldn’t last long unless I put a bar in. But at that point I’d get a repro hutch bar from Krusty. So that’s the story on the bumper. It’s for looks with some functionality but not a lot. I’ll figure something out with the bumper metal I have and fab something in my free time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJCARENA Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 Is that a NOS bumper in the pic.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted September 2, 2020 Author Share Posted September 2, 2020 8 minutes ago, MJCARENA said: Is that a NOS bumper in the pic.? Looks that good don't it? I had the one I got from a junkyard powder coated. Really well done job I do say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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