coheed Posted October 13, 2024 Author Share Posted October 13, 2024 On 10/10/2024 at 9:42 PM, eaglescout526 said: Oh yeah, love the original brush guard look. I understand this one. Course its easier to lower the crossmember and trans to get at the bleeder if you can't get to it installed. Well, I think it was the same person who wired the blower motor to a house light switch so I usually don't give em too much grace lol On 10/11/2024 at 11:17 AM, JZLAJeep said: Call me weird, but I like the factory front bumper better than aftermarket bumpers too. I love the way the ARB looks, but I don't want to pay ARB prices and the used ones disappear real quick. Aside from that I think the factory is the best looking bumper. Well, I guess I spoke too soon and put my foot in my mouth. All that heinous seam sealer was hiding rot. Went searching for firewall patch stuff to see how others did it and stumbled on this thread from earlier in the year. This made me want to remove every bit of seam sealer and check every crevice for rust. I really only want to do this once. Good thing I did. There's rot up to the cowl on the drivers and rust is starting on the passengers. I poked a bore scope into the cowl and looks like there's no rust up there so I'll spray a good bit of the Eastwood internal stuff into the cowl and it should prevent it in the future. In addition, there's a rust hole underneath the heater core inlet, a hole in the bottom corner of the pass firewall and a big patch of rot under the fuse block bulkhead. The firewall also has a sizeable crack next to the clutch master mount holes. Not sure if I want to just weld over that or patch it. I think I may just weld it since I'll be going auto with the 3.4 swap. Would really like to have a nice discussion with the person responsible for deciding this truck need this much seam sealer. I did manage to get both braces off the drivers side and the inside of the frame looks great. Yay for small victories. Using the Blair spot weld cutter and these things like to skip around a lot. I was wedging the cold chisel in between panels and when the cutter got deep enough it usually gives a little pop. Unfortunately, I didn't realize I only had one of the cutter bits. It got me through the drivers side braces, the small one on the pass, and about half the big pass brace before losing all the teeth. So, here's where we wait for a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted October 13, 2024 Share Posted October 13, 2024 4 minutes ago, coheed said: house light switch Wait. What? Lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted October 13, 2024 Author Share Posted October 13, 2024 3 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said: Wait. What? Lol. Yeah, when I first got the truck the blower was wired to a house switch. At least they also put it in a box lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted October 13, 2024 Share Posted October 13, 2024 Just now, coheed said: Yeah, when I first got the truck the blower was wired to a house switch. At least they also put it in a box lol Hahaha theres clearly a point when home depot is your automotive parts department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted October 13, 2024 Author Share Posted October 13, 2024 Just now, eaglescout526 said: Hahaha theres clearly a point when home depot is your automotive parts department. From what I know this truck used to be an estimator truck for a roofing company. So I'm not all that surprised lol The patch over the slave cylinder access hole was glued in place with dicor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted October 13, 2024 Share Posted October 13, 2024 1 minute ago, coheed said: The patch over the slave cylinder access hole was glued in place with dicor. This one baffles me. youd have to drive the truck around with no carpet or a hole in that spot with a trap door to keep the heat and road noise out. Plus taking out the seats and interior when it only takes 15 min to lower a crossmember haha. Should be an easy patch though. Dont forget to grab your neighbors broken washer or dryer for cheap floor panels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle_SX4 Posted October 13, 2024 Share Posted October 13, 2024 You 8 minutes ago, coheed said: Using the Blair spot weld cutter and these things like to skip around a lot. I was wedging the cold chisel in between panels and when the cutter got deep enough it usually gives a little pop Seems like it is common for those spot weld cutters to loose teeth. Harbor freight sells spot weld cutters. They have worked well for me. https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-double-sided-rotary-spot-weld-cutter-63657.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted October 14, 2024 Author Share Posted October 14, 2024 16 hours ago, eaglescout526 said: This one baffles me. youd have to drive the truck around with no carpet or a hole in that spot with a trap door to keep the heat and road noise out. Plus taking out the seats and interior when it only takes 15 min to lower a crossmember haha. Should be an easy patch though. don't forget to grab your neighbors broken washer or dryer for cheap floor panels. Well it's been missing carpet since I've owned it. That's why I drive it more in the cooler months. Which admittedly is kinda lame since I live in the South. The firewall patches are gonna be interesting with all the complex curves on them. Luckily I actually cut that section of trans tunnel out of my grandad's truck before the rest went to scrap so I have an OE piece to through over that particular one. 16 hours ago, Eagle_SX4 said: You Seems like it is common for those spot weld cutters to loose teeth. Harbor freight sells spot weld cutters. They have worked well for me. https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-double-sided-rotary-spot-weld-cutter-63657.html Yeah, I've been cutting with them dry and that's probably not helping. I may get some cutting fluid from work and see if that helps. I got a pack of 3 of the blades on eBay for $12 with 2 day shipping so that should more than get me through this job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted October 26, 2024 Author Share Posted October 26, 2024 This week I spent my little spare time tearing down the steering columns I have to make one good one. Now I have a freshly cleaned and greased tilt steering column to go back in the truck. Also, removed the shift interlock so I don't have to worry about that. I'll also gain intermittent wipers with this swap. Last night I got the pass side 99% cut out. Will need to drop in the new pan and mark where to trim on the tunnel. Gonna devote all of tomorrow to that and getting the drivers side out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted April 6 Author Share Posted April 6 Man, time can really get away from you. Going on 6 months for a floor replacement.... I'll just let the pictures do the talking Still have the section of the tunnel right above the tcase on the drivers side to weld up then paint and put the interior back in. I also managed to score a nice set of XJ Icons so I can run a skinnier 32 at some point. Stock size tires are so tiny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted April 17 Author Share Posted April 17 Finished all the welds up. Used a compact needle scaler I bought from harbor freight and hopefully peened some stress out of the welds to avoid issues in the future since it was all gasless fluxcore and I know there's slag left in some of those welds lol. Thinned out a pint of POR15 and brushed it over all the seams. I know it seeped through the way I hoped it would because when I used the needle scaler on the underside of the truck a good bit of excess came out. 4 coats of POR15 on the interior. Needle scaled underneath the truck and hopefully tomorrow afternoon and Friday I can put down some coats of the Mastercoat I got for the bottom and use the internal frame coating on all the unseen stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 Should've bought myself a needle scaler years ago. This is so much less work than a wire wheel. This matercoat stuff is no joke. Let some dry on my arm and can't get it off no matter what I try. Not the prettiest seal job, but a sight better than what AMC put on the truck. Got the AC Delco sealer for a good price. Hopefully it won't shrink too much, but I applied it pretty liberally. Still gotta seal underneath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle_SX4 Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 2 hours ago, coheed said: Looks great! I would go further inboard with the seller on the firewall. I just had a leak there last week. I had sealed it before but did not go far enough with the sealer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 9 hours ago, Eagle_SX4 said: Looks great! I would go further inboard with the seller on the firewall. I just had a leak there last week. I had sealed it before but did not go far enough with the sealer. That's a good tip. I was going by where the sealer was originally, but we all know these trucks weren't sealed the best. How much further in did you go? Or should you have gone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle_SX4 Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 14 minutes ago, coheed said: How much further in did you go? I went about 3 inches past the hinges. You could go the entire length of the firewall just to be safe. As long as you hood to cowl seal is in good shape that isn't necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 13 minutes ago, Eagle_SX4 said: I went about 3 inches past the hinges. You could go the entire length of the firewall just to be safe. As long as you hood to cowl seal is in good shape that isn't necessary. It's not in the greatest condition but it's not falling apart like some other trucks are. I'll reexamine that area when I go to seal the rest of it. Thanks for letting me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted April 23 Author Share Posted April 23 Miscounted plugs for the floor, oops. Quick coat of POR15 over the sealer so the floor looks uniform until I get some carpet. Got the underside sealed up today and I'll wait for the rain to hold off in the next couple days and I'll do a quick coat underneath as well. Put one thick coat on the roof. Hoping that and the new SMS headliner will cut down on some noise and radiant heat in the cab. Put a coat on the seat mounts as well and they're hanging in the cab to cure out of the rain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted Monday at 12:31 AM Author Share Posted Monday at 12:31 AM Dash and electrical mostly back in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted Thursday at 07:40 PM Author Share Posted Thursday at 07:40 PM Got the dash buttoned up aside from radio antenna. Added a blue sea systems dual USB 12v source for charging. Swapped the fog light switch with one for an XJ back wiper, that way I can supply constant power on one throw and use the momentary throw to flash the fog lights instead of trying to use the high beams. I decided to go with a mid 80s S10 steering wheel. I've always loved the way they looked and since the splines are lower than center on the wheel, it will give me a bit more leg room. Much more with the tilt column as well. Also added delay wipers with the "new" column. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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