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Grabber Blue Eliminator


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I finally finished this a month ago, but here's some pictures from replacing the rust in my MJ. The body count stands at 7 XJs, 1 MJ.

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It didn't look too bad before I started, but I had bought a TDI to replace the MJ for daily duty, and decided to start tackling the rust during quarantine. 

 

Taking the paint and bondo off, but mostly bondo:

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I started with the bed rail, and the spots in the bedside and the rocker. Summit only had a driver side rocker for an XJ, so I cut it up to make it work, and replaced what I needed to. 20210707_175205.jpg.40c19970d6cc07afee350ecb90f35e58.jpg20210707_175231.jpg.f7627d35f3c366d95595e6c79765ba9e.jpg20210707_175304.jpg.540f964504f5163155a4d2b3c4210476.jpg

 

I found a 89 in the Pullapart in Indy last summer, so I drove 6 hours there to cut parts out of it. Was able to get enough to work out the cab corner and the bed corner. 

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Got the passenger side done, then the floors. I started to get rid of the bondo on the driver side just before winter started. 

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Once it got warm again, I fixed the driver side. I couldn't find a Comanche wheel arch anywhere, but I was able to make 2 XJ quarter panels work by pie cutting the angled part from the passenger panel and making it flat for the fwd driver side. It is narrower, but I was able to make the fender fit with some persuasion. I also fabricated some pieces of the inner fender on this side. 

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Got everything done, and started doing some of the bodywork, along with JY fenders I found that were mint. About this time was when I started going around to body shops and they all wanted way more than I was prepared to spend. They probably didn't want to deal with it. This brought me to the idea of bedlining it.

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The good thing about bedliner is that it hides a lot, so I really only went to 120/180 grit to get the bodywork close enough. I rolled Monstaliner's primer on shortly after this, then color matched jamb paint. 

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Then I started with Grabber, since tintable Monstaliner has a specific dry/recoat time and it worked out better than starting with the bed like I was planning to. 

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Then it was the Gray Matter stripe along the bottom and the Eliminator stickers once it dried for a few days. I put the 4 pinstripes a little lower than they're supposed to to help hide the little bit of a jagged line that I got when I pulled off the tape. The tintable stuff dries very fast compared to the black and it makes it hard to get a clean line with the extra time rolling takes compared to spraying. I would definitely spray if I were to do this again, but I didn't have the compressor for it.

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Then finally the bed after a week or two. 

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And now it's done, until I decide to do the axles.

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Honestly now that it's done, I like the bedliner better. (And I was tired of only owning black vehicles) I'm also not going to sell this now, as that was originally my plan since I graduate this coming May, and I can only move 1 vehicle. I'll just move across the country in a 32 year old Jeep with cc and ac that doesn't work. 

 

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The cruise and air conditioning are both fixable systems.  If you can handle the body work you can repair a couple of luxury systems.

 

Looks great btw.  I personally am not sold on bedlinered trucks but that is because most of the ones I see are solid colors with no details.  I think your stripe along the bottom with the matched logo looks great.

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On 7/11/2021 at 6:34 AM, watchamakalit said:

The cruise and air conditioning are both fixable systems.  If you can handle the body work you can repair a couple of luxury systems.

Thanks. Yeah, I just haven't had time to deal with them yet. CC worked after I bought the truck, but then quit a couple weeks after I put a WJ booster in. They're not high on my priorities though.

 

I was the same way about using bedliner, but wasn't about to spend 8-10k for a paintjob, and I figured it's way better than a Macco job. 

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  • 1 month later...

This month's project: the entire cooling system, O2 sensor, engine/trans mounts, trans cooler lines, and the PS lines. I switched it to an open system with a CSF 2671 radiator, Flowkooler pump, and a 2.5L reservoir. I spent a good week flushing everything out, starting with some Blue Devil stuff from the parts store, then I put some Evaporust in and drove the truck for a couple days. That stuff came out black, and I was getting chunks out while flushing. Once I got towards the end I realized that running it with straight water was just flash rusting it, and took everything apart.

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I relocated the fuel pump resistor and EGR solenoid to behind the washer reservoir, and removed the fan relay in order to fit the res (and the radiator doesn't have a bung for the switch). It's a tight fit, but I finally found an orientation for the rectangular plug that made it fit. The fan is now controlled by my REM, with a relay next to the battery. 

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There are no caps anywhere to be found on the internet for the 2.5 res, so I spent maybe 5 minutes in Solidworks to recreate one and printed it out.

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Before it pretty much always ran over 210-220 on the REM, now it sits right at 195 [After driving it it did not]. Next is putting the Viair 450C that I have on a portable setup for airing up my car's tires for autocross on the now unused shelf where the reservoir used to be. [Won't fit]

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update on the Flowkooler pump: it leaked from the weep hole, but I saw that it happens with them for a little bit then stops. I ran it for a couple days, and it never stopped. It left a puddle anywhere I stopped, the temps kept creeping up after driving it, and it seemed like the efan was having a hard time controlling the temperature. I finally had enough of it, removed the pump and brought it back to Summit Racing. They took it back no questions asked, and I got the AC Delco one in exchange. The $26 pump works wayyyy better than the $90 one, no leaks and temps are sticking right at 195-198, and the efan is only on for about a minute at a time. (I set the REM to come on at 200, off at 195) Looking at the FK pump again after I took it out, I don't really like the design. They use the same cheap casting as GMB, and it's not a single piece casting like the Delco. The impeller wheel also looks more like marketing wanketeering than something that was designed to actually make a difference. Even if it creates more flow than the stock pump, it doesn't really make sense, because a higher mass flow rate of water through the radiator will also require a higher mass flow rate of air through the radiator to have the same amount of heat transferred, which makes sense why my efan was always on.

 

Also I was watching a Technology Connections video (@15:40-20:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z5A-COlDPk&ab_channel=TechnologyConnections) and I never really thought about it, but the LED bulbs I had put in the taillights years ago were never really as bright as what I thought they should be. I put the normal bulbs back in, and there definitely is a difference. LED is on the left, incandescent bulbs are on the right.

 

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It's amazing what a little bit of proper engineering can do

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  • 1 month later...

Winter project: I pulled a d30 from a 92 XJ, and a 8.8 from a 01 Explorer. Plan is to clean them up and gear them to 4.10 with a Trutrac in the rear. Still undecided on what I want in the front, an LSD won't do much, but I need a new carrier anyways. I bought MW springs from General Spring, and will probably be replacing a lot of front end parts with Clayton Offroad stuff, and lifting from 3" spacers to 4.5" coils. I also ordered some c clip eliminator axles from Summit that should widen the axle from 1" narrower than the d35 to 1" wider.

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The d30 is 95% rust free, it was protected by a healthy coating of grease. I ended up mangling the lower CA mount trying to get the rest of the CA out, so I welded on some Artec mounts along with boxing in the passenger upper mount.

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I also took a bunch of measurements with how my truck is now, and did some calculations for deciding on what shackles I should get by doing some trig. I'm leaning towards Clayton right now, waiting to see if they do something for Black Friday.

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Everything I own tucks in nicely behind the truck :)

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  • 1 month later...

My bed is filling up with parts, I ended up getting Metalcloak CAs and 4.5" springs since they were great on my JK. Also bought a v8 ZJ tie rod and 97+ XJ drag link to keep steering cheap and fitting stock wheels. I got the General Springs after about 3 months, but they look like they're worth it. 

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I got the ends for the c-clip eliminators installed, and got all the bare metal covered with primer before it got too cold. Just need to get the bearings pressed on the axles when I take them to get the gears installed. 

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The ball joints came in just in time, which was good because I was worried that the right lower hole was too big. 3 of the BJs were Moog, but the RL was an unknown brand that was about 0.006" larger than the Moog, and the Moog would slide into that side with no resistance. I bought the Mevotech TTXs from Rockauto, and they fit great. I like the installation adapter the lowers come with, I had to grind one down a little to fit with the loaner press. 

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After 3 attempts and completely taking my CNC router apart to tighten/clean everything, I finished a plug for the 8.8 ABS sensor. It was supposed to be a short little project too, just using some 1x0.25 7075 bar stock that I had laying around. I posted the file on thingiverse if anyone needs one and has the means of machining it, I'd be a little worried about long term exposure to heat and oil if it was printed, but would probably work short term. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5171804

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  • Parei_doll_ia changed the title to Grabber Blue Eliminator
  • 1 month later...

Sent the axles off to get re geared last month, still waiting for him to finish. While I'm waiting, I pulled the front axle and mocked up some of the parts to measure things. I'm figuring 2" of bump should be plenty if I go up to 32s in the future with the Metalcloak upper stops. 

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Comparison of the 4.5" MC coils next to the stock ones with 3" spacers (PO used 2.5" spacers with doubled spring isolators)

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I've also been doing some interior 3d printing in the past couple weeks, finally got around to printing an updated version of the cupholder that I designed in 2020, a REM holder, and a replacement clock panel. I never really understood why that clock was there since there's one on the radio, and I added a trans temp gauge, Ram mount for my phone, and a USB charger/voltmeter.

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^Renix and AMC Jeep logos added for flair

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^Final version in ABS that I had to get creative with printing to stop it from warping. Came out with a really good surface finish. Using a purple glue stick really helped also, but almost too well, it was hard to remove from the glass plate.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Axles finally got done, and I spent most of my spring break working on the swap. 

Paint

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These Metalcloak springs are very long. I had to use a coil spring compressor to get them in, which I never had to do with my JK, even with the 3.5 MC springs.

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For steering, I used a 97+ drag link (thicker) and a V8 ZJ tie rod. It's very close to the edge of the 15 on the driver side, I might have to go up to 16s later, probably with 32s.

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The TJ swaybar links ended up being a little bit too tall, I bought a 1/2-20 die, added some thread and cut about 1.5" off from this.

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I took a 4wd indicator switch from a couple different vehicles in the JY, only 1 actually worked. They can be found in anything with a 231 though, this one was from a Durango. I will wire it to the vacuum switch in the engine bay next.

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Bonus shot of the new gauge at night with the blue LED added.

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On to the rear:

No more LHSV, I extended the main line to the bracket, removed the emergency line, and added a 24" braided flex line.

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Willwood proportioning valve added.

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The rear swap went much easier than the front. I ended up not using any of the Barnes 8.8 swap kit, the 5/8 ubolts were overkill, and I found some RE spring plates that I could mount shocks to like stock and not have to worry about fitting shocks to the axle itself. They are limited to 9/16 though, but that isn't really a problem. 

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I used some Calvert brackets instead of the Barnes ones because the Barnes kit seems designed for spring over applications. I would lose a about .5" with the Barnes kit compared to these, and these are 3/16 steel which is much easier for me to weld with my 120v Hobart 140.

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The tolerances on these plates are almost too close, I had to find a thinner socket to tighten them. the bolts are protected from any rocks though.

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Now I just need the shocks to come in to 4WP. I measured 4.69 (nice) inches of lift in the rear with the 0.31 lost to the radius of the 8.8 tube subtracted. I got 4.75 in the front, it sits pretty good I think. I used the lowest lift hole in the Clayton shackles, we'll see how they settle later on. The C clip eliminators also gave me a little over 2" of clearance between the tire and the frame, I barely had an inch with the D35.

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