Grabber Blue Eliminator

[Parei_doll_ia]

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.

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:

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

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

 

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. 

 

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.

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

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.

 

Then finally the bed after a week or two. 

 

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

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. 

 

[Pete M]

it was a ton of work, but it turned out spectacular 

[watchamakalit]

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.

[tugboat95]

Gotta agree with the above poster. I'm generally not a fan of the bedliner on the MJs. However yours looks great! Love the color combination. It works.

89 Comanche
Eliminator
2wd
4.0L
5 speed PukeGoat
Factory Original

[Parei_doll_ia]

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. 

[Parei_doll_ia]

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.

 

 

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. 

 

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.

 

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]

[Minuit]

 

Ender 3?

[Parei_doll_ia]

1 hour ago, Minuit said:

 

Ender 3?

Yup, with a few mods/enclosure, etc. Mostly to reliably print ABS. Still haven't tried nylon though

[Pete M]

nice!    if you're pleased with it, you should offer some up to other owners.   

[Parei_doll_ia]

2 hours ago, Pete M said:

nice!    if you're pleased with it, you should offer some up to other owners.   

I posted it on thingiverse, I might redesign it with threads next since I just realized they were threads on the tank instead of ridges. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4939031

[Parei_doll_ia]

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.

 

 

 

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

 

[Pete M]

yup, I've learned a lot from the TC videos  

[Parei_doll_ia]

Changing the bulbs also seemed to fix my cruise control. There must be some electrical trickery going on that installing diodes made the cc computer think the brakes were applied when they weren't, somehow without affecting the operation of the brake lights themselves. 

[Parei_doll_ia]

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Everything I own tucks in nicely behind the truck :)

[Pete M]

an LSD up front will do wonders for offroad traction.    yes it's not a locker, but it's vastly superior to open. 

[Parei_doll_ia]

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. 

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

[scguy]

Moog QC has really slipped. We much prefer installing Mevotech at the shop. TTX stuff is very well designed and built. 

[Parei_doll_ia]

5 hours ago, scguy said:

Moog QC has really slipped. We much prefer installing Mevotech at the shop. TTX stuff is very well designed and built. 

Yeah, the toe link came without the grease zerk tapped, luckily I had a tap and got it without creating many shavings

[Jlindsey86]

Beautiful build! That Monstaliner is excellent stuff!

[Parei_doll_ia]

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

[Parei_doll_ia]

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. 

 

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

[Parei_doll_ia]

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.

^Renix and AMC Jeep logos added for flair

^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.

[MiNi Beast]

Digging that cup holder. 

[Parei_doll_ia]

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

Paint

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

[Parei_doll_ia]

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.

 

Willwood proportioning valve added.

 

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. 

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.