Project “Tomahawk”

[ghetdjc320]

Oem bumper straightened and trued. Took lots of heat and an air hammer for a few spots. 

[ghetdjc320]

Electric tailgate lock. High powered actuator, 3/16 locking pin with beveled guide. The pin is guided by 3 pints of contact before going through the actual handle. The handle has almost no play when locked and the actuator arm doesn’t have to bare any of the pressure from the locking pin due to the guides. 
 

And yes, you can replace the actuator through the tailgate handle hole. Though there is no way to build the additional pin guide without tailgate disassembly. 

[EUREKA]

The electric tailgate lock deserves it own write up. Amazing stuff!

[Tsalagi]

Now that is nice!

[ghetdjc320]

It’s pretty straight forward. 3/16 rod, 7/32 holes carefully lined up. But unless someone tears apart their tailgate and adds support structure, there is no good way to add the locking pin guides which are crucial to not putting the strain on the actuator. I tried using the 1/8 rod that comes with the actuator but I could have easily opened the gate by force. The 3/16 rod just doesn’t allow for any play in the handle and it’s the biggest rod the actuator would accept. You’d probably end up bending the handle before shearing the lock pin. Going to tie it in with the door locks. It will be a nice addition to the locking hard retractable bed cover. There should now be a fully locked secure cargo area! 

[Pete M]

mostly it needs its own writeup so it can be in the DIY forum.  

[ghetdjc320]

3 hours ago, Pete M said:

mostly it needs its own writeup so it can be in the DIY forum.  

I can add the info the the tailgate separation write up I did last year. I think it’s buried somewhere in the mods and repair section. If you want to move it to the diy area, I can add the info there 

[Pete M]

just remembered that Gjeep did a writeup on his, how about adding your experience to his? 

 

 

[ghetdjc320]

20 minutes ago, Pete M said:

just remembered that Gjeep did a writeup on his, how about adding your experience to his? 

 

 

Will do 

[ghetdjc320]

Body panels all prepped and ready for primer/sealer

[ghetdjc320]

 

 

[ghetdjc320]

[Limeyjeeper]

Smooth as glass!!

[ghetdjc320]

1 hour ago, Limeyjeeper said:

Smooth as glass!!

Indeed! Did 4 coats of base (3 plus a guide coat) and 6 coats of clear (tinted the first 3 with base for depth) And here are the result:

 

 

[89 MJ]

[thecodemonk]

Gorgeous!  Can’t wait to see it on the truck!

[scguy]

Beautiful work!

[Gjeep]

Lookin good!

[ghetdjc320]

Y’all’s comments are much appreciated. Was able to clean up and refinish all the door hardware. Had 4 bolts for the door hinges I wasn’t to sure about so replaced them with some 10.9 button head bolts. The rest I was able to extract nicely with zero damage to the torx head. 

 

Cranked up the shop heat to about 90* overnight to help everything cure. Once the hood and doors are on, I’ll shoot the fenders and cowl. Also working on restoring the oem receiver hitch and skid plates. Spare tire winch resto also coming up. 
 

Been contemplating a great variety of audio configurations. One concept I’ve always wanted to do is a center console sub. Had one in my TJ and it was nice since it didn’t take up any extra space and added just the right amount of low end filler for the small cab. I’d like to keep 5.25 components on all 4 corners and build a custom box for the JL 6.5 w3 sub. I’d prefer 6.5” but I’d like to keep the factory speaker grills in tact and the 6.5’s will be just too shrouded by the interior panels. 

[ghetdjc320]

Doors and hood have been loosely remounted. Will shim and adjust once fenders are loosely installed. Also worked on restoring the oem receiver hitch. Added quite a bit of weld to the factory setup. Also added a drain hole (why does the factory always miss this??) and reinforced a couple of spots. POR15’d the whole thing and will let that cure overnight. Will use some filler to smooth out the metal before raptor lining. 

[ghetdjc320]

Chrome tailgate handle??? Saw the one and only on eBay for $1k. Figured, what the heck I’ll try to see what I can do with my old one. Polished it with progressively finer grit (80-5000) then polished it and clear coated with 3 coats. Looks like nice chrome from about 3’ away. Looks like polished steel upon closer inspection.

[ghetdjc320]

Fenders finished up and mounting (alignment) is underway. Nice fit overall. Had to do some minor modifications on a couple of areas to accommodate the door hinge reinforcement plates I added. They are lining up perfectly now. Once I get the cowl painted and cleared, I’ll do final fitment adjustments and line it all up. On another note hood clears all the accessories with room to spare.  
 

notice on the last picture how I reverse the gravity in the paint booth. Works better than any down-draft paint booth 

[ghetdjc320]

Tailgate straps were all straightened and refinished. Also repaired the e brake. I’ve rebuilt 3 of these now and can say that the easiest thing to do is to just put those two pressed in pins into a hydraulic press and carefully apply pressure until most of the play is removed. I’ve also found that the side to side play in the pedal (from the main large center pin being loose) is not what causes the gear from popping looses. All the ones I’ve restored needed the “guide” area where the gear latch pivots tightened (pressed). In the absence of a press, some strategic work with an air hammer will also do the trick. The goal though is to eliminate all side to side play from the gear “latch”. You’ll also want to replace the spring with something heavier duty. I took a picture of the spring and part number I used for reference. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

18 hours ago, ghetdjc320 said:

Tailgate straps were all straightened and refinished. Also repaired the e brake. I’ve rebuilt 3 of these now and can say that the easiest thing to do is to just put those two pressed in pins into a hydraulic press and carefully apply pressure until most of the play is removed. I’ve also found that the side to side play in the pedal (from the main large center pin being loose) is not what causes the gear from popping looses. All the ones I’ve restored needed the “guide” area where the gear latch pivots tightened (pressed). In the absence of a press, some strategic work with an air hammer will also do the trick. The goal though is to eliminate all side to side play from the gear “latch”. You’ll also want to replace the spring with something heavier duty. I took a picture of the spring and part number I used for reference. 

Bookmarking this for when I need to investigate my tailgate. I thought it was my tailgate rubber blocks being warn. Oh boy was it not. The tailgate just keeps shifting left, even when parked on flat ground. The tailgate is very straight too. Probably the side latch mount.

[ghetdjc320]

Tailgate reassembly started. It’s best to use a ratchet strap to keep the panels together for welding once they are aligned. Keep an eye on how the handle fits in the opening to know when your alignment is correct.