Project Un"Limited" Funds

Greg · Jul 13, 2014

Looks great!

Always liked the LJ! We rented one in Hawaii and did a little exploring in it.

STAG · Jul 13, 2014

Love me some LongJeep. I'll be checking in on this.

Jesser04 · Jul 13, 2014

Looks like rhbrooks old lj.

rholbrook · Jul 14, 2014

It is, I was wondering when my sons LJ would show up here. I miss that thing

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

Funny story, I was browsing on here about 2 months after I bought the Jeep, and saw rholbrook's avatar. I thought to myself, "Hey, that's my Jeep!" Small world after all! I hate to say this, but you'll miss it even more after reading everything. The build thread on here is going to mostly be copied over from another website that I finished this build thread on. I wanted to get all the bugs worked out with my build thread on the other website and then transfer it over here to RME.

Today was a day of servicing the fluids, mainly the coolant and transmission fluid. I already changed the engine oil the previous weekend, so I was good there. Since I was dropping the pan to change the transmission filter anyway, I thought that was the best time to install the transmission temp gauge sending unit. So I dropped the pan, drilled the hole for the sending unit, and welded on some small diameter tubing on the outside for routing the sending unit's wire. Here is where we are machining the bung for the sending unit on the lathe:

Here is the bung installed on the trans temp sending unit:

This next picture is showing the bung and tubing for routing the sending unit wire welded in, plus a spritz of paint for corrosion protection:

Oh, before I forget: Who the heck uses silicone to seal up a transmission pan? Some people need to seriously stay away from anything mechanical...

Oh, and another thing! Guess what came on the front doorstep the other day? Black ARB diff covers! Mmm, Sexay... Sorry, back on track!

Okay, now for the wiring. I routed the sending unit wire up the left side of the transmission and zip-tied it along the brake lines. From the engine bay, I went through a huge rubber grommet (You know, that huge one? Yeah, that one next to the steering shaft!) into the passenger compartment. My keyed ignition source was tied in from the blower motor, and my power for the backlighting for the gauge was tied in from the gauge cluster.

The next project to tackle was the transmission cooler. First of all, this B&M trans cooler is awesome! I wanted to mount it in front of the radiator and a/c condenser, but I did not want to fabricate a new bracket to hold it. So, Jeep kindly provided this nifty little U-shaped bracket in front of the condenser. So, here is the brackets welded on the factory-provided bar:

Here is the bracket all welded up, painted, and the trans cooler installed:

Here is the trans cooler and brackets installed behind the grille. It looks pretty stealthy, kinda like Batman's sweet ride...okay, maybe not.

And here is a rear view of the trans cooler installed, minus the condenser and radiator.

As far as routing the cooler lines go, here's the process that the trans fluid goes through: Out of the transmission through the stock line to the radiator, through the radiator, out of the radiator, into and through the trans cooler, then back to the transmission. For future reference, the top line coming out of the transmission is the return line. I had to cut the driver's side rubber flap between the radiator and a/c condenser for hose routing. Here she is awaiting install:

Here is where the lines for the trans cooler were run, right next to the driver's side inner fender:

Okey-dokey, here is everything buttoned up. Okay, now it's stealthy!

Well, the weekend adventure was over. All that's left now is to regear to 4.88's, do some front axle C-gussets, install Detroit Truetrac's front and rear, and install those sexy black ARB diff covers to top it all off! I did all those modifications during my winter break between semesters. Stay tuned for some unplanned upgrades as I leaf through the Quadratec catalog, all within budget, of course! No need to spend money on things that I can build myself!

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

Okay, a massive box of parts arrived on my front doorstep today. The best part is, they arrived two days early!

The Warn winch accessory kit, ARB tow strap, hitch tow point adapter, Highrock 4x4 (By Bestop) entry guards, Old Man Emu steering stabilizer, and DELTA Tech H4 Xenon headlight conversion kit.

Here are the DELTA H4 Xenon conversion kit complete with housings and H4 Xenon bulbs

I had a few minutes today, and the Highrock 4x4 (By Bestop) were calling my name. These things are super easy to install: Just clean the door sill surface with a little wax and grease remove, peel back the protective paper on the double-sided tape, and stick on. One word of advice: Install the entry guards as close to the interior of the vehicle (in towards, for example, the direction of the emergency brake). Otherwise, when the door is shut, it can put pressure on the entry guards and wear out the double-sided tape prematurely. Here are the entry guards installed:

Soon enough, the Old Man Emu steering stabilizer and DELTA H4 Xenon headlight conversion will be installed. Stay tuned for more updates! Thanks for following!

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

Okay, time for the next major update. First up was the DELTA Tech H4 Headlight Conversion Kit. As every Jeep owner knows, the stock lighting plain sucks. After about a month with these installed and even on an offroad trip or two, these are definitely brighter than stock. The beam pattern is also a lot better, but to be fair, the stock bucket was broken and would not adjust properly. The pattern seems to be more prominent than the stock setup, which is welcome. The DELTA lights have a flare-up to the right (as you will see in the pictures) that helps to illuminate road signs and such on the side of the road, but not to blind other drivers. These lights are the Xenon type bulb, so there is a more inherent bluish-white color as opposed to the dull yellow color of the stock headlights. These will not burn the paint off of the car in front of you, but for under 100 skins, it is definitely a worthwhile upgrade, considering that the bulbs are replaceable compared to the stock sealed headlights. In the picture below, the passenger headlight is the new DELTA H4 Conversion and the driver's side is the stock sealed headlight setup. The headlight ring is off on the passenger side because I was in the process of switching the headlights over. Also, nevermind the winch solenoid box laying on the front bumper, I was also in the process of relocating that to a more appealing location (more on that process to come!).

The following picture is showing the beam pattern on the shop door around 25 feet away. Keep in mind that the door is white, so the color will be a little off. You can really see the flare-up on the right side that DELTA designed in to the lens. These are the low beams too.

Again, these are definitely a worthwhile upgrade, considering they can be had for under 100 bucks. The beam pattern and light output are definitely better than stock. They are more flat than the stock headlights and do stick a little further out than the stock ones, but not by much and has no effect on the light output. Overall, I am very impressed with them.

Moving on to the steering stabilizer: After dealing with some steering issues, such as some oscillations when hitting seams in the road that are not perpendicular to the front of the Jeep. It was not death wobble, that was taken care of earlier with some replacing of worn-out parts, but there was an issue with unwanted steering wheel movement. I've always believed that the stock steering stabilizer on any Jeep should not be kept if going to bigger tire sizes, and this was no exception. Driving around with 33's on Utah's crappy roads will take out a stock steering stabilizer in a hurry, as I found out. The stock stabilizer was not leaking, but it was definitely not up to the job of keeping the larger tires tracking straight. This Old Man Emu steering stabilizer, after a little over a month and a half, has exceeded my expectations and then some. It was definitely a little unnerving driving the LJ when the steering wheel wanted to escape the grip of your white knuckles. If anyone is even thinking about replacing their steering stabilizer with something a little better, the Old Man Emu stabilizer is the one to choose. The picture below shows the signature yellow stabilizer under the LJ. You can also see the awesome blue tint that the DELTA headlights have when the lights are off. It looks pretty amazing when this thing is coming up behind ya!

Now on to the winch solenoid box relocation. Before, the box was just mounted in front of the grill using a piece of metal strap. This blocked airflow quite a bit, and I need all of the airflow I can get with the transmission cooler, winch, and driving lights on the front of the vehicle. So it was decided to mount the box directly on the winch using the bolts for the cross-braces that connect one side of the winch to the other. This would provide a solid mount for the box. The picture below is of the bottom of the solenoid box. Originally there were 2 ears for mounting the box to a round surface, but one of them interfered with my mounting solution. So, off with it's head!

This is the start of the bracket. I cut the recess out on the bandsaw and then rounded the corners with the disc sander.

This next picture shows the final piece beadblasted and painted. Before that happened though, I drilled the holes to mount the solenoid box to the bracket and the bracket to the winch, and bent up the bracket in the brake. It turned out pretty snazzy!

This next picture shows the solenoid box and bracket mounted to the winch. I also decided to replace the silver socket head bolts with black ones, going with a more subtle look on the winch.

Here is just the bracket mounted to the winch.

As far as the PIAA 510 lights go, they do remarkably well to light up the trail, even for a small 4" diameter driving light. The only problem was the way they were mounted to the bumper and in close proximity to the winch roller fairlead. I could not adjust the lights down far enough because they hit the fairlead. So, some spacing was in order. I had some aluminum rod sitting in the corner that was the perfect subject for a couple of spacers. Into the lathe it went! This picture is me machining the spacers for the driving lights.

And here is the finished product in the next two pictures:

Here is a picture with both the DELTA Tech H4 Headlights and the PIAA 510 driving lights on. In this picture, you can actually "see" (pun intended) the whiter light of the headlights. Finally, a picture of the headlights on that actually shows the needed detail! I was getting a little frustrated there with all of these unusable pictures of the headlights on because of my bad positioning...

And a MASSIVE couple of boxes of parts arrived on the front doorstep. I received my front axle control arm skids (and some free candy!) from Northridge 4x4, who are great to deal with.

Here are the Dana 30 C-gussets that also came in from Iron Rock Offroad.

Here is the motherlode of the Jeep parts, all courtesy of Northridge 4x4. There are Detroit Truetrac's front and rear, Motive Gear front and rear axle rebuild kits, and Motive Gear 4.88 ring and pinion for both front and rear axles. Here, all of the goodies are layed out on the bench!

Here is how she sat currently, the only difference being the CB and all supporting items, such as antenna and mounting hardware.

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

Okay, here it goes. I had this way long update ready to post up to the thread Sunday night, but got logged out in the process. It was a killer too haha. So, here is the more refined version, since I've had some time to compose my thoughts. Over the weekend, I got both front and rear bumpers done. As most of you know, I started out with Expedition One front and rear bumpers on the LJ. The very first thing I did was take all of the accessories off of the front bumper, including the winch, auxiliary lights, roller fairleads, and d-rings. I am very impressed about the sturdiness of both of the Expedition One bumpers, it's just that the front bumper did not seem to have as much care put into it as the rear did. Some spots were not done as nice as others, some spots were not welded, and the powdercoating on the front bumper was flaking off bad. As far as the quality goes of both bumpers, I am pleased. It's just some of the refinement of the manufacturing process was lacking in some areas. I know I am knitpicking here, but if I was going out to buy these bumpers outright (These bumpers came with the Jeep), I would have expected a little more finish work. Anywho, I digress. Here is the front bumper off of the Jeep and the spots ground smooth:

Here is another angle of the front bumper with recently smoothed surfaces:

I removed the front bumper from the Jeep and started getting to town. I ground down all of the rough spots, cut a few sharp edges off, and took a grinder to a few spots of weld splatter. I ended up going back over the spots that I took a grinder to with a flap wheel to remove all of the heavy scratches. The holes that I welded up used to be for mounting the winch box, which was not a feature of the original bumper. Since I moved the winch solenoid box to the actual winch, these holes were not needed anymore. Here are the holes on the bumper all welded up:

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

The first thing to fabricate was the 90 degree mount for the latch of the tire carrier. This picture shows one of the most useful tools in metal fabrication: the magnet! I really like this picture because it looks like a birdhouse haha!

Here is the 90 degree latch mount all welded up. This design will make much more sense later on.

Since the factory tire carrier is definitely not up to the long-term task of holding an oversize tire, I wanted to get it off of the tailgate ASAP. Here is the tire-mount-less tailgate and the Expedition One rear bumper that I am building my tire carrier off of.

Here is the 90 degree latch mount on the bumper. The black block is a piece of UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight) which is designed to not wear when friction is applied to it. In simpler terms, it is used in high friction areas and does not wear down as fast as other materials. I also kept the 90 degree piece to the left and back enough of the license plate in order to get the license plate on and off. It would really suck to take the bumper off of the Jeep in order to just change the license plate!

Here I am grinding the bottom of the tire gate to mount up to the spindle.

Here is the hole drilled in the top of the bumper for the spindle of the tire carrier. Well, there's no turning back now!

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

Here is the spindle inside slid down in the bumper. The left piece is what the tire gate will be built off of. The tire gate will rotate on roller bearings and a seal on the bottom to keep contaminants out and the grease in. I got this spindle kit from A to Z Fabrication and am very impressed. This is also the same spindle that we used to build my dads (zmotorsports) rear bumper on his JK.

And here is the bottom part of the tire gate that will be welded to the large diameter metal piece in the previous photo. I used the grinder to make a fish mouth for a close fit against the round tube. This will leave only a very small gap for a good solid weld which will last for a long time supporting the heavy tire.

Here is the bottom piece of the tire gate all built. This is what all of the supports for the actual tire will be built from. It still allows full view of the license plate too, so the fuzz will be off of my back (hopefully).

Since all of the tire carrier will be built out of 2" x 2" and 2" x 3" square tubing, I needed to cap off the end of the bottom piece. So I cut a piece of 3/16" thick metal to the shape of the interior of the square tubing and welded it on. By doing this, no moisture will get into the tubing and start corroding/rusting from the inside.

This next picture shows the toggle clamp that I will use to keep the tire carrier shut. The only dowside is the mount needed to be shifted in order to pull straight on the latch. This will provide a much stronger holding force on the tire gate. I took the die grinder to it, and off with its head! Since it is stainless, the TIG welder was the best option for welding it back up. Here is the base bolted to the tire gate and the rest being prepped for welding.

The next picture is the toggle clamp being TIG welded up. A rule for welding up stainless steel is to back-purge the other side with Argon gas to prevent contaminants from entering during welding. Tubing is the easiest for backpurging, since if you are welding on the outside of the tube, you can simply put Argon gas in the inside of the tube for back purging. This was two metal plates, so back purging was a little harder. A very useful trick that my dad showed me was to use some tin foil to "block" the gas coming out of the TIG torch from escaping too fast from away the weld. Here is the process in action.

Here is the stainless steel toggle clamp all welded up and installed on the tire gate.

Since my full-open lock would be a pin that would drop into a hole when the tire gate is swung fully open, I needed another plate on top of the bumper for the pin to drop into. I also wanted to add a little more strength to the spindle, since this would be where pretty much all of the stress is from the tire gate. By spreading out the force on the spindle, the spindle welds on the bumper would last much longer, especially after the rough roads I plan on taking the Jeep on. Here is the cardboard template I made for the support, since cardboard is definitely cheaper than metal! No sense in scrapping an expensive piece of metal if I make a mistake, just a cheap piece of cardboard. Cardboard: another very useful tool in metal work.

Here I am cutting out the spindle support on the bandsaw.

This picture shows the bottom of the tire gate finished. In it, you can see the toggle clamp and full-open pin lock installed, plus the spindle support welded in.

Here is a close-up of the spindle side of the tire gate. You can see the full-open lock for the tire gate. The lock is operate by lifting up on the black handle, rotating it counter-clockwise a quarter turn, and releasing the handle. The spring-loaded pin will drop a good .75", which was perfect for my application. The pin is 1/2" in diameter and is plenty stout. I ordered both the stainless steel toggle clamp and the pin lock at McMaster Carr, which is an industrial supply store. They have anything from power tools to bumper parts haha.

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

Now on to the actual tire mount. As far as local law goes, I still need to retain the third brake light if the vehicle came with one from the factory. Since the wheels I have now do not have the hole in the middle open, I cannot use the same third brake light design as my dad on his rear bumper. Since I love the look of the factory third brake light, I decided to keep it. But with the stock spare tire mount gone, I had nowhere to mount it. So I built a plate for the tire gate to mount it to, which will raise it up high enough to be seen over the spare tire but far enough away from the rear glass on the hardtop that my rear window wiper is still functional. A side note, my old Grand Cherokee's rear window was curved both in the horizontal and vertical planes, so the rear window wiper was useless. It never even touched most of the glass when it sweeped through. Going from that to a very flat rear window on my LJ is amazing! I have a rear window wiper that I can actually use! In the picture, the plate on the left is for the spare tire to mount to and the plate on the right is for the third brake light to bolt to. The surface finish on both plates is courtesy of a DA (Dual Action) grinder. The grinder is used extensively in body work, and both rotates like a normal grinder and also rotates elliptically to provide a very smooth finish. If I could have, i would have just clearcoated the plates, they look so good!

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

Alright, here is the updates on the last of the rear bumper. This next picture shows the 3 bolts that were welded to the backside of the tire mount. I am using an intermediate piece that came with the Jeep. This aftermarket piece was originally used to mount the 33 inch tire on the stock location and spaced it out enough to prevent the tire from rubbing on the rear gate. Rather than making an offset piece to space the tire further up and out, I just designed this piece to be used with the tire gate. Again, here is the plate with the bolts welded on the backside to mount the aftermarket tire spacer to.

The next picture shows the little gusset that I fabricated to help support the weight of the tire on the tire gate. This will go behind and below the plate in the previous picture. The notch on the 90 degree end is to clear the previous weld. The other two corners are rounded off to prevent the metal from being burned back during welding, which if not rounded off, might not produce the most structural weld.

This next picture shows the tire gate all welded up. The studs sticking up in the picture will bolt up to the aftermarket tire spacer and the other flat piece of metal in the left of the picture will bolt to the stock third brake light. Just for reference, that brake light mount plate will be facing up.

Here is the tire gate all welded up and ready to go on the last time for mock up. This thing is super strong, so there is no worry about the weight of tire ever breaking some stupid tiny spot welds in the rear gate.

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

Here is the tire gate in the closed position on the Jeep.

This next picture shows both the tire gate and the tail gate fully open.

Here is a different shot of the tire gate and tail gate fully open. There is plenty of a gap between each, so no fear smacking the tail gate open into the tire gate.

This next picture shows the sheetmetal cover I made to enclose the vent on the tail gate. They can be purchased online, but why would I want to buy something I can build? For reference, it is called a Tramp Stamp (I know, but it is kind of catchy!). Since the OEM tire carrier covered the vent, I did not want the vent exposed to the elements. This piece was also powdercoated gloss black, but here it is in raw form.

As I had recently mentioned, the Teraflex CB bracket I had did not suit the overall visual appearance of the Jeep I was going for, so I changed that. I cut off the little ear on the top of the bracket and radiused the edges. Here is the bracket held in position with the excess metal cut off. I had to include the Buell Motorcycles sticker, just because it's my other transportation that gets the ladies haha. Well, until I sold it and traded up to a Harley!

Here is the rear bumper with the auxiliary backup light holes cut out. I used the plasma cutter and then used a round abrasive bit to clean up the edges to prevent both the light gasket tearing and making it more appealing. That was it for the bumpers, so everything at that time was sent off to the powdercoaters. Everything was to be powdercoated gloss black.

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

Well, while the parts were off to the powdercoaters I decided to clean up a few things first before moving on to the axles. My front frame horns, rear frame section, and battery tray had all seen better days. As far as prepping the front and rear frame horns, I used a red Scotchbrite pad to scuff up the surface and then went over everything with Wax and Grease Remover (PPG DX330). The battery tray was prepped by blasting it with the sand blaster and then also wiping it down with DX 330. Here is the battery tray when I pulled it out of the Jeep. It was not in as bad as shape as the Grand Cherokee's battery tray was, but I did not want to have problems with it corroding and structurally failing. Even though nobody can see the tray with the battery installed, I felt safer spraying a rust/corrosion barrier on the tray to prevent future corrosion.

Here was the front frame horns of the Jeep when I pulled the front bumper off. The bumper was physically connected to the frame horns by rust (haha!), so the bumper was kind of a pain to get off. The rust had made a connection between the bumper and frame horns, plus roughed and pitted the frame surface, which looked like garbage.

Here's the battery tray after being abused in the glass bead blaster and wiped down with Wax and Grease Remover. She's ready for paint!

I masked both the front and rear ends of the Jeep to prevent overspray from getting on the body paint. The battery tray I hung from a piece of wire to dry. I used Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black paint (Both the primer and gloss black finish) and am very impressed. I love using Eastwood supplies, even though the quality does come at a price. The reason I chose this paint is because it has around 3 times the resins than other aerosol paints, plus it is resistant to brake fluid, fuel, and other solvents. Here is the battery tray all painted up with 2 light coats of primer and 3 light coats of gloss finish.

Here is the front frame horns finished. I did not go over the front or rear frame horns with the DA because I felt like I did not need a mirror smooth finish. Besides, all of this prep and paint work was going to be covered up anyways, like most of the work on the Jeep haha.

Here is the rear frame finished painted. This thing turned out freaking nice!

Here is another shot of the rear frame showing the reflection of the shop.

rholbrook · Jul 14, 2014

You will have to bring it by so I can see it now. You are right, I do miss it more. I saw your dad's JK and the quality work that he has done to it so I know how yours will turn out.

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

Well thank you, I will tell him. Yep, I will have to bring it by! Now that it's "finished". Is your son still enjoying the truck he bought after he sold the Jeep?

bryson · Jul 14, 2014

I am very jealous of the shop... I have seen it in person once before when I met your dad, and I didn't want to leave!

zmotorsports · Jul 14, 2014

Great writeup son. I was wondering what took you so long to post it up over here.

Now quit screwing around and get back to work.

Mike.

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

Very funny dad! Can anyone guess what's in the box?

Project Un"Limited" Funds

Greg

I run a tight ship... wreck

STAG

Well-Known Member

Jesser04

Well-Known Member

rholbrook

Well-Known Member

ZPower

Member

ZPower

Member

ZPower

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ZPower

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ZPower

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ZPower

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ZPower

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ZPower

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ZPower

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ZPower

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rholbrook

Well-Known Member

ZPower

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bryson

RME Resident Ninja

zmotorsports

Hardcore Gearhead

ZPower

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