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Posts Tagged ‘Jeep #12’

Jeep #12: New Sound Bar Speakers

May 16, 2010 / Written By / 0 Comments

One of the projects to work on while the Herculiner was setting up was the Sound Bar. When I took it off on Friday I noticed that the speakers were all ratty and full of holes. I guess that is why it wasn’t sounding as good as it possibly could.

So I stopped over at Best Buy (actually had to travel quite far) to pick up some 4″ Pioneer Speakers for $45. They are no longer carrying these tiny speakers as very few cars still have speakers in this size. I soldered the connectors onto the speaker wires and installed them under the old covers. I hope it sounds good!

Jeep #12

Jeep #12: Herculiner Part 1

May 16, 2010 / Written By / 0 Comments

I am now finally getting around to putting down the Herculiner. I had originally planned to start this back on Friday. Now that it is Sunday, I’m a bit behind. This is due to the rust spot that had to be patched yesterday and the VERY subborn bolts that were broken off.

The first step in applying Herculiner is to clean up everything. You need a very clean (and rough) surface to apply the paint to. I used a wire wheel to scuff up the surface and then hit it with the scouring pad that was included in the Herculiner kit. The kit by the way is available at most autopart stores and costs about $90 for the kit.

The next step will be to mask off all the areas that you don’t want the coating. It is going to be very thick, and very strong. You don’t want this covering up drain holes or flowing into bolt holes. This is one of the most important steps in the process. If you get the Herculiner somewhere you don’t want it, getting it off will be difficult.

For the holes I used silicone hole plugs. These things are typically used in Powder Coating situations where you don’t want powder getting into holes. Nothing sticks to silicone (except silicone), so hopefully I can just yank the plugs out of the holes and remove the herculiner sitting on them. We will see… but so far this is the easiest solution.

The application of Herculiner is fairly straight forward, but this stuff is pretty thick! Its not going to be like normal paint, as it has chunks of rubber in it. Using a paint brush you first go after all the corners and hard to reach areas. Then using the roller, you apply a thin coat. It should be thin, almost transparent. It would be wise to thin the Herculiner with Xylene for this first coat (I however did not).

The first coat needs to set for 1 to 4 hours. So I think I will work on something else while it is setting.

Jeep #12

Jeep #12: Fixing the hole in the floor

May 15, 2010 / Written By / 0 Comments

The rusty area that we found yesterday was wire wheeled and the bad area was identified. The area to be cut out was marked in yellow paint. There is a little bit of rust extending out of this area, but it is for the post part surface rust. The remaining metal is plenty thick for securing to.

Here the bad metal was completely cut out. A 1/2″ thick border was left to secure to.

A 16 gauge patch panel was cut out to fit over the area.

The panel was tack welded into place and then a bead was put around the whole patch.

Next step will be to seal the underside with seam sealer and paint. After that.. we start prepping for the herculiner!

Jeep #12

Jeep #12: Prepping the Interior for Herculiner

May 14, 2010 / Written By / 0 Comments

Today was a big day for progress on the interior. It was decided that I would be stripping the inteior and laying down a layer of Herculiner to hopefully subside any eventual rust on the body. The Jeep is in such a great shape that we were hoping for the best as far as hidden rust spots were concerned. After the doors and hard top were removed the first step was to remove the carpet and rear seat. This is a very easy task, its just a lot of fishing carpet around mounts and removing bolts.

When it came down to removing the rear seat, the first level of resistance was reached. Three out of the four bolts holding the front of the rear seat down snapped off. And they snapped off nearly flush with the surface. Getting them out will be still one of the hardest things to do.


Moving foward into the Jeep the front seats and carpet are removed. Here you can see the first glimpse at the floor rust. Like the rear seat there was some issue getting out the front seat. Two of the bolts proved to be rather difficult to remove, but came out after some finessing.


The rust on the driver side floor pan was initially viewed as horrible surface rust. As we chipped away at the rust, it was obvious that the floor would need to be replaced. There should be plenty of solid metal to weld a new section of sheet metal in place. Normally I would weld in a replacement panel, but I would much rather have this done over the weekend and not push the project back into the next week.

The rollcage bolts have been removed in the rear, and the cross bar was removed with the sound bar. Unfortunately four of the front bolts on the rollcage were sized, and stripped out several Torx sockets. We could not apply enough torque on the torx to remove the bolts. The solution was to purchase several cheap Torx sockets and weld one to each bolt. With a much larger cross section making contact with the bolt they broke loose easily with a 2 foot breaker bar.

Jeep #12

Jeep #12: The UPS Man Cometh

May 14, 2010 / Written By / 1 Comment

The UPS man came today with a few presents from eBay. The first is a set of Half Doors from a 1994 Jeep Sahara. They will be right at home on my 1993 Jeep Sahara. They are the wrong color (a shade of dark green), but the door panels are correct and they have the screen accurate pouches. Only cost $450! (ouch!)

 

Also in is a new (used) windshield frame from a 1989 Jeep. The glass is cracked and is in the process of being removed. It is virtually rust free, except for a few marks of surface rust that will be easily neutralized. A nice catch for only $180 shipped. (about the same price as a cheap aftermarket windshield frame).

Jeep #12

Jeep #12: Top down, doors off.

May 14, 2010 / Written By / 0 Comments

I took the top off, and the doors.. and then went to go pick up some Herculiner. Pretty fun. Although door-less driving really isn’t for me. Heck top down was annoying because you have no privacy. At the auto parts store there was a same year Jeep Renegade with their top off and no doors. Copycat.

I also got a few items in the mail today. Mainly my new windshield frame and Sahara half doors. The doors need a few parts and an alignment before they will fit right. But its so nice to have some half doors.

Now to go strip the interior. I already took a peak at the driver side floor, and it is pretty rusty. I hope there are no holes and it is thick enough to use. I hope I don’t have to replace it.

Jeep #12

Jeep #12: Brakes and Struts

May 12, 2010 / Written By / 0 Comments

Today was only half rainy. Here is what I got (half) done.

Took the front bumper off. I ended up finding a 1/2″ drive T-55 to do the lower bolts and then finished them with a 3/8″ drive. I’m gonna sand down the bumper and put a fresh coat of paint on it along with the tow hooks. I also need to clean up the frame ends and hopefully put some paint down on them.

I lifted it up and took the driver side tire off and started to do some brake work. I installed new rotors and pads without much problem. I picked up really nice “Ultra Premium” rotors from Napa. They are by far my favorite rotors of all time. I’ve had them on the last 4 cars that I have owned. They are painted black with a machined rotor surface. And that paint lasts and lasts, they almost never get any kind of surface rust.

Speaking of rust. Everything is really rusty. I look at my suspension and just think.. god. I want to replace that, that and that. I’ll have to start pricing everything out. But I really might replace my hubs, tie rods and the like. Maybe next time I have the wheel off I’ll look into it. I definitely need to wire wheel a bunch of the rust and get some paint on down there.

I also installed a new Monroe Sensitrak strut and a rubber bump stop.

I decided not to tackle the other side since I’m tired now, and it is supposed to start raining in the next hour. Here is a photo:

Jeep #12

Jeep #12: To-Do List

May 10, 2010 / Written By / 0 Comments

The body is amazingly almost completely rust free. The frame however is not so lucky. The front and rear sections are common for rusting, and they did. The front was already repaired, and the rear will be done. I suspect the frame is probably 60% there.. there is a lot of surface rust.

Here is the current to do list, with parts stacking up:

-Install Steering Stabalizer
-Install Sway Bar Bracket
-Install Bump Stops
-Install Shocks
-Install Pads / Rotors
-Install Rear Drums
-Install new TC Output Seal
-Change Oil in TC and Transmission
-Repair Rear Frame Rust
-Remove / repaint Front Bumper
-Install Bumper Guards
-Install Foglights on stock brackets (clean / paint brackets).
-Install Rear Foglights and wire in switch.

I should have front fenders, half doors and (now) a windshield frame on the way. I might pick up some paint to start laying down as a protectant. It really needs to stop raining for me to get some of these things done.

Jeep #12

Jeep #12: Fixing up the rear end

May 9, 2010 / Written By / 0 Comments

The last few days have been weird weather wise. It has been so cold and rainy (even snowy) here in Minnesota. Combine that with me graduating from College on Friday and I just haven’t had much time to work on it. Cut to today where it was decently 50 degrees out and I had the day off from work. (These are actually the first photos I actually took with a camera).

I ripped apart the rear end to do some axle seals and replace the parking brake cable.

Also did some work to the front end. Removed the stock fog lights, and was attempting to remove the bumper to paint it. Looks like I need to take the shackles off to do that.

Since I hadn’t taken any pictures of it yet, here are a few of the interior:

Pretty nice since it only has 74,000 miles.

Tomorrow I do it all over again. Pulling the driveshaft and draining the transfer case to install a rear output seal. Hopefully my doors get here soon as well. Starting about Wednesday I will be pulling the hardtop and interior and spending a few days Herculining the floor and sides.

Jeep #12

Jeep #12: Collecting Parts

May 2, 2010 / Written By / 0 Comments

I found frame repair sections. There were some expensive ($250) sections that were boxed in, or some cheaper ($100) plates that you weld to existing metal. I opted for the cheaper ones as there is still plenty of metal to secure to.

I haven’t driven the Jeep since the day I bought it (Thursday) because the battery went dead. I wasn’t happy with the battery connections (they were old and rigged in there) so I worked a bit today to replace them. In the process of doing that I had a rusted stud that refused to come out, so I had to cut a wire. I could have been driving the Jeep today if that had gone smoothly.

The last few days have spent scouring information on JeepForum, this JP site and on parts supplier sites. I have spent quite a bit of money on some parts that I need / wanted such as:

-Rear Fog Lights (The amber driving lights). I went with the Pro Comp 100 4″x6″ amber fog light. I will be replacing the bulb with a lower wattage lamp and then wiring a flip switch to allow for switching between red and amber.

-Front Fog Lights. One of mine was missing the lense / reflector assembly. Replacing this with a factory one would have cost quite a bit of money. I decided to go with the Delta 150 Foglight. It is a pretty close match for the factory light, just a little bit thicker I presume.

-Fenders. I found a company that claims the fenders they sell are OE quality. If they are not, I will be returning them and attempting to get my money back.

-Soft Top. I managed to find a Spice Bestop top here on Craigslist locally. It has quite a bit of hardware (2 of everything) and a decent top. I picked it up for $200 which is a great deal.

Looking for:
-Half Doors. Saw some on eBay, probably will be out bid even though they are up to $400 right now.
-Windshield Frame. I really don’t want to buy a aftermarket steel frame. I am trying to find a used rust free frame. Currently bidding on one, but its already up past where I really want to pay.

Future Steps:

I have a bit of maintainence to do. Hopefully I can get it all done tomorrow. I have the battery, steering stabalizer strut, rear axle seals, TC output seal, and fluid changes for those.

Now that I have a soft top, I want to pull off the Hardtop and install the soft top hardware. That will require a lot of cleaning and painting of the parts as some of them are rusty. I hope there is enough components to make atleast 1 good set of hardware.

But before I put the soft top on, I want to pull the rollcage, seats and carpet and Herculine the floors and interior. I am pretty sure my floors are rust free (atleast no holes). So I want to keep it that way. I figure 3-4 coats of Herculiner should do the trick. After that is done the carpet will go back in. (I really like that look of that!).

Jeep #12
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