OK guys time for a few pics from my working week.
First job was to make 3 Jeep Wrangler battery trays.
Here they are ready to be sent off to be electroplated.
I also got to do some more on the front bar for the Frankenzuke Jimny.
*I may have got a bit carried away taking pics, theres rather a lot!
OK so cast your minds back to last week when I last posted about this and you may remember that I'm adapting a Vitara bar to fit.
This meant that the ends wernt right.
So out with the cardboard, scissors and masking tape.
I kept adding bits until I was happy with it.
I then removed the cardboard template from the corner of the bar.
I cut the masking tape on the corners and laid the template flat on a piece of steel and drew around it. (The off cut from my rad cowl actually.)
And cut it out on the bandsaw.
I bent it up and tack welded it in position.
Took the top section off the bar off and fully welded it.
Smoothed the welds down and sat it back in position.
Other side next.
I found turning the template over to give me a mirror image of the other side worked perfectly.
Folded it.
Tack welded in position.
Took the bar back off and fully welded and then ground down the welds.
I wanted to add an up stand all the way around the top to add strength and to help fill in the gap between the bar and headlights and flares.
This involved spot welding 40mm x 3mm flat along the length of the bar bending and hammering as I went, starting from the middle and working out each side.
My idea is to have a push on strip of black rubber running the entire length of the bar to fill in the small gap thats left between the top of the up stand piece and the lights/body.
The end of the flares will be attached to the ends of the bar.
Thats as far as I got on the bar but I may do some more on it tomorrow.
LJ next.
Firstly bad news.
I spotted a puddle of oil under the front of LJ and on closer inspection it looks like the winch is leaking oil.
I'm not sure how as the oil level sits below the oil seal so it shouldn't leak unless the housing is cracked/damaged/oil drain plug has vibrated out.
I didnt even get to use it on the last trip.
I needed to fix the dent in the door so the window would close.
Door card off.
It was actually pushed in quite a bit where the mirror is and had also pushed up.
Difficult to get pics of the dents due to the light/angle.
Glass out.
Where the door was dented it had actually closed in on the area where the glass sits by about 20mm.
I found a suitable off cut of hardwood skirting board and squeezed it into the door cavity. I attached some wire to it so I could pull it up into position.
I was then able to use a 1/4 drive socket extension bar through one of the holes in the inner skin of the door, and a hammer to bash the timber where the dent was.
Ended up having to cable tie the wire into position so that the timber was held in position as I needed both hands to hammer the dent out.
Still slightly dented but a hell of a lot better than it was and the window now had a uniform gap all the way along.
Put it all back together.
With the window now up I could wash all the dust and dirt off LJ.
I got a tyre plug kit from work.
My work colleague was telling me he drove all the way back from Queensland after using 5 sticks of tyre plug to fix a gash in the side wall of one of his tyres after a trip to Cape York. Said it was fine and didnt loose any air for the entire 3000+ km journey.
Battery trays next..................
I made a jig to allow me to quickly and accurately weld together the Ford Ranger/Mazda BT50 underbody battery trays that I've designed and developed.
And heres the first 3.
Got the first 11 welded up now.
My first production run is 50 trays, once they've been electroplated and sold I will start making batches of 100 at a time.
I timed myself making them, and from picking all the bits up, assembling them on the jig, welding them all together and removing from the jig, 4 minutes.
So I'm guessing I will average 10 an hour.
And finally the gate latches that I've designed and developed.
The idea is my boss wants some latches for his farm gates. They must allow the gates to swing shut and for the latch to engage, and they need to allow the gate to swing from either direction. So the gates can be opened into or out of the fields. The gates will have a pin on the end that will locate in the latches.
Anyway............................
The first few I made have been fitted and tested and work well.
So now I've got to make a load more. It made sense to have the heart shaped pieces laser cut, I will just need to bend them all in the brake press.
Back to LJ....................
I need to do a list of all the work I want/need to do on LJ and I'm tempted to park her up in the garage now and make a start. Might take a few months.
The electrics is a big job. I want to pull out every piece of non standard wiring and then fix any electrical issue within the standard loom, so things like working out which wires need connecting in the engine bay to get the turbo lights working and the oil pressure gauge and low oil warning lights working. These are issues that were never fixed when I did the engine conversion.
I need to work out why the rear wiper stopped working and why the reverse lights are permanently lit if the lights have bulbs in them.
Then I can start building and adding my own loom. Using all different colored wires for different things and different thickness wires depending on the current they will be carrying. All with soldered joints/proper connectors and all the fuses and relays together neatly in one place. I want the electrics to be perfect!
I want to add remote central locking, ideally with the flip out VW style keys, which I will have to get cut to match my ignition.
I want to add the big ARB compressor and an air tank.
I want EGT and boost gauges and one showing fuel level of the auxiliary fuel tank I want to add, these will all be in the replacement piece of dash my boss gave me to replace the inclometer.
I want to add a Piranha super loom kit to make my standard headlights super bright.
I want an LED light bar on the bull bar and some super bright reverse lights on the back. Might also add some lights on the roof rack for when I'm camping.
I need to build the roof rack.
Repair and modify the back door to take the gas stove.
Theres heaps of other things I want to do, but thats plenty to be going on with for now.
So lucky to have tracks like that in OZ
Cosy!
