The Nail Salon

[Gold Cobra]

My vote is for thornbirds too.

 

[northwestxj]

Jake, honestly I'm looking at building this Jeep along the same lines as yours. I've always been impressed with your fab work (ie. your Christ-like front bumper), and how your Jeep is set up. I may or may not have a few of your write-ups bookmarked...

Soon as this things trail worthy you, Jeff, and I need to do some wheeling. :cheers:

Thanks man, really appreciate it! And yes, we definitely need to go wheeling, it's been a long time!

 

[streetpirate]

My vote is for thornbirds too.

x3

did your membership lapse? mr. president elect?

 

[Gold Cobra]

The presidents did too.

 

[TORX]

FYI, some posts are getting moved. I'd rather not clutter up the first 10 pages with Kevlar talk.

After this weekends Thanksgiving Run, I brewed up some more motivation to start getting this thing built.

Last week, my first purchase arrived.

Got in on the JCR Black Friday sale, and picked up some upper quarter panel armor. Plan is to color match them to the body, but I'm not in too big of a hurry to get them installed.

I'm slowly starting to gather parts. I'm sure in a few weeks Christmas sales will start to pop up, and that's when I'll be pulling the trigger on the big ticket items.

 

[TORX]

As always when you pick up a new ride, you have a bunch of little issue to fix, and maintenance to do. Over the past couple days I've been trying to tackle these little jobs.

Started with an oil change. Decided to go with a Wix #51515 filter. It's a bit bigger than the stock size, but bolts right on. Probably 1/2qt extra capacity.

Noticed a belt squeak after warm up. Figured I'd toss a new one on since the old one was probably factory. 97+ uses a different belt routing, and makes adjusting the belt much easier. Just one 15mm bolt adjusts the tension.

New belt installed, and it's now squeak free. (Tip: Coil up your old belt for a trail spare)

I also noticed the drivers seat was a bit loose. Turns out one of the rear bolt heads had sheared off. The front two were also finger loose (opposite of finger tight )).

Vice grips wouldn't budge it, so I decided to drill it. Total PITA.

Tossed a new bolt and nut on.

Seat is no longer semi-float.

Another issue I noticed was the driver front tire had a slow leak. I found a piece of wood through the tread. Rather than deal with the tire shop, I plugged it myself. (If you don't have a plug kit, get one)

 

[TORX]

One the few things I kept from Jeepforceone was my battery. It's a Deka Intimidator AGM battery. I planned to swap it into the Nail Salon, but the 97+ battery trays are a bit smaller than the early models.

I figured a good first project for the new ride would be a heavy duty battery tray. I planned to basically copy the last one I made, with a few minor changes.

1x1x.120 angle.

The new tray is about an inch wider than the stock tray.

Stacked some dimes.

Made a mounting template. The fourth hole would get drilled for an additional bolt.

Transfer template to steel.

Determine your mounting height, add some support, and tie downs.

Test fit.

Add some paint, and install. It's a tight fit, but it works. The fourth mounting hole really stiffened up the mount from my last one.

Now I just need to get some new bigger/better cables made.

 

[Bronzewyrm]

nice work dustin.:cheers:

Now I just need to get some new bigger/better cables made.

i was going to say. the 1st thing that went fubar on my late model was the cabels. REPLACE THEM. and Ground the snot out if it. i redid all my grounds with 4ga. havent had a probem since. take a good close look at the pos wires for corotion.

bronze.

 

[crazymoose1990]

Need to do this on the drives side, soon my air filter will be in the cowl, that leaves me with space for an extra battery.

 

[2xtreme]

Awsome write up Dustin, I love it!
A couple of notes:
1. On the early models you should replace the idler pulley at the same time as the belt (not sure if this is recommended on the late models?) I always carried a spare belt and idler pulley and know that two people needed them from me on the trail because they replaced the belt without the idler and shortly after it took them both out.

2. My local battery cable shop (Pacific Power Batteries) are wonderful for making up any cables I needed. I think I paid less than 1/2 of what people sell the after market kits for and they were much nicer than the kits I have seen and local.

Michael

 

[TORX]

Awsome write up Dustin, I love it!
A couple of notes:
1. On the early models you should replace the idler pulley at the same time as the belt (not sure if this is recommended on the late models?) I always carried a spare belt and idler pulley and know that two people needed them from me on the trail because they replaced the belt without the idler and shortly after it took them both out.

2. My local battery cable shop (Pacific Power Batteries) are wonderful for making up any cables I needed. I think I paid less than 1/2 of what people sell the after market kits for and they were much nicer than the kits I have seen and local.

Michael

I didnt' even think of replacing the idler. With the belt off though I did check the pulleys for slop, and didn't notice anything alarming. I do carry a spare idler and serpentine belt in the trail bag though.

The cables I had on the last Jeep I had made at a local welding supply store (Liberty Welding Supply). They sell the wire by the foot (very reasonable) and crimp on the connectors free of charge. I went with 2AWG last time, and will probably go the same route again. Just need to get some measurements, and track down supplies.

 

[TORX]

UPS Man followed me home.

I figured I'd need a CB sooner or later, so I ordered up a Uniden 520XL. I kept my Firestik antenna, mount, and coax to reuse on the new Jeep.

Got the antenna mounted up.

CB mounted. Wires were fished under the carpet. The extra cable is the axillary cable for the stereo.

Only thing left to do is get the antenna tuned.

 

[crazymoose1990]

Same one I have, hopefully yours transmits better that mine does. I may need to tune my anntena.

 

[Icemans]

That's a great CB I had one in my other rig and was going to move it to the XJ but couldn't find a place I liked it mounted. So I bought the Corba 75wxt

https://www.cobra.com/detail/75-wx-...-radio-with-soundtracker-and-noaa-weather.cfm

I really like it but I do like what you have done with yours dustin that looks good and shouldn't be in the way.

 

[crazymoose1990]

One of the things that sold me on that CB was its size, I mounted mine between the steering wheel and the center consol, it fits perfect.

 

[ruger81]

UPS Man followed me home.

I figured I'd need a CB sooner or later, so I ordered up a Uniden 520XL. I kept my Firestik antenna, mount, and coax to reuse on the new Jeep.

Got the antenna mounted up.

CB mounted. Wires were fished under the carpet. The extra cable is the axillary cable for the stereo.

Only thing left to do is get the antenna tuned.

Let me know all tune the antenna and make the radio preform like a champ..

 

[dick.breakey]

I want my antenna tuned

 

[TORX]

Picked up a Ford 8.8 at Fred Meyer today.

 

[jonesinxj]

Hey dustin, I could have swore I heard at NWFest that if you got an auto trans, rory would send you one of his setups....??

 

[BPB]

How did you wire your antenna? I didn't see the coax connector there?