Weekend is over...what did you get done?

After a year of having lebaron vents the rain got the best of my TPS. Made it an interesting drive home last night...got a new one and now on to fab up som drip pans.

This is why I have never wanted hood vents. I have found that removing the gasket between the hood and the cowl will let a good bit of under-hood heat out and not let rain in. My son did the math for me but if you add up the gap that is created by removing that gasket for the entire width of the hood, it equals a 4" dia hole.
 
Friday night I pretty much stayed in out of the nasty weather... Saturday I helped a buddy do some much needed cleaning and detailing on his new to him 96 Cobra, and also made a few minor repairs to it as well. Then we went to eat dinner and decided to go to cleveland to partake in a little bit of the "motorsport action" that goes on around there. On the way the car blew a belt and so I had to limp it to a nearby gas station. Luckily I keep a spare belt at home (although it is a squeaky belt) so we were able to go home and grab the belt and tools in my buddies car and then we came back and replaced it at the gas station... sounds easy but its actually pretty involved as you have to remove the super charger to swap the belt. However we were able to get it fixed in about 20 mins so not too bad I guess. We even made it up to cleveland to meet the crowd and had some fun playing around with them. Today we were going to go run deals gap and the cherohala skyway after church, so I got up early and took the busted belt to the parts store to swap it out for a new one. I got it on with plenty of time to spare for church, so I got a shower and got dressed and hopped in the car to head that way... I didn't make it out of the drive way before the hydro boost brake booster blew a seal or something and started pissing fluid all over the place. SO... no gap today. The sad thing is that the original booster was leaking so I swapped it while I had the engine out, and the one I put in didn't work at all. So I swapped it again (its a royal pain with that wide friggen DOHC 4.6 in there) and it worked pretty good until now. By pretty good I mean most of the time, as in every now and then it would stop working too. Well I guess today it just gave up completely. So this will be the 3rd A1 cardone reman brake booster thats been on my car since late august of last year and I really don't drive it much at all. Very sad that they cant get this right... Its dangerous too, because when that thing isn't working, its pretty pointless to even hit the brakes b/c they really dont do much at all with out it. :smsoap:
 
The roof sliders are about done. Just some gusseting and cross-bracing.

Right now it weighs about 70#, So gussets and bracing may add 12#.

It looks "okay", I'm not crazy about the sliders, my redneck bending didn't turn out well but they fit to the crossbars perfectly. I really don't know were i went wrong there.

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got the quick disconnects on and the longer brake lines on the front today. had to drill out the bolts on the sway bar links to get the new ones in. still have to get the bushings in the leaf springs before the next wheelin trip..thats going to be fun..
 
Attempted to install fog lights on the DD and failed. Company I bought them from sent me two left side brackets instead of one left and one right.

Then, attempted to install HID's on the Jeep and also failed. Discovered that i've got a bad ballast out of the box :banghead:

About the only thing that went right this weekend on the vehicles was a tire balance on the DD, but that's because somebody else did it!
 
Friday night I pretty much stayed in out of the nasty weather... Saturday I helped a buddy do some much needed cleaning and detailing on his new to him 96 Cobra, and also made a few minor repairs to it as well. Then we went to eat dinner and decided to go to cleveland to partake in a little bit of the "motorsport action" that goes on around there. On the way the car blew a belt and so I had to limp it to a nearby gas station. Luckily I keep a spare belt at home (although it is a squeaky belt) so we were able to go home and grab the belt and tools in my buddies car and then we came back and replaced it at the gas station... sounds easy but its actually pretty involved as you have to remove the super charger to swap the belt. However we were able to get it fixed in about 20 mins so not too bad I guess. We even made it up to cleveland to meet the crowd and had some fun playing around with them. Today we were going to go run deals gap and the cherohala skyway after church, so I got up early and took the busted belt to the parts store to swap it out for a new one. I got it on with plenty of time to spare for church, so I got a shower and got dressed and hopped in the car to head that way... I didn't make it out of the drive way before the hydro boost brake booster blew a seal or something and started pissing fluid all over the place. SO... no gap today. The sad thing is that the original booster was leaking so I swapped it while I had the engine out, and the one I put in didn't work at all. So I swapped it again (its a royal pain with that wide friggen DOHC 4.6 in there) and it worked pretty good until now. By pretty good I mean most of the time, as in every now and then it would stop working too. Well I guess today it just gave up completely. So this will be the 3rd A1 cardone reman brake booster thats been on my car since late august of last year and I really don't drive it much at all. Very sad that they cant get this right... Its dangerous too, because when that thing isn't working, its pretty pointless to even hit the brakes b/c they really dont do much at all with out it. :smsoap:

Over the years of working for O'Reilly's and working on cars I've learned to avoid A1 Cardone at all costs. In most cases I could have paid for a dealer part by the time I figure in the time it takes to swap out the same part 4 times to get it right. I went thru 3 power steering pumps and 3 steering boxes about 6 months ago.

Attempted to install fog lights on the DD and failed. Company I bought them from sent me two left side brackets instead of one left and one right.

Then, attempted to install HID's on the Jeep and also failed. Discovered that i've got a bad ballast out of the box :banghead:

About the only thing that went right this weekend on the vehicles was a tire balance on the DD, but that's because somebody else did it!

I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one that had issues this weekend.


Pulled the leaking lower tranmission of my wifes 98 DD to realize the parts store sold me the wrong line. Ordered a new line. It'll be here Tuesday.

Tried a different master/slave cylinder on the MJ... Didn't work. Going to ahve to drop the transmission again.

Installed a different bump stop setup on the trail rig. No more metal on metal bumper stops. In doing this I cut down to about 3" of uptravel in the back but I think the rubber will give a little bit and have be back to the 3.5" I had before. (This was the only thing that went right.)
 
Over the years of working for O'Reilly's and working on cars I've learned to avoid A1 Cardone at all costs. In most cases I could have paid for a dealer part by the time I figure in the time it takes to swap out the same part 4 times to get it right. I went thru 3 power steering pumps and 3 steering boxes about 6 months ago.

Over my years of working at Advance, I learned the same thing. The only Cardone stuff I have on my vehicles are front calipers on the Jeep. I'm sure i'll jump in it one day and they'll have siezed for no apparent reason while sitting for a week or something...
 
The roof sliders are about done. Just some gusseting and cross-bracing.

Right now it weighs about 70#, So gussets and bracing may add 12#.

It looks "okay", I'm not crazy about the sliders, my redneck bending didn't turn out well but they fit to the crossbars perfectly. I really don't know were i went wrong there.

We got a bender we're putting together now Jon. Got dies from 1.25" up to 3"..just gotta find a motor for it now and paint it and we're ready to go!
 
Got the C-Pillar in... Gonna make some mounts for various things (fire extinguisher, CO2 bottle, etc) so they are securely mounted. So glad to almost be finished with tubing!

Got everything gutted out of the back

IMG_20120303_132127.jpg


Uprights welded in, and through the roof to the exo.

IMG_20120303_210712.jpg


The downward angled pieces follow the contour of the rear of the back seat.

IMG_20120305_114817.jpg


IMG_20120305_114806.jpg


The big picture.

IMG_20120305_114755.jpg
 
Got the C-Pillar in... Gonna make some mounts for various things (fire extinguisher, CO2 bottle, etc) so they are securely mounted. So glad to almost be finished with tubing!

Got everything gutted out of the back

IMG_20120303_132127.jpg


Uprights welded in, and through the roof to the exo.

IMG_20120303_210712.jpg


The downward angled pieces follow the contour of the rear of the back seat.

IMG_20120305_114817.jpg


IMG_20120305_114806.jpg


The big picture.

IMG_20120305_114755.jpg

Ops... need to look before I post. Will the back seat still fit? You have a youngun now!
 
Got the fire extinguisher mount fabbed up. I didnt really trust the original mount it came with, so I did my own thing. I will be mounting one of these in the front as well. These are the larger, 5 lb bottles. The steel is 11 gauge.

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Nice snug fit.

IMG_20120305_121814.jpg


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All done, using a large Quick Fist for the fastening.

IMG_20120305_124830.jpg


Need to secure the hose, its gonna bother me flopping around...

IMG_20120305_125548.jpg
 
stump..... is your 1.5" die a pro tools 105 die? or is it one of tylers die's?

Doug, I have a Protools 105 1.5" die, but my father has it tied up with a job at his shop, we share dies whenever possible. But yes, I used Tylers die to do my cage. They both fit/work in the gotrikes bender.
 
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