[drerict]

Nice build man keep it up

[LSU_TJ]

^ Thanks man.

And thank you for what you do.

Just tell me your jeep is red.


.

[LSU_TJ]

3.29.09

Time to tackle the poor location the PO had the steering stabilizer in. I guess after changing the tie rod bar and whacking off the sway bar drop link brackets the OEM stabilizer bracket mount on the passenger side spring perch was not appealing so they whacked that off too....... Just not real sure why where they did put it was a good idea..... In the pictures below you can see they welded a bracket to one end of the tie rod bar and the other bracket to the diff cover....... WTF.....





And now to find a new location. I bought a set of Rancho universal mounts. One end is a bracket made for attaching to an axle and the other a steering rod mount. This seemed to be the best fit for my setup.


You can see the new one mounted here and the old brackets welded. Need to grind these off now........








Much better IMHO.


.

[LSU_TJ]

3.28.09

Come to the Dark Side with your chrome...


Black Chrome look with powder coat

Ok, here is the writeup everyone was asking for from the OP.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f9/oh-yea-baby-once-you-go-black-742659-post6915961/?posted=1#post6915961

Writeup was a little long so I started a new thread for the process instead of adding it to the OP.


Items Needed:

To do this process I used the Powder coat gun from Harbor Freight. I did a lot of research when I was wanting to get into powder coating and the consensus was this gun for home use.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=94244


I am usually not a fan of electric tools from the Freight but everyone seemed to rave about this one over the other choices out there till you get into commercial guns. So for home use this was it. I have done a lot of pieces and this gun is doing a great job.

This gun needs to operate at 10-30psi so you will need a regulator of some sort and of course a compressor.

The other main item you need to powder coat is an oven. Most home users go with a toaster oven since the pieces you do are generally small. I bought the biggest toaster oven Wal-Mart sells for just this purpose as it ruins the oven for food use. You also do not want to do this in your house. Do it in your shop/garage with good ventilation. Powder coating is a very environment friendly paint process. You have no real over spray to deal with, just the powder that scatters around. You just sweep or vacuum this up as it is a dry powder.

The only other thing you need is the powder. I use Rosey's Powder Coating as my powder supplier and have had great success with them and their products.

http://roseyspowdercoating.biz/osCommerce/catalog/

The actual powder I used for this job was their Black Transparent powder.

http://roseyspowdercoating.biz/osCommerce/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29&products_id=29

This is a transparent powder so you are actually looking through this coating to the surface underneath. The shinier the substrate the more reflective the finished piece will look. So chrome as the base works best but you can use any high gloss silver shade, polished aluminum should also work well. You just want the underlying reflective layer to be as free of scratches or imperfections as possible as you see through this transparent powder coat to this layer and will see anything that is there. It does not hide what is on the silver coating. The bake times are different for different powders and they label them on the bag. For this one I used 400 deg for 10 min in the oven then took out and set on top to cool gradually.



The Process:

I started with new KC Chrome 6" Daylighter lights so I had no scratches, dirt or fingerprints all over them to deal with.






I did make sure the chrome was as clean and shiny as possible when I began as you will see anything on this surface when you are done. As with most paint processes prep is the key to good success. The surface must be degreased, clean and lint free. I completely disassembled the lights so I was left with only the metal pieces I was coating with the powder.





You do not want to bake any rubber or wiring so do each piece separately after taking it all apart. Powder Coating electro-statically charges the powder and you ground the metal surface to be coated with the machine that is attached to the gun via a ground wire and a foot operated pedal.





As you can see in the pictures I have attached the ground wire to an inconspicuous area because you will not get 100% coverage at the exact spot the ground clips to.









You do not want to touch the surface you are coating as you will mess up the powder but more importantly when you press the pedal and pull the trigger on the gun you have electrically charged the surface and if you touch it, it will light you up like a Christmas tree!

I know, I've seen me do it... When you press the pedal it charges the metal and pull the trigger on the gun it emits a fine dust of the powder out the gun and will stick to the metal surface as you wave it back and forth over the item. When you have a good dull coating of the dust all over the item you can stop spraying and release the foot pedal charge. You can see the dull layer of powder dust that covers the item in the above and below pictures.





You now have to transfer the item to the oven and be careful not to touch the powder or shake the item too hard as you can knock the powder off. Some parts I hang inside and some I lay down on a tray depending on the size. I laid these down due to their size. Just remember that any surface touching something will not have 100% coverage and will stick lightly to the paint so only let parts that are not visible on the assembled piece touch the tray during the bake process. Pre-heat the oven to the required temperature for the powder you are using. In my case I used 400 degrees and the required set (bake) time is 10 min at this temperature. You can watch the powder liquefy and turn as it bakes if you have a glass window on the oven.





Do not open it during this bake time as you will drop the temperature inside the oven and can screw up the finish. You will then need to remove the item and will want to let it cool somewhat gradually to maintain a glossy finish. I just set it on top as I did not hang these items in the oven.





After a few minutes of cool down time I moved it to a cooler area to come to room temperature. Once cool it is cured and can be handled. Re-assemble and admire your work. Be warned though this stuff is addictive, you'll be covering everything you can think of with this magic dust......


























.

[V-8unlimited]

Umm,, yeah, nice jeep, but we want more pics of the avatar!! LOL.. seriously, very nice work so far, keep it up! I think you may have talked me into the black chrome look also on my KC's.

[LSU_TJ]

Thanks, I love the look. Not flashy from a distance but lots of depth up close. Nice unique finish.

And on the avatars. There's plenty more where that came from. Keep an eye out. They rotate.....


.

[LSU_TJ]

Oh, BTW. Harbor Freight has that powdercoat gun on sale right now for I think $59.


.

[LSU_TJ]

Ok, this should catch me up on the past writeups.

4.19.09

Windshield lights are Hot!


Spent the weekend between showers finally getting these wired up and hot. We now have light.

Here's the writeup of my work.
(Warning: long read)

I have done a lot of reading on here about different ways to route the wiring and was going to drill the cowl in the top right corner and put the grommet in and fit the metal wire casing through the hole. I thought this was a clean look but at the last moment changed my mind and am very happy with the results. I decided against drilling a hole in the cowl in the event I ever wanted to take these off. I also liked the way the tucked in the corner of the cowl jobs looked. I was just not crazy about the end of the metal wire casing with the sharp edges rubbing the paint and causing rust so I went that route with a twist.


First off remove the cowl. You will first have to take the wipers off then I had 7 phillips screws in mine. Two at the top right and top left, then one in the middle of the cowl vent (my tub is a 97 not sure about the later tubs with the smaller vent) and then two are hidden behind the gasket at the front by the hood on each side of the cowl as shown here.





Cowl is off and ready to start running wiring.





Found a good spot to drill a hole through the engine bay into the cowl area.





Used the dremel to clean the hole up and smooth rough edges so it will not cut the wire casing.





Since the bare metal was exposed I covered it with touch up paint to avoid rust later.








Let that dry overnight then started with the heat shrink.





This is how much this stuff shrinks when you put the heat gun to it.





Ends all wrapped up and ready to connect.





Now here is what I thought of that made me do it this way instead of using a grommet and drilling a hole through the cowl. I thought the heat shrink around the end of the metal wire casing would protect the rough edge from scratching the paint and provide a clean transition point at the spot it would tuck under the edge of the cowl.





Ran the wiring through the hole I drilled then routed it behind the wiper system at the firewall to the connections for the lights.





Wiring is now all tucked in on the right and left sides.








Cowl is back on and all wiring is tidy.








I am happy with these results. Now on to the switch wiring. I wanted to use the factory switches to keep that clean look so I pulled the switch panel out and used a Digital Multimeter to figure out the wiring to this switch.





Here is the pin wiring details.





I used a Heavy Duty Light wiring kit for this install and the only wire needing to go through the firewall to the switch on the interior was the yellow turn on lead. This wire goes to pin number 3 on the factory switch. This tells the relay to send the power from the hot wire on the positive terminal on the battery to the lights and power them up. I ran this wire through the top of the hole where the A/C penetrates the firewall as seen here with two other yellow wires for my Rubicon Locker Air Compressors.





All done now. Long writeup but should answer most questions on how to wire this up and what it will look like. After all this I realized I did not get a good shot of what it looks like from the front showing both lights installed, wired and the cowl on. I will try to get a better one tomorrow, dark now.......





.

[LSU_TJ]

Looks like I have 3 bad shocks. Doing a lot of floating..... Ordered a new set a few days ago and they should be in the end of next week. That should tighten things up and I got a surprise in store for this job. I think you're gonna like it.......


.

[trey_dogg3]

nice build and write up. I even like that the Jeep is Razorback red. Just joking heck my Jeep is LSU yellow. But nice looking jeep and that powder coating looks great.

[hoppy1539]

Looks great!!! It appears to be just missing one thing though. With that great red and black it needs a UGA sticker. GO DAWGS. Keep up the good work on it.

[LSU_TJ]

^ Ain't gonna happen. But I did make the front page of the newspaper and the local news makin' my Bulldog Gumbo in Hot Lanta a few years ago in the RV lot before the SEC championship game.

We always win the tailgate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



.

[LSU_TJ]

Ok, when I was looking for a jeep, yellow was the first and obvious color choice and red was my next. Just couldn't pass on the build this jeep already had underway so red it was. I had all intentions of repainting to yellow but I must admit the red has really grown on me so I guess I'll take the ribbin'........


.

[LSU_TJ]

Ok, here's a hint on what I have working on the shock system. I think I have built a better mouse trap......





More to come......


.

[mudking_ky87]

so I never realized powder coating could be baked in a small kitchen oven... never thought about it, I am considering giving it a try, is it fairly easy?