[jarcher401]

Man I can not wait to get all of this mock up done so it can be torn down AGAIN, and paint and reupholster everything

 

[jarcher401]

So we did a little messing around with E brake ideas last weekend. Because of the way the Isuzu E brake cables are it lined up perfect for an E brake handle. Not sure if this will be our final design or not. I think the cables look funny, but with the flares on it might hide them.

Idk what do you guys think.

 

[jarcher401]

So I worked on the throttle cable today. We tried a mr gasket throttle cable and it was complete junk so we decided we wanted to stay with oem. We decided with the fiberglass body we would cut the throttle cable section out of the firewall on the oem steel tub and fiberglass it on. I will have more pictures of that soon.

Not happy with the length of the cable. I ordered a cable that was just an inch shorter as this was one I had laying around.

I am also going to modify the cable bracket becasue my carb spacer.

Poor picture of the steel throttle cable hole. Its bolted on now but will be fiberglassed in when we do our body work

 

[Colin_98TJ]

Pics aren't showing up in the last two posts for me. Nice build though!

 

[jarcher401]

do they work now

 

[jarcher401]

So I had to modify the throttle cable bracket to make the mounting point a little higher due to the carb spacer. I have a new throttle cable on the way.

Also worked on the E brake as well. I had to adapt the Isuzu E brake cable to the Subaru E brake that I had laying around.

 

[jarcher401]

It was a pretty good weekend. Updates to come

 

[jarcher401]

Throttle cable was next on things to do after body install. We had the original cable but for some reason it was about an inch too short. So I ordered up a new one off Ebay (seller 4wheel.drive.hardware) for $16.99 This measured longer and was actually for our application. Excellent quality, fast sevice and great price. Now having a fiberglass body poses some problems when it comes to fastening hardware that normally got fastened to sheet metal. Fiberglass is thicker, so the firewall end of the cable would not snap into place. There is a modification plate made with a square hole for this purpose https://www.google.com/search?q=jeep+fiberglass+body+thottle+cable&oq=jeep+fiberglass+body+
thottle+cable&aqs=chrome..69i57.15162j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=
210&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8#q=jeep+fiberglass+body+throttle+cable&tbm=shop&spd=0

I,m thinking, why can't you just cut out the square hole in the metal firewall that we kept? The curvature of the fiberglass body seemed to match the metal one pretty close. So I cut out the hole in no particular shape figuring I could trim it later. If layed against the inside of the firewall the curve matched perfectly. Shell Valley did a good job here. http://www.shellvalley.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=results/category
_id=137/home_id=-1/mode=cat/cat137.htm

This mod might not work for other fiberglass bodies, but worth cheking into before making unnecessary puchases. The square hole was then traced and drilled out to a diameter matching the diameter behind the square on the cable. I tapped 4 holes for 10 - 32 thread and fastened the plate with stainless button head allen screws from the outside. Then pushed the cable into place through the round hole into the thinner square hole. The other end was also without problems due to alignment with the carb linkage. It appeared too low and was pulling down on the linkage and I couldn't figure out why until Jeffrey reminded me that we had used a 1" carb spacer. Duh! That meant the throttle cable bracket had to be moved up the same amount. This could have been accomplished by putting a spacer between the intake and bracket, but wasn't pleased with how it would look. I optioned to cut and lengthen the bracket for a more factory look. The bracket was cut and a piece with matching strengthening rib was fabricated and welded into place, some grinding, filler and paint, along with some stainless mounting bolts and the problem was solved. Now the cable pulled the linkage straight.

 

[jarcher401]

Needing a battery tray, but not wanting to spend the money, Jeffrey opted to see what was laying around my vast inventory of "hey I can use this some day" stash. As it turned out I had saved 3 of these trays from a machine shop I worked at, oh probably 27 years ago. These were a part we made and got scrapped for whatever reason. One I mounted on my garage wall to hold my battery charger, so had 2 extras. Turned out to be the exact size of the original rusted out tray. So he put his fabrication skills to work and came up with this version.

The tray is stainless steel so should hold up for a while. Angled supports were welded to the sides then bolted through the firewall with a support plate on the inside that can be threaded into. A bottom support was fabricated from, you guessed it, "hey I can use this some day" inventory. In this case, a stainless tube from a ladder rung of a long torn down play gym that I had built when the boys were young. The ends were flattened, drilled and bent to the proper angle.

The upper end fastens to the underside of the plate and the bottom end rests, and is bolted on top of the floor to firewall seam lip, making for a very solid and stable platform for the battery. A hold down will be made upon deciding on what battery will be used. Most likely a G.M. style freedom battery with side posts. The starter solenoid will be mounted underneath the tray out of sight, making for tidy wiring.

 

[jarcher401]

Had to find something else that I could do that was a one man project, so I tackled the cowl to grille support rods. The originals were bent and rusted so I scrounged up some 3/8" square stainless from the scrap barrel at work. Turned the end and threaded them. Jeffrey had previously made up brackets from aluminum angle and polished them that looked pretty cool. Since the battery tray was already mounted I had to make sure there was enough vertical clearance for the battery to the underside of the support rod. Mounting the brackets with the leg down and the rod end on top gave the most clearance. A 3/8 rod end and jam nut was screwed onto the one end, mounted to the bracket then measured for length at the grille end. Cut that to length, turned the end and threaded it. Using a jam nut and acorn nut for visual effect was utilized on that end. Now since he polished the brackets, I'll wait till he gets home to polish the stainless rod. Hey, gotta let something for him to do.

 

[jarcher401]

In the Jan. 24th. post I described how the fiberglass body was narrower where the windshield mounts and how we put shims behind the hinges to take up the space. After some thinking about that, it was determined that it would be a rust trap between the shims and hinges. Plus if the decision was made to go with stainless hinges it would not work so well. The alternative was to build out the body with fiberglass. This was done by roughing the gel coat in the area of the hinge and applying a layer of resin. After that hardened (and it does get hard) sanding and filing it down to a satisfactory straightness would be labor intensive.

So being a machinist, my mind gravitated towards milling it. Well since I can't mount the body into a milling machine. I decided to bring the milling machine to the body in the form of a hand held router. A piece of plywood was cut with an access hole a bit bigger than the area to be cut, then clamped to the body. A straight edge was then fastened to the plywood as a guide to slide the router against. The hinges were fastened to the windshield and a measurement was taken between the two sides then transferred to the cowl. 1/16" had to come off each side. The router was set to that depth plus the thickness of the plywood, and strapping on a mask the cut was made.

Surprisingly the material came off in chips rather than a more harmful dust. The whole rig was transferred to the other side and repeated. We ended up with perfectly flat mounting surfaces the correct width for the hinges. The windshield frame was test fitted with no side movement. Plus it saved ware and tear on this aging body.

 

[jarcher401]

Picked up a Ford Contour fan last week. Made up some mounts on the mill

 

[jarcher401]

First off I would like to thank all the individuals that posted tech articles on using the Ford Contour dual electric fan on the jeep-cj forum http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/ and the jeep forum http://www.jeepforum.com/ Both have been invaluable in the build of this CJ7 and would have been a struggle otherwise. I am including lots of pics, so any questions are welcome. The radiator is an all aluminum Champion 3 row core, model CC583B. This thing is a work of art, quality all the way. Purchased through Ebay store. http://stores.ebay.com/theradiatorgalaxy/ Fast shipping and great packaging. This fits with no modification at all. We added elbows for the transmission cooler lines for a direct route to the hard lines. 1/8 x 3/4 aluminum strips were added between the radiator mounting flange and the grille to give some clearance to the upper tank so it would not rub on the grille. Just a precautionary measure. These strips would later become advantageous in securing the mounting blocks for the electric fan. OK the fan. 1998 Ford Contour 4 cylinder dual electric with shroud. Cost us $20.00 at a local u-pull.
http://www.joesusedautoparts.com/GrebleUP.html I can not begin to describe how perfect this fits the radiator. Again, thank you forums. Fits in between the tanks and the mounting flanges like it was engineered for it. We trimmed some relief for the welds on the sides where the flange is stitched welded to the core. Once that was seated, measurements were taken to utilize the factory Ford mounting tabs. This is a slightly different approach from what we have seen, some fastening through the core, but this way was chosen for ease of install and future replacement. A word on replacement of junkyard parts, especially with newer cars. It is always good to document the VIN off the car the part was taken. Alot of times you inquire about a part at the parts store or dealer and they want the VIN due to mid year changes. This way you have a better chance of getting the correct part. Jeffrey milled mounts from aluminum blocks then the wedge for the lower mounts cut in on a bandsaw. I know everybody doesn't have access to a mill, but there is no reason these could not have been fabricated with just a saw. 1/4 - 20 threads were tapped so they could be mounted to the radiator flange through the previous mentioned 1/8 x 3/4 aluminum strips that were countersunk for 1/4 - 20 flat head stainless screws. The upper blocks have a 5/16 stainless stud installed in them. Once these blocks are mounted to the flange the radiator can then be mounted to the grille.

The fan assembly can then be mounted simply by lowering the bottom tabs into the the lower wedges then slide the upper mounts into position over the studs and secured with stainless washers and nuts. We will later switch to a stainless nylon lock nut to prevent having to tighten too excessively on the plastic tabs and then won't have to worry about them working loose. There is about 1/2" clearance between the acorn nuts on the water pump pulley (we could have more if using regular nuts). Plus the dual fan gives more clearance than a single fan would have. On the transmission cooler lines, we chose to go with barbed nipples and plain hose rather than have special hoses with crimped fittings. These always seem to leak and this way it is just a simple matter of cutting a length of hose and clamping it. Jeffrey has some decisions to make on fan controllers, there are plenty of options out there.

 

[O1dSoldier]

I put a fiberglass body on my CJ5 years ago (20+) and have never liked it. One of the issues is that it never fit well with the hood, windshield frame, etc. and the need to build custom brackets for everything. As I get ready to start my rebuild I am looking at a steel tub to replace it though I've wondered if quality and fitment of the newer glass tubs have improved or not to reduce the amount of fabrication needed.

 

[jarcher401]

The shell valley tub is amazing quality. Way better than 4wd. You can see some massaging is necessary, but here in PA rust kills. There are many days i wish i got a wrangler tub so i could just bolt everything in place, but should have no rust problems. Plus 150 to 200lbs lighter.

 

[jarcher401]

Started working on the dash. Will post up some more details later but here are the pictures.

 

[jarcher401]

Automatic Column Shift to Standard Floor Shift.

Anybody run into a problem in locating a GM tilt column, floor shift and headlight dimmer on the floor. Somebody is grabbing them out of the junkyards. If you find anything with a clutch pedal the column is gone. We had a shift tilt column from a J10 that we were using for mockup but were keeping our eye open for a floor shift column. Since no luck we had heard of people cutting off the shifter boss and filling it in with various materials. We were afraid of it eventually cracking out. Did some searching on different forums and through an Oldsmobile forum they made mention of Speedway Motors http://www.speedwaymotors.com/search.html?query=910-32600 offering a column shift cover part #910-32600 specifically for this purpose to hide the cut off shifter boss. Cost $31.02 to my door. It's really made for a non tilt column but will work for a tilt as well according to their very helpful staff. Fits great. OK that takes care of the shifter bowl. Since the ignition switch cover also has the shift quadrant assembly mounted to the cover, via an "L" shaped hole, that also had to be filled in. Couldn't find any after market mod for that. The cover is made from cast aluminum, so a piece of sheet aluminum was cut to shape, formed to the same radius as the cover, then pressed into place.

I originally tried to spot

weld with an aluminum rod but the cast was not co-operating. So I backed off before I ruined it and broke out the JB Weld. Smeared that on the inside and outside then ground it smooth. The inside can be left heavy for strength without any worry of it interfering with the function of the column. A column shift steering column has a shift tube that runs the whole length right down to the bottom bearing. This must be retained to hold the bottom bearing to support the lower shaft. Just cut off the linkage lever that connects to the shift linkage that goes to the transmission. After assembly, and when the shift tube is in the park position, it can be secured to the outer

column jacket tube by drilling and tapping for a 10 -32 button head screw. Speaking of assembly, I won't go into depth, that's what assembly manuals are for, but one word of caution. And this was the only snag I ran into due to lack of experience. There is a "lock sector tension spring" (craziest thing you ever wanted to look at) fastened to a plastic gear at the opposite end of the ignition switch. Well wouldn't you know I broke it. Well I surely didn't have one of those in my "might use it some day box" so internet to the rescue. Led me to Steering Column Services.
[URL]http://www.steeringcolumnservices.com/jeep/spring01-locking-pin-spring.php[/URL] Part # spring01 cost $4.85

OK so I order 2 of them. Well somehow 2nd day air got checked (by me, not them) and 2 springs cost me $78.18 flown to my door in 2 days from Utah. I did find the mistake the next day after seeing 5 emails and 1 phone message from them asking if I wanted to indeed ship it this method, but it was already shipped. I have to give them credit for trying. Lesson learned? don't be in a hurry, it will cost you. We ordered up a new turn signal switch from Advanced Auto part #S3233 for around $25. Ours was cracked. Interesting thing non of these switches come with the gray wire for the shift quadrant bulb. Not that we would be using it since we eliminated

that part but if you needed it for your application it would be necessary to remove the connector from your old switch and install it in the new one. We did, because we can use this wire to run to the floor shift quadrant display. The whole conversion should have cost us under $60.00 compared to $200.00 or more for a rebuild. I say should have if it wouldn't have been for my screw ups.

 

[jarcher401]

More Dash Work

 

[lovett86]

awesome jeep, keep up the great work

 

[jarcher401]

Thanks for the kind words!