[TJsRedTJ]

Next up on the list... I found a killer deal on a hard top I couldn't pass up. I have a soft top for it that I am going to get formed properly, but that will be costing a lot of money honestly. I paid 450 for a hardtop without back glass. (In Salt Lake, hardtops go for a minimum of 1K in good condition, no questions asked). This top is an original top and has tinted side glass which I should be able to get some money back for. (If anyone needs some side glass, I know a guy!)

Anyway, This top was a little rough but still structurally sound. I have never been a fan of fiberglass/SMC before and still am not. Hate the stuff. But it is always fun to learn a new skill so here we go. Hardtop project is underway. Cut it down to what I think will fit, and it was a touch long.. Perfect since you can always cut more, right?

And yes, for this project I had to pull it out of the garage to get the top on. Man did this feel good..

Hardtop cut down..

I didn't think anything of it, but at the end of the day when I pushed the jeep back into the garage... It was too tall! I had to let the tires down to 4 psi in order for it to drop enough to fit. Luckily it was enough to still roll ok.

Big things coming...

 

[TJsRedTJ]

Alright, drumroll please....

Rear axle and control arms are welded! I must say though.. I've heard all of these jokes about "when your friends a welder", but I don't see the punch line? Seems pretty alright to me?.. :dunno: Enjoy some weld porn.

But seriously, this guy knows his stuff.. He works for a company that is the only company in the country certified to construct portable explosives mixing units for mining. They convert shipping containers into these labs that mix ammonium nitrate* and diesel. (*If I remember correctly). His welds can never be less than perfect or people may die. He can weld any metal at any angle. Soon he'll have his own shop and I can recommend Klunker Kustoms to anyone, but for now, I'm just lucky he's a good friend

Got it all mounted! Rear suspension is under its own weight! (minus ORI's for now)

I did not have him weld the strut mounts so I knew, in the end, They would be exactly where I wanted them to be.

And just as a fun side note, I asked my buddy to write a quick paragraph about his process with welding the truss to this axle. I will put it in when he gets back to me.

"Insert genius welders info here"

That's all the fun for now! Front axle is underway.. I picked up 6 more Summit Machine flex joints and will be making some measurements for more 2 inch DOM to pick up from Midnight 4X4. I am hoping to have this as a soft rolling frame in a month or so. This way I can put it on the alignment rack and see if my thrust angle is close or if I completely botched my bracket placement :grin2:

 

[TJsRedTJ]

This post will just serve as a search marker. I know a lot of people have been wondering about welding the cast on the Sterling axle. Here is what my buddy said...

"Housing section was welded with Ni-99 and everything else was welded with ER70S-6."


Just ignore this part. These are just some keywords and phrases for people to find this information...

Sterling 10.5, Sterling 10.25, sterling cast section material, how to weld sterling cast section, sterling truss, sterling welding.. yada, yada...

 

[Boojo35]

Those are some pretty welds. Nice work on the project.

 

[daddyjeep87]

There should have been a few more steps to welding that nodular iron center section. What was his pre-heat and cooling procedure? Other than that, it Looks great.

 

[TJsRedTJ]

There should have been a few more steps to welding that nodular iron center section. What was his pre-heat and cooling procedure? Other than that, it Looks great.

Oh trust me there were more steps. I haven't gotten the full process from him yet but I know for sure he pre-heated and wrapped with welding blankets afterward. As soon as he gets around to it, I will have a full detailed writeup of what he did to it.

 

[TJsRedTJ]

Alright, it's been a while so it's time for an update.. And it's a big one. I bought my first house! Sparing all the details, I got lucky. I was the official backup offer, and the primary offer fell through in the final week so I got myself a dream home with a 4 car shop!

Also, my shop boss decided to upgrade our one crappy Chinese lifts to match our 8 other nice lifts, and guess who's the favorite employee! So I got a lift for free! It may be cheap and beat up, but hey, it still works. After a long process of deciding where, measuring, and cutting, I have a lift! In addition to wiring the lift, I also wired in a heater so I know have a heated shop in the wintertime. Also been swapping out those little LED bulbs for shop lights so it's nice and bright. The house (and by that I mean garage) is coming along nicely The house itself hasn't needed a thing.

But anyway, back to the jeep...

I was at a pause with money early on in the summer, so I took advantage of the nice weather and box of interior parts and I decided to take apart all of the HVAC stuff and deep dash stuff and clean it up.

Why build a jeep and have a dirty interior? I got everything sprayed off well and took a rag to every crack and crevasse so it'll be spotless.

Also to note... In a previous post, I mentioned that I was taking apart all of the calipers to do a full rebuild.. But since then I've done some research and realized that you can buy a complete kit from powerstop including calipers, drilled and slotted rotors, and performance pads for around 700 bucks... So I bailed on cleaning up old calipers and will be buying an all new braking system. Once again, why go cheap for such an important part of the build, especially since this will see street time.

Also, I got the dana 60 torn apart and sent it in for sandblasting.

As soon as I can, I will weigh that 60 so I can add that information in...

 

[TJsRedTJ]

Next up was another change in decision. I realized I want the biggest ORI's possible on this build and came to the conclusion that the strut towers I had weren't enough.. I also wanted to support local and American made once again, so I called up Artec and got their towers. Normal length for the rear, and the extended for the front. These are so much better than what I had originally... Here is the difference in "standard" towers...

And here's the difference in the standard previous tower versus the Artec extended tower...

These were just tall enough that they hit my hood just barely so I had to shave a tiny bit off..

And the final...

Yes I do plan on adding a support bar across the top of the towers. That will be situated once I get the engine in and figured out.

 

[TJsRedTJ]

Speaking of engine... I finally decided to go ahead and pull my engine from the donor vehicle..

Well I think that's all for now! Currently, my garage has now been occupied by my friends jeep. It is getting a full redo.. From rusty, loose, and damage Skyjacker short arms and stock steering to a full Metalcloak lock and load long arm kit and Curry Currectklync steering kit with Savvy tie rod. It'll be a whole new jeep.. Garage goals anyone??

 

[jpin86]

Congratulations on the new house and AWESOME garage!

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Congrats on the new digs. Buying your first home is an exciting time. And it looks like a great shop - especially adding the lift.

Great to see the Jeep under way again.

 

[daddyjeep87]

Congrats.


I see you are ceiling height challenges for the lift as I am. Find yourself a couple of old office chairs to roll around in under the vehicles. They work way better than that little stool you have there. I also have one of those stools, but use the chair more. It is much more stable.

 

[TJsRedTJ]

Thanks! It was a bit intimidating on a single income... but I am lucky to have a big support structure and am very thankful how things are working out. I pay the favors forward when I can.

I see you are ceiling height challenges for the lift as I am. Find yourself a couple of old office chairs to roll around in under the vehicles. They work way better than that little stool you have there. I also have one of those stools, but use the chair more. It is much more stable.

That I am.. Luckily it lifts high enough to roll around under. I was thinking it would be just too low for that. Its still ten fold better than no lift at all so I am not complaining. But great idea with the chairs. New item on the list of garage purchases haha.

 

[TJsRedTJ]

Alright I got the financial numbers updated. Bought the control arm material, stuff for the track bar, and the steering. Today my welding buddy is coming over and we are finalizing the front suspension! Aside from 2 more ORI's, this is *hopefully* going to be a rolling frame by the end of the day! Or at least tacked in place. There's a lot to do... Setting up control arms, track bar length, upper control arm frame bracket relocation, truss welding, and the knuckle brackets from Artec which are intense, then setting up steering.. We'll see how much we get done. Updates coming later! :grin2:

 

[TJsRedTJ]

Alright I know its been a while so here we go..

In the last post, i made mention that the front suspension was to be finalized. That didn't happen. After looking over everything all roughly set in place, we decided that a front stretch was going to be necessary to aid in tire clearance. With a stretch came complications to the mount locations and steering box obviously. More to come on the front stretch later..

For now, I did go ahead with the steering from Artec Industries. 1.5x.250 wall with 7/8 JMX rod ends mated with the crossover weld-on high steer arms. I forgot to get the photos of those being welded up but I have the final product photos... Little bit confusesd as to the big bolt that goes through.. May just chop it flush and weld it all closed with plug welds.

Also got some bad but still ok ball joints from a job at work so I decided to buff down the knurl so they were hand press in for dummy joints.

 

[TJsRedTJ]

Here are the photos of the steering. Note that this was before I decided to do a front stretch so the track bar bracket will be relocated. But here is how everything will look...

 

[TJsRedTJ]

Although I don't enjoy the idea, every year I buy something bigger on Black Friday to cut some costs down just a bit. This year, I decided it was time to start thinking about the engine. I decided to go ahead and buy the adapter for the BHW to AX15. I went with the Whitbread Performance adapter. This is a piece of art let me tell ya..

The rest of the year was spent with family and friends doing holiday things so more to come in the new year!

 

[TJsRedTJ]

Anybody like wiring? Since I enjoy being warm, I decided to shift my attention to something I could do inside with heat. That something is the wiring harness for both the engine and the jeep. Up first was the jeep harness that would control all things internal, as well as a few sensors for the gauges to work. These will be adapted to the TDI so everything is happy.

Here's the harness to begin with

And here's where I ended up

All of this is going to be stripped fully, routed appropriately and extended with same color wires where needed, and re-loomed with new stuff making it all look factory.

I would go into detail with wiring but there are a lot of good resources already out there for this kind of stuff. The only thing I may make mention of are things that I ran into or things that I can't find any info on.

 

[TJsRedTJ]

Up next was the TDI harness. This one has quite a few more wires.. Dang german engineering. This is 1 of 2 connectors.

And here's old vs. new

Wiring is one of those things that feel frustrating at the moment, things tangled, cut the wrong one, can't find another, etc.. But in the end, it is very rewarding to see it all cleaned up. After getting everything stripped, I connected the 2 necessary leads to positive and all the grounds to negative and connected my scanner to see if I had communication. Success!

One thing that I did notice that I will post here...

I found no info on pins 70 and 71 in the T94 connector. One sheet I have lists them as "relay for heating coolant high and low output", yet every wiring diagram I had showed that there was nothing in those locations, but I had wires. Finally through Identifix, under a different version of the wiring diagram, I found those two little wires with an asterisk next to them stating "Except US/Canada". But my passat was not an import so I am confused... Anyhow, I figured out that they are the same as the ALH engine where they have 3 coolant glow plugs to help preheat. So... I plan on using them as long as they function as they should!

 

[DestroyerGrayZJ]

This is an awesome build. Congrats on the new house with a gorgeous shop. Keep up the good work!