The Nail Salon

[Gold Cobra]

Are any of your tires holding air?

 

[BoringDave]

Are any of your tires holding air?

Did you leave the cores a little loose?

 

[BoringDave]

:dunno:

That looks great! I like that look with all the factory body work and lifted. I also like the black wheels. I may have to get me a set of them and put 33's back on mine.

Also can you post a pic looking at it head on so I can see how much the tires stick out.

Thanks

 

[BoringDave]

I forgot to ask. Why are you not using control arm drops? Not in the future plans.

 

[jeepboy381]

Jeep looks sweet, reminds me a lot of the old one! Your welding skills sure look good, mine are nice but not like that. When is the protection going on, torx fab?

 

[TORX]

Are any of your tires holding air?

Yes, but Eric's wheel deleted seven bolts already.

Also can you post a pic looking at it head on so I can see how much the tires stick out.

Rear tread is almost all covered by the flare. Front sticks out a good inch and a half. I'll be trimming the fenders, and relocating the stock flares. Gotta keep that factory look.

I forgot to ask. Why are you not using control arm drops? Not in the future plans.

Wanted to keep it simple for the time being. At 4.5" of lift, I think I'm at that height where I can get away with short arms. I feel like my lowers need to be lengthened though.

While I have no bad things to say about drop brackets, I won't run them again, nor will I run an aftermarket long arm system either.

Jeep looks sweet, reminds me a lot of the old one! Your welding skills sure look good, mine are nice but not like that. When is the protection going on, torx fab?

Thanks, Josh. Next phase for the Jeep is armoring it up. It'll get the TORXfab treatment before it sees a trail. A basic set of sliders are first priority, and then I'll work on getting my winch put back on.

I have some JCR 1/4 panel guards waiting to go on too. Just need to pick up some color matched paint.

Here I thought I was done with this stupid Jeep.

 

[muddypunk]

They are never truly done . But Its looking good Ive been thinking of the 8.8 swap and you made it look good and fairly simple Although I dont have any welding skillz

 

[uber xj]

:dunno:

Meh...looks alright...:dunce:

 

[TORX]

So for the past week, I've just been driving the Jeep around getting some miles under it. Almost ready for the 500 mile fluid change in the diffs.

After mounting the tires, I quickly noticed they rubbed pretty bad. My turning radius was shot. Contact on the bumper end cap, and rear inner fender. I wasn't surprised at all. XJ's wheel wells aren't physically big enough to fit a 33 without trimming or an insane lift.

So after having to three and four point turns all week, I decided to tackle the fender trimming today. Here's the before shot. I planned on relocating the stock flares by reusing the mounting brackets. I like to keep the Cherokee look, and it keeps the LEO's happy.

Pulled the inner fenders, and then started removing the fender flares. They're held on with five 10mm bolts. I snapped all 10 ten bolts, even after PB-Blastering them. I honestly expected it, these bolts never come off easy.

After removing the flare, and mocking up where I wanted to relocate them I drew my cut lines.

Used a cut off wheel on a die grinder, and slowly worked my way around the fender.

The pinch seam behind the inner fender is a tire slicer. I make a few relief cuts, and then fold it over with a BFH.

Run your hand over it, and make sure there's no snags or burrs.

I drilled new mounting holes for the flare brackets, and bolted them on. One side complete.

Driver's side was next. Make sure you pay attention to the washer fluid reservoir tucked under the fender.

Even after taking a picture to warn everyone, I neglected to follow my own advice and drilled a .188" hole into it.

So I grabbed my plug kit, and put a tire plug in it. Problem solved.

 

[TORX]

After getting the flares mounted, I wanted to do something about the fading flares and body panels. A little trick I learned is to use a propane torch, and run it over the trim piece. I've heard it brings the oils back to the surface? Either way I did it on Jeepforceone and it lasted the entire time I owned it.

Before torch blasting.

After torch blasting.

Next I pulled the front bumper to install some tow hook brackets (gotta be prepared for the trail!). Temporarily relocated the vacuum canister. It normally sits inside the front bumper. I'll make a mount for it later.

OEM tow hook brackets I got from Kenny811. Thanks, Kenny!

They had some old bumper mounts welded to them. I used a cut off wheel to cut the welds.

Then a chisel to slowly separate the mount and bracket. I cleaned up the brackets, primed, and painted them.

Got the tow hook brackets, and hooks bolted up. While I loved the look of the factory front bumper, I decided to do the stubby front bumper mod. The tires rubbed the bumper end caps, so they either needed to be trimmed or left off. I decided to leave them off since they would last long on the trail, and then trim the bumper sides for a low profile look.

I gotta say I kind of like it, and always wanted to run a stubby bumper on Jeepforceone. I'll be making a winch bumper soon for the Nail Salon soon, so this is only temporary.

As of right now, the Nail Salon is ready for some snow wheeling.

 

[Bronzewyrm]

After getting the flares mounted, I wanted to do something about the fading flares and body panels. A little trick I learned is to use a propane torch, and run it over the trim piece. I've heard it brings the oils back to the surface? Either way I did it on Jeepforceone and it lasted the entire time I owned it.

Before torch blasting.

After torch blasting.

wow. i would have never thaught :eeks1:.

As of right now, the Nail Salon is ready for some snow wheeling.

:badpc:

 

[TORX]

With 8oz of airsoft in the tires, I still had a noticeable wobble at certain speeds. I could probably live with it, but I didn't want to run out of balance tires and have them prematurely wear out the front ends parts. I also didn't want to start randomly adding more airsoft hoping to get them to balance.

The solution (I hope) is to is to have them static balanced at the local independently owned tire shop. America's Tire won't touch bead locks.

So before taking them into get balanced I had to some how remove the 8oz of airsoft from the tires...

Pull the valve cores.

Then I picked up a few feet of vacuum line, and attached one end to the valve stem, and the other to a vacuum line off the motor.

Took a few minutes, but eventually the tire collapsed and broke the inner bead.

After the bead was broke, I used a tire spoon to fish a piece of hose into the tire. Took a little trial and error, but eventually I found the sweet spot, and was able to vacuum out the pellets with the shop vac. Total PITA.

After I got the pellets removed, it was time to re-torque the bead lock bolts... all 128. You can see the blacked out bolts at 12, 3, 6, and 9. We did this during assembly to give a reference point while torquing. Other wise you just get dizzy. I thought I was just going to need to re-torque a few bolts... nope, each wheel needed a few rotations of torquing to get them all to spec. I'll probably check them again in a few hundred miles.

 

[Icemans]

After I got the pellets removed, it was time to re-torque the bead lock bolts... all 128. You can see the blacked out bolts at 12, 3, 6, and 9. We did this during assembly to give a reference point while torquing. Other wise you just get dizzy. I thought I was just going to need to re-torque a few bolts... nope, each wheel needed a few rotations of torquing to get them all to spec. I'll probably check them again in a few hundred miles.

I had to do that on mine about three times every time they got better. Then after that I checked them about every oil change but the were never loose. Your's should stop to after a couple times. Your going to love these things there is nothing like pushing snow on 2lbs. I wish I still had mine.

 

[BoringDave]

I have a Micro Precision bubble balancer and a can full of lead if you would like to use it. It's time consuming compared to a modern day spin balancer but works just as well.

Dave

 

[TORX]

Stopped by Bob's Paint Land in Vancouver today. Had them make me up a can of color matched paint in a spray can.

After putting down another good coat of primer, I put down three coats of color on the JCR's.

I decided it was time to brush the dust off them, and get them painted up. Hopefully in the next week or two, I'll get them installed.

 

[Bronzewyrm]

Really, Really dustin...

let me break this down.



Late model




Jcr's




Rattle Can.


somethings not right here:dunno:, even single stage i would have been ok with. but a rattle can, i dident think you were serious. damn you should have called me.
























.posted out of pure hatred and Jealousy.:looser:

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

Really, Really dustin...

let me break this down.

Late model

Jcr's

Rattle Can.


somethings not right here:dunno:

Oh you Elitists.. you crack me up!ig:


:firedevil

 

[northwestxj]

Stopped by Bob's Paint Land in Vancouver today. Had them make me up a can of color matched paint in a spray can.

Nice, I'm looking to do the same thing and was going to use Wesco paint, but it's more expensive then I was hoping. Care to share how much they charged? Good match with factory paint?

 

[TORX]

Really, Really dustin...

let me break this down.

Late model

Jcr's

Rattle Can.

somethings not right here:dunno:,

I thought about having you do the Bronzewyrm treatment on them, but in the end I realized they're just a skid plate. This way was a happy median, it's not the typical black, and it should blend in with the body.

Nice, I'm looking to do the same thing and was going to use Wesco paint, but it's more expensive then I was hoping. Care to share how much they charged? Good match with factory paint?

$20 a can. It's expensive when compared to the typical Rustoleum Satin Black, but it's color matched and good quality (it sprays on really easy). I haven't held them up to the Jeep yet, but it looks like it's going to be a great match.

 

[northwestxj]

$20 a can. It's expensive when compared to the typical Rustoleum Satin Black, but it's color matched and good quality (it sprays on really easy). I haven't held them up to the Jeep yet, but it looks like it's going to be a great match.

That's not bad at all! At Wesco you have to buy a minimum of one pint. It will make 4 to 5 cans but comes out to be like $120.