New build: Tealie

[kmanxj5050]

HAHAHAHHAHAHA

that is awesome. I was thinking replacing the yellow with rainbow. Altering the skull is sweet!!! I say do it.

 

[REWSTER]

nice build so far my Amish bearded brother, mom says hi btw.

 

[FlexdXJ]

that is hilarious! just drop a tooth out of the front and it could be the new banner for Flex's Neon Club

Cheese "If they cant take a foke, juck them" Man

Dick......









































:roflmao:

 

[XJosh95]

I'm happy to see you finally run a build thread. And now I understand the new avitar.

"Direction of buck-nastiness"... Hilarity!

 

[Fore Wheeler]

It's pretty obnoxious. Ask Molly, it was a pretty big selling point when I bought it. I'm not really sure why I like it so much... the color, the dark tint, the weird options (SE trim, manual windows/locks, but ABS and Infinity speakers?)

So basically what you are asking for is the Awesome Face:

Plus the MWC logo:

Plus a rainbow? lastara

Fair enough:

I apologize if this is a misuse of the chapter logo, no harm intended. If anyone objects I'll pull it down

thats funnay shit.

 

[GoSlowGetStuck]

I just realized that it looks like Achmed from Jeff Dunham's stand-up...

"SILENCE!"

 

[macgyvr]

"I KILL YOU!"

mac 'so much win in this thread' gyvr

 

[GoSlowGetStuck]

Yay, somewhat of an update! Just kidding, more backstory. So about the time that I got the black Jeep hauled off for scrap and got Tealie in the garage, my water softener decided to split a resin tank or some sort of failure, whatever, it overflowed and crapped resin all over my laundry room floor. Oh and with my well working overtime it had no problem spreading out to other rooms, including my bedroom, bathroom, and living room. So that's what has held up a lot of my progress, trying to get things fixed up and new flooring put in. So this is what I'm working with for at least 2 more weeks:

New laminate flooring is on the way, and also I have ~130 ft^2 or so of tile to lay. I have no clue what I'm doing so the results should be spectacular:

Anyway, spent a little time on the front frame situation. My first try was to pull out the sides of the frame with a slide hammer. Turns out that the Harbor Freight slide hammer is the same size/pitch as the weld-nuts in the frame

Unfortunately between the impact gun and yanking on the ol' slide hammer (giggity) I must have broke some sort of fluid line, it didn't feel like trans fluid, but it didn't look quite like coolant, and it was real foamy... I couldn't figure out what was leaking until I stood up...

OH NO! Better report that to OSHA!

 

[GoSlowGetStuck]

So it might appear that I've not actually been working on the Jeep, but I finally did get motivated and get a little bit done. Hobag effectively called me a sissy and told me to weld the damn thing already, so I've done a few of the rosette welds on the stiffeners. I am using a Miller 211 on a 240 volt/30 amp circuit, with Autoset , 0.030" wire, and 75/25 gas. I have it set just below 1/8" material, 10 gauge is 0.135" so it should be pretty close.

I am being VERY careful to keep my weld on the stiffener and not the frame as I am afraid of burning through it. Obviously these are not completely filled in, and the pictures kind of suck, but any feedback would be great. Again I am erroring on a little less power and focusing my heat on the stiffener itself, but I think based on these pictures that it may not be penetrating enough?

You can probably tell the first one that I did, because I forgot to turn the gas on! :nono:

I haven't done any of the overhead welds on the underside of the frame, and I am a little worried about my abilities. But given the role of the stiffener it seems like just getting it to "stick" to the frame in a bunch of places should do the job just fine.

 

[Fore Wheeler]

I hated doing my stiffies, but its way up on the list of things I'm glad I did.

I burnt through the frame many times but just welded it closed.

 

[GoSlowGetStuck]

I hated doing my stiffies, but its way up on the list of things I'm glad I did.

I burnt through the frame many times but just welded it closed.

Most of the complaints I've heard are about the prep work, which honestly I didn't find to be too annoying. Maybe some XJs are worse than others. The welds are time consuming though because I am going front to back and waiting for things to cool off.

Got a pep talk from the great and powerful Hobag, dropped my heat just a little bit and focused on closing a rosette in one pass:

My limited skills are still showing, but between an awesome machine (thanks Neal!) and a few pointers, things are improving.

My plan is to get these burned in, sliders on, then work on getting the lift on. In early October I will haul it down to get the cage put in. I am scrapping the plans for drop brackets for the time being, after Redbird I will pull the axle and do the drop brackets.

 

[Fore Wheeler]

I am far from a professional, I figured enough crappy welds would still make it stronger. Lol

 

[beer_goggles_009]

I'm sure your welds will hold up just fine Brad. The stiffeners were the first things I ever welded that was not for practice and they have held up fine so far.

 

[darksidemj]

Just an idea but if you want to go 3 link, why not just sell the long arm kit and use the money you will be saving from not buying all new CA's and drop brackets and do the 3 link while it is already apart?

 

[GoSlowGetStuck]

Just an idea but if you want to go 3 link, why not just sell the long arm kit and use the money you will be saving from not buying all new CA's and drop brackets and do the 3 link while it is already apart?

Great question!

The main reason: lack of an affordable off-the-shelf 3-link kit. Clayton's is the only kit I even know of, at $890(!) for the crossmember and links. Just the crossmember is $349, so maybe with $200 in tube, inserts, and joints I could have a nice setup. I don't have enough confidence in my skills to fab the crossmember.

I have also considered keeping the TNT long-arm kit since going to short arms will require me to buy some sort of skid plate. I'm kind of up in the air on what to do. What would you recommend?

 

[BRIANHO13]

I would build a 3 link

 

[XJosh95]

What's wrong with the TnT kit?

 

[macgyvr]

I would build a 3 link

Hahahaha

mac 'figured you'd say that' gyvr

 

[GoSlowGetStuck]

I would build a 3 link

Want to build me one? Then while you're doing it you can say "this is so much easier on something with a frame"

What's wrong with the TnT kit?

So the front 30 I have, the LCA brackets have been moved up, which changes the separation distance between the upper and lower mounts. Because of this I can only run one upper "link" because the TnT kit doesn't give me enough play (giggity) to fit both upper links in. But I've drilled the one upper arm out to 1/2", and Iron Rock does the same thing with the stock-sized bolt and it only fails on April 1st. So maybe the main reason I was going to ditch it (only one upper arm) really isn't that valid. Hmm.

So... probably nothing is wrong with the TnT kit. But I have experienced the unloading on hill climbs, typical of any radius arm setup. And I know short arms can flex well, especially with drop brackets so I figured I would do that for now. Again, I'm really up in the air on what to do.


I know that in my ideal build, I would have a mid- or long-arm 3-link. In all honesty if I bought the Clayton crossmember, bought some DOM, inserts, and joints, would that be a decent way to go? Nothing's happening before Redbird anyway, I will run the flex-joint short arms and have no flex like my ZJ, probably will get stuck on the trail... right


Build update, invited the birds over to shit all over my frame:

Lots more to go, but should be done this weekend!

 

[BRIANHO13]

Want to build me one? Then while you're doing it you can say "this is so much easier on something with a frame"

We can talk about after your cage/ or at redbird.