What? Another Jeep?

Isn't that the truth.

 

Wiring cleaned up with several janky connections and splices removed. Melted windshield washer hose replaced with some blue stuff I had laying around. It's still not super pretty, but I'm not rewiring a whole Jeep I'm going to sell:






And it still runs after all the wiring work!

 

This is something that I really didn't need to do to sell the Jeep, but it annoyed me and I already bought the parts.

The tire rack is an old Kayline rack but someone has gone and rebuilt it with extra reinforcing and a home made tire mount. The thing I didn't like is they used regular 1/2" coarse thread bolts and nuts to hold the spare on:


That means you need a 3/4" wrench to get the spare off in addition to the 13/16" wrench for the wheels. It also means the spare doesn't also provide spare lug nuts. They also had lock washers under flat nuts that didn't interface well with the wheel.

There were these lovely cardboard spacers. For anti-rattle? Because the back of the tire was being pushed into the rack?


The bolts were welded on the back side:


I used the die grinder to remove most of the welds and pounded them out with a hammer. Then I used the mini belt sander to clean things up:


I had previously bought some wheel studs for this. I pulled them in with a large nut as a spacer, a reversed lug nut, lots of oil, and the impact wrench:


Worked well:


Tire remounted with lugnuts that match the rest of them on the Jeep:


I used some thin jam-nuts behind the wheel to space it away from the rack:


The tire barely touches now:


The inspector has approved it so I can call that project done:

 

How did we ever manage with out pesky inspectors?

 

They’ve always been there.

 

Did a bunch of cleaning on the interior over the weekend. Still need to scrub the dirt off the floobaords.

Tonight I started on the winch remounting project.

I know it doesn't really matter, but it drives me crazy the winch plate is a good 8 inches wider than the fram rails:


These sharp corners pointed at the tires just look wrong to me:


The L-brackets on the frame angle out for the mount:


So off it comes. The plan is to switch these brackets side to side and narrow up the winch plate:


I'll also use bigger bolts on the winch plate. They were only 3/8" despite much bugger bolts holding the angle bracket to the frame.

The winch controller box will need to be moved so the winch plate can be narrowed. I'll make some tabs to mount it here:


But before we do that let's have a look at things. Right side of the frame has the usual crack already welded up:


And the left side has had some repairs... Whoa! There's a big chunk missing! You can't see it in the picture, but there's also a crack starting at the root of the missing piece:


Well, that needs to be fixed before I sell it. Took the die grinder, ground out the crack, and made a 45 around all the edges:


Time for some CAD (cardboard aided design) work:


Translated to metal and ready for welding:


That's as far as I got tonight. Tomorrow, I'll hopefully have time to weld it home and get back to working with the winch.

 

Nice repair project . Glad you headed of that weak spot on your frame.

We mounted my Controller box under the hood on the PS fender. Soon , I'm runninig the switch into the cab , but they say that it's good practice to lay the hood back over the windshield when winching.

 

First attempt at welding in the patch:


Still a valley on the front edge after grinding:


Looks better after more welding and grinding:


However, there were a couple porous spots I didn't like so I ground them out with the die grinder:


After welding those up and grinding, it's looking pretty decent:


After a quick coat of Rustoleum, you can see a faint mark where the front seam is. Good enough for this Jeep though:


With that fixed, I can get back to the winch.

 

I must say, I admire your persistence to achieve perfection.

 

Didn't have much time tonight but did get the winch plate brackets ground enough so they fit when flipped side to side:


Test fitting the winch. I like the look of it best when the plate is flush with the bumper. Since there is space, I think I'm going to mount the control box on the back:


I need to trim about 3 inches off each side of the plate and figure out where I'm drilling the mounting holes. I may need to weld up a couple existing holes to do it right.

 

Kind of lost momentum on this with the dog nearly dying over the weekend. He's now on the mend after surgery and I'm back on the Jeep.

Not liking the location of the existing holes in the brackets so it's time to weld them up.

Cleaned up the top and bottom with a flapper disk and used the die grinder to clean the rust out the hole itself:


I used a copper plate with magnets as a backer for the hole:


I drew rising circles until the hole filled up:


This is what the side against the plate looks like initially:


This is what it looks like after finish pass:


One bracket filled:


Both look good after some time with the flapper disk:


This gives me a blank slate on the Jeep for mounting the winch plate:


Marking the cuts on the winch plate:


Used a cut-off wheel in the angle grinder to cut the ends off and add some nice bevels. This is more or less where things will be mounted:


Tomorrow night, I have three more holes to fill on the winch plate and then I can drill the final mounting holes.

Also did another thing I've been meaning to do for a while. This thread reminded me that three out of four hood catches were backwards: Hood Catch Keeps Falling Over When Open.:


Boy that was annoying. They are all fixed now:

 

More holes to fill:


Filled:


New hole center punched and started with a small bit:


Then it's up to the 1/2" bit and lots of lube:


After three more of those, test fitting with four 1/2" grade 8 bolts. It's pretty solid:


Removed for some final grinding and de-greasing:


And some Rustoleum while trying to keep a bit of the patina look:


I still need to drill some holes and make a bracket for the control box. Then it's a matter of putting it all back togther.

 

Friday is supposed to be my day off for projects, but I did sneak in a few little things.

Took some Scotch-Brite to the frame and added some paint where the brackets attach for some rust prevention where water can get trapped:


Through the old rusty bolts and washers in some vinegar to remove the surface rust:


Scuffed up the newly painted parts of the brackets and plate with some 00 Scotch-Brite so the finsh matches the older paint:

 

What is with with the tag on your winch plate? Do I need one or is it just another "go fast" part?

 

I've never seen vinegar used for rust removal, how did they turn out? I have buckets of rusty bolts.

 

I have never tried it myself, but it apparently works fairly well. there is some write-up on here with folks using it on exhaust manifolds and such. Might try a search.
Now if I just had a tank big enough to put my entire jeep in and flood it with vinegar! Soak it about a year before I start on it.

 

White vinegar is an excellent rust dissolver and softener.

 

I'm not sure. The paint has all faded off of it but it looks like the model and serial number for the winch have been hand engraved on it.

 

They turn out great. This bolt head was completely brown when it went in the venegar yesterday. Here's what it looks like this morning:


It's good to agitate them once in a while but mostly you let it sit and it does all the work for you. I do it for all sorts of small parts like this.