rang-a-stang's summer project/build

[FleetFox]

What have you done to anger the AMC gods that you are being punished in this way? Was it the hemi comments? Are you secretly posting on the Mopar forums???

Fleet Fox

[bluehwy]

Glad to hear you're moving in the right direction. Thanks for the links!

[rang-a-stang]

So far no leaks at my oil mid plate but those dudes mentioned have forgot more than I will ever know. Thanks for the AMC rebuild links. Interesting stuff and will come in handy on next engine. Hope everything is going well.

Things are going. Just sitting around waiting for parts to come back. Machinist said it would take 2 weeks; It's almost been 2 months. Called him Friday and he said it would be done before Christmas which would be almost 10 weeks.

What have you done to anger the AMC gods that you are being punished in this way? Was it the hemi comments? Are you secretly posting on the Mopar forums???

Fleet Fox

Ha! MOPAR is no car for me! Nah, I think since I had fixed all my leaks, it was time to make some more. But at least these are going to be really expensive, so that's good.

Glad to hear you're moving in the right direction. Thanks for the links!

yeppo! Thanks for your pics on your build! It's a whole 'nother level!
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No juicy pictures on here because I am just waiting on engine parts. I painted my grill and hope to put it on tonight. I wrote about the grill here:
My grill painting thread
I started that thread 3 years ago, so if you check it out, scroll to the bottom.

I also pulled the smallest leaf out of my front spring pack to hopefully bring the front down some. I won't know until my engine is back in (annoyed at how long this is taking).

I had a set of universal door seals from BJs I have been moving around the garage for the last 3 years so I finally threw those on. They fit great but you gotta slam the doors sooooo hard to get them to latch. I expected it to be hard, but man, it is REALLLLY hard. I figure it will be at least another month before I back my truck out of the garage anyway so I might as well let them break in now.

Hopefully grill and bumper pics later this week. I also hope to start my rear fender flare swap before Christmas. I'll have a dedicated thread for that.

[rang-a-stang]

3 hours spent pulling, banging, bending, and cussing on my header panel last night to get the grill to hang correctly. I don't want this grill to crack again so I spent quite some time getting the header panel straight so the grill sits flat. Remember my chassis was bent in an accident and the front passenger fender, header panel, and radiator support are not original to this rig.

I laid a straight edge across the 3 lower, out mounts. Drivers sider were all lined up and good.

Passenger side, not so much:

That outer mount was angled down and a good 1/2" back. The header panel is pretty mangled there. I spent a solid hour there with hammers, a chain, punches, chisels, channel locks, and a crescent wrench to get it to look like this dumpster fire:

As bad as that looks, the grill sits correctly on there and the turn signal housing sits in there well.

About 2 hours into my night, I went in to eat dinner with the fam, then I stepped back out and saw this

and thought to myself "WTH? I was just installing the grill!! Why is this thing so torn apart???" Stupid jeep.

I had to pull the turn signal housings out to adjust the header panel and did not feel like ordering new ones so I decided to clean and paint the inside with some ghetto chrome. Start:

finish:


I had to order those little plastic "nuts" that are in the brackets that hold the grill in place. The only place where I could find them is Team Grand Wagoneer. Bummer. Placed my first order with them for 3 of these kits. Grill cannot go on until they get here.
Grill retaining nuts and black screws

Also, as I was laying in bed, I got curious and checked ebay for a replacement header panel. I found a totally straight/rust free one from a 78 J10 on ebay for $100 and it's close enough to go pick it up. Mine is so full of Bondo from the previous owner, has a few cracks, and it's still really bent up, so I bought that one. That means pretty much my whole night tonight was wasted but I do plan to eventually paint this rig and this replacement panel will save me (or whomever paints this rig) ALOT of time.

[SOLSAKS]

dang

the waiting game for parts,...

ready to see it on the truck.

header looks good.

dave

[rang-a-stang]

dang

the waiting game for parts,...

ready to see it on the truck.

header looks good.

dave

I'm usually a pretty patient guy; especially when someone has my expensive parts. But I am transitioning from slightly annoyed to full fledged annoyed and trending toward upset waiting on engine bits. This grill work was supposed to distract me but now I am waiting on Team Grand Wagoneer to send me those stupid plastic nuts, too. ggrrrr....
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I had a ton of win this weekend. I bought that 78 header panel on Thursday night, picked it up Friday morning, pressure washed it, and started my inspection. It's actually a 79 or later header panel! WOoooo Hooo! No need to swap grill mount brackets or cut headlight buckets to fit! It is TOTALLY straight, no rust other than some light pitting under/behind the turn signal housings and it's originally saxon yellow. It has some sort of thick black paint on it but that's fine for now.

Spent about an hour with a hammer, 4x4 chunk of wood, and a straight edge pounding on the radiator support, and driver side fender so they were straight as I can get them. No good pics.

Cleaned up the header panel, cut the hole for my trans cooler, threw some satin black behind the grill, and it fell on.


Trial fit of "new" grill is MUCH nicer. I still need to finish adjusting this header panel a little and then tighten all the hardware.

My old dumpster fire turn signal bucket is no longer a dumpster fire.

This header panel was money well spent!

While the panel was off, I made 2 more gussets for my front receiver because I am getting better at welding and did not trust my older welds. I trust this receiver now to mount my winch and pull me or someone else out!

[rang-a-stang]

Whelp, Team Grand Wagoneer did not disappoint. One part ordered and one part took forever to get here. At least it did not fit correctly, though. Hole is .495" and the nuts are .575". That's a big difference for these little dudes! Took me a solid >30 minutes with a dremel to shave them all down enough to fit.


Once they were installed, my grill sat right down on top of them. No pushing, no pulling. Then I put my off-road lights on. I also spent about an hour lining up my my bastard'ized bumper. I never really took the time to hang my bumper correctly but it does now. Next the Narrow track front air dam went on. That sucked because the air dam is warped from a previous owner and none of the holes lined up because bastard bumper and my recovery hooks poke out. Good enough for now though and I am no longer storing an air dam, either.

Last thing I did was verify my winch fit with everything all installed and lined up. The upper left handle hits the light before the winch is seated by about 1/4". That will be an easy fix but not for today.

Machinist said my engine will be done on Monday. I'll believe it when I see it. Even if I do get it Monday, I won't have time to get it going before Christmas. Bummer.

[fulsizjeep]

Good stuff! I like the winch setup.

[Simo]

i like the hidden winch mounting setup too. I see power cable quick disconnect terminals resting near the battery. Are you going to have a quick disconnect set and power leads for front and rear so you can move the winch around wherever you need it most?

[Dylan Rogers]

While the panel was off, I made 2 more gussets for my front receiver because I am getting better at welding and did not trust my older welds. I trust this receiver now to mount my winch and pull me or someone else out!

Your build is looking great! I may use your idea for the front hitch receiver on mine, too. I dig the way the front end looks and agree with Simo on how awesome the hidden mount is. Your work is certainly inspiring!

[rang-a-stang]

Good stuff! I like the winch setup.

Thank you, sir!

i like the hidden winch mounting setup too. I see power cable quick disconnect terminals resting near the battery. Are you going to have a quick disconnect set and power leads for front and rear so you can move the winch around wherever you need it most?

I have a quick disconnect on the battery and on the winch so when it is mounted on the front, it just hooks up. I have a pair of 2ga, 20 foot jumper cables with a quick disconnect on one said so when they are on the back of my jeep or on my wife's pathfinder I can use those. I also can use those jumper cables if I need to jump someone else.

Your build is looking great! I may use your idea for the front hitch receiver on mine, too. I dig the way the front end looks and agree with Simo on how awesome the hidden mount is. Your work is certainly inspiring!

Thanks! My build is a drain ($$$ and time). You're in a slightly different boat than I am because you have no front cross member at all. Where my hitch lands, I had to cut about 2.5" up into my bumper, then about 2" below, into the air dam.
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FINALLLLLLLY! Engine is home. $1200 bill.
Hone, tank, crank turned, oil holes chamfered, big end of rods rebuilt, pistons cleaned, Rod/main/cam bearings (cam bearings installed), freeze plugs, oil galley plugs, and some other stuff. They painted the block outside and glyptol'ed the oil galley. Ouch. That hurt.
All I did was bring it home, slide the cam in to verify is fits correctly in the new bearings (it does), then stuck the block in the corner with a plastic sheet over it. I won't get to touched it until after Christmas.

[bkilby]

Nice. Glad to see you got it back Rang. A bit slow, but this will give you something to do over the holidays. Good luck buddy.

[cu4whln]

I LOVE engines with "Some Assembly Required" . . .



Nice. Good luck .. I would NOT be able to wait til X-Mas.. lol

[SOLSAKS]

get busy rang,.....


dave in NC

[Heep-J4000]

Looking good and promising!

Make sure that the blank metal areas of your engine and crank don't rust in the meantime!

Cheers