66 J2000 Tow Rig Build

[localfiend]

How do you like the Rapid Strip wheel for the angle grinder?

It's awesome. Takes paint off incredibly fast, and leaves the surface ready for paint. even gets hard to reach spots like door jambs. Recently discovered that it also takes off undercoating quickly and doesn't get gummed up.

Only issue is price, about $11 a pop, and they tend to go fast when you're using them on edge. On the flats though, they last a long time. If I stayed away from all the corners and edges, I probably could have done the majority of the truck with one wheel.

I think they make a wheel that's designed for on edge work, I've just been too distracted to go and find the right one.

I'm never going to try and remove paint another way, these things work way too good.

Good looking work....question, looking at the first pics, at the dash....where is the speedometer?

Heh, don't think the PO wanted one, or he couldn't figure out how to make one work with the T-90 trans. If you know your final drive ration it's not that tough to figure it out in your head from the tach.

I'm going to re-do the dash once I bolt on the SM465 trans I have. I'm either going to go with a Dakota Digital unit, or piece together something custom on a piece of diamond plate.

[localfiend]

So, I've gotten a whole lot done - but nothing much exciting.

Lots of cleaning, removed every bit of trim, all the paint, and have the undercarriage almost completely cleaned up. I've also done a bunch of body work. Aligning doors, trying to align the hood (that's gonna take some more work). Fixing the large dents, and applying way too much body filler for a beater rig. Welded up a bunch of holes in the body, fixed the front fenders and welded them into the front clip.

No pictures of that stuff yet though, I'm going to wait until I get it ready for paint. I talked my brother out of the bed for his willy's truck, and if everything goes well it will at the very least be sitting on the frame tomorrow.


Junkyard trip to Spokane was successful. Met up with 66stepside and got a bunch of measurements for the frame skirts I will need to fabricate. Had a good time chatting about all things gladiators.
Also picked up the big remaining pieces I need for my upgraded brakes.

What I'm hoping my truck will start to look like:




My collection of emblems is growing. Only have a few more to find, then it'll be time to clean them up, repair the broken ones, and then re-paint.





14 Bolt disc brake conversion brackets:



Everything I need to get the new rear axle bolted up:





My Junkyard goodies. Hydro brake booster from a 2005 Chevy Suburban. Really common chevy part, runs from 02-10, and is in the suburban, sierra, avalanche, escalade, Yukon, and a few others.





I'll need to remove the snap ring, nut, and the original mounting plate:





Which will be replaced by a simple piece of plate sourced from Elliot.




Which will then bolt to a mount I need to weld up in place of the original master cylinder.




The hydro boost unit linkage should be the exact length I need, but that's easily adjusted by shortening the piece of tube. Bolt hole on the end of the linkage is the correct size to bolt right up to my existing manual brake pedal.

So yeah, lots of parts not yet on the jeep. I've been spending way too much time working on the body, and not enough on everything else that needs to be done. Still hope to get this thing done or at least running again this summer.

[localfiend]

Didn't get the willy's bed set in place, but I figured my time would be better spent cleaning as much stuff off the frame and cab as I could while it was outside.



I think I'm going to see if I can't get the rear axle pulled out of the Chevy tonight before it gets dark. Swaping the axle in with everything out of the way will make life a lot easier.

[localfiend]

Was sort of industrious this evening. Mostly I was tired of body work and decided to change things up.

14 Bolts are way too big. Fortunately I can cheat....



Tada!



Unfortunately it wasn't actually that easy. The Chevy is out in a field about 100 yards from the house, and there's a pretty decent hill. I tried various straps and thingamajigs to tow it behind the jeep, but that wasn't working. I decided to push it by hand.

Now, if any of you ever try and push a 14 bolt up a hill by yourself, make sure you have something on your feet with good traction, not a pair of really worn out tennis shoes....

This may or may not have happened:







































But since no one else was there, I'm pretty sure it didn't happen and everything went smoothly.


Anyway, got the axle, spindle nuts, and drum off of one side no problem.



Spindle looks to be in really good shape.




Really glad I bought this thing. Purchased it to bend some AK-47 receivers and never thought I would use it again.... Buying a jeep proved that wrong a long time ago.



Got the hub off with a bit of hammering.



I couldn't find my big brass punch, so before I replace the bearings I decided to work on the other side. Sadly, the drum is kinda stuck, and I ran out of light.

[localfiend]

Got some bolt on goodies (well, more bolt on than some of the other garbage I'm doing) in the mail today.

One of my side mirrors was busted, and rather than try and source another ugly mirror I picked up a set of these. New in a really old box. They're really close to the original Jeep approved West Coast Jr. mirrors, with the addition of a wide angle mirror. Being aluminum is also a plus. With a little mount tweaking these should bolt right up.





And some trivia.... When Willy's designed the Rhino chaser grill, they had originally planned to add a set of fog lights inside of the headlights. A bunch of their promotional pamphlets and such, had a second set of headlights. However, no trim rings, or buckets were ever created for the lights for some reason, and a set of tin plates were bolted into place.

I got a guy to adapt my personal/company logo and stick it inside a trim ring. I still need to weld tabs of some sort onto the back so that they can be bolted up, but other than that, the hard work is done. Think I'm gonna add a set of HID foglights behind my new rings.

My logo - Local Fiend Armory (Local Fiend being a childhood nickname, applied to me by a fan of Patrick McManus, books that are required reading for people in the PNW).



And the Rings:

[Elliott]

So, I've gotten a whole lot done - but nothing much exciting.


Which will be replaced by a simple piece of plate sourced from Elliot.




Which will then bolt to a mount I need to weld up in place of the original master cylinder.




The hydro boost unit linkage should be the exact length I need, but that's easily adjusted by shortening the piece of tube. Bolt hole on the end of the linkage is the correct size to bolt right up to my existing manual brake pedal.

Ha ha, I guess this 3 plate hydroboost mount kit is now officially advertised

Maybe I should list them....

Anyways, thanks and you will love those brakes. If you feel the MC is overkill (since it was designed for the latest/largest dual piston calipers) you can always step down to a '93 P30 MC that will bolt right in it's place.

[localfiend]

Ha ha, I guess this 3 plate hydroboost mount kit is now officially advertised

Maybe I should list them....

Anyways, thanks and you will love those brakes. If you feel the MC is overkill (since it was designed for the latest/largest dual piston calipers) you can always step down to a '93 P30 MC that will bolt right in it's place.

Haha, didn't realize they weren't out in the open already.


Yeah, I'll have to see how they feel.

I purposely grabbed the biggest master cylinder they had that would bolt up for that same year. It's ~1.33", and the smaller one was 1.125

I'm keeping my manual pedal (6-1 ratio, or maybe even a bit more), and when I ran the pressure numbers I was a bit concerned about what would happen to the pressure If really jumped on the brakes.