Another 70 wagoneer build

[Kaiserjeeps]

Have you tried any of the epoxy from West Systems? It's made for marine applications so it should hold up quite well.

I have not tried that product. I was trying to stick with what the you tube videos suggested. I was originally looking for PC-7 but could only find PC-11 locally. It seems like I always have to leave the area to find what I intend to use. I picked up some PC-7 but I have not had a chance to go after another steering wheel yet. I know marine products are pretty good stuff. The PC-11 was marine rated epoxy. It actually worked fine but it was hard to spread without getting it everywhere.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Lost power twice in the last two days. It does not stay off long but it offers quite a power surge when it comes back on. My compressor motor should arrive tomorrow. Seems like it has been awhile. I got a coat of SEM plastic paint on the steering wheel. Honestly it looked just horrible. Tons of little dings and dents from bad storage and sitting it on the wheel with the column pointing up.



The plastic is soft and it left a ton of marks. The best way to do this is put pipe insulation around the wheel and it will store well that way. Steering wheels with aftermarket wrap stay in the best condition. I looked the the 70 steering wheel, the 71 steering wheel, I pulled out a red one with flaking paint, and eventually dug out a tilt column from an X model or a super wag. The wheel was flawless and I removed it to replace Sadies wheel. But that was short lived. The tilt wheels are different underneath.

Here is a tilt wheel.



Here is what I needed. A standard non tilt wheel.



After examining 5 standard wheels I decided to repair Sadies wheel. I blend sanded and used some catalyst spot putty and made it happen. I worked on it for 5 hours. ALWAYS use a towel or something soft to work on steering wheels. From now on that is what I will do. You would be surprised how many dings you can add by just working on it.



I started with 220 and finished with 320 grit. Restoring steering wheels is time consuming.

After painting the wheel the first time on a pinion bearing cup sitting on a rotisserie, I found a better way was to bolt a piece of 1/2 all thread on the wheel and drill a hole in a 2x6 clamped to a table. I was able to spin it and get everything without touching it.



It looks WAY better. I unfortunately had the finger tip of my glove get in the way and sprayed a couple big drops on one of the spokes. So fortunately it blended really well and only one drop resembles a run. I intended to hit the wheel again with 400 grit and a final coat anyway. But runs are a lot more work. So make sure the glove is all the way on your finger.

It looks pretty good now.



This was recommended the most.



So this showed up on ebay. Bill the owner of Sadie wanted it and it is just super looking. It came with a diagram and installation instructions. It is a glove box door clock. I have never seen a NOS one in 25 years of messing around on ebay.



So happy birthday to Bill yesterday. Old man!

I was able to get a few more column parts clear coated today. I am going to take the shifter arm from the 71 truck. It is in superb shape and that won't be a show rig later. I will coat the arm with ceracote. I discovered it recently while trying to find a super strong clear gloss coat for the mag wheels I picked up. Ceracote is a firearm coating. But I see a lot of ways to use it on cars. So I will.

On a final note. On tilt columns. The special turn signal switch that sits up on a stand on the bottom of the column, if you search for a jeep part you will never find them unless a NOS one surfaces on ebay. The same switch is reproduced for GM cars like the chevelle with a tilt. So if anyone needs one, look to the aftermarket arena for GM cars and you should be able to find a replacement.

I hope to be making a compressor work tomorrow. I will be able to paint soon. I am the slowest guy on this entire forum.

More soon.

[63J200atLSU]

Lost power twice in the last two days. It does not stay off long but it offers quite a power surge when it comes back on. My compressor motor should arrive tomorrow. Seems like it has been awhile. I got a coat of SEM plastic paint on the steering wheel. Honestly it looked just horrible. Tons of little dings and dents from bad storage and sitting it on the wheel with the column pointing up.



The plastic is soft and it left a ton of marks. The best way to do this is put pipe insulation around the wheel and it will store well that way. Steering wheels with aftermarket wrap stay in the best condition. I looked the the 70 steering wheel, the 71 steering wheel, I pulled out a red one with flaking paint, and eventually dug out a tilt column from an X model or a super wag. The wheel was flawless and I removed it to replace Sadies wheel. But that was short lived. The tilt wheels are different underneath.

Here is a tilt wheel.



Here is what I needed. A standard non tilt wheel.



After examining 5 standard wheels I decided to repair Sadies wheel. I blend sanded and used some catalyst spot putty and made it happen. I worked on it for 5 hours. ALWAYS use a towel or something soft to work on steering wheels. From now on that is what I will do. You would be surprised how many dings you can add by just working on it.



I started with 220 and finished with 320 grit. Restoring steering wheels is time consuming.

After painting the wheel the first time on a pinion bearing cup sitting on a rotisserie, I found a better way was to bolt a piece of 1/2 all thread on the wheel and drill a hole in a 2x6 clamped to a table. I was able to spin it and get everything without touching it.



It looks WAY better. I unfortunately had the finger tip of my glove get in the way and sprayed a couple big drops on one of the spokes. So fortunately it blended really well and only one drop resembles a run. I intended to hit the wheel again with 400 grit and a final coat anyway. But runs are a lot more work. So make sure the glove is all the way on your finger.

It looks pretty good now.



This was recommended the most.



So this showed up on ebay. Bill the owner of Sadie wanted it and it is just super looking. It came with a diagram and installation instructions. It is a glove box door clock. I have never seen a NOS one in 25 years of messing around on ebay.



So happy birthday to Bill yesterday. Old man!

I was able to get a few more column parts clear coated today. I am going to take the shifter arm from the 71 truck. It is in superb shape and that won't be a show rig later. I will coat the arm with ceracote. I discovered it recently while trying to find a super strong clear gloss coat for the mag wheels I picked up. Ceracote is a firearm coating. But I see a lot of ways to use it on cars. So I will.

On a final note. On tilt columns. The special turn signal switch that sits up on a stand on the bottom of the column, if you search for a jeep part you will never find them unless a NOS one surfaces on ebay. The same switch is reproduced for GM cars like the chevelle with a tilt. So if anyone needs one, look to the aftermarket arena for GM cars and you should be able to find a replacement.

I hope to be making a compressor work tomorrow. I will be able to paint soon. I am the slowest guy on this entire forum.

More soon.

I am, as always, humbled by your skills, Al! I was trying I do some pretty extensive steering wheel repairs and I think I got a little overzealous with a dremel. I now know I should not have done that at all... So I've got that to try and fix... keep it up man! And that clock is awesome!

[Kaiserjeeps]

Well they say to open the cracks right up. If you can just fill it with the epoxy and carefully sand it back, you should be OK. I did put tape next to all the repairs to protect the surrounding area. None of the videos did that and I can say it really helped. The plastic sands quick and you have to try and not oversand next to the repair.

So don't feel bad. I broke a cast steel tow hitch bracket on my yamaha kodiak quad tonight tugging on our broken toyota FJ60. I think I may have bent the rear axle too. I need to ask Todd about welding up cast steel. It was where the tow ball hole is. Actually it was more of a shackle hole. A receiver was bolted to the top and I broke it right off. I hope it is fixable. It's and old quad but a good runner. Todd???? (echo)

EDIT: Never mind I guess. The part new is 17 bucks from Yamaha. Whoo hoo.

[63J200atLSU]

Well they say to open the cracks right up. If you can just fill it with the epoxy and carefully sand it back, you should be OK. I did put tape next to all the repairs to protect the surrounding area. None of the videos did that and I can say it really helped. The plastic sands quick and you have to try and not oversand next to the repair.

So don't feel bad. I broke a cast steel tow hitch bracket on my yamaha kodiak quad tonight tugging on our broken toyota FJ60. I think I may have bent the rear axle too. I need to ask Todd about welding up cast steel. It was where the tow ball hole is. Actually it was more of a shackle hole. A receiver was bolted to the top and I broke it right off. I hope it is fixable. It's and old quad but a good runner. Todd???? (echo)

I was told buy a guy who bought an antique commercial oven from me off of Craigslist, who was a welding inspector, (so really, I'm wondering if Todd can confirm or deny this) that to weld cast steel, you can heat the piece up first, then make your weld and immediately wrap it in something like fiberglass header wrap to insulate it and let it cool really slowly. Makes sense, but I haven't tried any of that yet. I have an old exhaust manifold that has a crack in it, but I don't think Elizabeth would appreciate having it in her oven...

[63J200atLSU]

Well they say to open the cracks right up. If you can just fill it with the epoxy and carefully sand it back, you should be OK. I did put tape next to all the repairs to protect the surrounding area. None of the videos did that and I can say it really helped. The plastic sands quick and you have to try and not oversand next to the repair.

Also, do you have any thoughts on how to best smooth out any hypothetical dremel grooves in the steering wheel I might have hypothetically boogered?

[Frank Ziebert]

I was told buy a guy who bought an antique commercial oven from me off of Craigslist, who was a welding inspector, (so really, I'm wondering if Todd can confirm or deny this) that to weld cast steel, you can heat the piece up first, then make your weld and immediately wrap it in something like fiberglass header wrap to insulate it and let it cool really slowly. Makes sense, but I haven't tried any of that yet. I have an old exhaust manifold that has a crack in it, but I don't think Elizabeth would appreciate having it in her oven...

Heard the same thing. Heat it up first, then weld, then let it cool very slowly. I tried it once on a removable Chevy third member. It worked ok +-

[Kaiserjeeps]

This lasagna tastes like metal.... I have eyeballed the oven for many things. Someday I will buy a beater off of Craigslist and make a hook up for it.

The good thing is if I don't have success with a repair, I can always make a new bracket. In my spare time right?

Greg the damage... er alteration is just like filling a body panel. It is just small and has curves. I would fill it with epoxy or if it is in a place that won't flex, why just mix up some spot putty and use that. I did that on Sadies wheel and it looks pretty good now. I had the dremel skip out of the groove and chip pieces out once or twice. I didn't swear too loudly hopefully. It looked pretty bleak to me at some point. But the work paid off. The SEM paint is flexible and covers very well. You are probably not using black eh?

The deer are back in masses. 8 of them last night, and they are literally skin and bones. This was a long tough winter. Bring on finish painting weather.

[SJTD]

I didn't think there was any voodoo required to weld cast steel.

Cast iron, now that's a little different.

[63J200atLSU]

This lasagna tastes like metal.... I have eyeballed the oven for many things. Someday I will buy a beater off of Craigslist and make a hook up for it.

The good thing is if I don't have success with a repair, I can always make a new bracket. In my spare time right?

Greg the damage... er alteration is just like filling a body panel. It is just small and has curves. I would fill it with epoxy or if it is in a place that won't flex, why just mix up some spot putty and use that. I did that on Sadies wheel and it looks pretty good now. I had the dremel skip out of the groove and chip pieces out once or twice. I didn't swear too loudly hopefully. It looked pretty bleak to me at some point. But the work paid off. The SEM paint is flexible and covers very well. You are probably not using black eh?

The deer are back in masses. 8 hwof them last night, and they are literally skin and bones. This was a long tough winter. Bring on finish painting weather.

Elizabeth says I should go with a black steering wheel since it won't show dirt as much. I think I should go with the same medium fawn that's on the dash because it's beautiful. Elizabeth wins 99% of our differing opinion situations because she's a 11/10 and I aim to keep her. This might be the 1% though...

[Kaiserjeeps]

Ha ha ha ... You had better listen up there.

Jeez, the part I broke new is 17 bucks. Yes it is on the way.

[Kaiserjeeps]

I didn't think there was any voodoo required to weld cast steel.

Cast iron, now that's a little different.

I think you are right. Frustration clouds my thought process.

[toddthewelder]

I was told buy a guy who bought an antique commercial oven from me off of Craigslist, who was a welding inspector, (so really, I'm wondering if Todd can confirm or deny this) that to weld cast steel, you can heat the piece up first, then make your weld and immediately wrap it in something like fiberglass header wrap to insulate it and let it cool really slowly. Makes sense, but I haven't tried any of that yet. I have an old exhaust manifold that has a crack in it, but I don't think Elizabeth would appreciate having it in her oven...

As mentioned before cast steel requires no voodoo, it's cast iron that requires a special rod and pre-heat and slow cool down. If you have to weld the cast iron it's best to put it in a BBQ grill and bring it slowly up to about 500 degrees ( a propane grill works best ) once it's around or over 500 you can take it out and do the repair and then place it back in the grill and slowly cool it down. Nickle rod is about the best for cast, but they make a few tig rods for the job too. If the repair isn't structural you can tig braze it using aluminum bronze rod with your machine on AC and the AC balance turned up high for the cleaning action. Have I bored everyone enough or do I need to get in to how high the carbon content of cast iron is? (3% or about 8 times higher than carbon steel). seriously I'll shut up now

[63J200atLSU]

Have I bored everyone enough or do I need to get in to how high the carbon content of cast iron is? (3% or about 8 times higher than carbon steel). seriously I'll shut up now

These are my favorite things to learn about!

[Frank Ziebert]

As mentioned before cast steel requires no voodoo, it's cast iron that requires a special rod and pre-heat and slow cool down. If you have to weld the cast iron it's best to put it in a BBQ grill and bring it slowly up to about 500 degrees ( a propane grill works best ) once it's around or over 500 you can take it out and do the repair and then place it back in the grill and slowly cool it down. Nickle rod is about the best for cast, but they make a few tig rods for the job too. If the repair isn't structural you can tig braze it using aluminum bronze rod with your machine on AC and the AC balance turned up high for the cleaning action. Have I bored everyone enough or do I need to get in to how high the carbon content of cast iron is? (3% or about 8 times higher than carbon steel). seriously I'll shut up now

I like explanations.