Nate's 2002 TJ, Not so simple anymore by gst95dsm

8 minute(s) of a 391 minute read

Got the day off... gonna go out and stare at my Jeep and find some little projects to do. Going to fix my cable on my suck down winch for sure. And probably re-paint my cage.

Knocked out a couple more little projects today.... engine bay detailed out a little more than I did the other day,  repainted cage (just the scratched areas), fixed up a buggered weld that was bothering me, fixed the suck down, and made a trip to tractor supply for some 6.5 ton clevises for the rear bumper. Got the swanky black ones with the gold pin.  

I think the longer it takes me to get the tank the cleaner and more dialed in this Jeep will be. Haha. I know it's a waste of time but I'd LOVE to pull the seats out and really clean up the interior (again).

8-28-2013

Made this little full profile comparison photo.... I thought it was pretty cool.

8-30-2013

Got a few days off... gotta think of some things to tinker with on my junker. I should have ordered some parts earlier this week. Pretty sad re-spooling my winch line is the only thing I can think of.  

9-2-2013

My labor day fun.... cleaning up this ugly 8.8.  

I'm very happy with it. Just planning for the future and having a little fun. I've never built an axle from the ground up so this will be a good learning experience.  

One side done... anyone wanna come over and do the other side??? Lot's of grinding.

From eyesore, to garage decor.  

I'm glad that portion of this axle build is done. Tomorrow I will disassemble it further, replace the e-brake shoes and possibly weld the tubes.

9-3-2013

Welded the tubes....reading online will get you about a 100 different ways to do it, no one can agree. Many just go at it with a 220 mig and never have an issue. That's what I got... so that's what I did! I just did 1.5" sections, going from side to side and rotating the axle around. Now to disassemble further.

Ok... it's torn down. That was fun. This is probably how it will sit for a while now, gonna do the e-brakes today just so that's done. Also going to order my driveshaft today.   Might as well get that out of the way since it's looking like a few more weeks before the tank will be ordered.

It certainly looks a lot better now than it did yesterday morning. But yeah... stuff stays clean out here. There's no rust at all on this axle, not even surface.
Went to a double cardan shaft. I guess that's not a CV technically. haha.

E-brake shoes are in... not nearly as aggravating as I set myself up for. Actually pretty easy.

9-6-2013

Tank ordered!!!! Sorta, i put it on layaway. Haha. They are supposed to be in production now. So I'm glad I got my name on one since they had none in stock. By the end of the month I should be good to go. Hoping my driveshaft shows up today.

9-10-2013

An important piece of the puzzle installed today! I don't know why driveshaft's are cool.... but they are.   5 business days from order to install. I think that's pretty good for a custom driveshaft. Looks very high quality all the way down to the finish. Glad to have this piece done!

9-23-2013

Little White Lightning is getting some major detail love while we wait for the tank. Kinda funny.... I must be bored! Maybe I need to bring back some of my old hobbies before wheeling took over??? Anyways I busted out the wax and did some detailing on the body today. Probably the most I've ever done in 6 years to actually clean the paint. I always keep it clean.... but not like my other cars. The paint is now actually nice and soft and smooth.  

I'm also repainting my flares, the fronts had some scratches, and the rear's came out weird looking when I painted them a few weeks ago so I sanded them back down. All in all... just relaxing in the garage on this rare Thursday off.

Looks cool flareless, but I like it better with them.



Paint's in good shape for 11 years and wheeled....



A jeep guy's garage...

9-17-2013

My buddy who own's an exhaust and off road shop bought a Torchmate 4x4 Plasma table a few months ago, and just simply due to his workload has had little time to play with it. Well.... I decided to help him out and train myself how to use it. I took about 4 hours worth of online training over the last couple days and finally went and played around with it today. Using the CAD software is right up my alley.... I really enjoy working with excel and the like, so this CAD stuff comes pretty natural. It is tedious to do certain things, and I'm sure as you get better you find quicker ways to accomplish the same things. At any rate... I'm excited to be learning on it and glad he's willing to let me. If we get something into production that hit's... it might even turn into some income. We'll see.  

He was also having a binding problem at the extremities of torch travel that I was able to fix. The gantry comes pre-assembled from Torchmate and they did not tighten down the inside roller bearings..... needless to say I now know quite a bit about the assembly and disassembly of the machine.



I made a pretty cool sign today with this shop's name in it... I forgot to take a photo but I plan to post up some things that I cut just for fun. If anyone needs something cut out... I'm looking for some simple projects to help me learn. Just pay for the material and shipping.

My buddy sent me a photo of the logo I made today....