Just another TJ story

1969honda

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Location
Cache
Well as some of you saw in the classifieds recently my new driver in the house got a simple '98 TJ with a 2.5 and a manual transmission. Pretty basic unmolested jeep with 3 previous owners to our knowledge. PO coated all of the frame and undercarriage in POR-15 a year or so ago, also put on newer wheels with adapters. Fast forward a month or so and my son had an unfortunate icy road accident that was fairly unavoidable on his part, cars to both sides, red light and black ice doing a little over 20 mph in to the back of a Hyundai Santa Fe stopped at the light.

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Well it took insurance a few weeks to get their end of things figured out and I bought it back yesterday for under $2k. Frame it getting measured and tweaked hopefully this next week. Jeep ran and drove fine from Logan to home and back to the body shop. Hood looks a lot worse than it actually is, the two small grill supports buckled and are holding it up. Luckily the urethane bonding the skin to the frame separated and other than the center support and two small creases on each side as seen above, it pops back to shape once you lift it up off the supports. Inner fender structures are buckled pretty good on each side from the top of the grill shell being pushed back about 3 inches and also up over the power steering lines. The only other issues I could find was a small buckle in the wiper cowl around the passenger hood hinge mount and then a little bit off a buckle in the tub at the driver's foot box area. Body shop guy confirmed it's a pretty minimal buckle in the tub for how visually screwed up the front sheet metal looks. He said the main reason for the insurance to call it a loss in his opinion, was the buckled tub, which he admitted he didn't even notice until washing it off and measuring everything while checking body mounts, and he almost missed it then.

Moving on, with this week's sales still going at Motobilt, I decided to order new high line fenders with 6" flare, rear double arch 6" flares to match and an inner fender kit. I could definitely fab the inner fenders, but I want to get the basics done and the rig back on the road as quickly as possible. I also went with the wider fender flares with future ideas in mind and not wanting to do fenders twice. The current plan is to swap the new fenders and grill shell on, cut the hood as needed and fit the rear fenders to match. Once everything is fitted and hung where it needs to be we'll pull it all off, prime and Raptor line the new pieces as well as the interior of the tub. Front bumper, SYE and a few other mods are also planned but still figuring out the details/scope creep. In the future depending on my boy's interest and ambitions it will end up with either a D44/8.8 combo or it could go full tons and steal the '08 SD60 and disc brake 14 bolt I have set aside for the ever present, never evolving K5 in my drive way that seems to just keep collecting parts and rust. If that happens a LC9/6L80 with either a 205 or 241 will end up in it as well as my hutchinson beadlocks I have squirreled away.
 
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1969honda

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Location
Cache
Well the body shop called this afternoon and said the frame should have a clean bill of health sometime Monday🤘. New grill shell should have arrived today at home as well according to UPS.😎

Motobilt replied earlier in the week they were at least 14 more business days out from shipping the fenders. Bummer; hopefully I can get all the damaged sheet metal striped off, ugly rear plastic flares removed, interior pulled in prep for raptor liner and floors lined over the Christmas holiday.
 

1969honda

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Location
Cache
Decided while cleaning the garage and looking at other parts I really needed to get the cooling system parts ordered for the TJ. It's just a 2.5l so it could use all the squirrels when going down the road.

I've always wanted to run the Taurus fan setup on a couple different projects and decided now was the time to try out it. I ordered the wiring pigtails, connector body and BMW 2 speed fan switch all from ECS tuning using the info from @Hickey thread Simple wiring kit for a Taurus fan? I also grabbed a new Taurus fan on rock auto with a few other odds and ends needed to rebuild things.

Last piece I grabbed was the Volvo relay with new pins and connectors from ebay. 😳 Definitely going to research the connectors and pins for future reference on a few of the wholesale electrical sites.
 

1969honda

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Location
Cache
Well the rest of the cooling fan system arrived last night, Custom Coat/UPOL Raptor liner on Tuesday and I got a shipping delivery date notice a few minutes ago from Motobilt for next Wednesday 🤞 If everything works out I might be able to get fenders hung, test fit and painted before I have to take a 3 week hiatus. After that paint/coatings should have cured while away and everything can be put on for a final time.
 

1969honda

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Location
Cache
Well we finally got caught up on snow and the garage cleaned out enough to bring in the TJ. Decided that for the day I'd better at least get the from clip off and see what shape the radiator was in after getting the grill tipped back into it. Pulled the good and then I put my boy on one fender while I did the other.
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He stuck and to help until we got the grill out, then had to go into work. I promised not to do more than finish pulling the fenders and inspecting things from there. Not to bad for only working on it about an hour and a half.

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1969honda

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Location
Cache
Well the wife's guard dog secured our motobilt shipment today.

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After I got home from work and my boy was done running errands we began unloading boxes and mocking things up.
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This is probably the first time I've been able to get him excited/interested in touching a wrench since he was very young. It's been a lot of fun and I can't wait to keep working on the TJ and spending time with him.

We got the front fenders on, new to him grill shell and one rear 6" double arch fender flare before we called it quits. These things bring the beef for sure! Front fenders and rear flares are 1/4" throughout, all the holes except one on the rear lined up near perfect.

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After we get the other rear flare on we'll double check everything is lined up where we want and layout the hood cuts. Then it's prep for paint/raptor liner, spray and re-hang parts.

Motobilt recommends cutting the hood right on the body line. I've read a lot of posts on here and other forums saying to expect to cut the front a little higher as the body line isn't level/straight. I think we'll measure the rear and mark forward to the front and then leave extra and fine tune with a flap will as needed. I plan to either use a body air saw or cutoff wheel on my grinder, is the a better way that one of you has had good success with?
 

Mouse

Trying to wheel
Supporting Member
Location
West Haven, UT
Used a 7" angler grinder to cut the hood on my TJ, came out great. I believe there is a slight angle to the front to make it all look correct and not wonky
 

1969honda

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Location
Cache
Well I've been out of town since the 7th and haven't really made any progress. Hoping this week to get the hood cut and the fenders all primed and ready for the raptor liner.

The only other big items I have from there is modifying the hood latch locations and a new radiator. The radiator has me going back and forth however. I've got the LC9/6l80 intended for the k5 sitting in the garage as well as another lm7/4l65 in a Yukon out back. One of these will eventually find its way into the tj and I would rather not have to buy another radiator a year or two from now.

So for those who have done an LS swap, which radiator did you choose and why? Prices seem to be anywhere from ~$275 to $500+.
 

RockChucker

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Location
Highland
When my jeep was more jeepish, i had good luck with the novak radiator. but i've since gone to a different size that fits better with current build designs.
 

1969honda

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Location
Cache
I went back and forth quite a bit the past couple days on the radiator. Walked between a few different universal summit/be cool/griffin options and mounting ideas. It's about a $2-300 savings to go that route vs a dip in swap radiator.

So I of course ordered a Mishimoto Jeep LS Swap radiator. It definitely hit my wallet a few hundred more, but my logic was this:

1- It mounts in with all factory mounts so it *shouldn't* ever crack from the jeep flexing; or be a headache to get mounted.

2- It's fully tig welded with no epoxy between end tanks and the core.

3- It'll save me a some time in fabrication and had great shipping. (Should be here Friday) Even better it'll help get my boy back to driving the TJ and me back in my TDI commuter; instead of my Cummins Megacab. 45 miles one way thru sardine canyon everyday is killing my wallet.

4- A really good buddy that used to work for one of the big Jeep conversion and accessory vendors told me of some horror stories with a few other brand name radiators. He admitted it was most likely the vendor's mounts, not the radiator mfg's fault, but still a concern.

5- Lastly, with a decent sale price and a service discount, it was quite a bit cheaper than any of the other LS swap radiators I found.

That brings us to today's update in the next post.
 

1969honda

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Location
Cache
Tonight was spent measuring and squaring up the Motobilt fenders front to back and side to side. After that was all done, we measured 3" from the bottom of the hood at the cowl and worked our way forward.

Once we had some marks to follow out came the blue masking tape.20230125_210256.jpg

We marked it the full 3" up the whole length on each side. I then cut below the tape along the body line, leaving plenty of room to fit it nicely to the new fenders.

After the initial cut on both sides this is what it is currently sitting like:
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And here is the cutoff pieces I teased in the "what did you work on today" thread.

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I borrowed the big 7" grinder from work to do this, but then couldn't find a cutoff wheel to fit. I made do with my faithful 4" Hitachi and a Diablo diamond blade.
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These things are so much nicer to clean up after than the regular cutoff wheels, and they seem to last forever.

Tomorrow I'll search around work for the missing mandrel adapter for the 7" and look at a few suppliers near there for a blade and a flap disc. Once I have those I'll get the new hood line finalized and hopefully start pulling everything back off for primer and paint Saturday afternoon.

My boy works the next few nights and Saturday morning, so progress will be a little slower than I'd like. The time in the garage with him far out weighs anything else though, so I'll be patient and enjoy it while it lasts.
 

anderson750

I'm working on it Rose
Location
Price, Utah
While it was not a radiator I really liked the Mishimoto intercooler I put in my Ram when I added the compound turbos. Their warranty was great and when I had a boot failure on one of the connections, they warrantied it without any questions.
 

1969honda

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Location
Cache
Well updates are a little behind actual progress. We pulled all the fenders and grill back off Saturday night, then pushed the TJ outside so we could clean and hang plastic Sunday morning. I should have looked at the weather report first in hindsight.
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After clearing the 18" of snow from the drive way and off of vehicles we were finally able to make our "spray" booth.

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On Monday we hung the grill and sprayed a coat of etching primer over it. Forgot to get a picture, but tonight we hung the front fenders, rear flares and set out the fender supports and sprayed them all.
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Once everything was primed, we pulled the grill aside and started a little aside project my sun came up with.
 

1969honda

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Location
Cache
Braxton got pretty excited about lighting when I sent him some pictures of retro fitted JK turn signals into the TJ grill. I thought it was a good idea and better than the little 3/4" LEDs I had originally come up with. After seeing his excitement I ordered a surprise for him that came in Monday afternoon. JK turn signals with smoked lenses and the US Flag in the lensesIMG_2993.jpg

I let him pick the placement, then we marked and cut holes in the grill.
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After cutting the holes, sanding and deburring everything we marked and cut 3 small axial slots. The lights have (3) little flanges spaced even around the circumference just under the lense, we notched these and turned them in to locating/ retaining tabs. By doing this the lights can be inserted, then turned clockwise a little ways and they shouldn't come back out of the grill. One other nice thing is they are plug and play with the factory TJ harness.

After getting the turn signal holes figured out we touched up the primer left the grill to dry with everything else.

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Hopefully tomorrow or Friday, depending my boy's work schedule we can get the Raptor liner on the fenders and supports. There is one more little project that needs completed/mounted to the grill before it will get sprayed.
 
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1969honda

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Location
Cache
1K rattle can UPOL Acid Etch #8, it's available by the quart as well. Honestly I should have just bought a quart, it would have been about 1/2 the cost a of the 4 rattle cans I picked up.
 
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1969honda

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Location
Cache
Tonight went pretty well, other than me failing to get a picture of my boy spraying the first coat of raptor liner on🙄.

We started off by covering the garage floor with all of the Motobilt shipping boxes and packing paper. Braxton then blew all the parts off with air and gave them a quick wipe with a tack cloth. After that I made him do some math and figure out how much hardener was needed to mix with 8 ounces of liner for a 3:1 ratio, then reduce it 10%.

AIS recommended this TRUE TR40 low temp reducer for the job. I let the gal at the counter know my garage would be staying at a fairly consistent 68°, even with our current ridiculously low temps, and what choosing I planned to use. Hopefully it turns out as good as it currently looks when dried and cured.

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We then set the air for 45psi and gave it a few test shots on a cardboard box to dial in the pattern. After that Braxton went to work and did a pretty dang good job for his first time ever spraying anything. There are a bunch of compound curves and sharp corners on these fenders, and it all looks pretty uniform.

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I've read that the Raptor/Custom Coat liner is very forgiving to spray with their provided gun, but with an hvlp can take a little bit more care. All in all, with the liner reduced 10% and 45psi, it has a fairly smooth looking orange peel vs the normal aggressive bed liner texture.

We'll do the grill and fender support brackets another night. His new spring loaded hood pins came in today, so we have a little work on the grill and hood to get them mounted before spraying.
 

1969honda

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Location
Cache
Right! I read quite a few online posts about getting a *smooth* texture before we sprayed anything. With a cheap harbor freight HVLP gun that we drilled the nozzle out to 2.0mm it went on really well. I'm very happy with the way its turned out so far.

My boy just sent me any a couple pictures of things this morning.

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