Carwash Crawler - Build Thread... again.

[carwash]

Well, a little late, but better late than never. I borrowed a Lowbuck Tools notcher from my buddy Travis. Got it home tonight and mounted it up.





Talk about some fast notching. CHOMP CHOMP and i get this...



and it fits perfect... a perfect notch.



Just wanted to share my excitement and time savings from here out...


(edit: I hated this notcher, and wouldn't recommend buying one. angled notches are near impossible, and found myself needing to grind every notch, even the 90 degree ones to get them to work well)

[carwash]

Well, not a ton of updates, but here are a few pics...

Received my POB bracket from captainFab on OFN. Pretty sweet bracket, and necessary when doing multiple bends... I have already used it enough to make it worth twice what i spent on it.





Got the tubes bent for the fenders.







Finally got my shop PC going to run the bend-tech software... nice to have it close to operations now.



Put in a few more supports here and there, side and bottom of front fender...



Then, as I am bending the grill hoop, this happens "CHINK!!!"



I was so pissed. A blessing in disguise i guess, as it was 3:00 a.m. and i had already drank too much beer. So today i called JD2, and they told me they had fixxed that problem, and that it was happening quite a bit. My die is at least 2 years old, so it wasn't covered under warranty, but they did sell me a new full block for below their cost (he says). They made the holder wider to distribute the load better. Should arrive next week. So, only straight tubes being put in this weekend, oh well.

Really good customer service tho on JD2's part.

[carwash]

OK!!! today was motor day. Bought my motor from a friend, a pull out from his jeep. Was a decent runner when he pulled it, but smoked a little at start up, so we decided it was the valve seals in need of some love. No big deal.

Well yesterday my buddy Bobb prepped and cleaned the motor and stripped it of all accessories, etc. And this morning, Brandon and I tore into it. Well we pop off the first valve, and there was no valve seal... we pop the other 7 off the one head, and not a valve seal on any valve. so, the valves were all disgusting and upon pulling them, none of them would seat and were all hung open... so off with the heads for a valve job. did it ourselves on the bench in about 2 hours. Ground them, reinstalled, light resurface, and slapped them back on. Cross your fingers.

Built up the tpi and stuck it on (no gaskets or anything, just stuck it all together with a few bolts), just to feel like i accomplished something the past 2 days. Got a few bars in the rear of the chassis as well... where is that new die, dammit. Here is a little picture recap of the weekend as well...

[carwash]

[carwash]

new die follower came... they did a big change in design...

OLD


NEW


that's beefy.

[carwash]

I've been a busy bee this weekend, damn near have the chassis done minus the belly. Did a little redesign on the front a-pillar connector... When you are on a strict deadline, redesigning things is a definite step backwards, but i think it was worth it, as the windshield area looks much better (meaner) than before.









Also did a bunch of work to the cowl, well Brad (KargoMaster on here) did a bunch of work to the cowl. He was nice enough to spend the whole day working with me. Again proving that things go way more than twice as fast with two people. Had to cut the stock windshield area off of it. Then had to notch out the cowl where two of the front end supports go from the front end to the upper dash bar. Had to cut completely through it so i will cover those holes with some nothced tubing. I'm also going to have another buddy TIG the whole seem from the upright to the curved area, after i get rid of all the assembly putty in there. It will look alot better and be much stronger.

[carwash]

He then DA's and grinded the whole thing to make it pretty and smoothe. He now has the red boogers.

[tjjeepjeep]

Holy cow Mike...those tires are sexy. ;)

Awesome recap..

[carwash]

well thanks... they'd be sexier if they were covered in mud and climbing up some rocks... but as sexy as they can be sitting in the shop i guess.

at almost $600 a tire, they better be sexy.