Custom Bumper

August 30, 2011



Given that I had been running bumper free since some time in 2008, I had finally come up with a complete design for a front bumper that would replace the tired and faded aluminum one. This bumper used new formed brackets that bolt to the frame (they almost fit; I will revise the design so the holes sit further back… I had to ream out my frame holes). The body of the bumper is of unitized construction, all built into one piece, making it stronger. The tow hook tabs are mounted as high on the bumper as possible to allow for a more aggressive approach angle, and are directly in line with the frame rails for added strength when pulling (as opposed to being pulled, which should never happen).


I had completed the CAD work for this design 3 weeks prior, and had sent it off to the fabricating shop for a quote. In order to build it to my design the front middle section (with the tow hooks, and the wrap under below it) would have to be built separately and welded in, with the weld running along the leading edge of the bumper. This wasn’t a big deal, except the edge wouldn’t be that nice rolled form it would have been from a machine. All said and done this bumper cost me $350 (unpainted), which when compared to the $600-$800 price tag of bumpers from other aftermarket manufacturers, seemed like a pretty good deal.

I was able to mount it with relative ease, with the help of my parents to hold it in place while I fastened the brackets and the bumper to the frame. The fit was good, with a bit of filing to get the frame holes in the right spot. I had planned to paint this at the same time as the rest of the truck so mounting it meant I wouldn’t have to carry it up in the back.

This bumper certainly gives the truck a more aggressive appearance, and makes it look like it belongs to a 23 year old as opposed to a 63 year old (who would suit the woodgrain and rubber bumperettes). I’m not as opposed to that plastic grille, but would still prefer something off an older rig, with round headlights. I plan to paint it satin black, so at least it looks like powder coating (though hopefully it doesn’t behave like powder coating).

Giving it the Once Over

August 23, 2011
 Sit Rep: There are a few faults it must be said; the engine leaks oil, the tranny leaks fluid, the radiator is on borrowed time, the clock disappeared, the AC is disconnected, the rear view mirror has fallen off 4 times, and my left rear door lock is sticky. That being said I can live without AC, I can manually unlock 1 door, and I can look at my watch. The leaks I will have to fix before they turn my driveway into a tar sands. With winter coming on, my radiator will last me until the spring so I have shopping time (replacements are $800, re-core’s are $300).


I took the truck for a bit of a spin up into the countryside north of where I live, to test out the systems on some quieter backroad routes. It’s a fun drive; being in something much older than other cars on the road. There is a sense of nostalgia as you look past your non-airbag steering wheel out over the large hood with a chrome ornament perched atop it; very non-Kia.

I snapped a few Camera Phone pics of it parked at an old school house. I realize the patchwork of paint, primer, bondo, and steel make for an interesting look, but that will soon be gone, along with that out of place bumper which I took off when I got home.

Becoming Legit

August 23/2011

It's like walking into the hall full of students waiting to write their passing exams, knowing that everything you have spent so much time on will be judged in a quick, thourough proving session. I felt the same kind of anxiety that I'm sure artists feel when they release an album, or a designer pitching a product on Dragon's Den.

This anxiety was justified for a few reasons. If the wagon failed the safety it meant I would have a list of yet more things to fix - to spend money on; not to mention the cost of another safety test. I had never tested the emmissions systems, only fixed what I had found to be dysfunctional. on top of these things was compounded the pressure of getting it certified so I could drive it up north to the waiting paint booth so I could paint it before the weather got too cold. I had booked a week of holidays months in advance so I was locked in; whether I spent them painting or I spent them fixing stuff I missed.

Lets just say the vehicle found it's way to the dealership in an undisclosed, yet fully legal manner. This provided a good test to see how it felt hitting 80 for the first time in nearly 4 years, and allowed the cat to heat up enough for the etest. upon arrival I hopped out, and my brother in law wheeled the big beast into the shop and onto the dyno for it's etest. While I wasnt allowed in the shop for thie following procedures, My brother in law had my camera-phone for some shots during the safety test. much to my surprise it passed the test by the skin of its teeth on the first round. I can probably attribute this near miss to its lack of use over the past few years (as i write this in November, it runs much better)



Looking to design a "Back From the Brink" sticker for the window to signify just how close this thing was to the crusher.

Sitting in the showroom with all the brand new baby Subaru's while my Senior Citizen Jeep towered on a hoist in the shop felt very numb, almost clinical; the way a father waits at the hospital for their child to be born. I was yet again surprised when after maybe 25 minutes my bro in law came out to tell me it was all finished, passed and certified. I was then able to go into the shop and snap a few pictures. I then settled up all the legal stuff and bills and set off in search of a licensing beurau to get some plates (another anxiety inducing task).



This thing weeps for paint, though the patchwork effect lets you know this vehicle has seen some pretty significant battles.



Note the orange Brakes for added stopping power



Apart from the lineup, the MOT deal was pretty uneventful, and I got the industry's only friendly and helpful assistant. I wont say any more about that since it's so boring, but I got a set of plates, Returned to the dealership, and popped them onto my newly legal beast.

Continued Next Post...

Frantic Prep

August 18-22, 2011

Certification Loomed on the horizon the way a cold front plows up a bank of thunderheads in the distance; no escape but to push headlong into it. With the Safety and E-test check booked for the 23^rd, I gave the beast a pretty thorough inspection and whipped up a short list of things I would need to complete over the next couple of days.

I street legalized all the Bondo work and got most of the bare steel painted for the trip north (should I get that far), as well as reinstalling any trim that needed to go back on. I pillaged the old TJ bumper from storage and welded up a few quick mounts to hold it in place as a temporary bumper while my real one was being fabricated.

An electrical check revealed my rear side marker signals didn’t work; with the multimeter reading about 2 volts instead of the required 12. Without the time to do proper continuity tests to find where 10 volts either escaped or couldn’t pass through a bad connection, I rigged up a splice to piggyback the power off the more robust tail light signal circuit. It meant they didn’t alternate blinking but it meant they now were legal.

 

On the evening of the 22^nd, about 16 hours before my test was booked, I took the vehicle for a quick spin to warm it up past driveway idle; with the intent of finding any weak points that otherwise wouldn’t appear until a road test.

The test worked.

When the power steering fluid began warming up, the pressure in the steering system increased to reach its normal operating temp/pressure. This caused a small pinhole leak in the low pressure line to begin dripping in a fairly constant 1 drip per second pattern. I reached in and gave the steel line (where it exits the box) a slight wiggle and it ruptured; bleeding itself out all over the garage floor like a mortally wounded Buck. Seeing as how it was passed closing time of Canadian Tire, I proceeded to dismantle the low pressure side of the system and took stock of what I needed.

 

In the morning, I slipped over to CT early to get the best start on my day. At T-6:00 I was told they didn’t stock parts for the Saginaw Steering system, the box that lived under just about every 4wd truck pre-1994 (and possibly after). Since I had the piece with me the Desk-Guy and I went to their fuel and brake fitting section and paired up a nearly identical match to the old fitting. I didn’t care that the line was intended for a GM sending unit, it bolted right up and I had steering in under an hour after purchase. I refit with new hose, clamps, and o-rings and then topped up the fluid. A few last minute dustings made it look semi-presentable before my brother in law came to pick it up for its appointment.

 

Big Booth

August 13, 2011

Manhandling a driver door into a small paint shop is easy; manhandling 4 doors, a hood, fenders, and a grille into a paint booth requires more space (still not hard), but fitting a 16' long truck into the same booth can be a sizeable task. Throwing a 19'x10' airtight structure together in a couple days requires that most of the work already be done for you.

Enter the Barn, Circa 1900. This building has an extended threshing floor for extra space, and solid 2.5" thick floors on Hemlock Beams. Bracing, Posts, and Swing Beams make for perfect backing components; just build the booth indoors. I began with a full bundle of assorted wood left over from church production props (Adventure to Bethlehem no less)

In Brief, the structure used a rib-like design that can later be collapsed and stored in pieces so i can use it again. It has a peaked roof, Garage style flip front door, and proper ventilation. The floor is sealed with large layered lumber tarps, and the walls are medium (about 8mil) vapour barrier. the man door is sealed by leaving a flange of vapour barrier around the perimeter that is trapped when it closes. a rear evacuation system uses an auxiliary fan from a 1990 Ford Taurus, sucking through 3 furnace filters (medium duty) the intake vents at the front are up higher than the rear exhaust, this causes the vapours and overspray to be sucked downwards.

Update from Early September. I left the vapour barrier until i needed it, this way it was dust free.

 Sneak peek

Late July – Early August 2011

Having booked myself in at the local Subaru Garage for a safety test and an e-test, it was time to tie up the remaining loose ends and get the vehicle into a passable condition. For the Wagon this meant mostly doing some more realistic Bondo prep and sanding; not to mention spraying those panels with primer to cover the bare steel.

In Typical More-than-I-bargained-for fashion, the Bondo was taking more time than I would have cared to allot to it in the first place, but since the clock was winding down I had to press on regardless of how long it was taking me (might have aided myself to have used some better bodywork tools; a long Lowes paint stick was the backing for all my sanding, allowing me to get the curves more or less right.

By the time I was more or less happy with the bodywork (aside from spot putty and final sanding) I shot some red oxide primer on it to keep whatever rust that wanted to form away from it. I also finished up the CAD for the Front Bumper I have been proposing all these years. I got in touch with a local metal fabricating shop that I’ve been in contact with for a few years (dare I plug them here?) called Templeton and Sons here in the GTA. These guys do excellent work and they are very reasonable in terms of their pricing (a full custom bumper turned out to be roughly the same if not cheaper than an OEM replacement). They do laser cutting, cnc press bending, and are fully certified to weld all sorts of metals. I will in the short term get a rear bumper done there of the same design persuasion.

Sit-Rep: Tach & Antennae

July 22 (ish), 2011

This is pretty brief, but it comes in the form of a micro-rant. I hate it when car companies think that since the vehicle is automatic the driver has no regard for what the engine is doing, so they don't bother installing a tach to save space or something. This is even more prevalent in a stickshift (such as my Echo, which is standard, and has no tach... I suppose they want me to just guess?)

Because of this manufacturing gaffe, I bought an inexpensive tach for the echo years ago, but it turned out to be incompatible with the more sophisticated (though I typically like sophistication in a lot of things) ignition system. I therefore shelved it for a few years until I got around to installing it in the more archaic 70's bred Wagoneer ignition system (which as legend has it was cobbled from Ford).

This was just about as easy as that staples button. A quick self tapping screw holds the mount against the A pillar, and the wiring tucks neatly doen the side of the dash behind the weatherstripping. It then runs through the firewall to it's respective coil mount.

Next came the relocation of the radio antennae. This was also fairly easy, using a shortened section of the cable routed behind the passenger side dash (which is a completely empty cavern I might add, tucked behind the original 1963 dash steel that Jeep neve bothered to change). There is a 1/2" hole at the end of the dash where I fished the cable through, and turned it up to plug into the original exterior mount. Then I essentially just jammed it in place, with the provision that I would later secure it somehow. Note; this requires you to either cut your antennae down to about 16" or use an off the shelf shortened one. I had some of these yellow ones laying around in new packages, so I popped one open and it slotted in as a perfect fit. Now my 1 speaker radio has some matching receiver action to boot.





Re:Mounts

June 18, 2011

Probably a good idea when looking at an old "body on frame" vehicle to give the body mounts a good forceful tug. Had I tugged mine earlier I would have caught both the 2 front body mounts, as they were only held in place by the rubber that comprises them. The bolts inside had rusted through completely, and swelled in true cauliflower style so that the once 3/8" collared bolt was now an inch around due to puckering, and was completely severed from the rest of the body. I noticed the mount itself is fairly badly rusted as well... shhhh.

I was able to cut into the floor above the mount, where a special housing held a blind nut with the remaining stud still in it. Since I could not drill this out my only option was to shear it clean from the frame rail. A little bit of punch work and some wiggling freed up the old crumbled mess of the bolt. This allowed me a clear shot through the old bodymount with a new stainless (304) bolt, with large fender washers and flange nuts.

I  Fed the whole deal back together and repeated the process on the drivers side (wish i'd noticed this before doing my floor repair initially.

Oh Look; More Rust

May 7, 2011

 

It seems that rather predictably, someone in the past indulged their insatiable craving for hitting something and then smearing on as much Bondo as their silicone spatula would allow. 

To placate the rig’s gaping wound, I mapped out a plan to patch in some new steel and give the beast some much needed rigidity. This began with some rudimentary sharpie work, and some exploratory wire-brushing to remove a few pounds of bondo. The rather extensive rust had eaten its way through most of the lower “dog leg” section, and by the looks of things, someone had done some brazing work with some new steel years ago. I grabbed the grinder and cutoff wheel and plunged into the body, slicing back until I was able to find good thick steel. 

This angular cutout then served as the template for my new steel patch, which I decided to tackle in 2 stages; the first part being the return portion that runs back into the door opening, and the second being the visible portion of the dogleg. I regret now not treating that rust on the inner steel of the wheelwell, and will likely have to tackle that in the future. 

After mocking up the patches using thick cardstock, I duplicated the patch out of either 18 or 20 gauge steel (not sure which). I learned years ago on another patch that it is best to curve the steel around a corner instead of welding right at the corner, as it makes for a cleaner bodyline that you can use when filling. Nipping the edge into little tabs allowed me to do the required compound curves on the steel to achieve the closest match I could to original.

With the first patch in place, I focussed my attention on getting the second, more visible patch in. doing the patches in this order ensured I would get the correct bodyline from the previous patch. I made the patch slightly oversized and trimmed it for an exact fit. By tack welding the bottom in first, I was able to progressively line up the patch and tack it in, finally using a body hammer and a dolly to achieve the small angular bodyline at the top (which was difficult to replicate). Some filler should bring the correct lines back, as the rest of this small panel had been damaged and repaired before. 

Plans, Plans, Plans

In a somewhat artistic fashion, I am breaking code with my "chronological order" of things today. Since I haven't worked on the Wagoneer all winter (accounting for the lack of posting), I have devised a sketch in the warmth of my studio. I never really planned out what I wanted to accomplish with this project until quite a while into owning it, possibly because the amount of work was so foreboding that I wasnt able to get my mind past it. 

Now that all my mechanical work is complete (thanks to several days of holiday; and the subject of a subsequent blog), I am able to more or less visualize what I want the Wagon to end up being. First of all, no more woodgrain; this took only a few clicks of the mouse on the net to discover that replacement woodgrain is worth about 4 times what I paid for the truck in the first place, and I can put that money to better use.

 

One of the nice things about sketching is you can mock up any design you want, whenever you want. Not to sound nostalgic but I still prefer good old fashioned hand drawing over CAD programs or photo manipulating tools; it's typically faster anyways.

This overlay sketch (uses many sketches as underlays to develop the final image) is a rough depiction of my concept for the finished product, using a blend of new custom designed equipment while retaining the rugged mid 60's looks. the stripe (in vynil) denotes the engine displacement instead of using the cliched "V8" emblem, tones which are picked up by the dual exhaust and glasspack mufflers. Thinking of badging it the "Timberline" to denote the sort of rugged landscape this vehicle is built for (like the term "treeline," the timberline is typically the elevation where trees become sizeable enough to be used commercially). 

The utility rack is designed to fit the stock roof rack mounts, while following the contour of the roof and deflecting wind to hopefully aid a bit in aerodynamics; as if it mattered. Front and rear utility bumpers freshen the face from the tired sculpted aluminum ones that made it look so dated. They give it a more muscular appeal, and are far more useful than the original, integrating tow hooks, trailer hitch, winch mount points, and heavier protection.

Although the sketch is along the lines of a 4-6" lift, I will be going for something more like 2" for better road manners, and cost effectiveness. the tires are merely conceptual, but I will likely look for some aggressive tread meat once my stock tires wear out (they are currently brand new).

As an aside, I have never been a particular fan of that grille. I would like to swap in a mid 60's through mid 70's grille, as they are more durable and better looking.

Packin’ Glass

September 1, 2010

As with any good restoration enthusiast, it pays to have willing help that often will work for free. Having a brother-in-law close by has been a great boon to this project, as he is often more willing than I am to get his hands dirty and fix stuff. As a Pro mechanic and a master of anything pertaining to older vehicles, I enlisted his help on inspecting some exhaust parts and doing some brake line work before the weather got too cold (winter is an absolute beast; and a legendary raider of ambition)

 

               With one swift tug at the old muffler, it crumbled like a matzah; leaving a 2’ gap between my cat and the rest of the tailpipe. Replacement OEM mufflers are upwards of $50 if I’m lucky, and they really lack in character. Much to my economic benefit (though I assume more for my amusement), Canadian Tire sells a few sizes of CherryBomb Glass-Pack Mufflers. These units are made of heavier steel and are treated in heat resistant paint for longer life. They also are designed to flow straight through, boosting flow by as much as an advertised 40% - leaving the low rumble of the V8 while skimming off the higher pitch noises.

      The fit was just about stock, with the tail pipe being pulled a bit further forward. It made a difference in so many ways that it made the truck sound a lot younger. For starters, it quietened the exhaust from its old rattling hollow muffler problems, and added some much needed rumble. Since these mufflers were designed in the 60’s for muscle cars, it fits my engine like a glove.

       I also turned my attention to treating the front brakes to match my new rear drums. I popped off the rim and set to cleaning the calipre for paint. This adds nothing in terms of stopping distance, but does add a cool focal point on the road when the wheel is spinning. With the help of my brother in law, we removed the front passenger brake line and flex line, and began bending some blank stock to fit (didn’t finish, got too cold).