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Last Call Guest on these Group Buy Deal Items from Baja Designs
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- #1,022
Not much to add. Ordered large flange rivets and started predrilling the hinge and the frame to get these mounted in the top.
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- #1,023
First test fit of the gullwings. Everything worked out great. Still a ton let to do before sheeting, but they swing up about 165 degrees, plenty of room for gas struts. Now I just have to figure out latches, weld in the inner frame surround for the seal and sheet them. Window will be 16x40 .
left them and 1/8" proud so when I sheet them, I'll be able to roll the lip edges and add a foam seal to the back side of the sheet metal to seal better and help prevent rattles on top of the bulb seal that will go around the inner frame seal.
gt1guy
Apparently a racist
Looking good. That going to be sweet.
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- #1,025
Nothing to update on the jeep this weekend. Been too busy maintaining the fleet. In 4 years of ownership, I had my first issue with my Talon. The idle air control sensor was causing a low idle/stalling issue. It took me a while to track it down, as these things just don't really have many issues. Of course I went to pull it out of the container and it had 2 nails in one brand new tire :/ if you don't carry a "the tire plugger" kit in your off-road vehicles, I highly recommend one. It uses a gun and a mushroom type tire plug with no glue. I've only ever had one leak out of the hundreds of tires I've fixed for myself, friends and work trucks with these things. So I plugged the holes and moved on to fixing the sensor.
I keep a dry box for gear snacks and clothing in this thing, a long with an ice chest. So all had to come out before I could pull the air box cover and then the air box.
4 bolts, 1 sensor, two clamps and 2 lines to get the air box out. It's easier to pull the entire air box, than it is to change the air filter. Lol. Air filter has 10-12 10mm bolts and if you drop them, they want to fall directly into the intake tubes. So it's a tedious process.
the aforementioned sensor is located on the upper side of the intake tubes, so you're forced to pull everything to get to it.
theres a small pin inside that must line up with a slot in the plunger or it will force a high idle condition. Surprisingly, it doesn't take a lot of carbon build up to size the plunger. A good cleaning and a new sensor fixed the idle issue. I cleaned the old sensor for a trail spare.
didn't take many pictures of this process, but I worked my butt off,doing a full front end rebuild on my F250. New ball joints, new steering joints, checked the u-joints (free spin kit and tapered roller bearing conversion on this truck) they were still tight so they went back in. Repacked the bearings, did and alignment, and I swapped in a new redhead steering box I've had sitting on the shelf for about 5 years (I'll get round to it). 1 upper ball joint and 1 lower was loose. Not bad for 168k miles. It's been a good truck. My dad bought it new in 01. I sold my identical white one with an automatic, and kept his since it's a 7.3 zf6 manual truck. Hopefully now it's ready to go for another 10 to 20 years. It's nice to have a truck that drives like new again. Took me all night Friday and most of the day yesterday to get it done. I'm sore today. Gonna go wash and detail it this morning.
I keep a dry box for gear snacks and clothing in this thing, a long with an ice chest. So all had to come out before I could pull the air box cover and then the air box.
4 bolts, 1 sensor, two clamps and 2 lines to get the air box out. It's easier to pull the entire air box, than it is to change the air filter. Lol. Air filter has 10-12 10mm bolts and if you drop them, they want to fall directly into the intake tubes. So it's a tedious process.
ridered3
Low Talent Wheelin
Those gullwings look killer!
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- #1,027
Thanks bud. I need to find time to get back on it
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- #1,028
Stainless slam latches. These have an operator/guide rod that runs out the back. I welded a small stainless washer to them all to act as the operator rod or cable attachment point
the operator stub will get cut short and everything will hide behind a beauty panel once it's all complete.
tack welded the bolts in from the back side. Tiny little 10-24s.
These will get drenched into the door frame.
Like so.
I made left and rights, all the panels are ready to be cut and welded in. Ready to get all this done so I can skin the outside.
WaterH
Well-known member
Nice work. This kind of work is a pain and when you’re done, other people don’t know how much a pain it is. “So a door opens and shuts, big deal”
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- #1,030
It really is. Super tedious and time consuming.
gt1guy
Apparently a racist
We know the work going into it and appreciate you taking the time to share. 
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- #1,032
Working on the gullwings tonight. Centers welded in and drilled for the 1/4 turn handles. Both sides cut and latch plates frenched in. Cleaned all the welds up to flush.
period correct latches
I ended up adding material back in to support the latch area as best I could.
unfortunately the original release tabs were way too tall, so I cut them as short as possible to hide them under the trim panel.
Not quite flush, to help keep them in the groove correctly.
set up and drilled the second hinge for the passenger side
Tomorrow I'm going to cut the outer skins and work on getting them in and the window openings laid out.
once all that's done, I'm going to have to build the internal latch actuators for the handle the other ones I bought aren't going to work out. They're too big.
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- #1,033
One gullwing done.
much larger window than what was in there. Ended up 14x38
tons of rosette welds to hold it together.
tons of holes drilled for said rosette welds
lots of layout for this portion as well.
there is a 1" band around the outside of the frame and I rolled the lip slightly to give it some depth
No shear at the house, just a steady hand and a cut off wheel. Trying to minimize heat distortion.
WaterH
Well-known member
I like it. I think I would have made the front angled to match your cage. Would have just added a little coolness to it. But to late now. Will it get tinted glass? Doesn’t need to be limo tint, but just a little will be cool.
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- #1,035
I was planning on limo tint for the top and 35 for the doors
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- #1,036
Primered/painted in between the hinge and the door. That let me rivet it together so I could get a good test fit with the hinge and see it in operation. With the piano hinges and 4 bolts holding it in place it shouldn't sag or have issues. Now I can measure for gas struts and get them ordered.
used a prop rod just to have a look at it. It's surprisingly light for what's there. Need to order a digital fish scale so I can get an approximate weight on the doors for the struts.
WaterH
Well-known member
You gonna put glass or plastic in them?
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- #1,038
It's getting glass. Plexi just seems to attract dust and gets scratched to pieces in no time.
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- #1,039
Ordered a few more things to add to the list of goodies going in the engine
Some high voltage coils
heavy plug wires to help insulate the electronics from interference
a set of roller rockers to add when I drop the cam lifters and springs in.
tall deck valve covers to clear the rockers.
and a pushrod tool to double check lengths after everything is installed.
ordered a couple fresh sets of plugs in case they're needed for tuning as well.
Hopefully get between 450 to 500 to the wheels on this thing.
Some high voltage coils
Hopefully get between 450 to 500 to the wheels on this thing.
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- #1,041
You're 5.3 right? Mines 6.0 L76 with the rectangle port heads. Richard Holdener is showing over 500hp with just a cam change (BHP). Parasitic loss of 50 HP is a do-able number, hopefully with the addition of the billet torque converter, trans refresh, shift kit and better tuning. 4.88s put me at better than stock size tire ratios. But, like I said, hoping. Trying to squeeze every bit I can. Going to look at light intake porting and port matching the heads too, once it's apart. Manifolds are already port matched, buffed and dump straight into 2.5 inch exhaust as well.
Mine is a 6.0 bored .030 with massaged 862 cathedral port heads, sloppy 2 cam, 80lb injectors and 92mm throttle body at 7lbs of boost. It's around 9.5/1 compression. 1 ¾" headers and my exhaust is 2.5" I think. I was right around 380hp/375 torque. I was hoping to hit 550-600hp, so I wasn't the happiest when I left, but I do wonder if my tune is as good as it should be and something I need to look into.
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- #1,043
That seems awfully low with a blower and all that work done to it.
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- #1,044
Managed to knock out the passenger side gullwing tonight. Need to drill and mount it to the top yet, but thats 4 holes. No big deal, but I was tired and called it.
I'll move on to the rear hatch after this, get it sorted.
Once all the hatches are done, I'll assemble and install all the latching components, check fit and operation and move on to the passenger doors.
Once the doors are done, it's time to disassemble and start the bodywork and paint process. List is getting really short fellas.
Summit goodies showed up today as well. When the motor comes out, it'll get torn down and have all the fun stuff put in.
I'll move on to the rear hatch after this, get it sorted.
Once all the hatches are done, I'll assemble and install all the latching components, check fit and operation and move on to the passenger doors.
Once the doors are done, it's time to disassemble and start the bodywork and paint process. List is getting really short fellas.
Summit goodies showed up today as well. When the motor comes out, it'll get torn down and have all the fun stuff put in.
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- #1,045
Forgot a few progress pics, but this top never came with a back hatch when I got it, so I'm starting fresh. Had to build a header, but because I lifted the top an inch, it threw the dimensions for the header off. So I built a 1x2 header with 3/16 end caps. Drilled and tapped the end caps for 1/4 -20 bolts, put a tube stop on the backside of the header, and added 4 more 1/4-20 bolt that tie the header into the top, from the top of the channel. Six bolts hold the header in, 4 will retain the rear hatch.
here you can see the rivnuts for the hatch hinge. 4 bolts directly above those hold the header to a seam panel.
the button heads captured the header from the side and act to stiffem the top up as well.
Built out the hatch frame as well to match the others and gave up for the night.
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- #1,046
Finished the rear hatch up today. Same as the gullwings. Rinse and repeat.
made another set of plates up, latching system will be identical to the side doors.
Because this was slightly narrower than the gullwings I was unable to span the table with clamps like I did previously. So when I went to weld it forced me to clamp much differently than I did before, plus I added a a broke lip to add a sealing portion to the tailgate.
heres a good look at the broke lip.
another thousand rosette welds but it makes the panel extremely rigid for what it is.
Mounted. I will lengthen the side windows slightly to help it match better visually.
one more panel closer to completion.
gt1guy
Apparently a racist
Looks fantastic
WaterH
Well-known member
Yea, I really like that lip setup. I think it will work well. Do the two little windows match the side windows?Looks fantastic
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- #1,049
Thanks bud!Looks fantastic
No, I'm going to extend the little side windows slightly to help it look more similar visually at the back and I'm also going to open up the side winds some more, but all the glass is slightly different heights unfortunately.
CJ3BL
Well-known member
Superb work on the top! That's a ton of effort that's payed off - it really looks killer. Great ideas on the side opening panels and the formed lip over the tailgate. The overall profile of the stretched body and top is really sharp and stands out. Nice work!
