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Blue Jeep build

HOLY SHIT, 3K? For real? Just remember, being cool is expensive :lmao:

I was going off memory, so I checked it again. It was actually still in my shopping cart (the only way to see what it will cost).

3k is only for the carbon fiber, I didn't have the epoxy in there. So I added the epoxy in the cart. All in it comes to $5853.96

Not sure I want to be cool that bad.:flipoff2:
 
3k is only for the carbon fiber, I didn't have the epoxy in there. . . All in it comes to $5853.96

Not sure I want to be cool that bad.:flipoff2:
For the lightness gain per dollar, pass. If your project suddenly goes to an unlimited budget, sure. In the meantime, your hood will look great in body color - hell, even a straight coat of primer and it'll look badass :beer:


Almost ashamed to suggest this, but you could hydro-dip your 'glass hood to look like car-bone fee-bray and bury it in clear coat. It would look cool, but the poser component would bug the everlovin' shit outta' you :flipoff2:
 
For the lightness gain per dollar, pass. If your project suddenly goes to an unlimited budget, sure. In the meantime, your hood will look great in body color - hell, even a straight coat of primer and it'll look badass :beer:


Almost ashamed to suggest this, but you could hydro-dip your 'glass hood to look like car-bone fee-bray and bury it in clear coat. It would look cool, but the poser component would bug the everlovin' shit outta' you :flipoff2:

I'm set with just rolling on Rustoleum handicap blue traffic striping paint. It will make a great 10' paint job. That stuff is tough as nails and will be easy to fix.

Carbon fiber sounds good, but to me this is the wrong application to spend that kind of extra coin. In the end, I just need a hood. I need a hood that can take some abuse. I don't want to have to replace it every time a tree branch rubs across it. I can get that with a few extra layers of fiberglass and some core material.

If I needed the ultimate in light weight, paper thin carbon fiber would be the way to go. I'm just not in that camp.
 
Here's the primaries part of the headers. Secondaries will be the easy part with only a 45* needed to kick them under the tub.

You can see which collector has to dodge the front driveshaft.:smokin:

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I counted each block of each CLR I used (which naturally turned out to be every CLR I had) and made a list of total degrees needed for each.

In the end, I ordered....

1- 5"clr 90*
1- 4"cle 90*
1- 3"clr 180*
2- 2.5" clr 140*
18- 2"clr 125*
All the bends have straight legs on each side, so I didn't need to order any straight.

Pro Fabrication had the 2"clr 125* on sale, so it was way cheaper to load up on them rather than buying less 180*s. Everything is 16ga 321. Went 16ga cause I need all the help I can get when it comes to welding everything together. For me, thinner shit just means more holes to fill.:flipoff2:
 
You be right on welding thin metal---brings the suck!!!

Considering my stainless header welding experience consists of the two 1/4" tacks I put on each stub going into the flanges, once again I'm in way over my head.:grinpimp: And on the stubs, I had the flanges to soak up most of the heat.

Fit up will be my friend.

As always, I'll have it down by the last one.:flipoff2:
 
Have you heard of a product called solar flux type B? I used it when I welded my stainless exhaust, it seemed to help with the sugaring burn through of the tubes during welding. I mixed it in a little tray, applied with an acid brush, waited for it to dry, then welded the joint.

I ordered a little pouch from ebay, and I think it was 15 bucks or so. Might be worth looking into.

SOLAR FLUX TYPE B
 
Have you heard of a product called solar flux type B? I used it when I welded my stainless exhaust, it seemed to help with the sugaring burn through of the tubes during welding. I mixed it in a little tray, applied with an acid brush, waited for it to dry, then welded the joint.

I ordered a little pouch from ebay, and I think it was 15 bucks or so. Might be worth looking into.

SOLAR FLUX TYPE B

I used it years ago and it worked as advertised. I bought a pound can of it a couple months ago for this header project. Damn pound can cost me $50 bucks. I believe it's mixed with methanol if I remember correctly.

I also have a dual flow meter reg for the argon bottle. So I'll be able to have a separate flow meter for purging.

I know I have more than a few bends that have the clocking change every inch. Pretty sure that's going to be Solar Flux territory.
 
Did a little side project today. I had bought the parts a few years ago and I'm getting close to where I'm going to wish I had it soon.


It's a new roller chair.........................That's right.............roller chair. I have one I use all the time that I bough off Summit. It doesn't go high enough and it's been on fire a few times.

ExWrench had a bitchen roller chair in his build thread with a tractor seat. Well, I had to have one too.


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But most importantly, it's taller and more comfortable where I sit to weld.

Still need to paint it so it doesn't rust. The thing will roll right over extension cords as an added bonus.:flipoff2:


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Did a little side project today. I had bought the parts a few years ago and I'm getting close to where I'm going to wish I had it soon.


It's a new roller chair.........................That's right.............roller chair. I have one I use all the time that I bough off Summit. It doesn't go high enough and it's been on fire a few times.

ExWrench had a bitchen roller chair in his build thread with a tractor seat. Well, I had to have one too.


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But most importantly, it's taller and more comfortable where I sit to weld.

Still need to paint it so it doesn't rust. The thing will roll right over extension cords as an added bonus.:flipoff2:
I dig it Kevin! :beer:

That seat pan looks veddy, veddy familiar :laughing:
 
Damn nice chair:beer::beer:, I've been meaning to do something like that too, but I ain't got no seat, so I just look on the internut and say phuck off to buying one when I see the price. I need to keep my eyes peeled for one of them ol' tractor seats.
 
Thank you Sir.

I got the seat from Tractor Supply. I want to say it was around $50, might have been less.
 
Ok, where were we......................ya, roller chair.

Had some spray bombs laying around so I painted it. It's rustoleum hammered brown


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I'm not happy with it. Not the color, the chair. The wheels stick out too far and get in my way.

If I was a drunk it would be great.
 
Started on the steering.

Tacked the ram in place with a couple tabs so I could cycle the suspension and move the tabs as needed. Instantly found out I'll have to move the fill port on the housing. Was kind of expecting it.


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So after trimming a bit off the bumpstop mounts, I got it about a 1/4" off the radiator mount at full bump. It's tight everywhere.


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Like I said, it's tight. This is with the truss literally touching the frame. I'm going to mount the bumpstop pads on the axle so it stops a good 1/4" from contacting the frame.


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This is where I'm starting at on the knuckles. Will have to pull out the computer aided cardboard on this.


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I do have a question. Anyone have an idea of how much the nylon bumpers on the bottom of Fox bumpstops compress?

They sure don't feel like they'd squish at all.
 
Dang that's cutting it "close" for sure!!

Ya, it certainly is. But after cycling the suspension a million ways to Sunday it's only that close at 2 wheel full bottom out. And that's with the dvr's side of the truss contacting the frame. Even an inch of movement of either tire has the ball sockets moving away from the bumpstops.

So in order to lawn dart proof it, here's my plan for the bump pads........

I'll drop the axle 1/4" so there's a gap at the frame/truss and the weld the bump pads look like this.


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That "should" physically keep anything from making contact. I "should" also lose 1/4" of up travel by doing so.


The fallback is that I can always swap the ball sockets for heim joints and gain a bunch of room.



So by doing the bump pads the way I'm planning, the whole rounded bottom of the bumpstop will have to be smashed flat. Actually the whole thing would have to be flat.


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So.......still working on it eh??

Yes, I am Sir.

Ordered a new truck in Dec and it should be showing up any time. So until it gets here, I'm trying not to blow cash. I know, first world problems.

I finally figured out where I can mount the rear bumpstops. Started making the cans.

Started making the pocket in the dash for the AIM digital dash to fit in.

Also been practicing my stainless tube welding. I can knock out sound welds now, but they're not the prettiest. There's going to be so many welds so close together, I'll probably just flap wheel everything smooth anyway.

I need to put my big boy pants on and attack the headers. Kinda been afraid of making a complete mess out of everything. Practicing doesn't have the same weight when I fuck up. But once the headers are done and test fit to make sure I didn't blow it, I can pull the body.
 
So, started to make a jig for the headers to fit in as I make them. Something that will let me catch a little fuck up before it becomes a big fuck up.


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Once I was done with the passenger side header, it looked like I could flip the jig around and do the jig for the driver side out the other way.

Sure enough it would work.


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With each tube free, they really aren't too crazy.


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I don't envy you Kevin, stainless likes to move a tad when welded, and all those little joints . . . wow, you're going to be epically pissed by the time you're done :laughing: :flipoff2:

You're going to start at the flanges and work toward the collectors, yes? That should leave room for a little "attitude adjustment" at the free ends to pull it all into line. Either way, I hope you have better luck than I think I would :beer:
 
Are you planning on hose clamping the pipes to your jig as you move down the line welding?
 
I was thinking of making the hard bends first all by themselves. There's a couple where in 4"-5" of bend, each inch has to be rotated so the bend ends up on two different planes.

If I can keep from fucking that up, and cutting out the full length of all the other bends, I will be down to 3-5 pieces for each primary. I like those odds better.

After that the plan is to tack my way out from the flanges and get everything to line up with the collectors. Then pull each tacked up primary, set up the purge and weld them out on the table. Then it's back to the jig, tack the collectors on, pull everything, purge weld collectors. Then back in the jig to tack up the flanges for the last time.

Sounds fucked up doesn't it?

From sitting and staring at these things, I don't see any other way. Everything can only be welded 100% by rolling it around on a table. Well, almost everything. I can weld the primaries to the flanges with the flanges bolted to the jig, but I'll need to remove most of the little jig bits sticking up. That goes for the jig bits on the other side too.

I think it will be fun.:smokin:
 
Frustratingly fun is what you mean:grinpimp::grinpimp:

What a prediction:flipoff2:

You were right.

Right out of the gate, I was cutting the pieces wrong. I'd stack them together and they wouldn't go the way they should be going. Very frustrating.

Here's two pieces cut exactly the same way. The one on the left is perfect, the one on the right is the correct length but the angle on the left side of it is wrong.


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Took me a while to figure out what the problem was. I was using a hose clamp to mark the cut lines, which can work fine IF YOU DO IT RIGHT.
I found that if you use the left side of the hose clap to mark a line, then you have to slide the hose clamp to the left and use the left side to mark the next line. Any change to that process will fuck you. Took me a handful of pieces to figure that out.

Now I'm using a ziptie to make the marks. Have to dick with it a little more to make sure it's straight, but even if I use the wrong side to make the mark, being so narrow, it make isn't off by much. Now I know to look for it too.


I rigged up this little jig to help knock out all the single block pieces. Lets me hold the open end against a flat surface and butt the 9 o'clock against a solid surface. Then i set the plastic block on top and make a mark where the cut line goes.

Pictures are for illustrative purposes only:flipoff2:


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Here's all my heavy equipment for building headers.

Band Saw. Swag table, I made the legs.

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Belt sander. Which is a piece of sandpaper on a piece of 2x3.


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De-burring station.


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Anyway, one primary fit up. Cyl#5. Hose clamps a tape holding the pieces together. Gaps are nothing which is what I really need. I have two more pieces to make for cyl#1 and it's a straight shot to the collector. When that's done, I'll tack those primaries together.


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Do it all 6 more times, weld it all out and I'm done:flipoff2::eek::lmao:
 
Nice that you got it figured out and I'm still trying to wrap my brain cell around the hose clamp marking issue, but at least you got it figured out and can move forward.:beer::beer:
 
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