Building Homer (2005 TJ Build Thread)

[FarFire70]

The rubberized plastic cover the heat gun has started turning into goo, When I used the heat gun in the cab to fix the plate that the handbar attached to, I touched the air bag and got some of the sticky goo on the air bag.

So I tried to use isopropyl alcohol (91%) to remove the sticky stuff and found out that it removes the air bag paint....

Ugh... Love it when a small project just snowballs...

The current plan is to pull the air bag, strip the paint, and paint it. That'll be a spring project at the earliest.

 

[FarFire70]

Got the hole drilled for the intake. Touched it up with body-matched paint. Went with a 3-1/8" hole saw.

Then I turned my attention to the washer fluid reservoir. Using the dremel to enlarge the existing hole. Had to go down with the hole since there wasn't space to concentrically enlarge the hole.

Used a step drill bit to add another hole for the hard top.

Then fabbed up a bracket.

Not having a bandsaw and not paying attention to the grinding disk sparks, I ended up catching my shirt on fire... Luckily I caught it and had another shirt on underneath so no harm to me.

Then some priming and painting in 45* weather - so we'll see how the paint dries or if these parts get stripped and the heater comes out.

 

[FarFire70]

Picked up the unobtanium from the stealership today.

If I get the air intake installed tomorrow, I'll be able to take a spin.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

…

Not having a bandsaw and not paying attention to the grinding disk sparks, I ended up catching my shirt on fire... Luckily I caught it and had another shirt on underneath so no harm to me.

…

Can’t tell you how many shirts I have ruined that way…

 

[Wildman]

Can’t tell you how many shirts I have ruined that way…

Ditto

 

[FarFire70]

Can’t tell you how many shirts I have ruined that way…

Did help that was the exact moment my wife walked out to see what we were doing for lunch and saw the fire...

Wife: 'Is that why you have that apron (welding apron)?'

Me: 'Yup. It's right over here...'

Wife: 'If you can't use your toys safely, you won't get to play with them.'

lol. She's a keeper.

 

[FarFire70]

Slave cylinder back in with the new studs.

But now there is a squeak in the slave/clutch area whenever I press the pedal....

No good deed... All this headache because I thought the fluid could use a flush.... Ugh.

Going to research to see if I can press the clutch pedal without the slave installed (or will that blow out the slave?) to identify if it is the slave itself. If not, wondering if it is where the slave contacts the fork (I did put some grease on it before installing).

 

[FarFire70]

Had to use the welder to get the old stud hot enough to release the bolt.

When you have a hammer (welder), every problem is a nail (welding opportunity)...

You can still see the smoke coming off the stud in the pic. Nut came off with ease. Ran the rethreader through both to clean them up before the install.

I also ran a quick weld along the bend where I had tried to test if I could get a controlled bend by cutting a slot into 10ga for the phone mount. Test run for the parts that should be here any day from Send-Cut-Send.

Love this Miller Welder more every time I use it!

 

[FarFire70]

Next up was to tackle the air intake.

Got the snorkel install into the cowl.

After that, I test-fit the air box and found I didn't need/want any of the windstar mounting points. They interfered with the wiring harness along the first wall to get a good fitment into the snorkel.

So I sat and worked the dremel cut-off and sanding disk.

Cut off the two mounting points at the back of the filter box.

And then there was some weird feature on the end closest to where the box interfaces with the snorkel. Couldn't grind it down completely because there is a part where it indents into box and I couldn't tell how far into the box I could grind.

So I left it at this:

Inside the box where I worried I'd grind a hole if I went further.

Next up is the crankcase vent. Re-using the hose that went from the valve cover to the OEM airbox. This half is on the airbox side.

Using the Dorman Help! 47093 Heater Hose Connector. Cut it off here:

Drilled into the OEM intake tube. 1/2" bit and then some clearancing with the dremel.

The Dorman part has this feature on it that I used as an indexing feature.

Hopefully this will help in the future from the adapter ripping off if I need to turn the tube to remove it down the line.

You can see the relief I added to the hole on the left side of the hole to account for that indexing feature.

RTV on the adapter and drove it home. It's a nice tight fit.

90 Degree ID 3inch to 4inch Elbow Coupler Silicone Hose adapter for the turn. Used ideas on this forum to use the end of the OEM tube that connects to the OEM airbox and make an adapter between the OEM tube and this coupler. You can see a small part of it poking out under the coupler.

Leaving the RTV to dry overnight.

All the parts together and almost in place. Project 'complete'

I'll see if it needs any bracketing to reinforce mounting it once it's all in place.

 

[FarFire70]

More painting. Decent temp today in the mid-50s. The paint from the other day laid down well, even with weather in the 40s.

 

[Wildman]

I've got to pickup some White paint so I can paint that shoulder bar. I've always had issues when trying to paint when it's that could in my garage.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

More painting. Decent temp today in the mid-50s. The paint from the other day laid down well, even with weather in the 40s.

View attachment 473210

Nice work. You are getting a lot done in short order.

 

[FarFire70]

Nice work. You are getting a lot done in short order.

Thanks. Trying to maximize short windows of an hour or two here and here. Wife has been beyond understanding. Always being sure there's time to spend with the twins.

That's a big compliment from you. I've come across a few rare people in my professional career who find 25 hours in every day - you seem to find those 25 hours to maximize time in your personal/hobby time based on your build/threads.

 

[FarFire70]

I've got to pickup some White paint so I can paint that shoulder bar. I've always had issues when trying to paint when it's that could in my garage.

We're only a few steps from similar weather conditions... Saw you were on the verge of snow today. We had a decent mid-50* day but about to turn cold (40s).

It always seems my biggest paint projects come up in winter. Maybe it's because it's the down season. Maybe it's coincident. Either way - Painting in the cold sucks!

 

[Wildman]

We're only a few steps from similar weather conditions... Saw you were on the verge of snow today. We had a decent mid-50* day but about to turn cold (40s).

It always seems my biggest paint projects come up in winter. Maybe it's because it's the down season. Maybe it's coincident. Either way - Painting in the cold sucks!

We had a high of 39 today. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid 40's and not as windy and only a 6% chance of rain.

I'll do little spray can projects when it's cold but things like the hood will have to wait until spring when it's high 60's or low 70's for me to try it.
I'm HOPING I'll get to do some good snow wheeling this winter and won't have much down time.

 

[Apparition]

We had a high of 39 today. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid 40's and not as windy and only a 6% chance of rain.

I'll do little spray can projects when it's cold but things like the hood will have to wait until spring when it's high 60's or low 70's for me to try it.
I'm HOPING I'll get to do some good snow wheeling this winter and won't have much down time.

Paint in your house

 

[FarFire70]

We had a high of 39 today. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid 40's and not as windy and only a 6% chance of rain.

I'll do little spray can projects when it's cold but things like the hood will have to wait until spring when it's high 60's or low 70's for me to try it.
I'm HOPING I'll get to do some good snow wheeling this winter and won't have much down time.

Same. I'm going to see how well the dual-element propane tank heat can get the garage mid-winter. Just talked to the wife on maybe picking up a torpedo heater.

Last time I looked into a torpedo heater, finding a good source of kerosene led to the propane attempt - but It's too small and I worry it can't heat enough of a space I would want to paint.

I have the rear bumper on the list to paint this winter but won't unless I can feel like I have a consistent (and warm enough) space for that larger of a piece.

I wouldn't try body panels until warmer spring/summer seasons.

 

[Wildman]

Same. I'm going to see how well the dual-element propane tank heat can get the garage mid-winter. Just talked to the wife on maybe picking up a torpedo heater.

Last time I looked into a torpedo heater, finding a good source of kerosene led to the propane attempt - but It's too small and I worry it can't heat enough of a space I would want to paint.

I have the rear bumper on the list to paint this winter but won't unless I can feel like I have a consistent (and warm enough) space for that larger of a piece.

I wouldn't try body panels until warmer spring/summer seasons.

I have a torpedo heater but my issues with it were that since I wasn't running it all the time it would make everything metal sweat going from below 32* to 40+ degrees. That was why I decided to add electric heaters instead. When I'm not going to working in the garage I can turn them down to around 40* so stuff doesn't freeze. Since my garage isn't insulated it's a little expensive to try and heat it all the time & I have a heck of a time getting it above around 60*.

 

[FarFire70]

I have a torpedo heater but my issues with it were that since I wasn't running it all the time it would make everything metal sweat going from below 32* to 40+ degrees. That was why I decided to add electric heaters instead. When I'm not going to working in the garage I can turn them down to around 40* so stuff doesn't freeze. Since my garage isn't insulated it's a little expensive to try and heat it all the time & I have a heck of a time getting it above around 60*.

Insulating the garage was a must after our first year in the house. Made a huge difference. And then a couple years ago I added insulation to the garage door and that helps take a little more of the bit off the chill.

That plus the new outlets and lighting made the garage perfect for projects. The new workbench this winter will be the next phase in making the garage what I really want it to be.

 

[FarFire70]

When installing the fenders, I really wasn't judicious in keeping them clean and the accumulated a lot of greasy fingerprints, anti-seize finger prints (that stuff gets everywhere when you use it...), and sweat (especially the front fenders as I installed them in the hot summer months.

You can see some of it here:

I picked this up at the store to give it a try since it says its for cleaning raw aluminum.

I had a little time before church this morning so I gave that fender a try.

Meh... I'm less thank impressed. I'll give it another try and some more patience but I'm also researching other options. The last resort is to hit it with a Scotch Bright.