Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ engine mounts

Sab-a-dab-a-doo! The back-country LJ build has officially started

***Shameless Plug***

If any readers of this thread are looking for a deal on a Savvy 241 T-case cable or JKS Quicker Disconnects for 2.5-6" lifts, I posted mine, which are very lightly used, in the Parts for Sale forum:


 
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***Shameless Plug***

If any readers of this thread are looking for a deal on a Savvy 241 T-case cable or JKS Quicker Disconnects for 2.5-6" lifts, I posted mine, which are very lightly used, in the Parts for Sale forum:



Hello! I'm interested in the cable shifter. unable to comment on the post/send a message because I'm new member. Let me know if I can grab it unless I'm going against community rules.
 
Hello! I'm interested in the cable shifter. unable to comment on the post/send a message because I'm new member. Let me know if I can grab it unless I'm going against community rules.
Do you have a US address I can ship to? I didn't specify, but my shipped price is for the continental US. I don't know what it'll cost to ship to Canada.
 
I can do shipping in US. Postal code for my box is 98230. Let me know how to proceed
I sent you a DM to complete this deal. I think you can reply to it if I start it. If not, post here again.

And, to get back to the build, today I cut off about 1/4” from the legs of the C channels of the Savvy frame-side control arm brackets. Here’s how I held them on the fab table for cutting with a death wheel:
IMG_7316.jpeg


I then touched them up with the zinc primer (no pics.) And that’s all I got done on the build today - “other duties as assigned” got in the way again…
 
Yesterday, I played hooky from the build to attend to a shop matter, posted here. Today, I'm back in the shop working on the build. Stay tuned!
 
If you're old enough to remember The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (for me it was re-runs, since I was born shortly after it ended), then you'll understand when I say that I can sum up today's adventures as, "Curses, foiled again!"

Since I have a lot of grinding (which generates some nasty dust everywhere in the shop) to do next for the mid-arm installation, I decided to get the last bit of painting out of the way for awhile, that being the Savvy engine/transmission skid and the Mr. Blaine-inspired transfer case skid. The plan was to paint them OD green, my accent color. I started the morning by bead blasting them first, and then hitting them with the random orbital sander. Then, I degreased them and dried them with dried, compressed air before heading to the house for lunch.

After lunch, I hit one side of each with some self-etching primer, let it dry for 90 minutes, flipped them, and primed the other sides. Then I grabbed my last half-can of OD green and used it up on the edges of both skids. After running out of that can, I opened up the case of six cans I re-ordered from LVP Paints (now call Crosslink Paints) a couple weeks ago. After the obligatory shaking for a minute or two, I started spraying, and to my horror, I discovered that even spray paint companies' service sucks these days. I understand that different batches of paint can have slight color mis-matches, but this is ridiculous:
1734994652922.png


1734994865341.png


Stay tuned to see if sab can defeat the evil paint-mixing villains in the next episode...
 
If you're old enough to remember The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (for me it was re-runs, since I was born shortly after it ended), then you'll understand when I say that I can sum up today's adventures as, "Curses, foiled again!"

Since I have a lot of grinding (which generates some nasty dust everywhere in the shop) to do next for the mid-arm installation, I decided to get the last bit of painting out of the way for awhile, that being the Savvy engine/transmission skid and the Mr. Blaine-inspired transfer case skid. The plan was to paint them OD green, my accent color. I started the morning by bead blasting them first, and then hitting them with the random orbital sander. Then, I degreased them and dried them with dried, compressed air before heading to the house for lunch.

After lunch, I hit one side of each with some self-etching primer, let it dry for 90 minutes, flipped them, and primed the other sides. Then I grabbed my last half-can of OD green and used it up on the edges of both skids. After running out of that can, I opened up the case of six cans I re-ordered from LVP Paints (now call Crosslink Paints) a couple weeks ago. After the obligatory shaking for a minute or two, I started spraying, and to my horror, I discovered that even spray paint companies' service sucks these days. I understand that different batches of paint can have slight color mis-matches, but this is ridiculous:
View attachment 581316

View attachment 581318

Stay tuned to see if sab can defeat the evil paint-mixing villains in the next episode...

How can paint on the right can be called green anything! Must be a mislabel, it's gotta be!
 
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How can paint on the right can be called green anything! Must be a mislabel, it's gotta be!
Look up the original name for the color they painted school buses in the US. Sometimes the name of a color has nothing to do with the actual color. I suspect you are correct that it is a mislabel. I have many cans from them and if they messed up the color, it was a mistake I didn't catch.
 
The color I specified is part of a color standard first developed by our government after WWII due to problems getting colors to match from all the companies that made things for the war. The standard has been revised over the years, and the current iteration is an SAE standard known as "Aerospace Material Specification - Standard 595" (abbreviated AMS-STD-595.) Inside that standard, each color has a five digit number code. So, what I specified to them was Color 34079 from Federal Standard 595. In LVP/Crosslink's system, they call it OD Green (some call it Army Green and some call it Forest Green), and that is an accurate description of Color 34079 to us none-color-blind-people.

You can find the entire standard online here. And here's the image of that color from that page:
1735055872489.png


Now, computer monitors display colors differently, but there's no way that the color sent me in this second order is even remotely representative of 34079. There is no debatable point here. The color is wrong, and thus, the can is mislabeled.
 
Look up the original name for the color they painted school buses in the US. Sometimes the name of a color has nothing to do with the actual color. I suspect you are correct that it is a mislabel. I have many cans from them and if they messed up the color, it was a mistake I didn't catch.

Chrome from chromates?
 
This morning, I spent a couple hours messing with my Dana 44 diff cover model in Fusion. What a frustrating experience! Going from a scanned mesh to a model is proving to be confounding. So, after getting thoroughly frustrated, I hit the shop for about four hours of work before coming back to the house to shave and shower for the Christmas Eve activities.

As for the activities in the shop, recall that I had mostly cut off the frame mount for the front track bar a few weeks back (see Post #387.) Only the top inside weld was holding it on. Today, I removed the steering gear and hoses to make room for the removal implements. First, I cut that inside top weld with a death wheel in a die grinder. Then, with a long pry bar and an engineer's hammer, I worked it back and forth until it came off in my hand:
IMG_7334.JPG


Finally, I used the Cubitron disc to do some rough clean up of all the leftovers from brackets cut off:
IMG_7335.JPG



IMG_7336.JPG


IMG_7337.JPG



IMG_7340.JPG


Now, I'm headed to shave and shower, and then it's party time! Tomorrow, I'll probably spend some time in the shop, too. I have to weld-repair some of the frame ugliness (especially where I cut the frame mount for the rear track bar with the plasma cutter, shown in that last picture - yuck!) Stay tuned...

Skip to Post #460 to see the weld-repair and rough sanding post.
 
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This morning, I spent a couple hours messing with my Dana 44 diff cover model in Fusion. What a frustrating experience! Going from a scanned mesh to a model is proving to be confounding. So, after getting thoroughly frustrated, I hit the shop for about four hours of work before coming back to the house to shave and shower for the Christmas Eve activities.

“Superfast Matt” on YouTube uses 3D scanning and modeling in F360 as part of his design workflow. I believe his technique is to “trace” the mesh by modeling a surface or solid in place of the scan mesh. I’m not aware of what your frustrations are, but it may be worthwhile to take a page out of his book - he seems to have it figured out. He has a few videos dedicated to scanning and modeling.
 
I’m not aware of what your frustrations are...
I need to create some reference planes based on surfaces on the mesh, but I can't figure out how to select points or faces on the mesh. No matter what I do, I can't select anything on the mesh. It's like it doesn't exist. Frustrating! I have the workflow figured out after that, but can't get through to it...
 
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I need to create some reference planes based on surfaces on the mesh, but I can't figure out how to select points or faces on the mesh. No matter what I do, I can't select anything on the mesh. It's like it doesn't exist. Frustrating! I have the workflow figured out after that, but can't get through to it...

Converting from an STL to something fusion can use is a big trick…that’s been a struggle for my shop too! Enough that I’m looking into a 30,000 dollar software package to do so.

What scanner are you using?
 
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Converting from an STL to something fusion can use is a big trick…that’s been a struggle for my shop too!
Well, I think I've figured that out. I was able to import the STL and create a mesh. And since I bought the full version of Fusion, I was able to manipulate the mesh some, but I just can't get through the next step of aligning planes to it...

Enough that I’m looking into a 30,000 dollar software package to do so.
Yikes!

What scanner are you using?
The "Moose" by 3DMakerPro. I had to build a lazy susan and spin it by hand with the scanner on a tripod in order to get a scan.
 
Well, I think I've figured that out. I was able to import the STL and create a mesh. And since I bought the full version of Fusion, I was able to manipulate the mesh some, but I just can't get through the next step of aligning planes to it...


Yikes!


The "Moose" by 3DMakerPro. I had to build a lazy susan and spin it by hand with the scanner on a tripod in order to get a scan.

I was doing some research…if you have the full version of fusion, you can try this workflow


No promises, since I only just discovered fusion has these types of tools (we use Inventor at work). I do plan on playing around with it though, since my auto desk license includes fusion 360 and that would save me a whole bunch of money.
 
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I got to spend about five hours in the shop today. Merry Christmas to me! First, I blasted and zinc-primed the front frame mount for the track bar:
IMG_7350.JPG


Then I weld-repaired all the undercut welds and death wheel gouges from the old suspension mounts on the frame. My 28-year-old DeWalt random orbital sander's pad finally disintegrated, so I couldn't finish that up. However, it looks a lot better now. For example, here's the horribly-disfigured rear track bar mount location on the frame after gouging the crap out of it with the plasma torch and after weld repair and rough grinding today:
1735164597079.png


Next, I removed the stock anti-roll bar to make room for the SwayLOC. In order to get the stock bar off, I had to remove the winch and lift it up:
1735164719116.jpeg


Finally, due to @gasiorv's experience with a bad weld on his Poly Performance shock towers, posted in his build thread, I added some ugly welds to the insides of the towers I have waiting to be installed. So ugly are these welds that I didn't take a picture. :cool: It's very hard to get the MIG torch in there, so I hope I got a least some penetration with the blobs of weld I plopped in there!

I go back to work Thursday and Friday, but then I have another five consecutive days off to work on the LJ. I'll hopefully get the replacement pad I ordered for the random orbital sander, and if so, I'll finish the frame sanding. And then I'll be installing the Savvy mid-arm brackets. Stay tuned...
 
Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ engine mounts