What did you do to your TJ today?

Flex-sealed the A/C condensation drain. Fingers crossed this was my last water-related leak.

It worked on my boat with a screen door floor. ;)

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new replacement license plate arrived in the mail today (seen @matkal picked one up recently and I had to copy) immediately installed it fresh from the mailbox.
went from this ugly original plate option with the cheesy michigan tourism slogan on it...
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to the much better looking recently released 60's reproduction plate option.
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also wire wheeled the front frame some more, hand sanded, degreased, chiseled off some factory weld splatter, filed some rough edges, acetone wipe down, primer & paint tonight.
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new replacement license plate arrived in the mail today (seen @matkal picked one up recently and I had to copy) immediately installed it fresh from the mailbox.
went from this ugly original plate option with the cheesy michigan tourism slogan on it...
View attachment 346345
to the much better looking recently released 60's reproduction plate option.
View attachment 346346

also wire wheeled the front frame some more, hand sanded, degreased, chiseled off some factory weld splatter, filed some rough edges, acetone wipe down, primer & paint tonight.
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Smooth as a babys bum.... nice work..(I need to do the same)
 
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Pretty boring but I finished swapping out the back license plate. I noticed a few rusty bolts so I cleaned that up. Then noticed the backing plate for the license plate had some rusty bits starting so cleaned that up too.

While putting the plate back on, the space behind is pretty tight and the nut fell down and into the bumper. Couldn't locate it with a magnet so blew some canned air into the bumper and the bolt moved just far enough for me to reach in and grab it.

Couldn't put the license plate on the backer plate then reinstall due to the license plate light so I ended up throwing some tape down and putting bolts into the backing plate to allow room to align the license plate, license plate light, and backing plate. Then, final two bolts up top.

That was more of a process than it first appeared to be.

Oh, almost forgot. More boring stuff. Previous owner had these two Parody Badges that did not want to be removed. Hair dryer, no luck. Fishing wire, no luck. Plastic wedge shape tools, no luck.

It finally took alternating goo gone & wd40 poured/sprayed around the edges to soak. Then used high powered readers and a razor blade to start an edge without scratching the paint, then was able to get behind them.

Another "More of a process than it first appeared to be."

In other news, wheels arrived. Just waiting on tires now.

Moving back to front bumper.

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I've finally started (re)working on my Dana 35. Its getting the Super 35 treatment with Revolution shafts and an e-locker. Also, it will get a RockJock elevated track bar bracket with RockJock trackbar, ZJ disc brake conversion and some general cleaning. Here it is out and pressure washed:

turd needs polish.jpg

@NashvilleTJ had a really neat way to evaluate his axle straightness with custom wood plugs at the tube ends and carrier bearing locations and a string but with a laser it seems straight-ish:
Dana 35 laser.jpg

Then PO's track bar bracket had to come off so I can replace with a RockJock bracket that tilts forward (necessary due to pinion rotation with my SYE kit). It was bolted AND welded so that took a minute. (I will leave PO's 45 degree brace since that makes sense to me although its ugly):
TB bracket off.jpg

Next, sandblasting followed by removal of old brakes and shafts:
sandblasted Dana 35.jpg

The old shafts are 27 spline Yukon 4340 Cr Moly (before I knew better). New shafts are Revolution 1541H 30 spline to go with an Eaton e-locker instead of a TruTrac. @mrblaine has an excellent description of why 4340 shafts in a Dana 35 are a bad idea: https://wranglertjforum.com/threads...afts-and-why-4340-is-not-a-good-choice.21950/. Here are the 30 and 27 spline shafts next to one another:
27 vs 30 spline.jpg

Much more to come on this little project...
 
I decided to put these plugs in since half door locks are hard and or stupid expensive to come by.
I'll focus on rubber seals, window inserts, a set of mirrors, an how to cover the inside first.

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Get some hinge locks to deter the half door removal.