Finally Got Going on My '60 Build

The first couple of times I went out with the Jeep, my teeth were rattling out of my head. Every pebble on the trail would bounce me out of the seat. While doing Deer Valley, I met some guys from the South bay. I was talking to one of them about how harsh the ride was. He asked me about the tire pressure and was laughing when I told him I was at 25 psi. We let them down to 13 and it was like night and day! The only bummer was I had to drive over Hwy.88/Carson pass on those soggy tires. That wasn't fun...That's when I decided to do the OBA.

Does your buddy run a receiver tank or does he fill his tire straight from the pump?

 

He had his straight from the pump. There was a regulator valve on the preasure line and whenever it hit a certain PSI, it would "blow off" or stay partially open to releive the preasure. With the jeep at an idle, it would take a while for it to air up a tire or anything else so he had a switch in the jeep that when he flipped it on, the jeep would rev to 1800 RPM I beleive (258) and then that compressor would put out some serious juice.

 

Woo Hoo! My Willys lives! I finally found the time to work on the Jeep yesterday and I got her fired up. It lit right off and took little tuning to make her purr like a kitten. I have a few loose ends to tie up before it's done, but the hard part is over. As an added bonus, the OBA compressor works awesome. I can't wait for the Rubicon trip in August!

 

After completing the Rubicon, I parked the Jeep in the driveway and hadn't even looked at it until about a week ago. While the Jeep performed admirably, some room for improvement was identified. The first problem I'm going to deal with has to do with the fuel gauge(I nearly ran out of gas between the end of the trail and the first filling station). Mine quit working about two years ago. It was one of four different brand gauges. I didn't want to buy one gauge and put it in because it would have looked like crap, not to mention that the dash was trashed from numerous incarnations of previous owners.

I scored a set of Auto Meter gauges(volt, temp, oil pressure, fuel level) on eBay for $75

Here's what the dash looked like after I stripped it. Note that the hole on the driver's side where a stereo would reside had no stereo:


Here is the first step to a new dash, clearing the carnage:


Here is a test fit of the new dash. I cut it out on a water jet to get all the dimensions worked out. Of course there will need to be more mounting holes for all the necessary switches and such. The final piece will be polished aluminum diamond plate:


More to come soon.

 

I've finally got some progress to report!

I completely stripped the interior of the Jeep. I found that the inner fenderwells were separated from the bed(mostly due to the swing out rear mount spare, I think), so I welded everything back together. I laid down some bed liner and cut a diamond plate for the floor of the bed. I also finally got the diamond plate cut for the dash. I fabricated a new steering column out of stainless tube and shortened it 3 inches. Now the steering wheel won't be 4 inches from my chest!

The bed:


The dash:


I forgot to take pics of the steering column yesterday .

I need to finish the interior up in the next few weekends so I can get after the rest of my to do list:
Add fuel tank under bed
Weld the frame crack I discovered(Rubicon casualty)
Repair the crushed header(Rubicon casualty)
Install brake valve(Line lock type E brake)
Find out what the noise from the rear end is(yet another Rubicon casualty)


I'd better get busy, July and the next Rubicon trip is approaching fast!

 

Looks good! I'd love to see dimensions and more info/pics of your OBA setup if you're willing

 

Man that bed looks good!! If you're willing to sandwich that dash template between 2 pieces of ply and ship it, I'd be interested in buying it from you! I have the "PO chopped up dash" too!

 

Thanks guys!

^I'll look into some packing for the dash template Monday at work.^

What do you need? I have an extra base plate for the compressor. I had two of them jetted out. I just pieced the rest of it together a little bit at a time. I never really made any formal drawings, just a couple of cocktail napkin sketches, sorry . I can snap some specific pics if you want.

Edit: I may be able to retrieve the model from the waterjet computer for the compressor-to-engine mounting plate. I will check on that next week as well.

 

Hey John, I just discovered your thread. Don't know how I missed it last year. July is just around the corner but I know you'll be ready. If we have most of the people on the Rubicon list show up we'll need some veterans like you on this trip.

PS Looking good in JP, by the way.

 

Thanks John! I think the whole group looked pretty good in the article. I look forward to the feature on your Jeep.

I spent whole day today working on the Jeep. I plan on another half-day tomorrow. I hope to have the interior all back together the weekend after next. Still need to seal the tank, machine the new pass. seat mounting brackets(allowing for pins to keep the seat from coming out of them), relieve the dash for the gauges, wire them up and mount the dash. Oh, gonna try and get the roll bar powder coated this week too. We'll see....

 

I like the powder coating, could you tell me some more about the prep for it? I know its baked on but aside from that not much else.

 

Prepping for powder is simple. Sand blast(or bead blast, depending on what the part is and it's condition), clean thoroughly with acetone, pre-heat, spray powder, cook again for 15 minutes @ 400 and cool. All done .

 

I finally have soem progress to report.

I got the dash board installed! Here it is ready for installation:


I wired the gauges through a molex plug, so all I have to do is plug it into the corresponding plug under the dash and they are connected.

Here it is installed:


I had to use the old SW tach, I ran out of money for a matching Auto Meter. It's on my list to Santa.

Next weekend: Install the steering column, tank, seats and pedals. I'm getting there...

 

Lookin good John!

Mike

 

Hey Mike, would you have a period correct headlight switch with a decent knob on it? I broke the knob on mine while installing the trans/xfer last year and now it really looks bad. You can kind of see it in the pic.

 

Hmmm don't think so but lemme look...

Mike

 

I'll take a look too. Seems like I had an old switch out in the garage.

 

Well, I have a switch but no knob for it. Sorry John. If you can't scare one up here, you could try J&W. You can do a parts search at their site.

http://www.jwjeep.com/PartsInquiry.htm

 

Thanks for the effort guys. I'll give JW a try. It's not that big of a deal.

I could just turn one out of aluminum and go for that "billet" look.

 

Dash, steering column, pedals and wiring done! Everything works!


I cut out another 15 feet of unneeded wire, this is along with about 20 feet previously cut out:


Tank sealer will be here tomorrow. I can then seal and mount the stock tank. I'm going to start fabbing the skid plate/aux. tank mount tomorrow.

It's starting to look like my Jeep again!