Finally Got Going on My '60 Build

Awesome, man. The dash looks great. Looks like you'll have no problem being ready in July.

 

Well, it's been a while, but I finally got the auxiliary tank mounted. I cut out a total of three test plates out of sheet on a waterjet before finally getting everything right. I found that making the tank to the largest dimensions to fit the space wasn't the best idea. It is a tight fit, was a son of a gun to get mounted but I finally got it.

The pics:

The tank, .060" stainless(side note: I had to remove and patch over the top draw fitting. There was no clearance between the bed and the fitting. Went to a bottom outlet as seen is third pic.):


Tucked up under the bed. Plate is .187" stainless:


Still need to fab some protection for the outlet(a piece of angle aluminum standing up next to the fitting). I have everything to plumb the outlet once protection is in place.:


I'm working on the fill plumbing now. As it turns out, I'm going to need to two 90 degree exhaust tubes and some 2 1/2" hose to put it all together. Once all that is done, I need to repair and replace the driver's side header, finish plumbing the onboard air outlets at the front and back and look into the noise coming from the driver's side of the rear axle. Then it's ready for the Rubicon again!

It will be nice to NOT run out of fuel while on the Rubicon this summer!

 

Looking good, man.

 

Thanks John. I'm really getting excited about our trip this year!

I had to add a little adornment today:

 

That looks REALLY good I would love to see more pics of how you plumb it. Are you keeping the underseat tank too? What were the dimensions you used for the tank?

If you get a chance, would you be willing to document some more of your OBA setup? I just picked up a york compressor out of an old Wagoneer and will eventually be using your brackets to set it all up. Gotta get the Motor in one piece first though!

 

Yes, the underseat tank is staying. This tank will be plumbed into the stock tank to refill it using an electric pump. IIRC, the aux. tank measures 17"x24"x10" tall. If I were to do it again, I would make the aux. tank a little smaller. It was a total PITA to install.

I can try and get you some more pics of the OBA set up. I recently installed a quick disconnect in the pass. side rear frame rail and have another to mount in the pass. side front rail. I've relocated the switch for the compressor from the dash to the winch control box. This way, I don't need to stretch the fill hose all the way around the Jeep and I can turn the compressor on and off from outside.

 

Great idea- I would love to see it!

 

Wait a minute- if I remember correctly you had .3 of a gallon when you got to the gas station.


Good times,
Mike

 

Yep. She took 9.7 gallons at the filling station . That was a close one and if it weren't for you Mike, I would have had one long *** hike to get there!!!

Good times indeed!

 

Ahh 'twas nuthin, was happy to help- it'll prolly be my turn next time. Great looking rear tank BTW John!

Mike

 

If you happen to come up short on fuel this trip, I got you covered ...

 

Looking great man. Beefy skid plate

 

Hey, I know it is a little haul over 20 and up 5 a bit to Chico, but Chris at Hot Coats here in Chico does a great job. He's done my Meyer top, roll bars, window frame, heater, pedals, wheels and a couple boxes full of other small parts.

he blasted the tub and fenders for me.

http://hotcoatspowdercoating.com/

 

I just finalized the OBA. I mounted quick disconnects front and rear. After trying to located a bracket somewhere up front to hold the disconnect that would be convenient, I finally just drilled a hole in the grill and mounted it there. The grill was already cut out on the other side for the power steering lines, so I don't feel too bad about. While I was at it, I mounted the switch next to the disconnect.


Here's the rear disconnect.


While I was out there, I installed some new passenger side seat brackets that I machined. I had an issue on the Rubicon trip last year with the seat coming out of the OEM brackets.


Here's a shot of the regulator with pressure relief valve.


All that is left to do before this year's trip is plumbing the aux. tank fill and replacing the smashed header.

 

Well, after getting everything together and ready to go for this year's Rubicon trip, I found that I had a bent rear axle shaft and hub. Thanks to Posimoto and Mike Starkey, I was able to replace the shaft and hub. I finished up the aux. tank plumbing and that seems to work fine other than filling it. The filler doesn't have enough down slope to take the fuel from the pump on high without running all over the side of the Jeep. Oh well, fill on slow...

Last night I was looking through the classifieds. There is a bare frame that a guy is giving away. Looking at the rear of the frame, I noticed something. Attached to the frame at the rear crossmember is a triangular shaped pair of rails that would support the bed.


My frame doesn't have these! There are the remnants of the attachment points still in place, but the rails are gone. They were most likely removed for the installation of the a tank that was gone when I bought it(the fill was in place). This probably explains why my bedpan was detached from the fender wells. And now with the tank in there, there is no room for them. I have about a 1/2" between the bed and the tank.

i'm thinking that I should shoot some foam in the gap to help support the bed. Any opinions?

 

I think that V section is to support the factory draw bar, and is generally not needed for normal operations. I could see how it may provide a little more support for the rear floor, especially if you welded on some support brackets! Im planning on taking my V out to add a rear tank.

 

So it's not too big of a deal that it's missing then? That would be a relief...

 

Nah, no big deal. They supposedly have no structural significance as far as the frame is concerned. there should be bracing ( i think it was some sort of hat channel) along the length of the floor to support it.

In other news, I'd love to see some more pics of your compressor setup! I still have the bracket you sent me in pieces waiting for my engine to be rebuilt. Too many projects!

 

In my never ending quest for improvement...

I thought it was time for an update. Last year's Rubicon identified a couple of new problems. The good things are I made the trail with a couple of minor disruptions, I didn't run out of gasoline and we did eventually make it back in one piece. The bad things are it was hotter this trip and the added temp. caused me to do the trail with the temp gauge darn near pegged at 230 the whole way, which I believe contributed to the other problem, vapor lock. I've had a couple of vapor lock episodes in the past, but the trip out from Observation Point to Echo Summit was by far the worst. On the way out, the Jeep died several times from starvation. Then, by the time we got to the summit, the fuel was boiling over in the carb. Not good. The tow truck driver was very nice...

High engine temps=bad things happen.

I decided to try and do something about the engine temp. The fan on the engine is approx. 3 1/2" away from the radiator at the top of the radius:


I had talked with Posimoto regarding his shrouded fan set up while on the trail. With a some help from him, I have completed a fan shroud for my Jeep. He sort of suggested I might do a step by step of the fab here.

Here goes:

I started by making a cardboard mock up. I actually had to make two because I found that my fan was offset from the center of the radiator slightly.


The next step was to come up with a one piece design I could cut on a waterjet. This was kind of tedious due to the waterjet software, but I finally figured it out and cut it out of a sheet of .060" 6061 aluminum:


Next, I folded it up for test fitting:


Since the shroud was not going to capture the full depth of the fan, I cut out and rolled a strip to "tunnel" the fan:


Next up was test fitting the piece. It fit incredibly close right off. I failed to snap any shots of the first test fit. Once I established the fit, I welded mounting tabs and the "tunnel" to the shroud. One more test fit with the complete deal showed everything looked good:


Although the fan was a little closer to the shroud than I would've liked, about 5/8":


Finally, I removed it and took it in for finish. My first thought was powdercoat, but after thinking about it, I went with anodize. It came out nicer than I could have imagined:


Here is the final install:


After getting it installed, I fired the Jeep up for testing. My first concern was the tight fit around the fan. So, I blocked the wheels and torqued the motor a few times. As far as I could see, there shouldn't be an interference problem. Of course the trail may change that, time will tell. Next, I let it idle for 20 minutes to see if it would heat up. It usually idled around 180* in the driveway. It never got past 160*, of course it is winter so that will probably change later in the year. Just as a test, I held a lit cigar in front of the grill at idle and watched the smoke be drawn rapidly towards the radiator, a very good sign! I also peaked in to see what my little electric fan was doing. At idle, it was spinning slowly. Once off idle, it spins like crazy, telling me that my fan is now pulling some serious air through the radiator, which I doubt was the case before.

I can't wait until the weather warms up so I can really test this thing out!

 

Those passenger side seat brackets are nice! What did it take to make them?