Page 6 pictures have been fixed - (12-1-2016)

Also I forgot to post I finally got a good exhaust video of my Duals.


Should post more of the Cowl hood project tomorrow.

 

Pretty much got done yesterday with my cowl hood, all that's left is final welding on the lip, bondo, smoothing out, and paint.

Took stock hood off to test fit the Cowl hood and make measurements for the lip.



Keep the hood off? Definitely wouldn't overheat and would get plenty of cold air for my intake.


Looks good to me.







Can definitely see it inside, might take some getting used to.



The next couple of steps can be scrapped since I decided to go with my original plan and not use a solid piece of metal and drill holes like my friend at the body shop told me to. I ended up getting expanded metal like I originally planned.

Used the cut off wheel to cut the cardboard template since it's easier to use than a blade.


Marked it out and started to cut it.


I think I got my money's worth on this wheel.... even though it was cheap.


Like I said, went with original plan and went to Lowe's and got some expanded metal and a 3/4" strip to use and the lip of the cowl since I could only go 3/4" before it hit the wipers.


Then i cut the expanded metal in two even halves.


Started to cut to fit the expanded metal.... though I cut this one too short on accident, so this one was scrapped.


Both halves of the grill on, ended up lining up great


Where the two overlap.


Tacked in place.


Overlap welded together and to the support behind it.


Grill all welded in.


Cut the 3/4" strip in two to follow the cowl curve and also left a gap to create the dip in the hood on the lip.



Dip piece welded in.




That was all I got done yesterday. I might try to finish all the welding/grinding on the lip after my night class tonight but I don't know yet.

 

Beast mode engage!

 

Well I did finish up the welding on my cowl last night.

I also got a flickr account now (since I'm doing a fab thread on the cowl hood), so I'll be converting all the hot links for the pictures to that... probably next Tuesday since that's when I have a 6 hour break between my morning and night class.

Got the lip all welded.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9619891265/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9623127716/
Ground down.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9623127500/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9623127320/
Might try to mount it again tonight after my night class to do final prep to make sure it still opens with room, if so, I'll take some pictures. Then the waiting process for it to get bondoed and painted, will be a couple of weeks or more. I'll try to get my friend to take pictures... though he only has a 8gb iPhone 4 and he is out of space (Downside of the iPhone, that why I love Android, external memory... Though I love my 64GB iPod Touch 5 too) but I'll give him my camera too.

 

This is the second time I've seen this done. I must say it looks great, especially from the front. Going to have to add this to the never ending list.

Love your jeep man, good stuff!

 

Thanks man, I'm really liking the way it turned out. Yeah I've seen it done a couple of times but most of the time the sides are straight up and down (they don't make 2 cuts, only one straight one) and/or they have no curve to them. I really don't like those, the curve and the sloped sides makes it more professional looking and gives better run off of water.

 

Here is the video from when I went ot 4 Wheel Parts on 8/10/2013.... I need tires really bad, hopefully I get some soon.

 

Alright, well I did the final fitting on the hood before I let my friend have it to do the bodywork. So these are just the pictures of it on the Jeep.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9623958381/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9623945961/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9623926797/
I'm so glad I put the angle on their.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9623910567/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9627131018/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9623882811/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9627098404/(my dad, helped me put it on since I already had a little misshap last time I tried to put in on myself... needless to say I need some fender bondo work now...)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9623847105/
Perfect, about an 1/8"-1/4" before hits the wipers.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9627068394/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9627053578/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9627043854/
Just thought I'd take a picture of underneath, going to get that cleaned up a little and seal it all.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9623797777/
******Also I've been thinking about some accents on the cowl part of the hood. Either black or that lime green but I can't really decide if i really want to or not. Don't even really know any designs either for some.

I know I want something on the side of the Cowl that says either 242 or 4.0 or HO or something. But I can't really decide which one and what color. Either just black, black with green outline, green with black outline, the whole side of the cowl black with green lettering.... I don't know. If someone has a nice idea about one of those please let me know. Open to all opinions. I've even thought about just getting a badge of eBay, i saw some pretty cool ones, but if I could get one painted in the hood It would be even better and more professional.******

 

Alright, Friday after classes I went home and loaded the hood up on out trailer and took it to my friends work.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9648089052/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9648074798/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9648060504/
Here it is at my friend work. Didn't really do anything besides weld a couple holes on the driver side and clean up the passenger side welds.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9648051470/
I also decided on what I want to be on the side of my Cowl. I found this on eBay, it's 8" x 2" (so it'll fit nicely on the ~4" side pieces) and it's a decal that had no background so all I do is paint the Cowl or whatnot the metallic silver color and let that dry then stick this decal on and paint it PJP (Medium Fern Green Metallic), the color of my Jeep. Then peel the decal off and clear it and it'll show a silver metallic positive of the decal that was there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9648246600/
Then Saturday I went ahead and changed out my transmission line clips and o-ring finally, ever since I dropped my trans the front line has been leaking and I have a whole chrysler 8.25 that's covered in trans fluid... good thing is that mud doesn't stick to that so I haven't had to clean it that hard underneath. But, I still needed to change it because I hate refilling it, plus the fact it could just blow the only o-ring that was in there out and then just spew the fluid out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9647850623/
I also changed my Trans mount too.... I went back to Napa and found out the P/N they had given me 4 months ago (which was wrong so I took it off but just let it sit and collect dust because I keep forgetting to bring it back, pushed my engine into the radiator and battery) was for a 97-99 RIGHT HAND DRIVE!!! Why the heck!?!? Oh well, I ended up getting $20 back since the right one was only $10 and the wrong one i got when I did my trans was $32. So I was happy, plus it rides better with the new mount.

I've also been having problems ever since I got my duels and high flow Cat with when it was at running temps (around 210) maybe a little higher depending on heat, when I'd go WOT (wide open throttle) It would choke and sputter. Well, I got to checking things out, and I came to find out the supposed "High Flow" cat was almost black in color compared to the still shinny silver of the other pipes.... After only a month or two of it on. It's not supposed to do that, so I went ahead and cut the cat out, took the O2 bung off and welded it to the new pipe I got from AutoZone.... Not my best welds on the front of the pipe, but there was a gap I had to deal with plus I really couldn't get the tops of the pipes, but I did weld them leak free so I'm happy. But dang so much more flow out the back of the pipes. Sounds different too along with I have more get up and go now, won't know if it helped until next week though driving back and forth to campus.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9651295120/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9648066003/

Now.... I'm not saying take your out since supposedly this forum has some... rule or something (never seen or read anything on it) about not showing "illegal" mods or something, but I don't have to do inspections and so it doesn't concern me. I don't know anyone around here that willingly runs a cat anyway. But if they eventually do make us do inspections (Memphis has wanted everyone in the surrounding area to do inspections for a while, never passes though) I'll just take the cat I took off and gut it and put it back on. So take it out at your own risk, check your local laws and whatnot....

Now if there really is a rule about that and that it's not allowed, I'll remove it no problem... Just let me know.

 

I just received a picture from my friend and he has started the bondo process. This is only 1/2 of the hood and it only has 2 wipes on it, it has about 4 on it now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9671138035/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9671138035/

 

great build and cant wait to see that hood done

 

Thanks!

 

I got some more pictures from the bondo work. The top is pretty much complete, all thats left is the putty to go over the top of the bondo and then the smoothing of the inside of the cowl.

Starting to look good now. That's a whole lot of bondo dust too... my friend said it was everywhere in the shop.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9684807294/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9681563737/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9681564289/

Also, hopefully Monday I can go through and start to take care of all the missing pictures while I have the 5 1/2 to 6 hour break between classes. I just looked through it and it's getting ridiculous how many are missing and how random it is to witch ones they are when ever you load/re load the page.

 

The mail just came and I got the cowl decals, plus a free USA decal... Plus I can get 5 more of any he sells for pretty much free if I send some stuff back to him in a provided envelope... This was probably the best eBay seller I've ever dealt with (other than the fact of no tracking number, though I could have PMed him and got it if I was that concerned. But the expected arrival date was today). I'll definitely use him again when I need some more engine type decals, plus he can make custom ones too, I might get a quote on a windshield decal sometime in the future if he can made one that big.

Anyway, rambling over, here is the decals. Very good heavy quality of marital used, and it was next to nothing in price.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9686909099/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9690138110/

 

Well last Sunday I decided it was finally time to give my XJ a bath since it had been almost a month since I'd went to Sugar Creek and I still hadn't washed it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9713851606/
That night after I washed it I also decided it was time to finally test the dirt pile in my backyard from when we had the new pool put in a couple years ago. I'm actually glad we didn't move it because it's a perfect stop to test bumpstops and flex for binding in the suspension, will definitely use it when I get new rear bumpstops because my stock ones are disintegrating, also when I put pucks in the front to limit the up travel, and when I get longarms.


Anyway, here are some of the flex shots.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710615289/
I have plenty of room between my shock and my exhaust out the driver side, I though it was hitting at one time.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710618041/
Poor stock bump stop.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710618773/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9713853292/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710619345/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710619533/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710619899/
Went farther up the hill.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710619993/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710620137/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710620349/
Need to bump stop the front bad. Can see my track bar bracket had been hitting my coil mount.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9713854700/
Still have more drop before it's maxed out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710620759/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710621085/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9713855338/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9713855524/
Still have room.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710618403/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710618283/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710617233/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9713850886/
Poor bump stop
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9713849186/
Another way.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710616757/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9713850424/
Last angle.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9713850348/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710616341/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9713849578/
I noticed some popping noises when I was coming down from the second angle and i figured out it was just my leafs moving and twisting.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9710615539/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9713849012/
Then Tuesday came and I was going to clean the inside, but it looked like it was going to pore rain, so I put everything back in my Jeep.... then it didn't rain... But I did spend about 4 hours Friday cleaning it out inside. It's been over a year since I've cleaned the inside and it was way overdue. Not perfect... but a heck of a lock better. I also fixed my shifter bezel, I was messed up and the plate with the gears would move around and it would get jammed sometimes. So it took it apart again and fixed it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9775525916/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9775312481/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9775327282/
I also took my Flowmaster stickers off and pus some Dick Cepek stickers on.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9775525596/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9775327702/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9775525106/
Then Saturday we went to my friends shop to do some things and while I was there I took more pictures of my Cowl.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9775343872/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9775611153/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9775541226/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9775516605/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9775326291/http://www.flickr.com/photos/100936816@N02/9775326571/

I will have to get some hood shocks just for piece of mind. There isn't as much bono as we thought would be on it, but I'd still feel better having supports on both sides so I'm either going to make some or get the $50 kit from 4 wheel parts, depends on how much sourcing the parts myself will be.