Decided to start with the 'low hanging fruit', something I had most of the parts for....the Airhorn.



I am SO tired of people pulling out in front of me. I mean I just got the rig going in the direction I want and if I get into a wreck because some ****** can't figure out the rules of the road I'm gonna go postal.

I want someone to crap their pants when I blow this horn in their backside.

I have actually had this horn for the last 20 years. I had planned to put it under the hood of my SJ Wagoneer. But never got around to it.

At first I thought I could fit it on the driver side inner frame rail, but I could really see because I have the 'diaper' up under the front.



I know alot of people just rip these off their XJ's, but up here when it's -50 ambient plus you're traveling 60mph down the road, you need all the help you can get to keep the interior warm. So I don't want to damage it, just remove and replace after I mount the horn.

I remove the 2 bolts on each side and start to pull it down.



It's amazing all the stuff that gets stuck up into that diaper......like 5lbs of gravel.



Once I got it off I realized how soft and fragile it has become after 20 years of being soaked by oil and pelted by road gravel. It tore through one bolt hole and ripped in a couple of places. I'm going to go to my local rubber supply house and have a new one cut up and reinstall before snowfall.



Once I got the diaper off I saw there was NO room on the frame rails, BUT it looked promising on the panel between the frame horns.

One $20 drill bit later I was able to fit it into the header. But as you can see, I made a slight mistake with the holes.....Yeah...I don't want to talk about it.



But it tucks up there neatly and is completely out of the way.



Now all I'm waiting for is the electric horn compressor I ordered off Amazon.
If this one doesn't have enough poop to run the horns I'll have to jump ahead on my on board air system. (converting the AC compressor with an on board tank) When I go to the supply house they have all the tubing and fittings for airbrake lines which I'll be using for the horns.

I will wire it into the main horn circut, with a cutout switch.



Anyway, that was all the fun I had this weekend. Going to get some lumber this week and start noodling out some ideas on building a cargo drawer box.

Still can't wait for the lift........

 

OOOOHHHHHH I'm so installing my air horn there once I get it!

 

Got a handful of projects for this weekend. Including a new surprise on my XJ and replacing the waterpump on my 'new to me' MJ.

One of the 'fun' projects is repainting a couple of NATO fuel cans that I am going to set up for mounting on my roof rack. I want to scuff them all down spray them some kind of mild mod white/black/gray off hand camo. There was a faded square sticker next to the spout on the first one, when I peeled it off I could see the original color underneath. Think I should skip the camo idea and just repaint the original color?



Anyway, more teaser pics to follow tomorrow on the XJ surprise project.

Oh! Ordered the RC 3" kit with full packs yesterday.....Oh yeah finally....

 

I would paint one can with your new camo design. See if you like it, then figure out about the others. Jerry cans are hard to get and have high resale value.

Wish I could get some legit ones around me. I have a HF crap one and a plastic 2 gallon can.

 

Guess I'll give that a shot and see what it looks like. Thanks.

 

I've been wondering about those HF cans.... what's so crappy about them?

 

Supposedly they are "spill proof". The funnel system is just annoying. Oh and it's not spill proof.

Story time :
It fell on its side in my cargo area and spilled fuel everywhere back there. Luckily I have the cargo floor bedlined with MonsterLiner, OEM carpet on that, and OEM floor mats on the carpet. The floor mats are like sponges so they soaked up the fuel. Then I had to let the fuel drain out of the floor mats. Took a day for the vapors to air out of the Jeep.

Lesson learned, I need real Jerry cans.

 

Yeah...those kind suck. I've had a couple of these floating around in the back of a truck half full of fuel....banging around and falling over. Never spilled a drop. They are worth their weight in gold. It was my once of a lifetime find at a garage sale, $2 a piece for 9 of them.

 

And here is the teaser for one of my weekend projects......



Any guesses? LOL



Still waiting on one or two parts from Amazon, but going to start mocking it all up.

 

Absolutely no way that's for an OBA setup. Gotta be something else...

 

I'm thinking maybe a tank for a complete air swap... air lockers front and rear.... supply for the air horn.... AND AN AIR BRAKE SWAP!!!! <--- hey a guy can dream can't he?

 

Now I'm really jealous, $2 each! I need to find some tag sales.

 

Yeah really! I saw one in a misc store one time that was being sold for like 20 bucks... but there was only one and I don't even know how authentic it was.

 

Started on the OBA setup. Sorting and planning the routing. I am using airbrake line for the majority of the the system except for the first two feet from the pump to the forward manifold. Using an old extingusher body for the tank, gonna mount it in the rear, upright with a second 3 port manifold on top. It will be air ports front and rear, plus a line to my air horn.

Got the tank painted up and mini manifold mounted.



This was after I replaced the waterpump on my MJ.

Then I was able to work on my gas cans. Decided to try my hand at camo.

Started my sanding it all down and laying self etching primer:




Then I laid down flat black, white and some gloss gray.





Metal tabs are pretty cool. Tells you what kind of fuel is in the can. I have it set for 'Benzine Normal'.

Lift is on the way......I am freaking out!

 

Ok been a busy couple of weeks. Got to work on the OBA over the last two weekends. Got most if it done last weekend (about 6 hours of work) buuuuttt....Forgot to get the solenoid valve for the airhorn, so I had to leave it open for most of this last week and not run it.

All started out with a beautiful day in Dutch's Jeep yard.


Got all the pieces for the OBA...except the damn solenoid.


Got a manifold all pieced together. But I needed a place to put it under the hood and a way to mount. Found this T bracket at my local hardware store.


The manifold had one port in the rear and I used a 'flush' plug to close it. There was enough threads hanging out I could use the brass cap to attach it to the bracket.



Cut a piece of metal to mock up the bends I would need to make to the bracket, at first I thought 2 bends would get it where I needed it.


But after I cut the bracket for size and a bit of noodling I figured out I only needed one bend.


After that it was a coat of paint and some self tappers to get it mounted.


Next I made sure my system was empty. Then I removed the original AC lines from the back of the compressor. I also tested the clutch prior to all this by running a hot wire from the positive terminal to the single wire going into the AC compressor.


Started off on the intake side. Some blue monster tape and a pipe reducers and an inline air tool oiler. On the AC system the Freon lubricates the compressor, the oiler draws tool oil straight into the compressor.


Then came the swing check valve. This has a swinging gate valve (Controlled by gravity) that keeps the air from flowing back into the compressor from the system and tank. Make sure you get one that has ALL metal internals. The air coming out of the compressor for about the first couple feet is over 200 degrees.


Next comes the inline filter (draws out water and small debris). I didn't want it to hang unsupported on the hoses, so I needed something to make a bracket out of. Viola......a metal bookend.


Cut it, then mount it with a nut/bolt. Ziptie the filter to the new bracket.



Then slide the hose over the barb fittings on the compressor, filter in and out and the manifold. I used High Heat Silicone hose (again the first 2 feet of air is HOT) for this part, along with crush clamps.


Then I ran an intake line around behind the cooling bottle and up along the inner fender. Still waiting on my mini intake filter.


Im planning on running air ports front and rear, plus my airhorns. Stared off by running the front line down the inner fender on the passenger side, and down behind the battery tray to under the headlight. There I T'd off, one direction for the air chuck, the other towards the airhorn solenoid.


Wanted to mount the chuck forward, had to grind the washer down on one side so that it would fit back into the fender support.


Then used a self tapper and loop to stabilize the T.


Ran airline from the open part of the T to the new 12v solenoid that showed up. Used more self tappers to mount it to the front facia under the temp sensor.


As you can see above I grounded it to the frame, then ran the other side over to my stock horn lead. I cut the end of the lead off and then used 'solder seals' to bind the three way connection together. These things are spendy, but so worth if for a weather tight soldered connection.


Then I used 'perma seal' connectors to the stock weather pack plug to the AC compressor on one side of the pressure switch. Then I used a big eyelet on the hot side.


Tucked it all into the loom.


Then I connected everything to the pressure switch using 'perma seal' female spades, taped it all up and tucked it away.



I ran the rear airline down behind the brake booster and ziptied it to the brakelines all the way to the rear, then brought it up and behind the driver side tail light housing. I will probably redo this by drilling and using water tight grommets and silicone. I don't like the way it pushes the light housing out.


I pulled out the inner trim and ran the hose through.


The tank would fit perfectly....but only if I got rid of the base of the spare tire bracket.


Secure the tank hook. Gonna band the body of the tank to the upper spare tire bracket with heavy metal lined zip tie.


Hang the tank. Note the other second hole in the panel. I will be running a second line out of the tank to an airchuck under the rear bumper, but I ran out of airline.


Plugged the extra hole.