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We disconnect the battery when we leave the Jeep at trailheads for days to avoid having the battery drain.. so the clock is never right anyways. Half the time it's covered with electrical tape.
This took way too much effort to design though. So I really hope it works out.
I ordered it on Shapeways online. So once I confirm it works and the design doesn't need to be tweaked, I can post the link to purchase and people can order own parts directly.
We had been looking at buying a cargo cover since we got Malcom. We even went as far as looking at one on Craigslist... which, despite us clarifying with the seller we were looking for one for an XJ it turned out to be a Grand Cherokee one. However the OEM ones are expensive and don't fit with a full sized spare as far as I can tell.
I have been laying a sheet over top of my tools and our stuff in the back. Not ideal as it's pretty obvious I have a tool kit.
So my wife made a cargo cover yesterday.
We used fabric and curtain rods from IKEA and she put one together within a couple hours. It's nothing complicated - just a rectangle with two curtain rods in the ends. The messiest part was cutting the curtain rods to length using a hacksaw
We chose the fabric design to make it more difficult to see through or tell if the fabric is draped over anything. The curtain rods are ~ 1 cm diameter and fit perfectly in the OEM cargo cover receptacles.
Brought our DLSR camera downstairs yesterday when we installed the cargo cover. So I've finally been able to get some finished photos of a few things. I've edited previous posts.
Originally Posted by moonsandals
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I can't find a photo of it installed - if anyone wants to see it I will get a photo when I get the Jeep back from the shop. EDIT: Here is a photo of the rear aux power & USB ports installed. Please ignore the mismatched centre console armrest. This is the original one; I am thinking of re-upholstering the arm rest or making a new one (with compartments) when I make the cupholders.
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When installing the dash I had to replace the headlight switch. The headlight switch on my new grey dash was burned up and had melted the dash panel a bit. Since the headlight switch panel is built into the entire dash panel and cannot be removed, I 3D printed a new bezel that could house the switch so I could cut the old melted parts out. I saw a number of people make new bezels and panels using sheetmetal online but I really like how seamless the 3D printed part fits in with the rest of the dash panel. You can see from the design that I have a bezel that slides into the front and a large nut that threads onto the back to keep everything together. The headlight switch then installs into the 3D printed bezel normally. It's black and textured so it blends into the dash nicely.
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EDIT: Photo of it installed in the Jeep with the headlight switch installed. It blends in pretty well to the stock dash panel texture.
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I'm not trying to push or sell anything here, but just keep everything together as sort of a guide so people can replicate what I did if needed. If anyone wants either of these items you can have them 3D printed yourself at the links below. Full disclosure: because of how the Shapeways thing works - they sell it through a shop set up by me. I'm not making a profit here, just making the designs available (thus not posted on the for sale pages). If anyone wants the source STL files to have them printed themselves, PM me and I will make them available. This is about being open source about the whole thing, not set up a business
You need to dremel out the old headlight bezel from the dash and make the hole match the bezel size. There is a flat designed onto the bezel to index it and the switch (keep it from rotating in the dash).
I used a little RTV to glue the nut on and keep it from backing off due to vibrations.
My wife was working today (hopefully the last one for a few months!) so I got to putter around on Malcom today. Nothing big.. just took a couple hours and knocked off a couple little items.
Phone Mount
I was hoping to have the 3D printed phone mount hardware by now, but it's still shipping to me.
I wanted to have it installed before next weekend. Next weekend is a long weekend and we're heading out of town for a hike/ camping trip. If I'm lucky I'll have the parts by the end of the week but I probably won't have time to install them before we go out of town. So we'll have to do something else to mount the phone for navigation.
Repairing Dash Cracks & Tears
There is a crack in the dash vinyl and a tear on the driver door panel. I had a vinyl repair kit for about a year (anticipating this repair) so I finally opened it up and used the adhesive/ filler to repair the tears and cracks. I'll try to do the vinyl colour match before the end of the week. I've never used this before so hopefully it turns out at least passable. Mostly I just want to stop the crack and tear from growing.
Fire extinguisher mount
Most importantly, I finally was able to permanently mount the fire extinguisher.
I really wanted it mounted and constrained before we go on another road trip. Since it's always the wife and I together, it doesn't need to be close to the driver (and in the event of a fire I'll probably be the one who can run out of the car the quickest to put it out anyways). So I put it next to the passenger seat. But it's been just sitting there, next to my seat. Bit of a risk if we roll over or get in an accident.
I mounted it in the same location. I'm a small guy so even though the fit is a little tight, I can reach in there with no problem and pull it out quickly.
Mounting design is simple - flat sheet of metal of 5 holes. 2 large holes for the seat bolt holes. 3 holes to mount the fire extinguisher.
So I used 2 seat bolts to mount the plate to the floor.
The fire extinguisher mounting plate is riveted on from below. I used some washers to space it out and since the rivets are so small in diameter (1/8" diameter) and the fire extinguisher mounting plate had larger holes, I had to use a backing plate to sandwich the entire thing together.
So it goes: steel plate (with holes sized appropriately for rivets) - washers - fire extinguisher mounting plate (with holes slightly too large for rivets) - backing plate (with holes sized properly for rivets).
I could add another 3 rivets - there are mounting holes for it - but this is pretty solid already so I won't do that unless it rattles or vibrates around.
You can see how the plate is mounted to the Jeep.
It's a tight fit, but I can get this thing out in a hurry.
Brought our DLSR camera downstairs yesterday when we installed the cargo cover. So I've finally been able to get some finished photos of a few things. I've edited previous posts.
I'm not trying to push or sell anything here, but just keep everything together as sort of a guide so people can replicate what I did if needed. If anyone wants either of these items you can have them 3D printed yourself at the links below. Full disclosure: because of how the Shapeways thing works - they sell it through a shop set up by me. I'm not making a profit here, just making the designs available (thus not posted on the for sale pages). If anyone wants the source STL files to have them printed themselves, PM me and I will make them available. This is about being open source about the whole thing, not set up a business
You need to dremel out the old headlight bezel from the dash and make the hole match the bezel size. There is a flat designed onto the bezel to index it and the switch (keep it from rotating in the dash).
I used a little RTV to glue the nut on and keep it from backing off due to vibrations.
I think I'm going to consider buying up your 3D product on the head light switch. I puchased a new one not realizing that it was like all in one unit until I started to tear into my dash. That said I believe I will be doing what you did and then put in my new switch. I could do the sheet metal mod but I like your clean look better for now.
If you do, let me know if you have any feedback on the design after you've installed it. It's such a common problem I'd like to make sure a good solution is available for everyone and keep improving on it if I can.
I had made the headlight switch bezel for the same reason. I just felt like, for a bit more effort and money I could repair it in a clean way and improve and fix problems with the dash design.
In the end, I was honestly a bit impressed with how good it worked.
So yea, let me know how it turns out!
On another note, I still haven't received my phone mount so I guess tomorrow we're using the old one on our trip. Not a problem but it would have been nice to have in place to test out on this trip.
wow sweet. cant wait to see the phone mount too! Engineer's always have the craziest builds even if its stupid simple things.
Thanks! Unfortunately it's the stupid simple things that I can only really afford and get done in the short term, but I really do like to overthink things!
No work on the Jeep yet this week, but we did take it out on the long weekend hiking and camping. We went to Stein Valley - in the interior of BC, Canada. We went on a fairly short hike - only 30 km in and then back out. We camped 2 nights.
Day 1: Drove to the park. Arrived at ~ noon. Hiked ~ 15 km in, camped the night.
Day 2: Hiked another ~ 15 km in. Camped the night.
Day 3: Hiked out ~ 30 km and headed back to the Jeep; drove home.
The trip over was very cool! It was a beautiful day and the weather was struggling to show some sun. Bit spotty so we kept getting wet patches, and some odd hail.
The drive out is on what's locally referred to a "scenic highway"; it's an old major route highway that has since been effectively replaced with another route. It's very windy (squiggly), narrow and has lots of tunnels. The condition of the road is rather poor for a paved highway in spots. The Jeep handled the drive out like a champ! This was the first time we drove through the mountains in this direction since last summer when the Jeep was overheating so I was pretty pleased with it.
On the way over, we got to take a small (2 vehicle) river ferry. This is the first time I've ever done this - so I was pretty excited! It's quite neat; it uses the current of the river to move it side to side. It's tethered to a rope/ pulley so it basically steers left or right, and the rope keeps it from floating down the river.
The dirt road to the trailhead was narrow and mostly well maintained.
Once we got to the trailhead, we snacked on some food. I spilled our ginger ale in the back (thankfully we have the deep rugged ridge floor mats, so we were able to just rinse them off. That would have smelled sickly sweet after sitting in the sun all weekend!). Disconnected the battery, geared up, closed and locked the Jeep and started hiking!
I don't have any photos of the hike to share (for now) but it was a pretty interesting few days. First day was easy and pretty straight forward. Well travelled part of the trail. On the first night we tried out our new sleeping system and it got below freezing that night so I had a pretty rough time until I learned how to tuck myself in and keep warm. On the second day, the hike got harder. This part of the trail had a lot of blowdown at this time of year and lots of thorns. We slogged through it without much trouble, other than getting snagged by thorns. But once we got to our campsite for the night it was worth it! Second night was much warmer, both because the weather was warmer and because I knew how to stay warm. Third day was weird - lots of hail and wind. We hiked almost 30 km fully out of the park and straight back to the Jeep, and drove our way home!
Pictures of the Jeep as we were packing up:
In other news, I have to pick up the 3D printed phone mount tomorrow. I got the delivery notice in the mail. I'm hoping for a few hours this weekend to try to install it.
Got the phone mount in the mail today! I test assembled it together and everything fits together quite nicely.
This is the main housing.
I made one mistake in the design - you'll notice that where each of the pieces connect together, one side has a hex for a captive nut and the other has a counterbore for a caphead screw. On one interface (where the arm meets the main housing) I mistakenly made both sides captive so there is no counterbore to fit the screw head. I'll need to bore it round with a drill bit on one side so the screw can fit nicely.
The assembly is shown below. You'll notice that it is adjustable left to right, up & down. If I adjust it both side-side and up-down, you'll notice the phone will start to rotate. This is expected with the geometry and I ignored it for this version. I don't think I'll need to adjust it that far. If I do need to, then I'll make a new adapter part that allows me to rotate the phone.
The entire assembly is quite strong. I've already mounted my phone to it and gave it several good shakes. It's solid!
I hope to get it installed on the weekend! I'll take photos of it installed.
Remember how I am now screw mounting the rear interior panel instead of using the interior panel clips? Well, I had shortcutted it and filled the interior clip holes with RTV so the self tapping screws could bite into RTV. However the RTV is not biting in all screw holes.
Originally Posted by moonsandals
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In addition to this, last weekend I got fed up with the plastic clips on the rear hatch interior panel. The tabs that hold the clips are brittle and break off. I had already repaired it by "welding" the plastic together and using zip ties as filler material. But it's still brittle and the tabs that hold the clips in break every time I install or remove the panel. That's not very often.. but installing the panel and having a tab break means I then have to remove it.. and more tabs break. Then fix it.. reinstall.. tabs break again. So the rattling drives me nuts.
I drilled the tabs out and replaced the clips with screws and washers. I put foam rubber on the back as a spacer. I filled the holes in the fibreglass hatch with RTV, so the self tapping screws thread into the RTV.
I did that last weekend, so now the RTV is cured fully. I installed it on the hatch today. Some of the screws aren't tapping into the RTV (they are just deforming the RTV and not yet biting) so I'll need to remove it again and start those screws without the panel there. I hate half finishing something but I needed to work on other stuff in the apartment so I left it as is. The panel will still rattle a bit but from what I can tell the foam will make it more bearable until I get another minute to finish.
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I got sick of this, so I made flanged threaded adapters. If I had a lathe I could whip them up quickly, but I don't have access to one anymore. so I went ahead and had them 3D printed as well.
The idea is that I will install them in each hole that used to accept the interior panel clips. There are four holes on the flange; I will drill matching holes into the rear hatch then rivet the two together. The hole in the middle is for self tapping screws to thread into. Not sure if this explanation is clear. I won't be able to install these on the weekend; they'll have to wait until the following week.
03-16-2018, 03:44 PM
