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Its been a few months and i realized i never showed off the finished product of the bed, rock rings OR my tool storage for now.
Found this JK AEM intake for $30 off facebook marketplace. Cut the intake tube and flipped it around with a rubber connector and its definitely Far better than the old PVC intake tube i had setup.
And just like that there was snow!
Its finally time for a much needed shock upgrade. Picked up a set of FOA remote res. shocks that after some small modifications to the mounting setup i have, things should go much smoother. More to come on setting these up.
Whats new? I have once again cracked the frame by the steering box. I don't know where but i can say that i've had enough! Some renovations are coming this way. Gonna ditch the ARB bull bar and go to a fully welded in custom bumper, Frame plates and reinforcement and also hydro assist steering. I'm hoping to get after it sometime this winter.
The time has come to say goodbye to this old friend of mine. We've been rocking this ARB for almost 10 years now on this jeep alone. Its definitely showing its age and will be put to good use on one of the other Jeeps sitting in the yard. For sure this bumper isn't getting sold off, just gonna find a new home.
As for this MJ I now have my tube bender, tube notcher, plasma cutter and hopefully gonna round out the purchases with a metal chop saw.
Expect some progress shortly! Spent about an hour just sitting and staring and poking around the front end trying to figure out a plan of attack and i believe i have it figured out now.
Spent a good 6 hrs in the garage on this nice day and though it was slow going i feel i made some good progress. I was a little unsure of where i should start with the tubing at first but once i laid out the tube in front of the winch I was on a roll! Still more tube to come!
Slow progress, these 2 hoops and a couple other tacks took me 3 hours last night... i'm catching onto this bendy thing pretty well just the making sure things look symmetrical is rather time consuming.
There is a lot of sitting and staring involved here... The front plate was planned - this tube was not. I liked the addition of this tube to the bottom side of the front plate but it led me into a clearance issue with the front 2 bolts with the winch. Initially I told myself i would just deal with having to finagle the bolts when removing/installing the winch HOWEVER it dawned on me that i can make clearance slots for a deep well socket and still keep said bottom tube where i wanted it.
Liking the addition of pate and tube i located the hole(s) needed for the fairlead and tacked it in. Though now i realize that roller fairlead just isn't gonna do So it will get swapped out with a steel hawse fairlead instead.
Big ol bubba gump lip hanging out there.
The next hurdle is adding support from the frame plates out to the sides of the bumper. I ran the stringers just in front/below the headlight trims but it definitely needs more. After maybe 30 mins of picture sharing with a buddy and more sitting and staring I think i have a plan.
Started burning what i have into place. Still thinking about more tube, idk what it is but there is just something about tube work that makes me want More!
I'm not one to try and hide my faults, its always a learning process and constructive criticism is something i never shy away from. After fighting my welder through probably half of the welding for this front end I finally decided to do something about it. Revamped my ground cable and a brand new welding tip later and my welds are back to picture quality.
Thank you, for being my first tube bender i'm really pleased thus far. The rest of this truck was done on a friend of mines bender and he did the majority of the bending where as i more so laid the plans and did all the welding. It definitely changes the game up when your the one doing All the work. Understanding the limitations of the bender and learning what ways you can cheat are key!
Took the flap wheel to the goosebumps and also cut another piece of 1/4" plate to give these clevis mounts a little more reinforcement.
Did some test fitting and practiced removing and installing the header panel. Its not the simplest task but i can still get the front end broken down without many cuss words now. Playing with radiator placement and also trans/power steering cooler locations.
02-19-2019, 09:33 PM
