Pb Blaster

 

I'm pretty sure I used like a 2 foot pipe on the end of my breaker bar to get one of them loose

 

Nice Cherokee bud!!! I have a black 2000 XJ as well, looks a lot different than yours though. How is the progress with the new bumper going? I dont see any updated photos of it.


Build it yourself!!! JUST LIKE ME!!! HELL YEAH!!!

 

Thanks!

Here's some updates on the bumper...
I started last week when my 4x8 ft sheet of 3/16" steel came in. This thing is heavy!



Then I sketched out my cuts and got busy with the plasma cutter. This was my first time ever using it, and it definitely took some time to get the hang of it but it sure beats using an angle grinder with a cut off disc












I've got most of the outer shell cut out, so I'm going to grind the edges of everything next and then weld what I have together. After I have the shell part done I'll make the unibody mounts and add some inner supports along with the hitch and some d ring tabs.

 

A little more progress on the bumper... Here's the jig that I built out of some mdf. It should help line everything up nicely when I tack it all together

 

I've been dealing with a really bad squealing every time I start my car when it's cold outside, and it also got worse when I turned sharply. I had a feeling that it was the power steering pump, so I finally got a chance to replace it yesterday morning. Sure enough it fixed the problem!

 

Made some good progress on the bumper in the last few weeks at school. It's still so difficult to get much done in 50 minute class periods though. Anyway, I milled out some D rings from some 1 inch thick bar





Adding a 45 degree angle to them



Finding the center




And drilling a 1 inch hole (this was difficult)




But I'm very happy with how they turned out




I also got all the edges of my 3/16" stock ground down and squared up, so I tacked the frame together








Then I arc welded some stitches along the inside of the bumper. I did two passes with 7018 electrodes











Next I tacked on the bottom portion of the bumper








And I also welded on the side pieces that will meet up with the fenders








Then I mig welded every joint on the outside of the bumper to fill in the seams. I had to be real careful about the amount of heat I put into the bumper to avoid warping the metal, but so far it is turning out great












Now I just need to grind down the mig welds, add the D rings, receiver hitch, and unibody brackets.

 

Super clean jeep man. How are your driveline vibes with the tcase drop?

 

Thanks! They're actually not too bad. I am getting a little knocking on acceleration but that's because the u joints are rubbing. The to case drop was a decent short term fix but I have plans for an sye install this summer

 

Finish grinding/sanding





Tacked on D rings

 

I also welded on a light hoop. It's 1.5 inch square tube. I chose not to bend it because I liked the look of the angles. Those sure were some tough compound angles too...

 

The receiver hitch in place





I had to pull into my backyard to weld on the unibody brackets...



I also found that the oem steering box spacer was not only broken, it was badly corroded, almost to the point that it was nonexistent (thank god I didn't have any frame damage). So, I made this new one that should be much stronger.





I also ran beads along the outside of the hitch and D rings. My metal shop teacher really wanted me to TIG weld it, so he taught me how to TIG weld in about ten minutes. This was one of my first beads...



These are just some light tabs. I'm going to put two KC 57 series lights on it because I love the ones on my roof rack!



And it's on the Jeep at last! The unibody mounts lined up perfectly, so I tacked it and then arc welded them on.







I'll be taking it to get it powder coated on Monday, and then it will be entered into a statewide competition next week so we'll see how that goes!

 

Look good bud. Nice attention to detail. I have a bad habit of slapping stuff together halfway through the project lol.

 

very well done cant wait to see how it does in the compition keep up the good work

 

haha yeah I tend to do the same when I get bored with projects. I only had about two hours of class every day to work on this, so it actually helped me to slow down and take my time though.

Thanks!