Thanks guys!
Yeah if you have any FSJ Waggy questions I am always happy to talk. I kinda love my big ol lumbering Jeeps.

Well I have been busy working on a few things on Scarlett. She is getting closer to drive able (hopefully by Friday?).
The last few days have been interior stuff mainly, however I did get the front fenders mounted back up.

The headliner is done in a graphite micro suede, and I have almost all the upper plastic trim done in a nice black marine grade vinyl.
I had to do a bunch of repairs to the fiberglass headliner. There is this auto Upholstery guy on youtube that has a really great video on doing headliners. He goes into depth on how to repair them.


I ended up buying a cheap Harbor Freight LVLP gun with a 1.8 nozzle to spray the glue for the headliner. It worked fine for the glue, just make sure you clean it up right away after your done with it. But hey if you don't they are only $20.00.

So this hot weather kinda sucks with the contact cement.
The working time is cut in more than half, and it will skim the top of the can of cement if I keep the lid off of it.
The only good thing is the heat helps make the vinyl more stretchier (is that a real word? OH well I am owning it now).
I have to say the "B" pillar, and the two rear upper quarter pieces really are a PITA! The complex curves on them really are hard to stretch the vinyl over right.
So I am doing all the hard pieces first, then the straight parts will make it a cake walk, and I will forget how crappy it was to do the hard ones first. Kinda like giving birth I reckon, and then having more kids.
So tomorrow I will get the headliner back in the Jeep, and all these upper trim parts too. Besides, they will hold the headliner up till I can get the over head console covered in the same micro suede.

Repairing any tears or holes in the headliner with heavy gauge canvas.
I think I like it?
One PITA done, one to go.
Not easy.
Almost done.

 

Got quite a bit done today on Scarlett.

I put Frostking Duct insulation up on my ceiling of the jeep, and got the headliner installed. It was to dark out to get pictures of the headliner, but it looks really really nice with the black trim now. I still have to get the overhead console, and the visors wrapped in the graphite micro suede headliner material but it will happen hopefully in the next few days.

Insulation on the ceiling. What a difference it makes in noise cancellation. Plus when you wrap on the top of the roof it makes a nice thud instead of sounding like a tin can.


So besides the headliner, and trim going in I have my power mirror wires in, and wrapped in split braided wire loom to protect it.
I ran extra wires in the loom, in case I want to add courtesy lights, or heated mirrors later on.

Building power mirror looms.
Wire in doors now. Plus speaker wires.


Eventually (sooner than later) I will be adding a roof rack, and more than likely a roof top tent, and awning. So I made a loom that traverses the drivers side "A" Pillar and ends just behind the drivers seat a bit up in the roof for rack lights, and maybe power for the tent. The other side of the loom ends up right in the front of the center console for switches, and relays. There are four 14AWG wires for light, and one ground.
The reason for 14AWG is I figure that the lights will be LED and there is no reason for any larger size wire?
I was looking on line at marine grade wire glams when I decide to drill through my roof for the wires.

Wire loom for future roof rack lighting.


So besides all that wiring. I also got the stereo wiring in to where the storage area will be. I took out the rear seat, but I am covering the fold-down part of it in silver carpet to match the cargo area carpet. I will build something to hold it up, and make a strong flat area in the back. The fold down part will also be the cover for storage bellow. In that area will be my power amps for the stereo, and an inverter too.
All I have left to do now is go buy some wire to feed the inverter & power amps tomorrow.
There are 4 runs of 12AWG speaker cable. Front left and right, Rear left and right. There are 6 channels of RCA signal cable run up to the stereo, as well as a blue 16AWG to turn on the power amps. I got my Bradley wire label maker, and marked all the wires from the dash to the storage area.

Stereo lines.


Hopefully tomorrow I can finish the door panels, and get them installed.
It would be really nice if I can get the dash in to.
I still have a little bit of detail stuff on the dash to do, but will get pictures of all the reinforcement that I did to that thing.

 

Got more done today.
This is a picture of the trim, and headliner from yesterday.
I still need to get the lower trim panels done in Black carpet before Friday.



So today was DASH DAY!
I had bought two sheets of "self stick" felt. One sheet in red, and the other in black. I had also bought a new hole punch to make screw holes in some of the felt.
While junk yard hunting, we had noticed that Dodge trucks, and 1997 up Cherokee's had used little red felt tabs anywhere two parts of plastic, or plastic - metal meet. I thought this GENIUS!
While I rate rust pretty bad, I hate rattles and squeaks almost as bad.
So I cut little pieces of the felt, and punched holes in them before mounting any thing together.





I still had a bit of strengthening to do to my dash too.
The thought of my glove box door falling off kinda had me worried. I have heard stories of the metal hinge separating from the plastic it was riveted to. So I bought a strip of aluminum, cut to fit, drilled holes, painted, and then sandwiched the plastic between the aluminum strip, and the steel hinge (also painted). Instead of using rivets again I opted for screws, and nuts with a little red Loctite.



I also had to reattach the center vent. I took it off of the dash to clean out the ducts, and to add some felt in the areas where it rolled up or down.
I also added felt to the other vents. Now they are nice and tight in their respected mounting areas.

The screws in the bottom will come out once the JB Weld is dry.


Reinstalling the dash is such a PITA!
But it is done, and as of tonight it is mostly back together.



Before I button things back up, for some reason my fuel and temp gauges are not working?
My oil pressure and voltage is fine, as well is my tach.
I just hope I don't have to pull the cluster again??????

 

Can you please half-*** something to make me feel less bad about myself?

So cool to see you putting this level of effort and detail into a Jeep you stole out of a field. I would love to be able to experience the comfort of being in the cab of this rig when its all said and done.

Definitely getting some inspiration from you to be more detail oriented. Keep it up.

 

Thanks for the encouragement!
I have half a$$ed a few things, but I will never tell what. HAHA!

Well it is not all the way done, but I have a show down in LA tomorrow night, and then a day later I am heading up to Ouray, CO for the Full Size Jeep thing (I will be in my XJ this year though.). So Sunday, and Monday I need to have everything bolted down and ready for a road trip.
OH!
And the stereo HAS TO BE INSTALLED BEFORE A 12 HR JOURNEY!

So getting back to the show.
I was nicely surprised tonight when we loaded up my mixing console in the back of Scarlett. It fits perfectly between the two rails of L-Track. Which is perfect, so I can tie the console down to the L-Track like intended. There is also just enough room to get my small work trunk in, as well as a couple pelican boxes of microphones.
Sunday when it gets unloaded I will hopefully post progress pictures, and what it looks like almost done?



Console fits perfectly!
Don't mind the no bumper................. A Smitty Built is on the way!


L-Track holding it in place


Thank you Crist Clapper for the great idea on the storage. It is a perfect place for ratchet straps, and tie down hardware.

 

 

Thanks been a while since an update here.

I got most of the interior done minus the over head console, visors, and a couple kick panels (will post pictures soon).
Decided to go to Ouray, CO for our Full Size Jeep Invasion. It happens every July around the 18th to 23rd.
But thought "hey lets take my XJ since my Waggy is not done".
Yeah! Really great idea Dusty!

I was heading east down I40 in Flagstaff AZ when I noticed my clutch was not working correctly. To be honest, I kinda had a feeling I would be doing a clutch job in the near future just not this near and on the road.
Well I kept driving, and the clutch kept getting less and less...................... OK I DID NOT WORK AT ALL!
I learned when I was young (OH SO MANY YEARS AGO) how to keep going if your clutch went out. I did pretty good going through all the reservations, where you really don't need a clutch to much.
Made it from Flag all the way to Mancus, CO, when I finally said this is it! The highway started to go through towns with stop lights and whatnots, and I knew I could not go any further. I was nly two hours away from my destination too. OH! So close!

Well I saw this place with a bunch of Jeeps out front, and thought "HEY! I should see if they can help?"
They told me yeah they could put a clutch in in the next few days.
DAMN!
There goes all my trail riding in Ouray.

It all turned out great however.
I ended up spending the next three days in my friends motor home at the KOA.
Much better than sleeping in my XJ, but really................. I wanted to sleep in my XJ.

On the way home going through AZ I noticed that my back window was starting to get kinda foggy?
Weird?
In Show Low when I stopped for fuel, I found that something was leaking BAD!

Buggar! (Thats the clean version of what I was thinking)

I thought that maybe these yahoos in Mancus ruined a seal on my tranny or TC??????
I ended up getting a hotel in Show Low, and decided to try and top up any fluids I might be low on?
Went to top up the Tranny................ NO! It was fine.
Then went to add ATF to my TC..................... It poured straight out the bottom!

AHHH BUGGAR! REALLY???

There was a hole in my NP231.
After Bugout4x4 talked me down off of the ledge, I knew I needed to do something quick about this problem.
I ended up at Home Depot and bought some JB Weld Putty, and patched my hole. Filled up the TC, and in another day was on my way back to Commiefornia.
Made it to Barstow, and yeap! my back window, and jeep was covered in ATF again.
Not to mention a big ugly motor home in Kingman AZ hit me whilst I was getting gas and drinks for my dog.

OH!

And it was my B day to top it off! Happy freakin birthday Dusty!

So fast forward to today.

I have a NV231 ready to go in, and I notice those Yahoos in Mancus screwed up my TC linkage.
Not to mention before today my clutch is already failing (YEAH THANKS B&N AUTO REPAIR).
So I just ordered from NOVAK the TC cable linkage, and ordered from NAPA a new clutch.
So maybe Monday I will be able to reinstall everything, and have a great new shifter set up?
OH!
I am also having my drive shafts rebuilt by High Desert Driveline. They did that for one of my Waggy's and did a great job.

So on to TC carnage;



It's just a flesh wound!


Think the chain was kinda rubbin?


Well theresyourproblem.

 

Holy Cow! Man... That was slapping bad! I would be curious if it had any noise before you had them put the clutch in. Thanks for the update! Hopefully everything goes back easy for you!

Looking at that again and I am surprised the JB weld even stayed in that long! Incredible!

 

sweet build man, i am definitely stealing some ideas from you for my 2 door. keep up the great work!!

 

Welp!
Short update.

IT"S ALIVE!

Went down the hill this morning to pick up my rebuilt transfer case, got back and did a GETERDONE.




The new Novak shifter works like it should, and now there are a few clean parts on the underside of poor lil Scarlett. Hmmmmmm underside.............kinda like clean underwear? IDK?
Got the rear diff cover back on after it had been cleaned up, painted with Rustolieum Hammer paint.
HAHA It looks to nice under there on that dirty 8.25.



Front drive shaft will be all rebuilt and balanced this week, then I will do the back one hopefully before next weeks Cherokee meet up in San Diego, and the Inland Jeep's event Sunday.

 

Well done! Good to go! Back in the saddle!

 

Been a while since I have updated this thread.
Just been driving it lots and lots.

Now I just have to install these Core 4x4 arms and Track Bar.
Of course it wont just be these that are installed in the front end.

 

Those control arms are sweet. Installed on my XJ. A come-along is a must. I (sort of messed up and) purchased the poly (vs. the rubber). The polys ride fine. They just need greased more often, or they get squeaky.

Sweet build man!

 

Man I wish I had the time and motivation to seal my firewall like that. Great job

 

Attention to detail is top notch. Thank you for sharing your labor of love.