A little out of order but i wanted to mention it. I had to cut these factory mounts off and in the process I sent myself to the emergency room. 26 stitches and 10 days later I was back at it. Learn from my mistake here, respect those power tools, I was a bit to relaxed while using my 7 inch electric angle grinder.

I have a picture on my phone of my "Bo-Boo", when I transfer it over to my computer I will post it. It is kinda "entertaining" or "ugly" depending on your perspective.

 

Started with painting the bead strengtheners. With the tires already mounted I had to get creative to get the paint wrapped around to where the tire meets the lip.
I have tried this before with masking tape and it is a massive pain in the tail.
So I made these "cones" out if some thin stuff (I found at Home Depot-it is bathtub repair sheeting)so that they held themself in place by expanding out and resting on the threads of the bolts on the backside.




Never painted a vehicle before. So far not hard just time consuming, saving a ton of dough though.

 

Here is the photo of my "Bo-Boo" from my trip to the Emergency room. Took a few days out of my hobby time recuperating from this one.
Notice the nice red tint on the fragmented blade, I was not working on fresh paint.

 

Damn dude! Glad it's still attached. How did that happen?

 

How did it happen?

It started as a beautiful Sunday afternoon , I was alone in the garage as the wife had gone shopping for the next 5 peaceful hours, I live in a neighborhood where the nearest neighbor is more that a yelling distance away.
I was just doing my thing in the man cave. Gearhead/Hobby-ing Nirvana, Right!?

I was sitting under, or sorta inside the engine bay of the Jeep, the engine and transmission had recently been removed from the car. My head was about where the top of the bell housing would meet the firewall. See the pic two posts back, I was removing the passenger side, lower control arm mount.

So, While sitting on the garage floor, with my legs stretched out in front of me, I was looking squarely at that mount to be cut off, it was about shoulder height. I was using that 7 inch angle grinder to carefully remove the control arm mount, I was looking over the blade so I could watch the path of the cut, carefully. I did not want to use a plazma cutter for a couple of reasons, messy and I would have had to borrow one.

I had finished the other three sides of the mount and I had cut completely through the first three sides, all had been going well. I was working on the last side of the mount and I was down to the last 1/8th of an inch and the mount would simply fall off.

Not a single time had I allowed it to "kick back". I continued to move extremely slow and I thought very respectful of the tool. I had a good grip on it. By the way I was wearing leather gloves, welding arm sleeve protectors and a face shield,,,and levis.

I have worked with that tool for many hours in the past and I was very aware of the torque and the "kick back" or the "walking" that could occur as it had happened several times.

Well, I was finishing the cut on the lower control mount, at the last 1/8th of an inch. The weight of the mount, as it began to fall off, levered toward me and the blade. The blade of the tool was pinched while it was at full speed. The blade was gripped so hard by the pinching of the falling mount that it grabbed the blade and tried to stop it. Of course the tool has a lot of torque and,,, IF,,, the blade is stopped,,, the tool itself TORQUE'S and SPINS. Here's how I describe the moment it happened:

It was there, and then, IT WAS GONE!

Outta my hands, no warning, no lurching, no chance to think about what was happening and trying to grab it, Nope, it was just GONE! So, as the tool was ripped from my hands it fell toward the garage floor. My right leg, specifically my right thigh muscle, was in the way of the tool hitting the floor. The tool fell into my lap, ripped the s%@T out of my thigh and spun itself onto the garage floor. Of course the speed of the blade had slowed down abruptly, to something a bit less than 6,000 RPM (thank GAWD) but it also essentially demolished the blade ( again refer to the picture ).
I hobbled to the phone and called my wife and told her that her shopping trip was over. She needed to come home and drive me to the hospital. I tried to downplay it a bit so she would not worry.. I called my neighbor to come over cuz it might take a while for my wife to get back, he took one look at me and he became the problem, he wanted an ambulance for me, I refused, I was not bleeding that much, but then he needed attention because he was feeling faint,,GEEEZ.

 

dang, that sucks, glad your ok.

 

Thanks, coulda been so much worse.

 

Wow. That's crap luck. I take it that grinder had a switch that locks in the ON position? I didn't realize the big ones did... For exacty that kind of reason!

Glad you are okay!!!

 

had to seal it up,, used long hair bondo



As soon as I sealed up the rear fenderwells I got busy with paint, lots of progress, sometimes I don't stop long enough to take pictures.

 

Well I did not take many pictures while I was doing the painting. Here is how the paint came out.

 

 

man, that came out beautiful. Keep up the good work!

 

 

Thanks! lots of work still to do for sure Its starting to get old, I want to go have some fun to bring the enthusiasm up a bit!

Its almost trail worthy, so some things will have to wait, (interior, center console etc). its desert season, hell its half over! and I need to get out there!!

 

Wow. This came out beautiful. Happy you were able to keep the stock carrier. Sometimes I think about getting rear panel guards and I'm in the same situation where all the tube work would be in the way of the carrier mount, was thinking the same thing you had done. Have you thought of any ways to strengthen the rear bump at all?