Family Jeepster Build

LBarr2002 said:
Mine are 2.5 years and 6 months. I definitely understand the lack of sleep, and all I can say is get used to it :).

Clippa, I was always amazed/impressed with how much shop time you got with 1. Waiting to see how it works with 2. It's difficult for me to find time to put gas in vehicles any more...

As far as the babies sleeping, my little one has pretty much slept through the night for a couple months, but he wakes up around 5 every morning. I've only had one day in months that I've slept past 6 and it was amazing.

When you decide to let them cry it out, which is harder to do when you're worried about them waking up the older kid, it's usually 3 rough nights. Seams like most things take about 3 days for them to acclimate.
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Shop time is going to be interesting, but I have convinced my wife that for my sanity I need a few hours a week at the shop to clear my head and calm me back down. She also pushes me to go mountain biking so that I can relax and my time at home is actually quality time. I think I am going to just have to switch some shop time to late night after the kids go down. That makes it suck when the shop is 30 minutes from home.

Lucas is starting to do better. He still wakes up occasionally, but the bigger problem is putting him down. He flips out and we are forced to let him cry for 45 minutes or so before he finally caves and falls asleep. It is like he doesn't want to miss anything. I am sure he will get over it. Our bigger issue is getting Mallie to start swapping her days and nights. It is amazing to me how quickly you loose track of how crappy the first few weeks are.
 
Clippa, I just took some time and got caught up on this thread. Congrats on the new addition to the family! I'm really enjoying the build and look forward to seeing it on the trail. Your fabrication skills are awesome. I'm jealous. I really need to get in the shop more. When I saw the slice you took out of the dash and shortened it, the whole process flew through my head. I really enjoy challenges like that. With the new baby, I am assuming progress is going to slow down for a bit. But you are moving along nicely, it will be done before you know it.
 
WolfGT said:
Clippa, I just took some time and got caught up on this thread. Congrats on the new addition to the family! I'm really enjoying the build and look forward to seeing it on the trail. Your fabrication skills are awesome. I'm jealous. I really need to get in the shop more. When I saw the slice you took out of the dash and shortened it, the whole process flew through my head. I really enjoy challenges like that. With the new baby, I am assuming progress is going to slow down for a bit. But you are moving along nicely, it will be done before you know it.
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Thanks Greg,

It is definitely going to slow things down a bit. Hopefully just hear at the beginning though. It takes a while to learn the dance with a new kid in the house. The first few weeks are torture and then it all starts to be a normal chaos. The home remodeling work that is going on currently doesn't help. We were trying to wrap it up before she came so it would be easier. We just didn't plan on four weeks early.
 
Fortunately, my wife is if the opinion that I needed shop time for my sanity. I agree with her. Today we got the bridgeport moved into the shop. This gave the jeepster a little vitamin D.

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Great holiday weekend. Even got a couple hours to wrap up the main cage. Keeping this one simple so kids can climb into the back.

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The dash work turned out perfectly. The list of fabrication left is still pretty long, but at least it has shrunk down enough to be a list.
 
308turbo said:
Looks great man!
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Thanks. It is coming along.

Last weekend Dean came up and gave me a hand for a couple hours. We were cooking along so well that I didn't even snap any pictures. Hopefully I can get out there this weekend and get a few shots to catch everyone up. Dean worked on filling in all the welds on the fenders. This is a ton of work to join the sheetmetal to the tube. While he cranked away on that I jumped on the tire carrier. The final parts for my carrier showed up from Barnes last night so the plan is to finish it this weekend. With the ride in Colorado paid for I am in full scramble mode to get this thing ready for paint and powdercoat so I leave myself plenty of time for assembly. This week I hit up LKQ and got a set of pretty worn TJ seats. I am hoping to get them recovered, but if the upholstery shop is to expensive I will probably just return them and go aftermarket. I also got my seat belts and will be going back with the right tools for the clutch plumbing, wiring harness, t-case shifter, radiator, fan, and shroud that I need. I also got my tires ordered and hopefully will see them soon. I just need to find another rim for my spare that matches the old 80's wagoner aluminum wheels I want to run.
 
If you ever want some extra help.. Set a date... Im sure a couple of us from the Cola area would love to come give you a hand.
 
Twilliamson said:
If you ever want some extra help.. Set a date... Im sure a couple of us from the Cola area would love to come give you a hand.
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Thanks for the offer. I will try to remember that once I have enough parts for multiple hands. The plan to to try to send the chassis and cage out for powder coating in the near future. More hands for assembly would be fantastic.

Don't you have a CNC router?
 
Today was a good day. I finished up the welding and grinding on the tube fenders while Robert got started on the rocker protection. I moved on to attaching the sheet metal to the rocker guards while he turn out some weld in bugs to run factory jeep seat belts.
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It was a good day. Thanks again for the help. I didn't really get a lot done after you left. Everything was a pretty big project so I cleaned up a bit and went home for a big family meal.

I was going to get some rockers bent up and install them. A friend recommended just putting square tube in there so it could take a hit. Originally I was going to put rock rails off the frame to protect everything. Instead we welded in a piece of 1 1/4" 3/16" wall square tube to emulate the lower body line. This will get braced in to the body mounts and tube fenders. It should provide plenty of protection although the plan is for more mild trail rides than rock gardens. It feels good to get parts onto the rig.
 
Just a few more updates.

The swing away tire carries is 90% done. I need to finish up the latch, a couple gussets, and a 4 way mount to say it is 100%. This uses a 1750lb trailer spindle to pivot. I wanted to go with a 3500lb, but the bearings got so big that the bumper would have to be further from the body.
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I am going to use an aftermarket heater so I needed to close up the fresh air supply in the cowl. I could have put a box under it and plumbed up a drain, but closing it out seemed much easier.
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The cage is also 90% done. I still need to add a dome lamp and the seat belt bungs. Then it will be there. I am still debating on frame tie in plates. I know it is better, but since this thing
 
Twilliamson said:
I dont but have access to a couple. Depending on material and size.
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I am just wanting to redo the side emblem on the jeepster from V6 to either I6 or 4.0. I have a friend with a cnc mill that could do it, but it would be hours of setup time because he is set for production and I would have to take all the fixtures out and then get them all back in. Ideally it would be out of aluminum already, but I could go out of wood or foam and cast it if I needed to.
 
RClippa said:
I am just wanting to redo the side emblem on the jeepster from V6 to either I6 or 4.0. I have a friend with a cnc mill that could do it, but it would be hours of setup time because he is set for production and I would have to take all the fixtures out and then get them all back in. Ideally it would be out of aluminum already, but I could go out of wood or foam and cast it if I needed to.
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I have a buddy with a really nice table. If you get it drawn up, I am sure he would cut it reasonably enough. Let me know if you want his contact info.
 
matth_85 said:
I have a buddy with a really nice table. If you get it drawn up, I am sure he would cut it reasonably enough. Let me know if you want his contact info.
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I played around with it in Solidworks this week. I will go and pop the factory ones off so I can dimension everything and then I will see about cutting them. Seems like it should be easy on a cnc router table out of 1/4" aluminum plate. I probably even have some material that could be used. If not I may 3D print them and use that as a pattern to cast them. Seems like a lot of work though.
 
250f4life said:
Isn't there a really yuuuuge update due?
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I wish, but dang family commitments are preventing to much. I did get almost 8 hours in on Saturday. Still just chipping away at the rust. I think I am getting close though. There is a little more rust on the under side and one door skin to be repaired. Both front seats are in and mounted. I need to modify the cage a little to mount the seat belts. Sadly I won't be out there this weekend. We are heading to a cabin for some much needed time away. Right now I am in the midst of pissing off my fedex guy by ordering to many parts. I want to get the shocks on and all of the plumbing to the engine done so I can blow it off the frame and send it to get coated. Radiator, fuel tank, fan, and all my hoses are on order. By the time I can get back out there I should have the parts to start pulling it together. Now to find a steering column. I want a tilt column to give me more room, but that requires a $$$$ aftermarket wheel and they look like crap if they aren't in a hot rod.
 
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