Over the last few weeks, I was able to get the front axle all back together. Unfortunately for the blog, it took an awful lot of time for almost nothing to appear to have changed. With the extended Thanksgiving weekend, I had two days that I could spend working on the Jeep. On Friday, I finished the front axle and hub assembly, from new-to-me lockout hubs, to brand new brake lines and brake hardware, and a nice coat of black paint on the whole thing. I have to say, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Now, there was one bummer…
2 CommentsAuthor: Kurtis
After another very productive weekend of work on Ike, I’m just about ready to assemble the front axle. Nearly all of the parts are here, and everything I have has been blasted and painted. The last few things I need are the spindles that I had previously had but put on the parts Jeep thinking they had the wrong bushings (turns out I had the right ones from the beginning) and the brake lines for the front axle that will be easier to install before it’s hanging from the frame. Unfortunately, I ordered the brake lines late, so hopefully they’ll…
1 CommentDue to some other obligations, today was the only day this weekend that I’ll be able to do any work on the Jeep. Luckily, I got some good stuff done with the short time I had. First off, I got the long axle shaft down to the driveline place to get the joint replaced. The new part won’t be in for a few days, so I’ll have to wait until next weekend or so to get that back. After dropping it off, I got the rest of the front axle parts prepped for their first coat of paint. I got…
Comments closedAfter another weekend of work, I’m getting fairly close to having a rolling chassis in my garage. This weekend was all about getting the pieces for my front axle prepped for paint and final assembly. This meant sandblasting, sandblasting, and more sandblasting. I got the rest of the brake parts blasted and ready (both backing plates, drums, and lower connecting plate), the hubs completed, and the differential cover blasted and cleaned. I’ll have to go back and get the spindles that I swapped out when I did the axle shaft removal from the parts Jeep though, since the correct bushing…
Comments closedFirst, the really good news. The frame has had both bumpers bolted on, and has been let down from its precarious perch. Overall, the paint job is exactly what I’m looking for. Nothing perfect, and nothing glaringly wrong. I had a drip across the front bumper that got mostly taken care of. With that mostly taken care of, I turned my attention to finishing the front axle. The first thing on my list was dealing with the shafts. If you’ll recall, my front axle had 2 of the 3 types of axle joints that Willys used, the passenger’s side had…
2 CommentsIn what is easily the largest single bit of restoration I’ve done so far, I finally have a frame that is fully painted and ready to start holding a Jeep together again. Ike’s got good bones 🙂 Last week, I built the contraption necessary to hold the frame in mid air for painting. For the actual paint process, the frame was lifted a few feet higher than last week. I also stapled up plastic sheeting to make a Dexter Morgan Paint Booth™ in the garage. With drop cloths on the floor, and 540 square feet of plastic hanging from the…
2 CommentsYou know when you set yourself a goal that is months from now with every intention of completing it, only to realize that months have gone by and you haven’t done anywhere near enough work to complete the goal? Yeah, that’s what I did with getting my frame done. I had wanted to spend the summer getting the frame completed and get the axles back on the Jeep before I started class again. Now that I’m 4 days from starting class and the frame is still bare metal, I figured it was time to get moving. Being as indecisive as…
Comments closedWith my self imposed goal of having a rolling chassis before I start school up again in about a month, it’s time that I get back to working. With the extreme heat over the last few months, it’s been too hard to get motivated to do much of anything outside. Now that it’s cooled down slightly (97 instead of triple digits), I figured I’d get back to work. Last weekend I got a few small things done. The holes for the rear crossmember have been drilled, and the leaf spring pivot hanger can now be attached to the frame. I…
Comments closedI finally got enough of a break in the MBA program to spend a few hours on Ike today.
4 CommentsIn what will surely be only the first major component that needs to be farmed out for work, I finally got the frame sandblasted. Performance Powder Coating in Apple Valley did a fantastic job, especially considering how long it would have taken me to do the same work. With the help of my buddy Joe, I got it picked up and we took it over to his dad’s place. After what seemed like just a short time, the old spring pivot joint was gone, and a new piece of metal was welded in. Above you can see the before with the…
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