Idle hands: assorted projects

[UnderControl]

Still frickin cold, but had an excuse to put the square body into 4 wheel drive the other day. I was reminded of the only complaint I saw about those warn locking hubs, that they can be quite stiff. Rolling it back or forward would probably be enough to find a free spot where they'll lock freely, but where's the fun in that. I opted to design and print myself a little tool to make it easier to get some leverage.

 

 

Of course after driving it around in 4 wheel for a few miles both hubs are locking and unlocking freely, but at least I'll have something in the glovebox for the next time they're stiff.

[UnderControl]

Temps finally crested into the barely tolerable range. So, today I finished off my argon bottle. Started with some double pass practice on some tube.

 

 

 

The chop saw is remarkably effective at notching tube. Still need to work my consistency going around tube.

[UnderControl]

Back to the front of the car the last couple of nights. Yesterday I spent some time measuring all of the strut rod components to try to figure out how much longer the rods need to be and figure out what they were made from. Based on quick maths I estimated they'd need to be roughly 5/8" longer to get the minimum recommended thread engagement. Also figured out that the rods started out as .120 wall 13/16" dom tube, which happens to have an ID that is very nearly on spec for tapping 5/8-18 threads that the ends use. Mcmaster can have 3' of the tube to me next day, or the local metal getting spot can have it next week.

 

But, as I was laying under the car tonight I remembered that I have a lathe, and those are really good at making round things.

 

 

 

 

Made up a delrin spacer which spaces front mount back 3/4". I maybe should have actually looked at the chassis mount before turning down the shoulder though. I realized after the fact that the hole on the chassis side is actually a fair bit larger than the shoulder on the rod end mount. So, this doesn't actually have positive engagement for proper centering.

[UnderControl]

And then there were 3.

 

 

Opted to go ahead and make 2 new ones with a larger boss to better fit the chassis side mount.

 

Also got around to designing and printing an indicator mount/carriage stop for the lathe so I can more conveniently, consistently and accurately bore blind holes and turn shoulders on things like these spacers.

 

 

 

[UnderControl]

Spacers installed, and rods adjusted. 

 

 

Now I have proper thread engagement, and the tires actually clear the fenders.

 

 

Still going to roll the front lip a bit and get some 1/4" shorter wheel spacers, but at least I won't need to cut the fenders to bits. 

[UnderControl]

Only took 6 or so months to get around to making a mate for the lock pull thing for the square body.

 

 

 

[Rustbin]

1 hour ago, UnderControl said:

Only took 6 or so months to get around to making a mate for the lock pull thing for the square body.

 

 

 

 

Yup, sometimes it's like that, just ask my wife.

[UnderControl]

Not a lot of picture worthy progress in the last couple of weeks. Went over some welds on the driver's side lower quarter. Then spent the last week metal finishing it to as much as I care to. 

 

Got the driver's side grille shell/headlight bucket thing blasted before stop drilling a bunch of cracks and making up some sheet metal bit to replace the broken off pieces and jb welding it all up.

 

 

One of the upgrades I consider pretty much mandatory are the brake/tail lights. I'd really like individual bulbs for the slots, but the only commercially available options are terrible. Luckily I have 3D printers and rudimentary CAD ability, so many moons ago I started designing my own and finally got around to printing a test piece of version 2.

 

 

All of the holes line up and the bulbs are actually pointed the right direction, unlike V1. Another benefit to this design is that the bulbs are replaceable from inside the trunk without tools.

 

 

Still have a few revisions to make, but happy with it so far.

 

 

 

[UnderControl]

Been putting off getting the front end panels all aligned and gapped. So, may as well keep that going by working on the rear valance. Found myself another bog hole. 

 

 

The right 1/3 of this panel had it laid on thiccc. Luckily just from an old smash repair and no rust to speak of. Only took a couple of hours to get it hammered into a respectable body workable state. 

 

 

Then got it temporarily attached to the car. 

 

 

The screw flange will need some additional persuasion to sit flat on the tail light panel. Then I guess I'll need to decide if I want to use sheet metal screws like factory, or if I want to capture nuts on the back side for machine screws.

[UnderControl]

Slapped a few sheet metal screws in so I had room to mount the bumper.

 

 

Old bumper fitment leaves a lot to be desired. My initial thought was to just shorten up the mount brackets, but a test feel of the quarter extensions lined up pretty well with the outside of the bumper. Making fill panels for the full length of the bumper sounds awful, but is probably the right play.

 

For the 05 mustang, I put a reference pic into CAD to figure out slotting the upper knuckle mounting hole on the struts to actually get some camber into it. Turns out it doesn't take much to get 3°. So printed up a little scribe guide seen here on one of the old coilovers which was notched from factory.

 

 

 

[datsunfreak]

On 2/25/2026 at 11:22 PM, UnderControl said:

I guess I'll need to decide if I want to use sheet metal screws like factory, or if I want to capture nuts on the back side for machine screws.

 

There's only one right answer, you know.  😉

[UnderControl]

On 2/27/2026 at 4:13 PM, datsunfreak said:

 

There's only one right answer, you know.  😉

 

Getting back there to weld nuts on is gonna be fun.

 

Got slots cut into the struts on the 05, looking like I got about 2.5° of camber out of it. 

 

Starting to prep the xj for some projects. In addition to the rock sliders I have some frame rail repairs to do from a previous meeting with a tree. Might as well patch a bit of floor pan in the same corner. This will mostly be a weekend side project.

[datsunfreak]

20 hours ago, UnderControl said:

 

Getting back there to weld nuts on is gonna be fun.

 

I was thinking rivnuts? 

[UnderControl]

Rivnuts might, could work. May well be enough flex in that mounting flange to keep from creating a panel gap, that was never stellar to begin with.

 

For a reason I don't recall I appear to only have one of the bumper support brackets for in the trunk. I do have plenty of scrap 14ga laying around though.

 

 

 

[UnderControl]

Got the fenders and hood pretty well aligned. Passenger side requires a bit of a tweak in the corner by the cowl/windshield, and both will need some work to match the leading edge of the doors. Got the passenger side headlight bucket fitting so the the headlight "door"/fender extension actually lines up with the fender, but as I was slotting the mounting hole on the patch piece the jbweld job failed. So next time around I'll be adding some mechanical fixings in the form of some aluminum rivets.

 

 

[UnderControl]

Some good news bad news on those aluminum rivets. Good news is they work a treat for affixing the patch pieces to the pot metal.

 

 

Bad news is that one of those patches took the pot metal with it while trying to tweak things into place. For the meantime they're on. Guess I'll have to figure something out for that fender extension mount, but I'm half way between "if 3 screws don't hold it 4 never would have" and just running a longer screw into the fender.

 

 

[UnderControl]

Now for something completely different. Working on some stands for a plant hanger thing. The objective is to be able to hang 30 Boston ferns. 6' between uprights, 9' across the horizontal, 4' tall.

 

 

 

[Rustbin]

Good thing you've got that skookum bender.

[UnderControl]

Glad to finally have a reason to use it. With the rollers in the outer 2 positions it was easy going too. On the inner holes I was getting a workout.

 

Today the 2 half hoops became 4 1/4 hoops. Also got the tube sections cut and squared up before working on how to go about fixturing these things. 

 

 

Turned down one of the table dogs to fit inside the round tube, but unfortunately no 2 holes line up properly to be able to do that for the other side. If I were feeling really ambitious I could throw the 4 jaw chuck on the lathe and make an eccentric table dog, but I'll file that under projects for another day.

[UnderControl]

Got the first hoop welded up and the second tacked up.

 

 

Quick test feel looks like I managed to get them same same enough. 

[UnderControl]

Both main hoops and uprights welded. Was thinking about what to do for the lower supports since rolling another set is time prohibitive. Then I remembered I have the big hoop from an old fire bowl stand sitting on the rack for a rainy day, and it's been raining all day.

 

 

Cut into 4, a quick blast and trimmed to fit. I think that will do. Definitely looks better than just a straight piece of tube would have. The design intent here is supposed to evoke the image a fern.

[Rustbin]

The slightly thinner dimensions of the fire bowl hoop make the proportions look perfect.

[UnderControl]

And conveniently it's the same 3/4" wide. Couldn't have worked out better. Tonight I got the supports welded in, so the hard part is done.

 

 

The feet and spikes are straight forward.

[UnderControl]

Test print of the bushings and shaft collar checked out. So, now I just need to print 6 of each in ASA. Kept a reasonably snug fit for the OD of the bushing, but left some clearance on the ID to make the install a bit less painful.

 

 

 

 

[UnderControl]

Got the tank, shock and exhaust pulled from the xj. It's a might crusty is some spots.

 

The carnage from getting backed into a tree after deciding not to crest a hill I hadn't already walked.

 

 

 

Gonna end up cutting out a bunch of it and replacing it with some much beefier rectangle tube with a stout piece of round tube for the fuel filler/vent hoses. Also noticed this little guy while I was doing a cursory inspection.

 

 

Too dang windy to want to lay under it to start cutting and grinding on it today, so I got the fern stands mostly welded out. Will need to go pickup some more 1/2" rod to make the spikes.