Idle hands: assorted projects

[UnderControl]

You're supposed to remove the seeds before burning.

 

Mustangs were my first automotive passion, and could see myself with a couple more. The 05 isn't going anywhere, unless I wad it up. The 66 owes me a few years of fun, but might leave the fleet in place of a 69 fastback one day. A 15-17 would be a good driver.

[UnderControl]

Got a break in the rain so back on the jeep today. Decided to start working on the driver's side quater which now has a bit more tire clearance, not that I strictly needed it. 

 

 

Ended up removing what I had previously left of the original lip and extended the front and rear cuts to the armored sections. Of course there's more rust to deal with in the wheel well. 

 

 

 

I'll try to straighten it out a little when I go to fill in the top, but I'm trying to avoid taking off too much paint for now so not going to go crazy smoothing out a panel I'll probably run across another tree. 

 

Think I've landed on how I'm going to tackle the bar pin eliminators for the rear shocks. Considered several ways to fabricate these before looking at the pile of off cuts of 2x2x.25 square tube I have laying around. 

 

 

I'll round off the corners and probably attach them to a piece of flat strap to make them easier to weld to the chassis. Simple way to use up some scrap and ditch those damn mounting studs that always seem to be a problem.

[UnderControl]

Before I put any effort into swapping the thermostat housing on the 05 mustang I figured I should verify that's where the leak is. Best way to do that is with a pressure tester, but I'm cheap, and don't feel like buying or renting one of them. I do have a pressure bleeder and a radiator burping set, so figured between the 2 and a lathe I could make something work.

 

 

Coolant level is currently too low, and I'm also out of distilled water so wasn't able to visually verify the leak, but I could hear hissing from the area around the thermostat housing.

 

 

Just an image I thought was fun.

 

 

Otherwise I got another patch added to the xj.

 

 

Of course it never fucking ends with this thing. Driver's rear floor pan above the forward leaf spring mount.

 

 

 

[Rustbin]

50 minutes ago, UnderControl said:

Of course it never fucking ends with this thing.

 

It's just like a Datsun! At least we won't bet bored.

[UnderControl]

I could do with some of that boredom from lack of rust repair. I will say that this not worrying about trying to make nice repairs is kind of refreshing. With that said, I got the rest of the wheel well patched up.

 

 

[UnderControl]

Threat of rain for the next couple of days so unlikely to be pulling the welder out, but I can start getting the passenger side caught up. 

 

 

The frame rail here had a previous patch I didn't like and the hint of some new rot. The lighting makes the surface rust look worse on camera. The lower quarter and wheel well will be requiring very similar attention to what the driver's side got.

[Rustbin]

21 hours ago, UnderControl said:

The lighting makes the surface rust look worse on camera

 

After you mentioning rain I read this as The lightning make the rust look worse. Don't  go out in the rain and lightning! Then I reread it, oh.

[UnderControl]

Haha, I stay in the shop when weather hits. Today the weather stopped early enough for the ground under the xj to be mostly dry. Got the frame rail pretty well cleaned out and dumped enough rust converter in it to give me some false hope. Also got the patch made up. 

 

 

May have gone a little overboard with the plug holes, especially considering it'll get full perimeter welded as well.

[UnderControl]

Cross post from the 3d printing thread, but will be easier for me to find here later. Square body finally has a cup holder, and it fits my large water bottle. 

 

 

Still needs a center arm rest. Kinda holding out hope of finding a half decent blue 60/40 seat with the fold down rest for less than all of the money. 

 

Managed to get the frame rail patch and captive nut on the driver's side burned in before running out of c25.

 

 

Got most of that inner lower quarter removed as well.

 

 

[UnderControl]

Well, the gun doesn't get any smokier than that. New seals and thermostat showed up so got the housings swapped today and am back in business. Went ahead and got the turbo blanket back on while I was in there.

 

 

[UnderControl]

Next piece of the puzzle is in and the next after that is ready to go after a bit more cutting.

 

 

[UnderControl]

Lower quarter is boxed in and the wheel well is looking like some crusty Swiss cheese. 

 

 

 

The arch on this side required a little extra trimming by the door, definitely for rust reasons and not because a previous patch I did doesn't meet my current quick and dirty standards. 

 

 

[UnderControl]

There, now instead of 3 ill fitting pieces, that when packed with "filler" sorta kinda vaguely resembled the body lines; I have one piece that actually flows with the body lines.

 

 

Now just need to make half a dozen patch panels to close out the well.

Edited June 9 by UnderControl

[UnderControl]

Got the rest of the wheel well patches roughed out and started getting them stuck on.

 

 

 

We'll see if weather ends up cooperating tomorrow. If not I'll have to find something else to do.

[UnderControl]

Well, weather was nice and sunny all day yesterday, until about 20 minutes into working the jeep. After quickly packing in the tools I spent the rest of the night getting the assorted brackets cleaned up and ready for paint.

 

Today was dry though, so I was able to get the rest of the patches in. Still needs some cleanup and pin hole filling.

 

 

 

And a coat of paint on all of the bits.

 

 

[UnderControl]

Ok, added a couple of other patches to the list, but now the passenger side wheel well is finished.

 

 

You can tell it's finished by the fact I put down a coat of rust converter/primer.

 

 

On to the rear floor pans. Got the rot cut out and the remaining metal cleaned up from the driver's side rear pan.

 

 

Got templates made up for the flat parts.

 

Finally got around to cleaning this thing. Mostly getting the dried dirt off of the sheet metal above the gas tank so I can paint there, but also because it was filthy.

 

 

Took the mustang out this evening for an additional shake down before tomorrow's autox and wouldn't you know it...

 

 

Blew up the spare thermostat housing. May well see if the 620 will pass tech, lest I have to drive the wife's car.

[Rustbin]

22 minutes ago, UnderControl said:

Blew up the spare thermostat housing. May well see if the 620 will pass tech, lest I have to drive the wife's car.

 

The like was for all the rust repair not for the thermostat housing blowing up, you will need a high performance one of those.

[UnderControl]

The funny part is that I very nearly ordered a one piece aluminum version while I had everything torn apart. Naturally the guy that makes them is currently out of the mustang variety, but the explorer version may well be close enough.