Whats more patriotic than making my Jeep look more traditional on 4th of
July (long) weekend?

Friday I was at the salvage yard picking up a couple odds and ends that
can only be gotten at a salvage yard (or the Dealership if you want to
bend over and be violated) like rubber firewall grommets a fuse/buss box
out of a TJ for rewiring, some weather striping etc. I happened across a
TJ grill with a small crush dent... cheap round headlight conversion anyone?

TJ grills go for over $400 from the dealership and commonly sell for
$250+ on ebay (used) I got this one for next to nothing because of the
damage, so I grabbed a second damaged one, that had good metal where the
other was crushed; for cutting a sheet metal patch to weld on the
first grill. Worked like a charm. I am constantly impressed that my $120
dollar Harbor Frieght flux based mig can do things like this (with a
little extra dressing of the welds of course).

Working out the turn signals proved to be the biggest time consumer, the
biggest fustraition was some re-welding I had to do when I over used the
60 grit deburring wheel and wore a hole in the fresh weld patch.
Causing a new mini patch to be made and welded in.

I used 2" round flush mount trailer sealed ambers as my signals and
marked out their location based on old flat fender pics about the same
placement as a CJ's signals. Of course these are MARKER lights and don't
have a second filiment like running/signal bulbs. So after checking a
couple trailer places and having no luck. I had to cobble something
together using PVC pipe, the old YJ turn signal sockets, and the lens of
the 2" amber markers... The white plastic on the backs of these is PVC!
so the PVC pipe (1 3/4 OD) glued right to it after I carved a hole out
the same size as the inside of the PVC. The stock YJ sockets actually
SNUGGLY slid into the PVC tube. That'll do until I find dual filiment 2"
flush mounts. What I ended up with looks exatly like flush mounts but
behind the rubber gromet is about 1.5" of PVC tube with the YJ's bulb
and socket at the end.

I cut off the grill rod supports from my YJ's grill and welded them onto
the TJ (the TJ's rods aren't a good fit and aren't adjustable like the
YJ's are; and I may need the adjustment to make things nice and tight)

The sheet metal was another minor adventure... it's not as snug as I'd
like and the fenders are about 1/2 inch pushed out on either side due to
the TJ grill being a bit wider. The hood line is pretty decent but there
are wider gaps in the corners of the grill (I used my YJ hood) that
would make a customizer or autobody guy cringe; But it's a Jeep and an
extra 1/4 inch of gap isn't that bad. I haven't decided how I'm going to
make the gaps nicer (curf and relieve the hood to decrease the curve in
the corner, or patch and build up the grill in the corners to meet the
YJ's sharper radius) but I'm planning a new paintjob so there's lots of
sheetmetal work in this round headlight YJ's future anyway.

I can't think of an easy way to share some pics of the finished (mostly)
product besides updating my jeep project page so I am going to take some
time this week and do that.

--
Simon
"I may be wrong, but I'm not uncertain." -- Robert A. Heinlein

 

Simon Juncal did pass the time by typing:

> I can't think of an easy way to share some pics of the finished (mostly)
> product besides updating my jeep project page so I am going to take some
> time this week and do that.

alt.binaries.pictures.autos.4x4 :)

Sounds like a cool project.

--
DougW

 

Simon Juncal did pass the time by typing:

> I can't think of an easy way to share some pics of the finished (mostly)
> product besides updating my jeep project page so I am going to take some
> time this week and do that.

alt.binaries.pictures.autos.4x4 :)

Sounds like a cool project.

--
DougW

 

Simon Juncal did pass the time by typing:

> I can't think of an easy way to share some pics of the finished (mostly)
> product besides updating my jeep project page so I am going to take some
> time this week and do that.

alt.binaries.pictures.autos.4x4 :)

Sounds like a cool project.

--
DougW