Junkyard Jimmy Super Low Buck Build Thread

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by 71swb4x4

Looking great!!

Interesting lighter, it looks like it's billet, is it?

You noticed that huh? Nothing as fancy as billet. I just cleaned the black off on my wire wheel. It was kind of a fortunate accident. I pulled a lighter out of the parts stash, and the black looked dirty and chipped. So I was just cleaning it up to paint it, but liked how it looked when it was cleaned up.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Maaan, that's comin out nice! Are you hauling it to the bodyshop to shoot the outside?
Posted via Mobile Device

That's the plan. If I ever get back to doing body work.

After that last update I went out and finished spraying the seat brackets and got the seats in place. I decided that I want to raise the back mounts about 3/4" for a more comfortable seat position, so I'll be making some spacers to accomplish that.

I finally pulled the seat covers out of the boxes that I bought for this. There are some pluses and minuses. The positives are that they slip on and fit pretty good front to back and top to bottom. And with some string wrapped around the transition from seat back to bottom cushion it should stay in place alright and protect the seat from rain. The negative is that the bottom part of the cover does not wrap around the sides towards the back part of the seat. It wraps around the front bottom but then tapers upward so you can still see the old nasty vinyl cover on the sides. It is just temporary until I can afford to have the seats covered in marine grade vinyl. Even if I find different seats (not looking) for it down the road they would also be recovered in the marine grade stuff.

[hgs_notes]

I was at $4199. Bought tint for the al's liner, $35. The radio, I already had. The seat covers I think were accounted for months ago. Sold some body mount brackets and got back $15, so that brings my total spent to $4219.

Punch list (in no particular order, * for priority items):
*finish body work on the outside
*Finish roll bar install
*tranny o-rings and kickdown cable
*change fluid in both differentials
*install windshield
*make sure wire for gas gauge is hooked up to sender
*lights, lights and more lights
*tranny cooler lines
*seat belts (have them)
Al's liner inside of tub (half way done)
inner fender tubs, repair, paint, install
rebuild vent windows
door glass, handles, locks, mirrors, etc.
mark/drill holes for single wall top in bed rails
Fab front and rear bumpers
electric fan install (got it)
plumb vac and oil gauges
seat bracket spacers
replace rear lift blocks with taller ones (need new u-bolts)
heater control cables and vents
rebuild carb
heater install (half way)
wiper washer pump
manual throttle
door panels, dash pad, visors, etc. (have them, need paint, cleaning, etc.)
stereo (radio in, need marine speakers and antenna)
paint (getting there, summit racing mayan gold metallic)

Future plans, as time and money and ability permit:
Long travel link suspension front and rear
lockers
rock sliders
roll cage
skid plates


What I'm noticing with this list is that its a moving target. Everytime I cross something off it, I think I add 2 more.

[Maddoxdb]

Looking great!!!
Posted via Mobile Device

[87Jimmy4JP]

"What I'm noticing with this list is that its a moving target. Everytime I cross something off it, I think I add 2 more".

I hear ya on this one! Especially with old cars that are daily drivers too!....they seem to add to the list all by themselves!




JP

[Low Elco]

Looks great! Sorry about your loss. Hoping to have it quasi- done by spring?
Posted via Mobile Device

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Looks great! Sorry about your loss. Hoping to have it quasi- done by spring?
Posted via Mobile Device

At least quasi done my man! Not semi-quasi or mostly quasi. It'll be full on quasi done by spring.

I hope to get a good part of the body work done by New Years. Paint shortly after that. It'll move faster once I get the hood done. The rest of the body is just some filling and sanding. The worst is over, except for the sanding.

Then it just needs some wiring, windshield, carb rebuild and tuning, differential oil change, fix a tranny leak or 3, and some of those other punch list items. Definitely quasi done. I love that phrase man. Excellent.

[Low Elco]

Ha, they're always quasi-done. I could still fill a pretty good punch list on Yeller!

[hgs_notes]

Haven't had much garage time lately. What I got I used for some other projects. Christmas is coming and every year I try to figure out some kind of gift for my wife that she won't expect or have a clue about. This year was tough. Nothing was coming to mind. Then this last weekend we spent together and in one of the shops, hanging on the wall was a frying pan with a clock in it. I've got the craftsman saw blade clock in my shop, why not something kitcheny for her shop (before any of the chauvenist comments come, she actually loves the kitchen and cooking).

So monday I found a clock at the thrift store that would work great. After a few more thrift stores without any luck finding a good fry pan, I stopped at the local antique shop (I know the guy). At first he said he didn't have anything, then as we were walking out he spotted one on the wall. It was kind of beat up, but it was a copper pan with a blacksmith formed long steel handle held on with copper rivets. And the price was right, I'm trading him a scythe I got for a dollar.

I straightened it out, cleaned up the copper, bent the handle so it would hang on the wall nice and put it together. The bright shiny copper wasn't the look I wanted though, so I got my propane torch and started playing around with it. Its got some bluing and darker copper and other colors mixed in there. I'll post a pic later. I think she'll love it.

While trying to find some other ideas monday I went into a shop that was going out of business. They were selling everything, including the shelves. My wife has a rather large collection of pez and is always complaining that she doesn't have enough display space for them. This shop happened to have a perfect case, good size, adjustable glass shelves, glass door (keeps the dust off, very important) and a good price. So I loaded that up. Not content to give it as is, today I pulled all the hardware off and prepped it for paint. The shelf is kind of a dark teal, all of her other shelves are white, as this one will soon be. I'm not leaving it at that though.

Last year I had custom pajamas made for her. Just found some of the style oversized tees she likes without any lettering or pics already on them (not as easy to find as you might think), then had a screen printing shop put on phrases that she is known for (the kids helped with that). She loved them. So I stopped back at the printing place and asked them to make me some PEZ font letter decals for the shelf. It should look great.

Since I'm on a roll here describing my wifes Christmas to be, I'll blab one more surprise about it. She said the other day that she had never had lobster claws, just tails. She loves lobster, it makes me gag. We normally have crab legs and steak for our Christmas Eve meal (we grill the steaks no matter the weather). Well this year she'll get her lobster claws (and tail, and head, and spines, and everything else). Turns out it's not so easy to just get claws. When the lobster is processed, they break off the tails and send the rest to be cooked and the meat from the claws is sold in packages. The only way to get whole claws (in MN) is to get a whole lobster. The only way I could get a whole lobster is live. Now today, I'm at the seafood market learning all this and trying to figure out how I'm going to get lobster claws for my wife on Christmas eve, when I can't get back the the market (100 miles away) between then and now. It's not like I can keep it in a tank in the garage for 5 days (well, ok, maybe I could). So I remember that I need to bring something to my daughter who lives up there and I have a thought (yeah it hurt a little). I tell the market guy, bag one up, then call my daughter and tell her to get her biggest pot filled with water and get it boiling. The market guy says, boil for 7 minutes, then I can freeze it ok. For some odd reason I felt it was better to boil the live lobster to death rather than just let him freeze to death in the trunk of my car, which would have been acceptable too.

So I get to my daughters, the water is boiling in her biggest pot. It's not so big. I pull the lobster out of the bag and he stretches the claws out and I put him over the pan and its going to be a tight fit. I've never done this before. My daughter is acting like I'm going to murder the thing (well technically, sure, whatever) and can't look. I'm wondering if there is going to be a struggle (with the lobster, not the daughter) and I dip him in. No thrashing about, just meekly surrenders to the caldren of doom. Just enough room. 7 minutes later he's ready to be eaten. Instead he's in my daughters freezer and she CAN'T forget to bring it home with her this weekend or there will be some thrashing about and a struggle.

So my christmas plans are almost complete, just need to paint and pick up some stickers and figure out how to present the gift.

Oh, and just so you know, I did some good garage stuff too and even one thing chevy related (a distant 4th cousin). I fixed my snowblower and made some foot locker keys, using some old chevy key blanks I found at one of the antique shops. Those foot locker keys are hard to come by, good thing they are easy to make.


Thanks for following along. I hope you enjoy my story. I only have 3 work days between now and January 2nd. Jimmy progress will be in high gear soon.

[RatRod68]

Good read. I like gifting real gifts as well. Ones that don't include the lame gift card.

[hgs_notes]

I got about an hour yesterday to work on the Jimmy. I fit up the top sheet of steel for the hood and tacked it in place.



And this is the clock I put together for her. I hope she likes it.


This is the shelf I got for her, repainted, with nice pez lettering decals on the sides.


I'm messing with her a bit too. I put everything I bought for her (except the shelf) into boxes, then put all those boxes inside one big box. They are taped to the inside of it so they dont move around. So she's like "You just got my one thing? And you made it?" There are like 13 things in that box. I'm just going to bring the shelf in from the garage early tomorrow, load the few new pez I got her into it, and then bring her to it.

[87Jimmy4JP]

Love the stuff you made for the better half....great job on that cabinet...Im right there with you on the hardware you used for the door pull and hasp.

The lettering looks like vinyl sourced at the local sign shop? Nicely done.

Merry Christmas


JP

[Dale99]

Cabinet looks great.

She shouldnt be concerned with getting her one item. It should be about the thought. Also, what if that one item was super expensive?

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by 87Jimmy4JP

The lettering looks like vinyl sourced at the local sign shop? Nicely done.

Merry Christmas
JP

Yeah, I had the lettering done at a company that does t-shirts, uniforms, signs, etc.

Originally Posted by Dale99

Cabinet looks great.

She shouldnt be concerned with getting her one item. It should be about the thought. Also, what if that one item was super expensive?

She's not concerned about the quantity, just baffled. She knows I'm messing with her. I told her it would be easier Christmas morning having just the one thing to open. She tends to just sit and watch the kids with her presents piling up around her, which is fine, but sometimes frustrating for me, because I'm watching her and the kids.

This year my mom will be joining us too. My oldest is home from college. Just got all our shopping done so no more worries for the next few days. Getting our traditional crab and steak dinner prepped (lobster for the wife). Having a good beer. Should be a good holiday.

I hope you all enjoys yours too.

[RatRod68]

dude, that is awesome

[Dieselwrencher]

Awesome work on the gifts for your wife! That is real cool thinking on your part. I liked the lobster thrash story, I was waiting for you to say that the super claw almost got ya! I hope you and your family have a Very Merry Christmas!




Oh yeah, nice work on the Blazer too. I'm really leaning towards Al's Liner for my truck. (If I ever get that far.) I've heard it has spraying issues, but most of that stuff does unless you have the high dollar applicating stuff it seems.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by RatRod68

dude, that is awesome

Thanks man.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Awesome work on the gifts for your wife! That is real cool thinking on your part. I liked the lobster thrash story, I was waiting for you to say that the super claw almost got ya! I hope you and your family have a Very Merry Christmas!

Oh yeah, nice work on the Blazer too. I'm really leaning towards Al's Liner for my truck. (If I ever get that far.) I've heard it has spraying issues, but most of that stuff does unless you have the high dollar applicating stuff it seems.

Sorry to disappoint you by not having lost a battle with the lobster.

I have mixed feelings on the Als Liner. I've had my share of problems getting it to spray evenly. The roller method works ok, but takes some time and patience. The main advantage for me was that you can color match it.

My brief Christmas update:

I got a good start with surprising her with the lobster. She loved it. She said she likes the claw meat better than the tails. This morning I woke up early, irritating bad habit of mine, and brought the pez shelf in from the garage. I had planned to set it up in the kitchen area then lead her to it after all the other present madness ended. But then thought it would be better to set it up with the kids stuff. One of our traditions has been that we hold back a special gift that gets put out Christmas eve as their "Santa Present". Usually unwrapped and placed by their stockings. My wife and I fill a stocking for each other, but have never done a "Santa Present". Until today that is. She was the last to come into the living room, I had the camera and got video. The look was classic. Mouth agape, and wide eyes. My oldest said she looked like she got the bike she wanted as a kid. She opened her giant box and couldn't stop looking at all the stuff I packed it with. My plan worked out 100%. She loved the clock and everything else. The kids were all happy, my mom was thrilled (we filled a stocking for her too, she said it was the first time she had one), and I got some cool stuff too.


None shall pass!

Merry Christmas everyone. Welding and grinding for me tomorrow.

[Low Elco]

Come back, I'll bite your leg off! Glad to hear all your scheming worked out well. Nice hood!
Posted via Mobile Device

[hgs_notes]

Just a quick update for the mornings progress. I needed to take a break. Too much time bent over, my back was starting to ache. The welding is done around the sides and front. Still need to do the back edge and flip it over to lock up the bracing and front part of the frame work.

After welding...


After grinding...

[hgs_notes]

Pretty much finished with the fab work on the hood. Just need to clean it up, do some mud work and primer and see how it looks all one color and mounted. It'll probably need some tweaking, but the major part of it is done.

On the rear edge, I did some fillet welds for the top sheet metal to the old hood skin (its just a strip along the back with the angle bend over the rear edge of the rear brace). And the old hood skin is welded to the rear brace with plug welds. Then on the front brace I welded up the ends where I relief cut it, then lap welds across the brace where I cut it.




So I'll be back on the bodywork over the next several days (weeks).

[hgs_notes]

Not a lot done on the jimmy today, but spent a lot of time in the garage. Cleaning and fixing. The other day I got some workout area foam floor mat. It was $20 at walmart for about 24 sqft. So I cleaned up in front of the workbench and laid it down. Felt good on my knees and feet.


In that pic you can see how bad of a disaster area my workbench is, no room left to work. Bad habit and I wish I could break it. So I took some time and at least got one of the benches cleared off.


Which then gave me the opportunity to swap vises. The wife got me the one I was looking for. I like the multi function vise because it allows better positioning for what your working on.


I had also bought a couple more flourescent lights and was able to get one of those in. The other light had a bad ballast and wouldn't light up, need to exchange it. And then buy another, because one of my older lights is dying and needs replaced. Its amazing how much easier it is to work with good lighting.

As for the JImmy, I started working on the fit up of the hood, and also flipped it over, cleaned up the underside and getting it ready to seal up the edges. I'll need to clean up more of the old paint, scuff it, etc. and the underneath will be ready for primer and paint. I think I'll do it semi-gloss black on the bottom side.

[Dale99]

work bench looked fine to me :P

[Dieselwrencher]

Great work on the hood, and I'm glad your Christmas plan went off without a hitch! I know what you mean on the bench tops. Ours are terrible and never make it one week clean I swear!

[hgs_notes]

Jimmy progress! Yeah for me!

No seriously. I actually did some significant work on something that goes on the Jimmy.

I've been prepping the hood for primer. Lots of cleaning and wiping down, etc. I needed to do something with the inside edge where I cut out the old skin to seal it up. I used some panel adhesive between the layers, and clamped it down with some boards and vise grips. I did the rear edge also. Partly to seal it up, add some strength, and the start of smoothing that line where it meets the cowl cover.

I used wood to clamp it down because it has enough flex to match the contour of the hood inside, and when the adhesive squeezes out of the joint I can knock the wood off with a couple raps of a hammer. Then I just cleaned the edges up with a wire wheel.


Next I sprayed epoxy primer on the underside.
Before...


After...


Then stood it up and primed the top side.


Next step is to get the sealer/adhesive in between the top skin and hood braces, and to clean up around my cut edges, etc. Then I can scuff it and spray the underneath with paint. I might set on the jimmy tomorrow for a pic to see how it looks.

[Low Elco]

Looks terrific! Hope it fits well.
Posted via Mobile Device

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Looks terrific! Hope it fits well.
Posted via Mobile Device

I did some trial fits on the jimmy already. I needed to shim out the front of the fenders a bit. I put 1/8" shims on the passenger side today. I'll see if thats enough tomorrow. I might need to do some more trimming on the rear edge, but it's pretty close. Will need some more filler and blocking there to get a good straight line.

I need to remember to get my hinges cleaned up and painted so I can get it mounted. And I need to get the cowl in primer too.