Mn Mountaineer V8 SAS

[Greg_DonWindsor]

Incredible workmanship, salute! Love the front bumper and winch setup.

 

[johnny499]

Incredible workmanship, salute! Love the front bumper and winch setup.

Thanks!
It is so much better than the plastic factory POS. It is like putting 55 gallons of crap in a 30 gallon bag, trying to retain as much clearance as possible while getting all of the pieces to fit and still be sort of legal. It has been fun, the real bender and bendtech software have been a huge improvement over what i have used in the past.

 

[johnny499]

Last night i made up the fairlead mounting plate and fillers to go between the recovery mounts and outer frame brackets.

I used 1" .120 wall tubing for a lower diagonal brace so i can put on skid plates to protect the two oil filters.

Getting there a couple hours at a time. What's left? Headlight/brush bar hoop's. Light mounts. License plate mount (swinging/hinged). Antenna mount tabs. Oh! and paint....

 

[Machine090767]

Looks great, fellow Minnesotan!

 

[johnny499]

Looks great, fellow Minnesotan!

Thanks!
Last night i only had time to get the templates for the oil filter skid plates made and drawn onto some material. Now i just need to decide if i want to drive out to my dads and use the sheer or use the plasma cutter at home.
I could also take some aluminum plate out to his place and sheer it for the main skid plate.

 

[johnny499]

I got a fair amount done on it this weekend. I started with making tabs for the lightbar. they came out really well and very strong.

Then i measured it up and entered the info into the software for the headlight hoops. I'm getting the hang of the software, it made these look good.

I decided to use the band saw to cut out the material for the oil filter skid that went pretty well.

Then i made mounting plates for the HID projector fog lights which were a tight fit.

I also made up some antenna mounts for the headlight hoops, not the best ground plane but at least i will be able to drive into the garage without tearing them off.

I started the license plate mount by cutting out a plate to go behind it. That's as far as i got before i had to take care of other things in life.

 

[SWIGIN]

That was the best looking tube bumper I have ever seen on an EX/Mounty........until the headlight guards went on. Sorry, just not for me.

I will however love to steal some or most of what you did for my EX whenever I get to make a front bumper.

Great job!

 

[johnny499]

That was the best looking tube bumper I have ever seen on an EX/Mounty........until the headlight guards went on. Sorry, just not for me.

I will however love to steal some or most of what you did for my EX whenever I get to make a front bumper.

Great job!

Thanks!! I agree the headlight guards made it uglier, but i wind up on a fair amount of really narrow/heavy brush trails. If they really bug me i can cut them off and repaint it.
I finished the hinged license plate mount last night and pulled the bumper off to cap the tube ends and do the finish welding. I thought it was going to be much heavier than it is. I can pick it up no problem without the winch in it. Which reminds me i need to find a spot to cram the winch control box yet.
Another item showed up today from brown santa. So there is more fabricating in my future.

 

[johnny499]

Pardon the poor phone pictures!
It took about three hours last night to get the ends of the tubes capped and the welding finished but it's ready for some touch up and blending with the grinder tonight.

I killed the argon tank on the small welder so i had to brake out the big dog to finish it up which made it more interesting to get into the tight spots but i got it..

I can't wait to get this painted and back on. I miss driving the beast and want to get it onto a real trail again.

 

[johnny499]

Saturday evening after i got back from the back to the fifties car show i got some time to grind the welds and smooth things out. Then sunday morning i clean the bumper and applied seam sealer to the inside of the lower skids and underside of the antenna mounts to seal those areas up without more welding and distorting of the metal.

I had an obligation with friends that kept me away from it till 7:30. When i got back i emptied the garage and went to town with the primer.

I accidentally poured to much material into the mixing container so it got three solid coats of primer. I will have it painted tonight for sure.

 

[johnny499]

I used every drop of paint i had last night and got a couple coats on it only to realize i missed two little spots in a tight area. I did get them with primer but missed with paint so i will pick up more tonight and hit those spots and probably hit it with one more coat for good measure.

It will be back together shortly. I need it for this weekend, i am doing field day with some friends for the first time and will be camping for the weekend.

 

[johnny499]

It's not a good picture but it's on and the lights are wired up. I need to wire the winch yet but have so many other things to get done for the weekend , the winch will have to wait.

 

[johnny499]

I took a few better pictures of the bumper at this weekends field day event.

The HID projector fog lights worked great on the way down there. They were very much worth the time. Everyone was really impressed with the bumper and especially the lights for setting up in the dark.

 

[Centaurus5.0]

Beautiful. Just Beautiful.

 

[johnny499]

Beautiful. Just Beautiful.

Thanks!!!
Yeah i have had nothing but positive comments from everyone who has seen it. I am very happy with it just a few things to finish it. Then on to whatever the next stage is. Thinking about taking it up north to the iron range for the holiday weekend.

 

[johnny499]

This weekend I made time to get the winch control box mounted and wired up. I tried a few different spots but decided that the drivers side grill arear would be the most out of the way and shortest cabling. I started with making a mount out of 2" aluminum angle.

I made new cables to go from the control box to the winch that were about a foot longer.

Got it mounted and ran the cables to the winch.

Mounted the new manual reset circuit breaker.

I drilled an access hole for the remote plug in the header panel.

To finish out the evening sunday I spooled out the winch a little, installed the hook and then ran it back in.

I put 2" wide Velcro on the back of the license plate bracket to keep it from rattling on the hook when flipped down.

Finally a functional winch.

 

[johnny499]

The new axle seals should be here this week so I can redo them and do a full bearing repack. I'm thinking about ordering a solid diff cover for the front also. My only concern is if the tie rod is going to hit and or the ram assist clamp that will eventually be on the tie rod.

 

[johnny499]

Change of plans, the Axel seals showed up as wheel seals bad listing on rock auto. so i reordered them along with carrier bearing set. so i can put in an ected max diff. that i ordered. the detroit is great off road but in the winter when i go from crappy unplowed side roads to the dry and clear main road for a couple miles i hate having to keep it in four wheel drive. if i slip the transfer case into 2wd and turn the steering wheel much side to side the locker starts locking and unlocking from side to side which sounds horrendous and probably is not good for the locker. so this is the most reasonable selectable locker i could come up with. I will be selling the detroit to help recoup some of the cost. I did order the solid diff cover it just showed up today. everything else should be here next week.

 

[SWIGIN]

I agree.

I don't know much about the ected max diff but I would never run a true locker up front in a daily driver. My good old factory trac-loc in my dana 44 has proven it's self to me over the last 18 years.

It still pushes more than an open diff but I'd rather deal with that then get stuck.

In fact I like the clutch type trac-loc up front and an open in the rear the best for a road pig. Both front wheels spinning where the weight is and the rear will never try to pass the front end.

 

[johnny499]

Yeah I'm calling it a lesson learned. This isn't supposed to be a road pig but i have definitely driven it on the road a lot. The long trips for it were supposed to be the off road outings but then a year plus of dating someone 150 miles away added up quick, but that's over now. The ected max is a posi with electric controlled lockup, i found it brand new for $709 shipped. plus new seals and carrier bearings.