Lately I have been tinkering with Ex fixing all the little issues that were bugging me. 1st was the CB location. When Dan had it, he had an external speaker for the CB that came with Ex. Well, I broke the old CB and the old speaker. It was originally mounted on the floor. When I pulled out all the carpet, I never put the CB back in, as I didn't want it on the floor anymore. Well, this past weekend, I put it where I mounted D's. On the roof.
The Rangers have a brace that runs between the headliner and the outer roof skin. Ex didn't have that. I don't know if it was because of the sunroof, but I knew that this was going to require me to go through the outer skin.
There is also a gap of probably 2-2.5" of air between the headliner and the outer skin. Because of this, I couldn't mount the CB mount directly to the roof without modifying it. I plan to use this CB again in D when I get him back, so I didn't want to modify the mount.
A couple of long screws, a pair of old castle nuts from the factory tie-rod ends, and I had the spacing I needed. I extended the wiring, added a blade style fuse instead of the cylinder-type, and tucked everything behind the factory panels.
I snagged these doors for a good deal, along with the pair for the driver side. I have keyless entry and an alarm, so the door locks were no biggie to me.
The next project was installing the rear passenger window regulator. I hate these things because they are always riveted in, and a pain. This one was no different. I decided to weld nuts on the backside and use some left over fender bolts to mount the new regulator instead of using rivets. I had to shave the fender bolts down a bit, but they work! I still have a little bit of adjusting to do, but it at least goes up and down, and doesn't fall down on its own.
I have also needed to install my D-Ring mounts to the rear bumper I built. The front panel needed to be cut out as they go through the metal and are welded to the bumper mounting brackets. I couldn't get my grinder in there, so I packed it up, and headed to my dad's shop. Using his plasma, I cut out the windows needed, then headed back to my place to mount everything up.
I ran out of welding wire, so I will pick some up today after work then get these finished up.
On the backside, I took another piece of 1/8" plate and "formed" it around the mount, as I don't trust just one side.
Not the best, but I think it should hold. The Dring mounts were from Barnes4x4. I really wish they were a little longer (story of my life), but I bought them, so I was going to install them.
Also got my front case shifter hole silenced. There was nothing to keep the metal shifter rod from dragging across the hole in the floor, so it would screech about a bajillion times every time I took it out. Not anymore. Had the shift knob from Kristy's old TJ project, so I just threw that on there.