Bkennedy's SAS and Rebuild Thread

As some of you know, I am working on building a parts list for a shortened Dana 44, long radius arm with coil overs SAS. 5:13 gears to match my rear axle and an ARB, maybe an electric locker. I have a pretty good list so far. At the same time, I am going to swap out the rear drum brakes for discs off of a 99 Explorer.

Please note: The plan is to keep this project as simple as possible with mostly off the shelf parts. I am not a fabricator, just a decent welder with a what I would consider the minimum required tools (chop saw, cut off wheels, air tools, welder, etc.), who likes doing his own work. Your opinions are welcome, but what I really need is technical advice. I have been thinking about this for several years and now have the time and cash to make it happen. Please keep on topic with your advice and don't go off on a side track about how you would do it as a four-link, or caged arms, or leave the axle full-width because that is not what I want. I want a simple-ish set up that works.

 

[BKennedy]

Today was door panel day. I taught myself how to weld plastic after watching a You Tube video. It wasn't that hard to figure out. I used zip ties as welding rod and a soldering iron as a tig. There were several cracks on my door panels that I have been repairing with epoxy, only to have them crack again in short order. One trick I learned is to remove as much of the epoxy as possible before welding the crack. It has a completely different melting point and becomes very brittle when it cools. On the largest crack, I had to repair it on both sides and add quite a bit of plastic before it became solid. Its visible so I sanded down the outside but am not planning on painting it or color matching it in any way.
Inside of panel

Outside after sanding

Also removed the old door pull handles and replaced with new. Old handles have tabs that are melted to the door panel. I ground them out with a Dremel and a burr (got the idea from Brian1). The new handles have press on clamps, which seem to hold well. The color is close, but not a perfect match. I am pleased with the result.
Old, busted up pull handle

New handle

The vertical slots are for the cage A pillars to clear the doors.

 

[Stic-o]

You did a great job

Always wanted to tackle plastic welding, just haven't crossed that bridge yet.

 

[Rick]

You should do a writeup on the latch fix.

 

[BKennedy]

I ended up ordering a new latch because I couldn't fix it.

 

[Rick]

Bummer.

 

[BKennedy]

You did a great job

Always wanted to tackle plastic welding, just haven't crossed that bridge yet.

I thought it was easier than welding metal. With the plastic, you can push the material around to get it where you want. Can't do that with metal. Only other difference is you have to hold the plastic in place for a few seconds or it can deform or move around. I used a 40 amp cheapo soldering iron and pushed about half way through the thickness of the plastic, then back, then forward. If it didn't seem like there was enough material to hold up, I melted in pieces of zip tie. I got the tuturial from this video because it seemed like the most simple way.

 

[RockRanger]

That is cool.

 

[410Fortune]

well done!!! Cracks fixed! Most modern plastics can be "welded"
I have a 1978 Argo 6 wheeler I tried to repair the body on..... nope. Older abs plastic will not weld....it just keeps melting further and further away.
For plastic repairs when welding wont work and epoxy wont hold (brittle like you said) try E6000 hobby glue or shoe goop....

Door panels look really really nice! Those parts are really hard to find anymore in good shape.

 

[Rick]

Door panels look really really nice! Those parts are really hard to find anymore in good shape.

Even harder to find stuff for manual window doors.

 

[Rick]

Damn... This made me go to Ebay to see what I could find. Well I found a manual door panel NOS. Price wasn't terrible, but the shipping is nearly as much as the part itself. $110 to ship? Fuggetaboutit!!!

 

[BKennedy]

I noticed that the bottom leaf of my leaf springs was starting to wander a little on both sides. I went under the truck to hammer them back in line and retorque the U-bolts (they had stretched a little) and found a small crack in the frame cross member that's inside of the front passenger leaf spring mount that I had to weld up. After all that, I figured since I need to wait on UPS to bring me the door latch I would see about installing the amp. I am waiting on the RCA cable that goes from the head unit to the amp, but I figured I could get the amp installed. Wrong, spent most of the day disassembling the cargo area so I could remove the inside panel, and figuring out where I want to run the power wire. There is plenty of room inside that panel area and the speaker wires go right through there. Looks like there is enough wire that I can cut them off at the OEM amp plug and directly wire them into the amp with no extensions.

I figured out I want to run the power wire the same way I ran the power wire to the other side to the mini fuse panel; though the tail lamp area. It seems to be the route that will keep the wire away from anything that might cause a short. I made a cardboard bracket for the amp and just before I Iost interest and gave up for the day, I found a piece of plate in my junk metal pile that should work nicely.
The floor shelf came out with very little damage. I was afraid the wood was going to get screwed up because I glued the pieces together, but luckily it was on the painted surface so I could wiggle it loose.
I pulled all of this stuff out of the cargo area, plus some other stuff I put on the back seat. But, I only had to cut two wires that went to the LED light strip on that side to remove all of that, so my planning is going well so far.

Now I'm thinking that since I have the cargo area mostly apart I should take it the rest of the way apart and use up the rest of the sound deadener I applied to the passenger area when I installed the Atlas. I think I have enough material to cover the floor and maybe even the inside of the quarter panels. I just added some days to this short project, but I really don't have much else to do right now.

 

[gmanpaint]

Bunch of stuff to take out! I know how that goes. I'm currently in the middle of another rear cargo mod myself.

Did you do a before & after rear height measure? lol

If you hear any whining or white noise when your done, you might want to think about running new 16g speaker wires, and making sure the amps power cable, is far away from them.

 

[Stic-o]

I thought it was easier than welding metal. With the plastic, you can push the material around to get it where you want. Can't do that with metal. Only other difference is you have to hold the plastic in place for a few seconds or it can deform or move around. I used a 40 amp cheapo soldering iron and pushed about half way through the thickness of the plastic, then back, then forward. If it didn't seem like there was enough material to hold up, I melted in pieces of zip tie. I got the tuturial from this video because it seemed like the most simple way.

Thanks for the video, I have the original Navajo grill that's cracked and broken, but saved it with this in mind.

 

[Paul]

I have the original Navajo grill that's cracked and broken, but saved it with this in mind.

Not to thread hijack, but may be able to help you out with a relatively unblemished Mazda grill. . .

. . . and great job, as usual.

Paul

 

[BKennedy]

Bunch of stuff to take out! I know how that goes. I'm currently in the middle of another rear cargo mod myself.

Did you do a before & after rear height measure? lol

If you hear any whining or white noise when your done, you might want to think about running new 16g speaker wires, and making sure the amps power cable, is far away from them.

I don't know very much about audio, so am learning as I go. The power cable will be coming from the opposite direction and all by itself. For awhile, I thought that if I wired the RCA hookups from the head unit to the amp I wouldn't need to wire speaker cables. I have 100' of 16 gauge copper tin clad noise reducing super-duper speaker wire but am hoping to avoid using it.

I'm going to empty out all the stuff in the left side panel, then remove that and the carpet and lay down sound deadener. I think I should have enough for that. If not, I'll do the inside of the quarters and fenders because I am sure that's where most of the tire noise would be coming from.

 

[gmanpaint]

Yeah, running new speaker wires can be a PITA, but the rewards are justified.

25 year old wires that have been baking in hot interiors, constant bending with door movement, and degrading over time, just don't work as well as brand new HD 16g. Now add a more powerful amp to them and.......... Yeah.

The sound deadner in the cargo area is a great idea, and one that I might just steal from you, while I am back there working on mine.

 

[BKennedy]

Question for audio type folks. The amp I purchased came with this hokey looking in-line fuse. I need to mount it underneath the Explorer near where the auxiliary battery is located. I have a self-resetting breaker with the same amp rating.
Is there any reason not to replace this

with this?

Here is where I ran the power wire into the passenger compartment.

Mocked up amp and mount.

Painted and installed mount. I welded the nuts onto the back of the mounting plate because the plate is riveted to the body at both bottom mounts so its semi-permanent. Wanted to be able to pull the amp without drilling out the rivets. The top mounts already had slots for clip nuts and OEM bolts, and I have a couple jars full of them left over from the donor Explorer I stripped, so easy. You can also see how the OEM speaker wires are in near perfect location for mounting into the amp. I will see how it sounds before I decide if I want to pull the rest of the interior to run new speaker wires. The dark blue wire already goes to the dash and all I had to do is add about six inches of wire to hook it up to the head unit wiring. It sends power to the amp to turn it on and off.

The extra holes along the bottom of the mount are for the wire loom push keeper thingies.
Rivet heads in fender wells (yes, they got painted).

 

[Rick]

The self resetting breaker should be fine.

 

[BKennedy]

The self resetting breaker should be fine.

Thanks Rick.

@gmanpaint paint, if you do go with sound deadener, I went with this stuff this time. Siless 50mil 52 ft² Sound Deadening mat Sound Deadener Mat Car Sound Dampening | eBay It looks just like the Kilmat I used last time, and its in larger sheets and cheaper. I like it because its thin, it seals the floor, its easy to cut with scissors, and easy to work with.
The seller is awesome. I sent him a message asking for it to be shipped quickly and he replied that he went to USPS on Saturday right after I ordered it to mail it per my request. I got it today. Usually, I will order something and it will say its shipped, and it takes two weeks.

 

[gmanpaint]

Siless 50mil 52 ft² Sound Deadening mat Sound Deadener Mat Car Sound Dampening | eBay It looks just like the Kilmat I used last time, and its in larger sheets and cheaper. I like it because its thin, it seals the floor, its easy to cut with scissors, and easy to work with.

Thanks for the link. I bookmarked it.

I am still working on my cargo area project, and won't be ready to do the sound mat for a bit. Let me know, how well you think the 50mil works.