theksmith 3,667 Posted January 5, 2020 Gadget led the run to the Offroad Passport Holiday Party spot yesterday... (photo from Kaspily) then got up early to go play out by the lake this morning... 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,667 Posted January 8, 2020 (edited) continuing to address some small cosmetic issues, i tinted the sides of the factory rear tail-light housings. before: after: i hadn't found any aftermarket tails that i'm excited about, so i'm sticking with OEM for now but i just wanted to clean up their look a bit. from any distance at all, that red side panel now just blends into the rest of the black housing. i upgraded to some rather bright LED bulbs in the rear a while back, so the sides still light up decently even with the tint. here's just the running lights on after tinting: the process i used was: taped off everything but the side lens and then lightly sanded with a 400 grit sponge cleaned the surface with rubbing alcohol sprayed 3 medium to heavy coats of VHT Nightshades to tint, letting it dry a few hours between each coat lightly sanded the final coat with #0000 steel wool cleaned with rubbing alcohol again finished with one heavy coat of Dupli-Color clear coat (gloss topcoat) i ended up with just a tiny bit of orange-peel, but i think it's fine considering there's going to be desert pinstriping soon as i go wheeling again! to get a perfectly smooth gloss finish with the Nightshades i've heard you need to wet-sand between coats with something around 4,000 grit then do a couple clear coats and buff/polish those. i'm using these high wattage red 3157 LED bulbs for the brake and running lights. LED bulbs here do require standard load resistors in the JK - both to prevent a fast turn signal and to fix the bulb-out warning. the resistors get extremely hot when used on a constantly-lit circuit like this (versus an intermittent turn signal-only bulb). i didn't want to mount them directly to the housings and risk melting the plastic. so, i riveted the resistors to little aluminum plates and then riveted those plates onto existing tabs at the back of the housings. i also installed very bright JDM 50w 3156 LED bulbs some time ago for backup lights. FYI, that circuit does not not require load resistors. Edited January 8, 2020 by theksmith Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scottL 173 Posted January 9, 2020 Whoa K, 90K?! That's more than half the miles on my junk already Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mesach 39 Posted January 9, 2020 DAMN SON! what % are on dirt do you think 30-40? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,667 Posted January 10, 2020 20 hours ago, mesach said: DAMN SON! what % are on dirt do you think 30-40? i'd say 30-40% are "recreation miles", i.e. trails, going to/from a trail, or otherwise on some sort of overland/exploratory trip! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,667 Posted January 10, 2020 (edited) those new extended front brake lines turned into their own little project... i put a slight twist in them when installing in order to direct them in a way that was clear from getting caught in the coil springs and shocks, but they ended up rubbing the tires at full lock. so i ordered these handy dandy Teraflex brake line anchors for JK's. note they also have a longer universal version. to install those i had to loosen the lines to rotate the twist back out, which meant i needed to bleed them again (yay for the speed bleeders)! next i drove out to a wash to do a flex test and found that my new routing with the Teraflex anchors was causing the lines to be pulled a little tight on full droop. i needed to rotate the anchors to point upwards more. i finally ended up installing them on the outside of the existing nut and adding a second nut just to hold the anchors on. this allowed them to be angled up high enough, but not hit the shock body on full compression. Edited January 10, 2020 by theksmith Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,667 Posted January 13, 2020 (edited) Gadget did good on the Elvis run this weekend with no new carnage! trip report here... thanks to Sarah (@kaspily) these great photos, especially this one of Gadget twerking: and thanks to @dzJeepChic for this one too: Edited January 14, 2020 by theksmith 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,667 Posted January 28, 2020 (edited) keeping the thread up-to-date... i led a run to Ripsey & Ripsey Hill mines a couple weekends ago, photos here... a few of us ran Sunflower this past weekend. thanks to @dzJeepChic for this photo of Gadget in the creek - more pics here... i've been working on an on-board water and hot-shower system. write-up in progress... also a work-in-progress - i got a pair of Teraflex bolt-on skids for my new rear Falcon reservoir shocks, but they hang a too low for my taste. i need to do a little customizing and integrate them with the remains of the welded-on skids i already had. Edited January 28, 2020 by theksmith Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,667 Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) made some adjustments to the parking brake cable routing. mostly finished with the fresh water project... still need to modify and install those Teraflex Falcon shock skids. Edited February 5, 2020 by theksmith Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
