The Gubblemobile- Series III from hell.

[Alaska Mike]

Tonight.

Tonight I slew a personal dragon. Not a big dragon, but one that I've been avoiding. The passenger side footwell was giving me all sorts of trouble. Getting the old sheetmetal out and cleaning up the rust and other junk was a project I started and then abandoned halfway through. I hate that kind of work. I kept finding other jobs to do instead. Not like there's any shortage of them.

Tonight I got the old footwell out, did the prep work, and fitted the new footwell in place temporarily. I am beyond happy about this. While not done, I can see progress in the bulkhead, which has been a major sticking point for me.

The guy who originally built my bulkhead must have been paid by the spot weld, because I have never seen so many welds in a four square inch section before.

Tomorrow I might feel froggy and actually start welding it in place. OK, so maybe the dragon isn't dead yet, but I think I maimed that sucker.

 

[Geo14cux]

I use a dedicated garden sprayer for filling diffs trans & the like. Its really easy & clean. ESP for a man trans there is not a huge amount of room.

 

[Alaska Mike]

I use a dedicated garden sprayer for filling diffs trans & the like. Its really easy & clean. ESP for a man trans there is not a huge amount of room.

One of those plastic ones? I would think that it would flex all over the place trying to push the heavier fluids. My pumps certainly do, if the bottle doesn't collapse first. I may have to give that a try.

Since I buy gear oil in 5 gallon drums (we do a lot of water up here), using the engine oil pump makes the diff filling process much faster and avoids having to transfer it to a smaller container.

 

[Snagger]

I use a dedicated garden sprayer for filling diffs trans & the like. Its really easy & clean. ESP for a man trans there is not a huge amount of room.

I use a 1L oil bottle with pull-out neck, and used to use an additional length of garden hose for filling the gear box - the bottle's neck fits inside the hose, and the hose fits through the gear box filler.

Now I use a military gear box top-fill cap and a dipstick from Rock Mountain (the transfer box uses a top cover with filler hole and another dipstick supplied by RM with the Roverdrive). I also modified the tunnel cover, using the lower sections off one and the upper section with flanges removed from another to make the cover removable without touching the floor panels (the corner was cut away for the overdrive lever to stay in place too, and a second circular hole in the top is for filling the gear box - it was already there as a military part, and uses the same type of grommet as fitted to the side, now both onmited because the cab matting covers both holes).

 

[Geo14cux]

If you use one you'll never look back. I have used a 2 gallon model for a real long time. I added a whip to the end of the wand to reach & for flex.
No messing around put the oil in, pump it up, pull the trigger. I put a piece of wire on the handle so I don't need to wait for it. auto fill if you like. Stupid simple.

 

[Alaska Mike]

Today I spent more time on the bulkhead, because I keep finding little pockets of corrosion to deal with. I have a brush on my angle grinder that is getting a serious workout. The way it's going, there won't be much paint left on this sucker once I'm done. Pockets that I can't reach I'm hitting with a small steel brush as best as I can and then treating them with extend. Before the footwells go on, I'll be painting the inside of the door posts. Amazing that they didn't really coat them when they made the vehicle. A quick shot up the door frame would have prevented a lot of future problems.

I also spent a lot of time with a very ineffective sand blaster trying to clean the rust off of the wheels. It was a professional sandblaster, but the media was pretty fine and the gun kept clogging because of the humidity in the room. In an hour, I managed to get exactly half of a wheel done. That half looks pretty, but I think I'm going to take it to a shop and have them done. My back and my time is worth more than that.

I also spent a lot of time cleaning all of the gear oil gunk out of the inside of two of the wheels. That took some time, but I needed to do it so that I can sandblast them. Gunk tends to clog up recirculating sandblasters.

I still haven't made up my mind on the axles. I may just pick up an offset Dana 44 just in case, since I know of one that I can pick up cheap. It may end up that it will be a future project, if I decide the gearing/brakes/whatever on the stock axles doesn't work for me.

Well, back to the garage...

 

[greenmeanie]

Acid dip if you can find one close enough. It is far less agressive on the metal than sand blast yet it will eat all the rot out your bulkhead leaving only good, solid, weldable metal. It makes short work of wheels too. It also avoids having to clean media out of every seam after cleaning.

I paid approx $150 to have my bulkhead done which was not cheap but it saved me a lot of wire wheel time and, of course, made everything nice and clean for galvy.

 

[Alaska Mike]

Unfortunately there isn't a acid dip place up here, or I would have hit that route a long time ago. For me it's the wheel or sandblasting, and I don't think sand blasting is a good option for the bulkhead (at least with a semi-aggressive media). So, back to the grindstone...

 

[greenmeanie]

I'll confess that as I wasn't allowed to do a full chassis off rebuild (OK I left one axle on it at a time) I spent a summer wire wheeling the chassis on my 109 project. Its slow dirty work but it gets the job done. The worst part is when the wire starts fatiguing and shedding. I swear I'm still finding bits embedded down my right side.

 

[Alaska Mike]

Well, the bright side of it being slightly chilly in the garage is that I wear my Carhart insulated overalls, which protect me from a lot of shrapnel. Does get a little hot under the worklights at times, though.

 

[ntsqd]

Big tub filled with white vinegar? Followed with a water rinse, repeat rinse. I de-rust small parts this way and it works a charm. I buy the vinegar by the gallon from Smart & Final and use a Tupperware tub. Be prepared to apply some form of anti rust compound immediately after air drying.

Vinegar in a tub also works great for cleaning corroded fuse blocks.

 

[Correus]

Big tub filled with white vinegar? Followed with a water rinse, repeat rinse. I de-rust small parts this way and it works a charm.

How long do you let the parts soak?

 

[ntsqd]

Until the part is clean. :victory:
Usually it takes at least a 1/2 day. For the infamous FJ60 plugged rear heater core I left it in for 3 days.
An hour will strip the cad plating off hardware that I'm about to weld on.

 

[Correus]

SWEET!! :wings:

I have a bunch of small parts that could benefit from this.

 

[Wander]

Now that's a good tip- Thanks!