What did you do TO your Gladiator today? [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS, NO GUN TALK]

[WILDHOBO]

How many grinding wheels did you use cleaning up the bubble gum?





Just kidding.

You’re mean. I’d need 2 dozen.

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[Rusty PW]

You’re mean. I’d need 2 dozen.

With the guys I worked with. If you put down a bad weld. They would take pictures of it and post it on the board for everyone to see. You would get ribbed for days until someone else's weld picture got posted. You learned to get a thick skin with these guys. We called welding cert tests "grinding tests". Because most guys would put a bead down and grind most of it off until they thought what was left was clean weld.

 

[WILDHOBO]

With the guys I worked with. If you put down a bad weld. They would take pictures of it and post it on the board for everyone to see. You would get ribbed for days until someone else's weld picture got posted. You learned to get a thick skin with these guys. We called welding cert tests "grinding tests". Because most guys would put a bead down and grind most of it off until they thought what was left was clean weld.

So me…welding.

 

[Rusty PW]

So me…welding.

What's yo' mean Willis?

 

[WILDHOBO]

What's yo' mean Willis?

I can make things stay, but it’s ugly.

 

[Rusty PW]

I can make things stay, but it’s ugly.

Long as you get penetration on both sides and some meat in the middle. NO....My mind isn't in the gutter on this.

 

[ArcticDreadnought]

The incredible people at Skyline Signs in Anchorage transformed my precious today!
From this:

To THIS:

 

[BlueScapegoat]

How many grinding wheels did you use cleaning up the bubble gum?


Just kidding. How did you weld it? Stick, or mig? And what material did you use?

I don't take a grinder to my finished welds, I let them shine in their bubble-gum goodness. But I did grind a couple out that had some porosity to go back over them.

The welding crowd is tough but I've learned over the years (and I was a quality technician at a laser welding shop in my last job) that a weld can be ugly as shit but as long as you've got good penetration it'll do just fine. So I have no shame in being an amateur that gets to weld once every couple years.

Mig, 230v Hobart 190 with 75/25 and .030 carbon steel wire.

The main truss/tubes/pumpkin were heated to 300° to weld. The Cs I just locally hit with some mapp gas to heat them up a bit

Welding down in this valley was kind of a pain. Lots of gas and wire speed

 

[Rusty PW]

I don't take a grinder to my finished welds, I let them shine in their bubble-gum goodness. But I did grind a couple out that had some porosity to go back over them.

The welding crowd is tough but I've learned over the years (and I was a quality technician at a laser welding shop in my last job) that a weld can be ugly as shit but as long as you've got good penetration it'll do just fine. So I have no shame in being an amateur that gets to weld once every couple years.

Mig, 230v Hobart 190 with 75/25 and .030 carbon steel wire.

The main truss/tubes/pumpkin were heated to 300° to weld. The Cs I just locally hit with some mapp gas to heat them up a bit

Welding down in this valley was kind of a pain. Lots of gas and wire speed

Burn it in there.

 

[DanJT]

I just changed the catch can yesterday with a little over 1K miles (mostly interstate)

.
This is why I think it is a necessity,

 

[BlueScapegoat]

Not much, but got the lower gussets welded up,.cleaned up some of my sloppier beer-induced welds and gave it some rattle can. I've got a new diff cover for it by the way, so don't mind the overspray

Front antirock gets here Friday. Today I removed the front skid plate, and electronic disconnect sway bar. Came up with a plan for how I'm going to cut the tusks and maintain support for the winch plate, if I decide to stick with the antirock.

Front axle was perfectly centered left and right at ride height but would rub the inner fender at full tuck on the left, so shortened the drag link and track bar one thread.

Previously had the coil rubbing the track bar and sector shaft brace. Since I've gone hydro assist I figured I don't really need the shitty bearing on the sector shaft, so I picked up a tracl bar brace only, and trimmed it up and painted it. I also shortened all front control arms one thread to move the axle back a tiny bit. Hoping between the two the rub will be fixed.

While shortening the arms I discovered one of the frame end upper johnny joints was worn out already. I've only had these arms on here for a year. Maybe just defective, but I had another one on hand so I rebuilt it. I'm a huge JJ fan but I think ultimately a 2" narrow joint is just too small for the arms on a diesel with 40s.

 

[Master_Cylinder]

The incredible people at Skyline Signs in Anchorage transformed my precious today!
From this:

To THIS:

That came out real nice!

 

[Rusty PW]

Front antirock gets here Friday. Today I removed the front skid plate, and electronic disconnect sway bar. Came up with a plan for how I'm going to cut the tusks and maintain support for the winch plate, if I decide to stick with the antirock.

Front axle was perfectly centered left and right at ride height but would rub the inner fender at full tuck on the left, so shortened the drag link and track bar one thread.

Previously had the coil rubbing the track bar and sector shaft brace. Since I've gone hydro assist I figured I don't really need the shitty bearing on the sector shaft, so I picked up a tracl bar brace only, and trimmed it up and painted it. I also shortened all front control arms one thread to move the axle back a tiny bit. Hoping between the two the rub will be fixed.

While shortening the arms I discovered one of the frame end upper johnny joints was worn out already. I've only had these arms on here for a year. Maybe just defective, but I had another one on hand so I rebuilt it. I'm a huge JJ fan but I think ultimately a 2" narrow joint is just too small for the arms on a diesel with 40s.

I had the same problem with the coil spring rubbing on the Steersmarts steering brace. I had to grind down the the corner on the brace where it was rubbing.

I have Core control arms with Johnny Joints. Before I installed them. I took them apart and made sure they had grease covering everything. Had a couple that was light (dry in spots) on the grease.

 

[BlueScapegoat]

I had the same problem with the coil spring rubbing on the Steersmarts steering brace. I had to grind down the the corner on the brace where it was rubbing.

I have Core control arms with Johnny Joints. Before I installed them. I took them apart and made sure they had grease covering everything. Had a couple that was light (dry in spots) on the grease.

And on my previous builds I did the same thing and recommend others to as well. But when I installed these arms I was on a time crunch so I just threw them in. Probably my own fault. But I still point towards the narrow joints being too weak because I had them wear out in just a couple years in my TJ as well, and those were disassembled and greased before installation. Meanwhile I've had their larger joints with the split bushings last a decade with minimal if any maintenance after installation.

 

[WILDHOBO]

I just changed the catch can yesterday with a little over 1K miles (mostly interstate)

.
This is why I think it is a necessity,

I’m on the other side of that opinion. Definitely no offense. Just discussing. When I drain my oil after approximately 5k miles, or 20-30% oil life, I get well over 4.5 quarts out of the pan. And the filter is very full when it comes out. So over that many miles, I'm not losing oil. And that’s with well over 20 oil changes in 85k miles. I don’t know what ends up in those catch cans or why, but without one, the majority of these engines don’t seem to lose oil. That’s why I question their importance.

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