Replacing Rockers with Rectangular Tubing

[Pookapotamus]

That's looking great! Better job than I did!


Having 4WD means getting stuck in more inaccessible places!

[4.3LXJ]

Great work as usual

[bluedragon436]

That's looking pretty awesome... I was going to say as you build them, you should make sure their sealed... and now you have to tanks for OBA.. My uncle built front and rear bumpers for his old Nissan pickup, that were sealed and he used his as air tanks... He didn't have a compressor and such on the vehicle, he just filled the tanks up @ a gas station.. but figure shouldn't be too much harder to run lines and such to do an OBA air setup.. One day I'd love to take on this project.. but got much learning to do before I even attempt that..

[XJ Wheeler]

Thanks guys! It's going well, but still a ways to go.

James, I've always hated the idea of trying to fit a tank inside, underneath, etc but this solves that nicely. Even if I won't have them plumbed for a few years it's not like it's gonna be easy later on to redo do it.

Sent via messenger pigeon. I talk, he types.

[XJ Wheeler]

Not sure why people take their jeeps to the beach... when you can bring the beach to it!



Gave the new blaster a good shakedown with about 100lbs of filtered play sand. Not really done because I want to clean all the way to the frame, but this is taking for ever so i'm putting it off till later. For now I cleaned it where the angle will go and the inner rocker. Some weld thru primer as well.

[XJ Wheeler]

Finally got time to post all this...

Thursday, I didn't have time to do any work but I did some quick research and picked up some fittings to try my hand at building an air tank.

Friday/Saturday, I cut out some spare 1/4" into pieces to cap the ends.



I didn't want just a straight side the whole way so I decided to do things my way... complicated. I sliced a 3/8" pie cut out of the front and bent the outside inward.



Here you can see it come together with a little persuasion.



Some of those pieces I got. I tried finding an actual bung but to no avail I figured i'd give a steel female air line fitting a try... with modifications. I cut the notched end off and ground down the head round.



A cozy home for it right in the top front of the tube. There's not many spots on this one that aren't gonna get covered or be in danger of a rock to come knocking. So things are gonna be tight.

[XJ Wheeler]

I cut a heavy bevel in the end caps so I could fill it with weld. Since I was now trying to seal the tubing I thought two passes was a good idea, so that's what I did.

First pass...





Second pass...



Here's the pie cut noted in the last post.



And sadly, the fitting weld didn't go well. I made 2-3 passes around it and tested it but leaked like a sieve. So a couple hours later I had built an ant hill chasing leaks, but finally holding pressure! My compressor has a 125psi shut off so I could only get it at about 115 but held over night. And those two passes on the ends had not one leak.

[XJ Wheeler]

The ends ground smooth.

[XJ Wheeler]

(Sorry about all the posts. Its just a lot easier to upload all the pics this way.)

Here it is hoisted in place.











And you can see how the pie cut lines up.

[XJ Wheeler]

Sunday...

Since one air line point isn't enough and I copied what I did in the front, except on the inside of the rear. That was the ONLY other place to fit even one and thankfully two fit, albeit they're in close quarters. And to up the tightness level the body angles toward the rear so they needed to mimic that angle. The front is for the outlet, rear top for in, and bottom rear for a 150psi relief valve/bleeder.





More stuff growing out of control. Holds 125 over night though!



Its soon-to-be home. You can see the cramped accommodations.





I am trying to come up with a way to protect them from debris, as well as still being accessible.

[XJ Wheeler]

Monday...

I got the bottom fender mount done with a cup bolt tacked to the top of the tubing and a hole drilled in the fender. Pic later.

And the angle is now attached to the corner of the floor. I was able to stitch it on the top but sadly the bottom was having none of it. I had to switch to tacks.









A bit of primer.

[Pookapotamus]

Wow! You are going all out! Looks great!


Having 4WD means getting stuck in more inaccessible places!

[abebehrmann]

Damn, that is looking great Jake! Getting those small diameter fittings and tubes completely burned in without any leaks is tough! I've been practicing this myself just for fun and it still can be pretty hit or miss for me.

[4.3LXJ]

Looking very nice Jake. Nice and neat

[oderdene]

Well done bro, never seen like one before

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