I like the concept, but I’ve had mixed success with those… hit an miss with getting dry joints.
I still prefer using a soldering iron and adhesive shrink tube.

 

Well I'll see how it goes and report back if I have issues with them.

 

My next fun project was setting up the steering on Jeep. I had already decided I was going to use something other than stock because I'd melted the stock steering shaft bushing. So I'd bought a kit called the Skinny Steering kit from Red Rock 4WD but then I had also installed the steering box rotation/stretch kit from TNT Customs. So technically I'm combining these two kits to make my steering setup.

I started off mocking things up and the first things was clearing the frame rail with the u-joints that are part of the TNT kit.





I was also trying to NOT have the u-joint angles at their extreme to make turning the wheel smoother.





It all cleared with a little tweaking.




Part of the Skinny Steering kit is a bracket that holds this heim joint near the firewall. Made sure it clears the headers too.




Then I added a support on the shock tower.





I was trying to get the shaft as centered as possible on the hole in the firewall.





One more thing checked off my list of things needed done.

 

Been working on the rear of the Jeep for the past week or so. Yesterday and today I've been measuring and cutting and grinding and measuring and test fitting. Did I mention I've been doing a lot of measuring? I'd already had what is called outboarded shocks on my Jeep but because I was going to longer travel shocks I needed to install new shock towers.




So after a lot of measuring and grinding I fit the new tower into place.




Then I tacked it in place so I could install the shock and then cycle the suspension to check for clearance of parts & tires & suspension links.




Then took the towers back off and trimmed the bottoms off and cut a slot in the top for the reservoir hose to fit thru.



Shocks mounted again.




Damn those things are sexy...




Fully stuffed on the passenger side with full droop on the drivers side.

 

With all the measuring, did you consider the motion ratio?

When you lean the shocks back you get diminishing damping effect as it compresses.
At full extension (for sake of a number) 1” of axle travel will give 1” of shock travel… when compressed (due to the arc of trailing arm) 1” of wheel travel will give 1/2-3/4” of shock travel.
This means the shock becomes less effective as it reaches the end of its compressed stroke, which is exactly where it should be at its most effective.

Yes, TJ Warngler’s had stock shocks like that, but this design error was discovered and current models are not like that… PM me if you want more details.

 

They were tuned for the amount of lean I've got in the shock.

Stock TJ/LJ had the shocks mounted inside the frame rails under the body which was a poor design since you couldn't get a descent travel shock once you did a lift. And by outboarding them you get less body roll because the shocks are farther out on the frame & axle.

 

Okay I'm going to try and catch you all up to what has been happening over the past month and half. I started working on cleaning my tub up so I could coat it with Lizard Skin ceramic coating and then bedline the tub after that. I only sprayed the Lizard Skin on the front passenger area to try and cut down on the heat coming thru the floorboards.






What a total PITA to get this all done.

 

3 days ago I sprayed in the Lizard Skin. Had to turn up the heat in my garage to help it dry but it finally did. I have a uninsulated garage so I'm going to hate to see my electric bill.
First I had to spray the bare metal with primer per their directions.







And then the Lizard Skin coating goes on 20 mil thick in a total of two coats for 40 mil total.

 

Then today I sprayed in the bedliner. All suited up and ready to go.












It turned out better than I'd hoped for IMO.

 

Wow, that turned out rather nice.

Are you going to rust-proof in some fashion the underside of the tub as well?