April 2021 – One month to Wakita!
I had ordered a rear sway bar from Jegs a while back and it came in a reasonable amount of time. I decided I wanted to tackle getting this thing installed. While I was down there, nothing seemed to line up at all. I double checked the part numbers and what do you know, they sent me the wrong one. I had ordered a 319 bar and they sent me a 2319. Reasonably I was pissed, but, it has now been like 6 months since I ordered it. I reached out to their customer service, and surprisingly they understood and promised to exchange it for the correct one with the understanding that it was back ordered until June. That’s fine, I pack it back up in a new box since I lost the old one and ship it out.
Fast forward two weeks later, I get a shipping notification saying the new one was on the way. I was beyond ecstatic. The day it arrives, I notice that it is in a weird box. I opened it up and something looked familiar... it was the EXACT same bar. Literally the one I packed up, still had the hardware in the ziplock bag and the 2319 label taped to the bar. I was beyond pissed at this point. So I reached back out to their customer service, they of course apologized and promised it would not happen again. This time though, they ordered me a new one before returning the old one, only kicker was they are now back ordered until September. No biggie, I won't have it for Wakita.
Original Bar
“Replacement Bar”
Engine bay wiring is now complete.
Dash starting to go back together.
While in talks with the screen used truck owners, I managed to convince them to get me measurements of the bumper so that I could make one. I mocked it up in sketchup to see how much material I needed, and it was off to the metal supply store.
Getting the pieces mocked up
Welding (and LOTS of grinding) begins!
Test fit
Back to the Vintage Air retrofit. Since it uses three controls and the factory unit only uses 2, I had to make something up in Sketchup for 3d printing. Don’t mind the print resolution, this was just proof of concept and will be cleaned up for the final version.
I had some spare time, so I decided to tackle a want item. I had purchased all of the power window components from a Wagoneer and attempted to retrofit them into the J10. Couple things I learned, 1. The brackets on the glass are completely different between manual and power windows and 2. None of the mounting holes were drilled in the door to mount the damn thing. So on the set I got, one was a flex track and the other was the worm gear. I started by mounting the flex track unit. It immediately broke, cause that is what flex tracks do. I ordered another one from BJ’s (those things are freaking $75!!) While I didn’t get photos of this failed process, I did get photos of a creative solution I came up with to at least hold the windows in place, and maybe even rig up temporary power windows.
After looking through the internet, I stumbled upon window regulators for a early model Grand Cherokee. They looked surprisingly a lot like the manual window regulators I had. I took a chance and ordered the motors off ebay, about $20 each. This was the result:
And a video of it in action
https://photos.app.goo.gl/EeymAswFJbESPova6
I got them installed and they actually work. But since I ran out of time to wire them up, they will need to remain up for the time being.
Got the air cleaner blocked off and repainted. I opted to keep a “factory-ish” look, but got rid of all the unnecessary bits on it.
Got the license plate lights all wired up.
Bumper brackets welded in