Nick, your comments about the plasma kinda hit home for me... I do a lot more fab then you but I am having more and more trouble pulling away from the family to go fab. Kinda just wanna buy stuff now and not mess with all the extra hours... Plus my fab projects like yours are almost done. Might be seeing a Miller plasma on the ABQ craigslist in the coming months...
Yeah, now that our kiddo is a little older she's a lot of fun to hang with. It's fun to work on the rig, but now instead of a baby napping inside, I've got a toddler who will never be this age again. We have to make the most of our time with them as parents.
I saw your posts on TW in the SW thread regarding the plasma. That's a great price for a Miller machine, and I have to admit, a little tempting. My apologies by the way for not getting together with you the week before last. I can be hard to track down on my days off as I have so much to do in so little time. If you still want to chat, let me know.
If you ever want to come to Arizona, we will show you a good time. No fish in the Sonoran Desert but a lot of wheeling. All of which a front locker will be great to have!!!
The Sonoran Desert is a real desert. It is where I got the name from, I am not saying it is my desert. It named me.
I might have to take you up on that someday. I have family in Phoenix and it would make for a fun/quick getaway to go visit them and then wheel for a day or two. I think it would have to be in the late fall, though. AZ is too hot for me.
Any details on how you did the extra weatherproofing on the Eagle Eyes? Products used?
I have some of these that I would like to do the same thing with. Thanks.
Not much to it, Bandit. As you know, the eagle eyes have a hollow threaded body through which the wires pass from back to front to power the LEDs. From the factory, they put a little gob of silicone down in the tube to try and seal the electronics, but they do a really poor job of it. I merely took some Permatex Ultra Black silicone and used a q-tip to really fill the body of each light. I'm not sure what could be done about additional sealing on the lenses themselves, but they may not need any. I've hit mine with the pressure washer at the car wash and have seen no water penetration.
I have always admired your work, specially the time you take in writing up details with pictures and all. Love the roof keep up the great work. Gives me encouragement to star mine.
Thanks for the compliments, and I'm glad the details in the write ups have been of help to you. Good luck with your build.
That looks great! I am really envious of your ability (and space) to do these projects. I also really appreciate your listing of materials used with prices... I always wonder how much these projects cost.
I am so with you on this... I got all of my skids and bumpers within a week and had to paint all of them, and the front bumper turned out like CRAP so I had to do it again. Probably $100 worth of spray paint and lord knows how many hours painting, cleaning, etc. I think I'll one day take them to get sand blasted and powder coated.
Thanks for the compliment, and for having a look! As far as my work space, it's just an ordinary two car garage. I actually wish I had a little more room, and we're looking for a new house, so I may have a three car garage soon!
I'm in the same boat with you as far as wondering how much time & money people have into their fabrication projects. People very rarely post that info, so I like to put it out there as a point of reference. Most of the projects I take on are firsts for me, so they probably take me longer than an experienced fabricator would spend doing the same thing.
After the bumper I really started to add up the time/cost/hassle of painting and after you consider the dry/recoat times, durability of the finish, and the need to re-paint every year or so PC looks much more attractive. For skids/sliders rattle can is fine as they are guaranteed to get banged up, but for bumpers/racks I think powder coating and periodic touch up is the ticket. I'll probably have the front bumper done after the summer is over.
One of the cleanest, most well thought out racks I have seen on this site. Bravo!
:hungry: for the upcoming diff install.
Thanks, Jim! I'm happy with how it turned out and I have stood back and admired the rack at length on several occasions. That's the real payoff... looking at your work and saying "Wow,
I built that!"
I can't wait to get the new diffs installed. I'm hoping I can knock it out before our trip to CO at the end of the month.
That rack came out great Nick! I really like what you did in the front for support even allowing room for drainage. I think you'll find you use the locker much more than you initially expect in one trip to anywhere that wheeling is hard, Congrats!
Well, I can tell you whose phone will be ringing once I get the diffs installed and have a few days off work. We really need to put something together, Chris. It's been too long. Thanks for the kind works regarding the rack!
I ordered a replacement green LED bulb from superbright LED's and swapped it for the burned out stock bulb. I think the bulb type required is listed in the post that you quoted.
Love the roof rack, I'm about to start my build, but wanted to thank you for the pictures of the front brace. It's what I was thinking of doing to keep it level but had a hard time I visioning the completed piece. I like how you kept the rain Chanel clear. I'm not sure if I would have thought of that.
No problem. I thought about holding those pics back as those mounts are one of a kind at the moment, but I figure if people copy them it's a compliment, right? Why not contribute to the knowledge base? They only have about 1/8" of adjustability up/down per side, but it's enough if you keep the tolerances tight on the rack itself.
That roof rack is amazing. Great job.
Thanks Brian, I appreciate you checking it out and taking the time to comment.
