[rockcrawler]

Hi,

Do you know if someone has a ready kit for Jeep JK Wrangler conversion. Basically, I am looking at a few things in the kit:

1. Front and Rear Fender Flairs
2. Front Fenders
3. Front Grill

I need it for my project of Jeep JK Wrangler conversion and wanted to check if someone has already done it. The details of the conversion can be found at http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-ve...automatic.html

Rock Crawler
You own a jeep, only when you make one.

[rockcrawler]

Hi Guys, we have finally been able to fire the engine. There is a big story behind it. Day-1, we were all set to fire the engine, gearbox and engine oils were done. the coil was fitted and the plugs were cleaned. We tried our best but could not fire the engine. Thought the problem is somewhere in the ignition coil. The next day we went in to look for an ignition coil of ambasedor and thought it would be working fine. We got the ignition coil changed it and tried again with no luck.

Started troubleshooting and found that we were not getting the right spark from the spark plug. We started checking the continuity and do you know what did we find. Actually, the negative current from the battery was not coming 100%. We just changed the place where we were passing the negative current and it worked.

The engine roared like a lion, you can view the video on youtube at

YouTube - Firing the Toyota 22R

[jeepster]

Originally Posted by rockcrawler

Mr. Jeepster, will try and get you a snapshot of both the chasis and then you can compare. The workshop has some basic tools

1. Saw Cutter
2. Hand Grinder
3. Table Grinder
4. GCM 10 Compound Mitre Saw
5. Metal Cutting Grinder tool
6. Drill Machines
7. Milling Tools
8. V-Bending 4ft
9. Complete Welding solution with Tig Welding, Electric Welding and Gas Welding
10. Torque Wrenchs and various other small tools

thanks for the information rockcrawler.
may be someday i will also have my own little work-shop/garage.

anther question:

which brand/ model of TIG & what is the pricing.?
what is the amperage?

is denting done?
what is the status of project?
engine sounds good in video (will sound better after carb overhaul & some adjustments).

[rockcrawler]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for not being able to post anything due to a lots that is going on.

The project is coming along well, expected final product should have the following:

1. Engine tuned up to 130 HP with Automatic Gear Box
2. JK Rubicon looks
3. Final Drive of 5.88
4. Free Flow Exhaust
5. Power Steering
6. 32 Inches Mud Terrain/All Terrain Tyres on 16 inches alloy wheels
7. Comfortable front seats with Lumbar Support
8. Front Facing rears seats - Preferably Innova last row seats so that they could also be split sideways making way for rear passengers
9. Winch mounted on the front bumper
10. Tool Box to carry tools like air compressor, neumatic gun, jack etc.
11. Roll Cage
12. Beautifully painted Jeep in White (Tub) and Black (Chasis, Fenders etc) combination.


Things on the radar:
1. All Weather bolt on Canopee
2. 4*4 conversion (can be done with much ease, as i have found a 4*4 auto gearbox match to my engine)
3. Rack & Pinion Steering
4. Coil + Air Suspension



Progress made so far:

1. The tub has been dented and the painting process has started. All PPG paint material being used following the 3M process. There is a strict no to NC process and materials. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one as a lot depends on the outcome of the paint job.

2. The rear differential has been mounted with 5.88 final drive ratio, which should be a perfect fit with the gearbox ratios (1st 2.452 2nd 1.452 3rd 1.000 4th 0.688 Reverse: 2.212)

The rear track has been increased by 50 mm and now the difference between the front and the rear track is only 50 mm as compared to the 100 mm. Planning to cover this by using spacers, please suggest where can i get these spacers from.

3. The front tube with axles have also been done. The tyres are bent inwards from the bottom, looks like a problem with the caster and camber angles of the tube. The angle was correct initially, the time when we bought it. Any ideas how to fix it.

4. The doors are being modified

5. Power steering mount has been created and is being mounted.

6. Looking seriously for some fibre parts Fenders, Fender Flairs and Grill for JK Wrangler Rubicon. It would take a lot to import or design them from scratch. Incase someone has it please recommend.


Mr. Jeepster, the tig machine i have is a portable DC Inverter Tig machine. It is a single phase machine giving output upto 200 Amps. Argon gas is used with it for Tig welding. The same machine also works as an electric welding machine if you reverse the connections. As far as i remember it costed me Rs. 37000/- approximately.


Please do suggest if you can to any questions posted above. Also feel free to share your feedback, i understand there are very experienced and knowledgeable people on the forum who can guide the newbie.

Signing out for today...

Rock Crawler

You own a jeep only when you make one!

[rockcrawler]

Guys, i hope someone of you would have done this already, please let me know.
If not i will go ahead with making them from the scratch.

[jeepster]

Originally Posted by rockcrawler

3. Final Drive of 5.88

The rear track has been increased by 50 mm and now the difference between the front and the rear track is only 50 mm as compared to the 100 mm. Planning to cover this by using spacers, please suggest where can i get these spacers from.

are you going to use lsd's or diff. locks ?
jyobeb has done spacers for his 4X4 MM750 2.6 .

check out following link.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-ve...ml#post1362714

[rubicon2010]

Originally Posted by rockcrawler

Guys, i hope someone of you would have done this already, please let me know.
If not i will go ahead with making them from the scratch.

Hi RockCrawler : I think you are looking at these for your JK Automatic conversion and What you have is a MM550. I have a few fibre glass moulds to convert an MM550 to JK Rubicon, which includes the following:

1. Front Grill
2. Front fenders,
3. Front and Rear fender flairs,
4. Bonnet
5. Front Wind Screen

A set of Nine pieces in total.

I can sell them to you incase you need them but apart from this there are some minor changes that you will have to accomodate in your MM550 to give it a JK Wrangler look for e.g. change the doors etc. For reference you can visit the site of modelart and view the scale model Jeep Wrangler Rubicon.

Let me know if you are interested in purchasing the above set.

Cheers!

[rockcrawler]

Someone finally heard me...

Thanks Mr. Rubicon for responding back, I had actually started work on fabricating some of these parts, though will be interested to buy them if the dimensions and pricing suits my requirements. Can you please throw some more light on these parts:

1. Are all of these fiber fabricated parts to convert MM550 to the Jeep model after 2007 Jeep Wrangler JK, please share some pics and dimensions if possible?

2. What is the price that you quote for the set of nine pieces you are referring to?

3. Do i have to buy the entire set or do i have an option of buying only some of them as i might not need all of them. Incase this is a yes, please share details of the pricing.

4. Please let me know a common time when we can talk online here itself, i am normally available early mornings and late evenings but can come online anytime you are available.


RockCrawler
You own a jeep, when you make one

[rubicon2010]

Originally Posted by rockcrawler

Someone finally heard me...

Thanks Mr. Rubicon for responding back, I had actually started work on fabricating some of these parts, though will be interested to buy them if the dimensions and pricing suits my requirements. Can you please throw some more light on these parts:

1. Are all of these fiber fabricated parts to convert MM550 to the Jeep model after 2007 Jeep Wrangler JK, please share some pics and dimensions if possible?

2. What is the price that you quote for the set of nine pieces you are referring to?

3. Do i have to buy the entire set or do i have an option of buying only some of them as i might not need all of them. Incase this is a yes, please share details of the pricing.

4. Please let me know a common time when we can talk online here itself, i am normally available early mornings and late evenings but can come online anytime you are available.


RockCrawler
You own a jeep, when you make one

Hi Rockcrawler
to your 1. point = These are a few pics of what the fibre parts look like.
Due to bad internet connectivity I'm not able to upload more pics. The bonnet and front grill have been uploaded. This I hope can give you an idea how the other parts look like.
to your point no 4. = I will be online 2day around lunch time, then i can answer your points 2 & 3.


CHEERS !

[rubicon2010]

Originally Posted by rockcrawler

Someone finally heard me...

Thanks Mr. Rubicon for responding back, I had actually started work on fabricating some of these parts, though will be interested to buy them if the dimensions and pricing suits my requirements. Can you please throw some more light on these parts:

1. Are all of these fiber fabricated parts to convert MM550 to the Jeep model after 2007 Jeep Wrangler JK, please share some pics and dimensions if possible?

2. What is the price that you quote for the set of nine pieces you are referring to?

3. Do i have to buy the entire set or do i have an option of buying only some of them as i might not need all of them. Incase this is a yes, please share details of the pricing.

4. Please let me know a common time when we can talk online here itself, i am normally available early mornings and late evenings but can come online anytime you are available.


RockCrawler
You own a jeep, when you make one

Hi Rockcrawler
Sorry I could not be online around lunch. The below mentioned prices are for the fibre parts.

1. Complete set of 9pcs are @ Rs. 40,000/-
2. Individual piece @ Rs 5,000/- each.
I have send you a private message. You can contact me accordingly.


CHEERS!

[rockcrawler]

Hi Guys,

The project is coming along well,


1. We have also got the fiber parts from Rubicon 2010 for Rs. 40,000 bugs. I must say they are of very good quality and are a very good fit to the MM550 & MM540 jeeps. I could have got them done myself but then these would have costed me much more and I would have spent a lot of time in building them from the scratch. The first coat has been done on the fiber parts and you can see the pictures below.

2. The first coat of the paint is done including the fiber kit. You can see the pictures in detail. The second coat will be done after all fittings are done, engine/carburetor overhauling is complete etc.

3. The caster angle on the front tube has been corrected. We found that in the new tubes the caster angle is not there and have to be manually done. There are two ways to do it:

a. Open the hub and change the position of the knuckle. This would have been very tedious for us as we had to open the hubs, pull out all the bearings etc and then only this could be done. We had an easier option as have a flat tube in the front. This is the only way to do it case where you have the differential in the front (4*4) vehicles.
b. For us it was easy to do it as we just cut the mounts that are kept on the leaf springs from their original position and welded them again to make the caster angle correct.

The camber angle has improved but not perfect. We think a good alignment job should fix the remaining camber angle. Please correct, if we missed on anything.

4. The front and the rear bumpers, the roll cage, the winch mounting plate and the stepney wheel mount have been done. The stepney mount still needs to go through the paint process. The first coat of paint job is done, on rest of the mentioned parts.

5. The front and the rear seats have been mounted. The seat covers are still pending. We have used the Tata Safari seats with lumbar support for the front seats and used the innova’s last row seats for the rear seats. The rear seats can be folded and hanged with the roll cage to create extra space for luggage.

6. We have put together a wiring harness for the jeep. The plan was to leverage relay wiring to minimize the area in which heavy cables have to be laid down as well as improve the quality of wiring in the vehicle. The wiring harness includes the wiring for AC, which might be added later after we have thoroughly tested the engine and the gearbox.

7. The wiring is also almost complete except a few tweaks.

8. We selected Honda Accord’s radiator with hydraulic oil cooler as you all know we are going with an automatic gearbox. High speed fans are fitted on the radiator. One will run with the ignition switch and the other one will operate only when the temperature is above 95 degree Celsius, detected by a thermostat switch. An interesting story of the radiator fixing experience is shared at the bottom.

9. Testing time has begun and we have started firing the engine everyday now so that we can start finding problems.

10. Today evening we went for a first test drive of our jeep and it was a very nice feeling. We found that there is still some important stuff pending:

a. Carburetor overhauling has started and should be ready by early tomorrow morning
b. Air Filter fitting, we have got a K&N Performance Filter and will be fitting that tomorrow
c. The automatic gear linkage needs to be created and work on that might start tomorrow itself.
d. The steering is light but not as responsive as we would have liked it to be, some traction should be made only when the above three things are done. Incase you have any ideas on how to make it responsive, please throw some light on it.
e. Shockers need to be mounted

11. On the other hand some other custom jobs i.e.
a. Seat covers
b. Carpeting
c. Capone
d. Winch Mounting etc. are pending
e. Installing new broad tyres and ryms

12. Once this is done, we will do the final coat of paint job.


The work has been going on day and night during last 4-5 days and has finally seen some good output. There were some interesting stories during this period. Let me share one today and will share the others sometime later….


Vote Required: What do you think, should we go for a push button start or a normal key start?

Story of the radiator mounting:

Day1 – The radiator fans were fixed on the radiator and the wiring was done. Water was filled in the radiator and was ready for a test start. We wanted to test that the second fan switches on automatically through thermostat switch and shutdown as the temperature comes down. The fans did not automatically switch on, we checked the hose pipes and found that the hose pipe was not enough hot and we thought that could be the reason behind the problem.

We then put the temperature meter to work but failed again, the fans did not switch on and the temperature kept rising. We checked the radiator and the water was not circulating. We had a few doubts,

1. The water pump on the engine was not working and was not able to push water in the radiator.
2. The radiator was either at fault or was not at all suitable as the kind of water pump the accord works is on a new style pump and ours was an old type water pump.

We returned home in not so good mood.

Day-2: We checked for the new pump and luckily we found a place in Khan Market, where the shop keeper told us that he has a new pump. He will need a day to locate it in his store as it has been a long time since this had been demanded from him. He also said that he has a lot of equipment related to our engine 22R if required. It looks like all energies are working in favor of us.

We came back and started to nail down the problem. We removed the radiator and planned to test the water pump alone as we had more doubts on the pump being faulty. We used a 5 ltr can full of water and plugged it to one of the hose pipe and put the other hose pipe in the same can (the can was cut from the bottom). Initially the pump did not work and the water flow was very minimal, suddenly it appeared as if there was a cough sound and then the water started flowing with high speed. Our pump was working and there was no problem. We think the cough was due to the fact that the pump might have taken air as it was not able to pull the water. But the pump was fine.

Now, the problem moved back to the radiator. We now started to check the radiator individually. We put a high flow water pipe from the bottom and there was a good enough return from the top, things seemed fine from this front. Now, we put the water pipe from the top and there was almost no flow from the other end. We thought that there was a problem with the radiator.

Our doubt now was that because of the hydraulic tank in the lower end there could be some blockage or the tank size might not good enough for the pump to pull the water and had decided to get off the hydraulic tank from the radiator and plan for something different for cooling the gear oil.

We got the radiator’s bottom tank opened to get the hydraulic tank out of it and you would not believe what actually the problem came out to be. It was very difficult to digest it for us too as we had almost spent two days by now on this.

It was a piece of plastic on the lower pipe that was not completely cut out by the manufacturer. The plastic was cut from the bottom but was still sticking to the top of the pipe. It was this reason that when we put high flow water from the bottom, the plastic opened from the bottom moved towards the top and the water flew well to the top. But when we flew water from the top the same plastic was keeping the doors closed stopping the water to flow out.

A dramatic end that I did not dream of, but was full of learning as we ended up opening up almost all pieces of cooling mechanism of the engine and understand them better.

A happy end to the day, we have tested both the fans are working fine and the cooling system of the jeep is good enough to maintain a temperature of 80 – 85 degree celcius.

[prmd_cochin]

Those seats have fitted in nicely, i guess this answers my quest for rear seats for my jeep. How do the rear passengers enter ?

[BANDHAV]

Wow, your project is going at a great pace. If these WIP pictures are anything to go by the final product will a treat to watch.

BTW, where are you based in Delhi? Would love to check out your jeep in person, only if you don't have an issue?

[rockcrawler]

Originally Posted by prmd_cochin

Those seats have fitted in nicely, i guess this answers my quest for rear seats for my jeep. How do the rear passengers enter ?

That's the exact question, we asked myself before we selected the rear seats.

Jump in from the side: A good option but would not work for women. Our families are so excited to get into it that we could not even think of that option.

Pillion Rider Door? Probably not possible, we had already selected the front seats as we wanted them to be very comfortable. After fitting them, we did not see any chance of the rear passenger entering from there. Also since the jeep door is not wide enough, even if we had put a foldable seat, it would have been very difficult for a person to sneak in and healthy people wouldn't be able to do that at all.

Rear Entry? We decided the entry to be from the rear end, the passenger can enter from the rear of the vehicle as the seats will be folded and tied to the roll cage. The person will walk in, unfold the seat and sit on that. You might have seen Toyota Innova's (6 seater) last row seat that fold and are tied to the handle bar.

The best thing about the seats is that we can fold them and use all the space available when we are travelling alone or double, will post a pic after folding it and hopefully that would clear out all your doubts.

[rockcrawler]

Originally Posted by BANDHAV

Wow, your project is going at a great pace. If these WIP pictures are anything to go by the final product will a treat to watch.

BTW, where are you based in Delhi? Would love to check out your jeep in person, only if you don't have an issue?

Thanks Bandhav. Yes, we are based out of Delhi. You are most welcome to visit us and see the final product. Will keep you posted as things progress.