29-DEC-2012
Test fit radiator to CJ grille
Since the rain is preventing me from going any further with the bodywork on the hood, I pulled out the replacement radiator to give it a test fit to the grille and the shroud/elec fan that I picked up at a Jeep swap meet.
29-DEC-2012
Test fit of fan shroud
This fan shroud doesn't fit too well so modifications are going to have to be made in order to make it fit to my radiator. The guy I bought it from said it fit a CJ radiator, I'm guessing by the fit that he lied. At least I bought it really cheap and the Spal fan is in excellent working order.
31-DEC-2012
Bodywork complete on hood
The rain has let enough for me to be able to finish the body work on the hood. After welding the two hoods together I had quite a bit of metal work to do to get the hood straight enough to apply the thin coats of filler.
31-DEC-2012
Hood ready for primer
Now that all the metal work and body work is complete on the hood I sanded all the old messed up paint off the hood to prep it for a couple coats of epoxy primer. I will need to follow up with a few coats of fill primer to block sand the hood to it's final straightness.
03-JAN-2013
Hood primed
I was able to shoot a few coats of epoxy primer on the hood since we didn't have any rain here. The body work came out surprisingly straight considering all of the welding involved in grafting the two hoods together.
03-JAN-2013
Hood complete, well almost
After priming the hood I have some small dings to smooth out so I will follow the epoxy primer up with a few coats of polyester fill primer to block sand the hood smooth.
12-JAN-2013
Grille ear patterns
Now that the hood is done and fits good I can move on to the grille. Since I am using an older CJ grille I need to make some ears for the grille to match the wider Jeepster hood.
12-JAN-2013
Looks like a good fit
The patterns that I made have to follow the contour of the inner hood line and have the same gap under the hood as the grille. So after measuring then trimming numerous times, they are looking pretty good.
13-JAN-2013
Ears welded in place
I made the ears out of 16ga sheet metal and TIG weled them on to the grille.
13-JAN-2013
Boxed in ears
I cut some 1" strips of sheet metal to box in the ears with. Boxing in the ears added good strength to the ears.
13-JAN-2013
Inner ears
After boxing in the ears with the 1" strips I welded in some strength brackets on the bottom that will allow the ears to be bolted directly to the tops of the fenders.
13-JAN-2013
Grille installed with new ears
The fit of the grille with the new ears turned out great and the fit was better than I had hoped for.
Original Jeepster ears have the turn signals mounted in them but since I'm using a CJ grill my turn signals are mounted lower on the grille. My original plan was to cut holes in the ears and mount some nice bright LED off road lights in the holes. Unfortunately the lights that I have are just about 1/2" diameter too large to fit into the ears.
Time for plan "B"!