A little project update on Chug A Lug

OK I may have got excited a little to soon. Looks like the right side has a similar offset or angle. Until I get everything assembled I won't know exactly how much but it sure looks close to what I am seeing on the left side.

Now to figure out how to deal with it.

Well its now obvious I need to get the Whole rear section assembled and on CHUG I went out and with nothing more then a 1/8" shim under the outside of the rear corner on the left side wall got the Door to pretty much all line up. Not sure where the offset is but I can clearly see now trying to work out the doors using just the side walls was not the smart move. So hoping the neighbor guy isn't working tomorrow and I can bribe him to come over and help heft the roof section in place. That's going to be super fun!

Its amazing to me how little it takes to move the top of the jam so far. And I realize its the angular extension.  Once I get the Roof section on then I can really get things figured out.

This is why I tape things together first. So I don't have to throw away $100 in Aluminum cause I made it to short LOL.

OK I knew if I stared at the problem long enough and then beat my head against it for a while I would come up with something to make it work.

I first tried small pieces of shim stock between the upper and middle tubes and the Rear vertical tube that attaches to the hinge. This resulted in a much improved angle and the front piece of the door almost lining up with the jam (good in middle still out 1/8" at top)

But I didn't see how having something as small as .010" x .125" x 1" as part of the door structure as a good idea (the top shim was about .038 x .125 x 1") the bolt holding the top rear corner together where the shim was inserted was barely able to handle the offset.

SO 2nd try I shaved the Tube tube end to about a 3° angle. This also got me within 1/8" of where I wanted the Top tube to hit the front door jam I also relieved the Bolt hole in the Hinge Tube a little bit to allow the bolt to angle more. This resulted in a better fit at this joint. I also figured out that if I made the tiniest mistake trying to sharpen the angle I would end up with the Top Tube being to short.

SO more head banging and staring.

I think I now have the solution. I will use my milling machine to cut the rear angle this will result in it being exactly square and exactly at the angle I need (I want a little bit of positive engagement with the Jam at the top front corners to help hold it tight as its the farthest point away from the Door latch) But I am going to do it on a section of tubing roughly 1/2 the total length of the Top Tube. Then I am going to cut a section of tube that will exactly match where I want the jam to sit. And when both of those "ends" are cut I will come back in and cut one of them exactly the correct length to complete the tube Being this is very easy to do down to a couple thousands on the milling machine. I can jam a 2" long Micarta insert in the joint and run a cross pin to lock the two pieces together. And as this will have a layer of 1/8" Aluminum pop riveted over top of it the results will be plenty strong enough for the top of the door window.

I'll do the same with the middle Tube but us a short piece like 3" for the fancy angle cut. I have lots of scrap in short lengths that can be used for trial and error if need be. This way I don't have to replicate all the work already done on the Bottom and Middle tubes and the short cross pieces.

OK both doors aligned well enough to need the top finished before I can finalize a few things. SO a bunch of photos. Neighbor guy Tyler came over and helped put the lid on it. So now I have the big chore of figuring out the front of the Roof and overhead center console to figure out.

These two photos show the Drivers Side door lock. Works just like a pickup truck tool box or utility box door latch with the addition of a knob on the inside to open from inside. You can see the Dead Bolt hole (the 3/4" D hole) just below it. I will also have a spring loaded sliding bar lock that will act as a lock for when someone is inside. Cause both the other locks will only work from the outside. The sliding bar lock will also be the safety latch for these being suicide doors.

Outside

Inside

Drivers door closed (well the top half of the door anyway)

Passenger door all the way open to show how it will lay against the side of the tub.

Showing where the Overhead console will be and the main supports for the front roof section

Rear view. I will have to move the CB and AM/FM antennas up onto the rear of the top. I don't have the Rear hatch in I'll get around to that in the next day or so.

Yep 11 hours Tuesday 7.75 today most likely 10 tomorrow and friday. This work sh*t is really getting in the way.

And then Friday night I have to race over to the coast to spend the weekend with the wife. She's already there. So I won't get any quality shop time until the 7th!!!!

I may go into some sort of withdrawal.

I got smart though and took stock of what I might need for the next time I get to work on the Hard Top and placed an order with McMaster Carr so it will be here waiting for me.

I came up with an interesting way to create the leading edge of the top (above the windshield) I am using the left over half of the 2" tube I cut in half lengthwise to make the Defroster tube. And using tiny 3/32" D x 3/16" long blind head solid Aluminum aircraft rivets I am going to rivet a little less then 1/4 of the tube (around the circumference) to a piece of 3" wide 1/8"T aluminum that will sit on top of the rag top channel and then be riveted to another piece that will lay on top of the frame work with the ribs riveted to it. I know hard to describe. In oh say 2 weeks I should have photos.

This will give me a nice clean 1" radius to wrap the .040" skin over.  Nothing like setting almost 100 of these little rivets with a tiny 4ounce Ball pen hammer and my 80lb saw anvil (its a huge 80lb block of Iron originally used to take the Set out of Mill Saw Blades before sharpening in one of the local saw mills). Luckily with my 14 years of making handmade knives I have a lot of experience peening pins and pocket knife rivets.

Still working on how on earth to do the forward corners I'm thinking I will do Micarta again but this time I'll be making it much smaller something like a 2" half ball. The curved corner pieces over the door will almost have to be made one at a time I'm thinking due to they will have a taper across their face unlike the ones in the rear corners and the top edges. Going to be lots of pattern making and free hand grinding to shape on the 2 X 72" Belt grinder.

OH and it looks like the Pass side of the windshield is about 1/4" closer to the rear then the Drivers side so I will need to figure out if I build to that or try something to force it square without screwing up the door jams.

Lots to play with in my head for the next week and a half.

OK frustration under control. Went down to NAPA and after paying $20 for a $8.00 relay HOLY CRAP!!!

I hooked the A/F gauge all back up and ran through the calibration process and ended up with the gauge displaying the numbers it should with the O2 sensor hanging out in the fresh air. Now to reinstall it into the Collector and then figure out how to stuff all the crap back up under the dash and where to put the new relay which is bigger then the one I wanted to use.

Then I should be ready to crank CHUG up for the first time in 2022. Weather looks not terrible so I might even be able to get in a few miles. I do have 6.5 month old E-10 in it so that might be fun.

I have to get the Hard top off before leaving the shop with it though. hmm wonder what the neighbor is doing tomorrow morning.

OK got an hour to work on CHUG tonight. I think the secondary was open a little to far. I managed to screw it closed a little and got the Idle down to what shows on my in vehicle tach as 1000rpm. The Idle mixture is still off quite a bit going to need a bigger jet then I happen to have.  I'm seeing A/F ratio numbers pretty close but on the Rich side. so more jet changing will be coming.

I also need to get the crap 7 month old fuel out of it before I go to crazy tuning.

Was great to get it out and around the block a couple times.

So we did the Spring Fling with Mike and crew., Much fun in the rain roaring around the Cascade foot hills East of Springfield.

For this report I am only going to talk about CHUG and things that happened and I learned.

first a good thing. I ran down approx. 93 miles 30-33 miles of two lane state and county hiway/road and 60-63 miles of Interstate Freeway. At 60mph average and got 13.28mpg. I am still running pretty rich. The 14 degrees of initial timing worked out very well easy start and no pinging at all.

Running down I5 I notice my right Wiper arm move away from the glass hang there for a couple seconds then fly off. So I slam on the brakes and back up the shoulder and pick it up. Later replaced it with a few dings the allen set screw let loose.

I burned up a short electrical link in my Fuse to Relay for the Air Compressor

I did a dumb thing and when showing off my fan control switch I left it in the off position and ended up over heating LOL. Lost about a Qt of coolant out the over flow.

Rear locker worked great

First time locking hubs in and all the 4wd drive stuff worked great

Not having the OD being able to stay in Direct unless I hold the shift cane in place was a total PITA and made it very hard to match the other jeeps in the column. I finally went into low range and ran in OD low range. which allowed me to match speed without using my brakes on the long down hill sections.

I ran 30lbs of air in the tires and had a nice ride the CJ5 springs really smooth out the ride.

$13 at the self car wash to get the mud and fir needles off the underside. A nice hand wash at home for the paint.

More later time for work.