WTF-J

OK, time to do something about the bare aluminum tub.  The outside is fine like it is, but the interior needs some work.  Plan “A” was to go to Line-X or Rhino Liner and get them to put in a spray-in bed liner.  I had estimated $400-500 to get it done, but a call to [...]

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Batteries are one of those things that you don’t really think about until they fail.  Having been caught by a failed battery at O-Dark-thirty one evening, I vowed to never again go cheap.  The result for the Jeep formerly known as WTF-J was an Optima Yellow Top (Deep Cycle) from Quadratec.  (Note: Wow, in building [...]

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The WTF-J has a Bestop Bikini and it works great… …except at highway speeds (>50 MPH) at which point the top oscillates at random rates and acts like a spastic sub-woofer.   The guess is that the rise between the top of the windshield and the rollbar and the concave shape of the top act like [...]

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No rest if you want wicked! ID Description 1.      Instrument Panel – Ver 2.0 Fix turn signal LEDs hidden by radio faceplate when it tilts during operation Fix monolithic faceplate that requires the whole dash to gain access to any of the connectors Fix defective Cruise Control switch logic Swap Speedo / Tach positions [...]

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OK, I’ll admit it; I knew about the little "problem" that unlike traditional lamps, LEDs do not have the reflexive/reflector surfaces required by State law. The workaround is separate reflectors or reflector tape, but that didn’t work for me.  One day while surfing the Web, I came across a guy selling flanges that incorporated the [...]

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Before there were front airbags, side curtain airbags, knee bolsters, crush zones, pre-tensioners, ABS pre-loaders, and the whole raft of occupant protection technologies that are in every new vehicle, there were seatbelts.  OK, so they are not plain old seatbelts, the WTF-J has the Impact Racing’s 5-point harness including a lost motion cam-lock latching system.  [...]

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The WTF-J was never intended to have a lid.  (Think motorcycle with training wheels.)  No hard-top, no soft-top, only a "bikini" stretched between the top of the windshield and the (eventual) roll-bar.  Problem being that as the WTF-J is completely open, it makes it tough to park outside overnight without uninvited guests (Both the two [...]

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Meet Vicki the UPS driver who delivered  most of the WTF-J out of the brown truck you see here.  (Seriously!)  Personally,  I think Vicki is actually a secret weapon in the mass destruction of traditional retailing.  Considering the stuff she brings us in addition to most of a car, you easily come to the realization [...]

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Originally I was in the market for an LS2 motor.  The Plan (See, there’s that word again.) was to monitor eBay and see whether I could win one with a low bid.  I came real close on a couple to the point where I was a backup on an ’06 Trailblazer SS powertrain that would [...]

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I chose MAD4WD over Dynatrac and Currie in part because of MAD4WD’s Ohio location but more because I found in Larry Davis a real axle fanatic who was dedicated and passionate about building great axles.  In talking through the "what" of my axle specs, I also got a real sense of "why" one option was [...]

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