CT JP15 -

[ImperialTrooper]

What size hole did you drill for the overhead lights? Is it the accurate size?

[fantomas]

There is another sheet of metal behind the triangle part. On that sheet there is a hole (not sure what it's for). I pulled the dash back and drilled a pilot hole from inside the cab and then used a stepper bit to make the hole in the triangle the same size from the outside. It is not the right size and there is no way all 4 sets of wires with insulation would fit through there with a grommet. The 4 insulated cables fit snuggly through an 11/16" ID grommet which is a 1" hole size. I wasn't about to drill that size of a hole. I think the plan is to run all the wires without the black insulation through the wire wrap after it exits the light bar. That should cut down the hole diameter significantly but I haven't done any measurements on it yet.

[ImperialTrooper]

Ok, someone pointed out the interior hole to me before, so I know exactly what you are talking about. Being that I do not own a single Jabsco yet, I wasn't sure how thick the cables would be. Do each cable come prewired with a plastic connector that snaps onto the control switch, increasing the width? or is it DIY assembly so you can run wires through the hole then connect the wires to the control switch?

[fantomas]

I did some more test fitting of the wires inside different grommets. I picked up a grommet set from Harbor Freight. The three size choices (hole size) I have are 1", 7/8" and 5/8". For some reason there is no 3/4".


These are the three grommets placed on the cable. 1" is VERY snug over the black insulation, but all 4 fit in there. The 7/8" fits on the wires VERY easily. The 5/8" was fairly tricky to fit on the wires because of the actual stranded wires at the end causing it to be a larger diameter. I wrapped a small piece of paper around the ends of the wire creating kind of a cone and slid the grommet over that.


This is the 7/8" grommet. You can see here it is very loose in the sense I could stuff more wires in there. Maybe with some Vaseline I could actually get the 7/8" to slide over the black insulation.

Next time I go over and work on the Jeep I will measure the hole again. If I can do it, I'll stick with the smallest hole possible (5/8") unless I already drilled the hole bigger than that. If so, I'll search out a 3/4" grommet. I have a feeling right now it's no larger than 1/2" though. I will figure out for sure what I will do when I'm installing them. It takes 10 seconds to make the hole bigger but many hours to make it smaller....

So the way the wiring works is the light units themselves are attached to the 15' of cable. At the end of the cable is bare wiring that you would have to solder (or use the supplied butt-splice connectors which I DESPISE) to the leads on the switch. Off the top of my head I think the switches only have a few inches of wiring coming off the back. Inside the black insulation are 6 wires: Two for each motor and two to power the bulb.

ImperialTrooper, if you're in the market for the lights now, I was quoted about $600 for all 4 shipped from here http://www.baronusa.net/articulo/search ... l-12v/2968 I actually bought 1 from there, and 3 from go2marine.com before I found baronusa.net. I was losing patience searching on Craigslist and looking at eBay auctions for lights with missing parts.

[fantomas]

The hole I drilled for the overhead lights was exactly 5/8". Hopefully I don't have to drill it out any larger. I'm sure the grommet will compress a little while inside the hole so we'll see how it goes.

The doors are on and fitted, the passenger front fender is on, the tail gate is repaired, and the all that's left is to finish repairing the windshield frame.

[fantomas]

Getting there! Blocking is just about done. It's killing me not being able to drive it... Won't be painted this weekend... Hopefully next weekend

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[fantomas]

Well, the Jeep is at the shop! base coat will be painted this weekend! Unknown if there will be time to paint the red though. The drive from my father in laws house to the shop was quite an experience. About 15 miles without a windshield, mirrors nor proper goggles was interesting to say the least.

[fantomas]

The tan has been sprayed! Father in law sprayed the doors, windshield, and tailgate while I was there. While he was working on that, I gave the rest of the Jeep a final sanding and masked everything off.

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Here it is ready to be pushed into the spray booth. I had to leave before it got painted though.

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And here are some other cars in the shop. I think they leave a bunch of them outside during the week, but since it's the weekend, they go inside for safe keeping. Took a few quick photos while I was waiting around

A few BMWs in the showroom for sale.

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In the back of the shop:

Red Corvette, blue Jaguar

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MG

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Another 'Vette they were working on when I dropped the Jeep off last night.

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There's probably about 25 cars in the building there, another dozen or so in the showroom, and there's another building I've never been in that I don't even know how many cars are in. Mustangs, Corvettes, Porsches, Ferraris, there's a Fiskar Karma out front, I've seen a Fiat Jolly (I love the wicker seats) floating around.

[cptcrunch]

Looks like your father-in-law knows his paint. Single stage is what you are going with, correct?

[fantomas]

Got the tan sprayed on! When I first saw it I was somewhat shocked about the color. I'm not sure I've ever actually seen it in person. I mean I like it, I just don't know what I was expecting. It's a very military desert tan especially with the flattish sheen.

Unfortunately the paint requires at least 48 hours before recoating so we couldn't do the red stripes this weekend. It's probably for the best because now I can take my time with the measurements. Plus putting the fenders on and off is kind of a PITA and it's nice not being rushed doing that. Should be getting the red painted this weekend.

Here's the Jeep with the fenders loosely fitted. I just want to get them placed so I can mask the stripes, then it's all coming back off to be painted.

Dry fitting the hood and side number stencils. This is the first time I actually looked at them and measured them. I went about an inch larger than what was recommended for the hood and am happy with the size. The side numbers are 10" tall.

And fitted the CB Antenna mount!

Looks like your father-in-law knows his paint. Single stage is what you are going with, correct?

Yes single stage. I wrote a reply in a different thread but I'll try to sum up why here with what I think is how he explained it to me. There's a specific length of time you have to get the top coat on the base coat. I'm not sure I could have masked off the stripes in that length of time to get the red on before top coating. This would have caused extra steps with sanding down the top coat to apply another layer of the top. I hope that makes sense.

And he kind of came out of retirement with the painting. I thought we were going to have the shop's painter come in and just give him some cash on the side but my father in law said he could do it to save some money I guess... but he doesn't do any of the painting there.