'65 Rubicon Rig

I have been using (don't laugh) Ace Hardware brand. It's the best. Dries super fast even in cold weather, covers well, lasts as long as any other rattle paint, but the can works until the end, unlike the big brands. I used the gloss on the cover and tank, satin on other parts under the jeep.

 

Last week I was informed by Summit that the beadlocks were delayed until Jan 21, yesterday, they showed up. OK, whatever, probably because I started casually looking at alternatives. The Raceline Monster series, 17x9.5, 5 on 5-1/2, 4" backspace. These are nice, and tough.

Between Christmas decorating duties I snuck out to see if I could get one mounted. First, I used dish soap to make the inner bead slippery enough to press over the outer wheel.

It takes some effort, but it goes right on. Center it up, and it sits perfectly on the outer wheel. The tire is BFG KM3 37-12.50-17

Here is where the work is at. 32 grade 8 bolts, place the outer ring on and start installing bolts finger tight, then slowly working around tighter and tighter, until the ring seats and torque them to 16 lbs. It took about 10 times to every bolt, and about an hour. It's tough to not use a power tool.

 

Any idea how much each wheel weighs? My steel beadlocks are heavy... Someday I'd to find something lighter

 

38 lbs, plus the bolts.

 

Of course I had to see what it looks like on the jeep. Nick and I are very happy with the look. Here's the rear.

The body will settle a lot, so it's kind of high right now. Also I played with some black tape to simulate the wheel opening. The tire is about 1/3 in, 2/3 out of the body, which was my goal.

Also had to try the front, just for fun on a snowy Sunday.

Brakes clear fine.

With that fun behind me, the next task was to drop the motor back in, this will free up a lot of space in the garage. It went smooth, hey, I'm getting pretty good at this.

 

Thanks man. This was a miss, indeed. But good now.

 

Not directly build related, but there's a jeep in this photo somewhere. Dealt with power outage and snow removal all day. But, I'm typing by the wood stove with a scotch at the end of a long day, still running on generator.

My M37 was the only thing going in my neighborhood today, just turned 70 in September and has not let me down in 35 years. I actually had snow breaking over the hood, that made me laugh.

 

Looks like a super fun day to live at a lower elevation!!
Jay

 

That’s why “All my exes live in Texas and I hang my hat in Tennessee”!

 

Looks like more of the white stuff headed your way tonight!

 

Interesting week-big snow that we need, power outages-running on generator, digging out, trying to work. Said the hell with it yesterday and stayed home, so a little garage time. The motor is now done and ready to fire, I just need final fuel connections at the tank.

Even though it will mean some backtracking later, I installed the grille before painting it, mostly so I can drive it on a trailer soon. Besides, it is not painting weather, to put it mildly.

 

Lots of loose ends today. strapped in the gas tank, installed a new Interstate battery, connected fuel lines, throttle linkage, filled the power steering and cycled the steering about 50 times to bleed the air out. Then I fired it off, started right up, good oil pressure, no noise. Whew! The exhaust sounds awesome. Then moved to some interior stuff, got these buckets from my '67 when I put a 60/40 seat in it. They will get fixed, just wanted to check the fit on the new brackets, as this tux had the 60/40, but we are not using it. Kinda weird- the passenger seat doesn't tumble. Anyone ran into that?

After that, I was just fooling around. Dug out (literally) the fenders, and they will need a little trim for header and shock clearance. And since I got the Gorilla brand lug nuts needed for the beadlocks, I mounted one on the jeep to kind of see what clearance issues I might have with the front fender.

 

The what-seem-to-be-original seats that came in my '69 came that way. The passenger side does not fold but still flips forward far enough to access the toolbox.

 

Interesting, I had not noticed a non-folding one before. Looks to me like the main drawback is it obviously won't stay up by itself, so maybe a prop to hold it while loading or accessing tool box would work. I guess it's really the same as a flatfender, where the seat doesn't fold.

 

Brings back memories. My Grandpa lived in South Lake Tahoe my whole life. I remember going up there to shovel snow off the roof and try and shovel out the driveway. One year we made a tunnel through the snow to the front door of the house. I actually don't mind living in areas where it snows but my wife is having none of that.

 

That's cool you have great memories. I'm just glad we're getting snow, otherwise we won't have a forrest left. I'm lucky my wife is still on board with it after all these years, the key I've found is making sure she has a good snow vehicle. (and keeping a good pile of firewood).

 

I have to have a good supply of firewood for my wife, and I live at the beach!

 

Keep that Scotch handy Tim, lots more coming!

 

Merry Christmas everyone. Nick and I managed to sneak out to the garage to mount the other 3 tires on the beadlocks today, before the festivities began. It's a tedious process, but made for a good time.

All done and ready to mount, but we were pushing our time limit, so that will be soon.