Gas Tank Skid / Hitch

Westport Beach Washington

Washer Reservoir Relocation

A long while back when I installed my snorkel, I had to relocate the washer fluid reservoir. I put it in the passenger inner fender. This is fine, because filling it isn't a regular occurrence. Although, I would be smart to make some splash guards to keep the mud out of there in the future!

Cinco De Mayo

Happy Cinco De Mayo! We hadn't had this type of shell in a long time.. ..things have changed for the better since then! They now hold a greater payload, and don't fold under pressure! All thanks to the square corner and flat bottom design. And there we had it, one of the miracles of modern engineering applications.

Hitch Welding Prep

Tonight after work, I prepared my skid and hitch for welding. It is important to grind away any paint or rust from the surfaces which will be joined. Exposing bare metal helps to keep the welds cleaner and stronger by eliminating potential contaminates from the bond. Now I can't wait to burn this puppy home! I decided to take this opportunity to do a full pass on the hitch and clean it all up. It had developed a lot of surface rust under the Jeep in Chicago. They use too much damn salt on the roads there! As for the skid - I simply wire wheeled the edges where I cut to expose enough bare metal to lay a bead.

And here you see the two parts ready for their glorious union in a few days! I may ask my pal Carl to help me pre-bend the skidplate so it doesn't flare away from the hitch quite so much.. ..we'll see. On the other hand, a few tack welds might suck it up flush, although I worry there will be a constant strain on the metal. Probably no big deal, it isn't exactly structural.

My first welds!

My friend Carl gave me some welding instruction last Wednesday. It was great! Here are some photos, which speak for themselves. I combined 2 separate mounting systems into one so I can finish up the skid plate/hitch project I've posted about recently.

 These are the two mounting systems that were combined.

Here you can see I've cut one bracket short and removed the weld nut from the nut strip. The original pieces are on top, and the modified are on bottom.

I tack-welded the two together to hold them steady while welding. Note the differences in thickness of the two materials. This was a challenge, becasue the heat can burn away the thinner material without fully bonding to the thicker material if you don't perfect the technique. Considering this is my first official weld to be used for on the Jeep, it was a challenge! (I had ran some practice beads on scrap metal for 5 or 10 minutes prior to this as my truly 'first welds' . . .)

My first weld! I went a bit slow at first, causing some extra material to build up, but it was almost perfect through the middle, and then I went a bit fast at the end, causing some gaps. I truly spanned the gamut of possibilities.

I ground down the bead on the back to make a flush mounting surface - looks like pretty decent penetration, as it appears to be a single piece of metal.

I had to further enlarge the slots in the frame to insert the new, longer angle brackets. I blasted the bare metal which was exposed with a bit of primer, and called it a day!

Jeep on Dock in Tofino

Here is a great photo from my birthday last year, in Tofino.