There are several important lessons I learned from web and software development:  1)  Real artists ship, meaning that sometimes you can’t have everything you planned or wanted in a project if you want to get it out the door; and 2) there’s always a 2.0 version.

With those lessons in mind, after several days of fiberglass filler and sanding, fiberglass filler and sanding, I’ve finally got a roughed out shape I can live with.  The reality is, more sanding is necessary to get the slopes on the bump smooth, but I can live with its imperfectness (like anything else is perfect).

I have a little final trimming on the hood edges.  After that, it’s time to pull it all apart, prepare the body for sanding/paint, drill the gauge holes in the dash, fix my brake line, and complete some odds and ends in preparation of permanently putting the body on the frame.  Oh yeah, and clean up the garage — it’s looking pretty messy in the pictures!

One of the issue’s I’ve put off until now has been the air cleaner.  I knew fitting an air cleaner between the hood and carb would be tight, a consequence of the tall Kenne Bell intake manifold.  However, I thought I might sneak it in there, but after finally fitting the hood onto the front clip, I discovered that even a low profile air cleaner won’t fit.  Unfortunately, the engine can’t drop much more (not that I want to drop and reweld the engine mounts for an extra 1 1/2 inches).  The only solution left (that I could think of) was to put a bump into the hood.  I REALLY didn’t want to do it.  But, I need to keep moving forward on this project, so I decided it was the most expedient solution.

Once decided, I then had to decide the type of bump.  After mulling it over, I chose to do a simple bump that follows the lines of the hood.  The first step was cutting the hole in the hood.  Next, I created a form out of a 2×4, putting a 20 degree edge, the same degree, but opposite, of the angle of the stripe on the body.  I laid two coats of fiberglass and resin and let it setup.  The good news is that the results are even and the angles correct.  The bad news is that I’m not thrilled with the results.  I’ve thought about adding some angles to the front to make the bump more interesting, but I think I’ll keep it simple and save the details for version 2 of the hood.

Here’s the hood precut

Here’s the hood with 3 sides cut.  I used a cutting wheel to do the cuts and a flat piece of steel as a guide to create a straight line.

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Last night i got the hood mounted, trimmed and latched. Once I determine where to mount the blocks (not sure what I'm going to make those out of yet), then it will be ready to patch, sand and paint.  

Over the past week I completed the form for the hood, applying a second coat of drywall mud to smooth the curves.  I had to create the hood because I lengthened the front clip about 4.5 inches.  Following that, I rubbed some turtle wax onto the form as a release agent.  Then, I laid 3 layers of fiberglass & resin.  Finally, I laid the hat channel I pulled from a different hood I had (which will serve two purposes — to hold the curve of the hood and provide support for the hinge).

As you can see below, the turtle wax didn't completely release well, so there will be some sanding.  Also, rather than apply the gelcoat to the surface of the form (which I figured would not release well at all), I have decided to apply it once I finish sand the hood.  Finally, I have done an initial trim on the hood and it fits well, but not perfect.   It will take some additional trimming, patching and sanding to finish this, but it should do fine for a first hood (much better than the first hood on my first jeep).

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I've decided to tackle the hood.  Because of the 4.5" extension to the front clip, I've had to decide what to do with the hood.  As I documented in previous posts, I've lengthened the fenders.  Now, instead of trying to lengthen an existing hood, I've decided to create my own fiberglass hood:  Nothing fancy, just a straightforward simple hood.  I'll save a more complex hood for a second form.

Since I had an existing hood that had a good hinge and a good rib, I decided to remove those from the hood and use them on the fiberglass hood.  To do this, I had to drill out the rivets that attached the rib to the hood.  Once drilled out, the rib came right off.  You can see the rib and the hinge below.

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I made good progress over the weekend. As you can see, I was able to mount the fenders and take a few shots of the jeep with the fenders.  It will look good.

In order to fit the fenders, I had to make cutouts in the wheel wells for the headers.  But, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted to fill around the headers.  So, I bought a little bit of stove pipe and used that as a form to wrap fiberglass around the headers.  

The last pic is the fenders with the new covers for the headers.  To match the rest of the underside of the body, I'm going to paint herculiner on the wheelwell of the fenders (which saves a bunch of finish work) and fill in the gaps and paint the top and inside of the headers.

Here are some pics below.

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I made a good deal of progress with the fenders yesterday.  I created a series of mini molds and fiberglassed several times in different sections to successfully capture the right angles.  So, step 1 is complete.

Today I'll be drilling and mounting the fenders so that they fit correctly.  One issue I have to surmount is that the slope on the fenders seems slightly different than the slope on the mount on the body, but I'm sure I can work around this issue.

Once fitted, then I'll have to create the cutouts for the headers and then create the new walls so that the headers are enclosed.  Unlike metal fenders, which wouldn't lose too much strength when cutout for headers, the fiberglass will benefit from having that extra strength.

After the final modifications are made, I will be to run a second coat of resin and cloth along the entire underside of the fenders.  This will create a smoother look and strengthen the fenders considerably.  

The final step will be to use some filler and gel coat to smooth off the top surfaces — then I'll be ready for paint. 

While you can purchase a dual shifting unit from Novak for your Dana 20, it's also possible to fashion one from scratch.  Note that I've never used the dual shifter on a Dana 20 transfercase without removing the center pins that move between the shift rods in the the shifting tower.  To remove the pins, you have to remove the shift levers, drill out the plugs on the sides (note where the red gasket sealant is on the side of the shift tower, and then slip out the oblong pins (they are elongated metal balls).  With these removed, you can push and pull the levers all you want (but don't try running high range in the front and low range in the back unless you feel the need to break something).

There was a question about how the shifting in my transfer case works.  (http://www.ewillys.com/?p=797)

The shifting might seem unusual, but it's not.  What's unusual is that I have removed the pins from the shifting tower that slide back and forth between the shift rods.  This allows for more shifting options.  To take advantage of those options, I installed two rather than one stick.   You can see that here in this video I made.

Here's an image the also demonstrates how the shifting works.  Please note if it doesn't make sense:-)

Yesterday I made a first pass at a design for the gauges on the dashboard.  As a part of that exercise, I tried to find a space for the data plate I have.  The data plate is original to the CJ-3A I have and in good shape, except that it is faded, so it is hard to read.  In fact, I tried to scan it into my scanner and the scanner couldn't pick up the words or pictures at all.  After pondering the situation, I decided to recreate a data plate graphic and take it into a print shop to see if I can make a raise print or sticker of some kind.  As part of the customization, I've tried to recreate the fonts as closely as possible, however, much to my surprise, the data plate uses several different fonts, some of which are the same font but stretched or bolded or both.  Also, I've updated the data plate to better reflect the drive train I have installed.

Here's the current favorite mockup so far (note the font kerning and arrangement will be more precise on the final high resolution version).