Miscellaneous Projects
Cooler Rack
In preparation for my youngest son being old enough to ride in the back of the Jeep I needed to make more room and get the cooler out of the way. The simplest thing to do was to make a bracket that slides over the three spare tire mount bolts.
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Initially I was planning to have a base rail and an upper rail similar to a cargo rack, but after I made the first rectangle and found that the cooler fit nice and snug I decided to just leave it at that and cut down on the weight.
Wagon Dash
This is just a first draft, but I made this aluminum plate for some gauges and toggle switches (and horn button). I'm kind of wishing now that I had allowed for one more gauge. A previous owner had cut the holes and added the two gauges that are next to the speedometer.
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I'm likely going to make a similar plate to replace the passenger side glove box door. That one will have a cut out for a stereo. It's close enough to me that I can still reach it while driving. I don't think I'll miss the glove box much since the Wagon has two similar compartments under the front seats.
August, 2010
An old school Jeep AM radio is now installed in a panel I made for the glove box opening. I used 400 grit sand paper to clean up the scrap aluminum and then added some polish and elbow grease. I know, I'm not exactly going to be rock'n out with this old thing. It's probably going to just end up as a decoy for an underseat stereo/CD changer. Due to the CJ5 heater assembly (flipped upside down), there wasn't much room for a glove box anyway, so no big loss.
Trailer Liscense Plate Frame
My car hauler trailer came with a license plate bracket that would've mounted the plate very close to the ground, below the tail light, as well as blocking some of the plate's numbers. That wouldn't last past the first dip section as I leave my house so I came up with a solution that keeps it up higher without it sticking out any wider than the tail light (a location I would surely bang my shin on over and over).
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| Travel position | Loading position |
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The T-handle rod is spring loaded to keep it snug in a drilled hole. I added a light to the bracket to keep it legal for night driving. I wish I had used a slightly larger hinge, but that's what I had laying around.
The trailer is 82" wide, so I don't expect to have any clearance issues, but I'll have to remember it's there to make sure I don't run into it.
Pedal Car
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I picked up some cheap, thrashed bikes off Craiglist for the basis and started putting this thing together. I used all the scrap metal I had lying around and had to buy a bit more to complete it. It's not finished, but it's done enough to cruise around the driveway and fine tune the problem areas. |
Steering Wheel/Electric Cord
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Well, I've recently sold off and thrown away a bunch of old Jeep parts that I finally decided I wasn't going to use, but I couldn't bear to not put this perfectly good steering wheel to use. |