Above 1200 Sq/FT Ernie's Place

[drivesitfar]

I’m guessing you will have earned that YouTube expert badge before this engine install is finished and I’m here watching and learning and giving what support I can from the cheap seats.

AND maybe you’ll have videos to post on YouTube of even better methods.

Nice fix on the gate post and I’m guessing you’ll have it adjusted perfectly before he gets the wood install finished.

Stay cool!!

 

[Geezershop]

I just finished an LS swap into a 1984 Cadillac. I modified the 5.3 stock harness with Instructions from www.lt1swap.com and he unlocked the pcm for me. Lots of good info at that website.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Justin – Good idea. I’ll tuck that away for next time (if there is one!)


Drives – Not sure I’m going to be doing any of my own videos. It’s difficult to come up with something original these days. Appreciate the vote of confidence, though!


Geezershop – Man, I wish I was even close to the point where I could say: “I just finished an LS swap…”. At this point I’m just trying to focus on taking one bite at a time from the proverbial elephant. I checked out that lt1swap site and it does have a lot of good info. I will be using his pin-out info along with some of the other You Tube videos out there to clean up my harness as well. Thanks for stopping by!




So I had some parts arrive. I will have to work on my You Tube educational cross-training to figure out how all these pieces fit together.



The transmission arrived as well!



I was originally going to go with an NV4500, but those are getting hard to find and anything re-built is pretty pricey. For just a little more I went with the Tremec TR-4050, which is supposed to be the next-level upgrade.



Worked on that rust patch behind the passenger door. Ended up just cutting out a larger section and replacing. Went much smoother this time, must have gotten past the bad spot.



Worked on the motor mounts a little. Got the DOM and bushings in so used that to space out the plasma-cut tabs and tacked in place.



So even after clamping it to the table it still ended up warping a little in the middle, bowing the tabs closer together enough where the bushing no longer fit. Took it over to the press and tweaked it a little



Flattened it out enough to do the trick.



On the second one I added this piece of all-thread and tightened the nuts up against the tabs before I started welding on it. I also let everything cool down a little longer while it was still clamped. Didn’t need to press-straighten this one at all.



Should work.



Also addressed the broken off exhaust manifold bolts. Added enough weld build-up to the broken bolt to be able to get ahold of it with vise grips. I had been dousing these with penetrating oil since I got the motor and they all came out fairly easy.






Long weekend coming up with the wife out of town, hopefully will be able to make some good progress then.

 

[Finallygotit]

Todd, I hope it cools off enough like the weather guessers are predicting. WHEW, I think I have had enough of this years heat.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Dan – It was a little sweaty, but not too terrible all things considered. I’m sure it was even better out by you.




For fitment and clearance issues I figured it would be a good idea to have the headers on before figuring out drivetrain placement. The brown truck dropped those off and I threw a couple bolts in each. Driver side looks good.



Of course nothing is ever easy. Passenger side collector flange hits the motor mount brackets I made.



I had some wiggle room to move the mount forward a little bit, and then shave down and bevel the offending tab. I had made them a little oversized (bigger is better, right? Guess not in this case) so shouldn’t impact overall function.



Probably 3/16” of clearance now.




Finished up the rocker panels. Used some 1/8” x 2” flat strap to cap the bottom.







Passenger side done.




Pulled the body off the frame and put in those 1” pucks.




Have to trim the front fenders to match the chopped rockers.



I would normally feel pretty bad about hacking into something like this…if they were nice. But the bottoms on both were rusty and in rough shape, especially this one. It got the special Bondo repair at some point.



I don’t think it will look too bad or take away too much of the original Scout feel.




Started to play around with the front end a bit. Quickly realized I don’t have replacement inner axle seals, so just pressed new ball joints in the knuckles and installed those. The rest will have to wait for those seals to get in.

 

[drivesitfar]

Thanks for sharing comments and pics of your work and your welding just keeps improving so keep up the progress.

I’m very curious what that huge cabinet full of drawers is against the wall in last picture and did it help you get small stuff organized?

 

[StormcrowAz]

Drives – That is the Fastener Storage rack I made a few years ago. Build details start around post #287. Time and money definitely well spent to not have to dig through coffee cans full of misc. nuts and bolts to find what I need.





So the neighbor came over to help work on his gate project. Making the tabs that will hold the wood panels in. He was drilling holes when my cross-slide vise gave up the ghost.



Went to the back-up plan and was able to finish the job.




Will need to come up with a new cross slide as I’ve found it to be super handy vs. that little static vise. I’ve seen some of the smaller x-y tables they make for the drill press. Might look into those to use with a machining vise.



Did a bunch more forum reading and You Tube research on how to put the Dana 44 back together. First thing was to install the new inner axle seals I got in. This seal installer was the right tool for the job.



I then realized that I forgot to put the studs in the knuckles and there were a couple I wasn’t going to be able to get to with the ball joints in there. So spent a good portion of one morning pressing them out so I could press in the new studs. Love to do things twice, bleh. At least I had company.



Had what I guess was some shipping damage to one of the dust shields. Had to pound out a dent and throw on a couple tack welds where a piece of sheet metal broke loose.



Fun with bearings and grease



These have been sitting in a box for 10+ years, just waiting to be installed. Good thing metal doesn’t go bad.



Greased one of the hubs up and went to install, only for it not to fit. After some choice words and a little bit panicking, I tried it on the other side and it slid over the splines without a problem. My supervisor is wondering what got me all worked up.



So after comparing both spindles, measuring, re-measuring, trying to fit both hubs on each side there wasn’t any clear reason why the one side wouldn’t go on. Figuring that these were brand new spindles, maybe there was an issue with the splines, so took a small square file and went over each groove to remove any possible burrs and what-not.



Fortunately that did the trick and I was able to assembly both ends. Nobody on You Tube mentioned this problem.



Pulled this set of tires out of the bone yard. Should be good enough for now for getting things mocked up and moving forward.



Messed with the new gas tank a little bit. Looks like there should be plenty of room and clearance. Will have to figure out a way to mount it and its skid plate.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Spent Saturday up north helping the mother-in-law prepare for an expansion to her chicken coop. Weather was great and nice to work outside.


Sunday washed the Can Am in preparation for an upcoming trip. Also installed a couple grab-handles. There were pre-drilled hexagon holes in these locations for corresponding rivet nuts. Assuming for some other Can Am accessory. Installed the rivet nuts and just bolted these in place. We’ll see how well they work. It was a fairly quick, cheap, and easy install so something is bound to blow up somewhere.



With adequate supervision I was able to work on the Scout primary gas tank some.



Looks like the tank is made with two clam-shell halves, and seam welded around the periphery



The plan is reinforce the tank flanges and hang it from that. Added some 1” flat stock to the front and back. The rearward addition was drilled and had some nuts welded to the top side. This will sit on the inside flange of the new c-channel that was welded to the frame.



The added piece towards the front just has holes drilled. Did my best to keep the tack welds on top of the factory welded seam and not burn into the actual tank. Hopefully no leaks. It’s somewhat unnerving to take a brand new part and grind/weld on it.



1½” inch angle iron, 3/16” thick. Drilled corresponding holes and welded some nuts to one side.



Angle iron welded between the frame rails. The rear c-channel had matching holes drilled. Tacked wedge washers on the inside flange to flatten out the bolting surface. Tank rests on the c-channel flange while bolts are started on the angle iron side.



Fastened at the rear. Seems pretty sturdy. Still plan on adding some extra reinforcements to the tank flanges on the sides to tie the front and rear additions together.



Hangs down a little bit. Still brainstorming the best way to up-armor this thing.



Axle is roughly where I think it should go. Appears to have plenty of clearance.






Got the high steer components in. Wish I could order up some extra paid time off from work.

 

[rattle_snake]

High steer is always worth the money and time. Who's kit is that?

 

[Finallygotit]

Here's a thought, for the gas tank skid plate, can you attach it to the C-frames on either side of it?

 

[StormcrowAz]

Justin - I went with an E-bay Dana 44 kit. The Ruff Stuff, Barnes, etc. kits were roughly double what this one cost. As long as the arms are well machined and durable I'm not too worried about the rest. According to their ad: "Arms are made with Domestic Billet Blocks and Machined by American Workers to ensure a Life Time Warranty. Arms are Whooping 1.25” Thick with 4 Holes Style to Suit Reid Knuckles, Solid Knuckles, Stock Knuckles or any other After Market Knuckles." DOM should be DOM, and rod ends can be replaced. Everything appears visually OK, hopefully no issues. Good enough to get me rolling for now, at least.


Dan - If by C-frames you mean the actual frame itself...then yes! The Scout frames are fully boxed. So definitely want to build a skid plate system that encapsulates the tank (in case my welds fail), but just need to figure out the best way to mount it to the frame rails so it can be easily removed for maintenance.

 

[Finallygotit]

Dan - If by C-frames you mean the actual frame itself...then yes! The Scout frames are fully boxed. So definitely want to build a skid plate system that encapsulates the tank (in case my welds fail), but just need to figure out the best way to mount it to the frame rails so it can be easily removed for maintenance.

Ooops! From the pictures the frame looked like it was a C-channel. I should know better......

 

[67CarGuy]

Whew - just went through your whole 23(!) pages of adventures and efforts, and am loving the Scout! I used to have a line on a '67 800, but sadly it disappeared to the great rust bucket in the sky before I could get to it. Keep at it, we need more Scouts out there!!

Like the HF sorting/storage drawer home-brew, too. Might need to borrow that idea in the future...

 

[StormcrowAz]

67Carguy – Thanks for checking out my stuff! The Scout certainly has been a challenge and I probably echo what most people say about how it ***** to fix rusty stuff. I guess if it was easy everyone would be doing it. Certainly looking forward to the day when I can attend one of the International get-togethers with something other than hopes and dreams.




No work done in the shop lately. Spent an extended weekend at the Sand Hollow state park in Utah. Met up with several folks from the Can Am forum to run some trails.


Drove the 6.5 hours to get there, pulled the Can Am out and set up the trailer. Went to re-position the car and it wouldn’t start! Took a jump just fine, so figured it was the battery. It is the original and just about 2 years old now. It was getting late-ish and most places in the area were already closed. Managed to find a UTV rental/parts place that was open and had a new battery in stock.


Battery change-out in the parking lot using the tools I carry in the trunk. Easy swap.



Not 5 minutes after I finished it started to rain. Good timing.



Cool sunset, looks like the hills are on fire.



First day was a bit rough. Several of the group were hard-core rock crawlers and we started off on some easy trails that somehow morphed into difficult. I ended up on my side twice. First time was just me being dumb and picking a bad line. Should have cleared it without an issue…but I didn’t. Was a very easy and slow-motion tip-over.





Bent the RotopaX bracket and scraped some paint off the cage, but nothing major.


I wasn’t the only one to go over that day.





Fortunately no serious vehicular damage and the only thing hurt was pride.

My second time over was on a pretty steep descent, following one of the big dog crawlers. Might have made this one with a better line, but it was sketchy to begin with. Tipped over on the driver side, broke the gas can RotopaX mount clean off and totaled the LED whip, too. Not too bad really, all things considered.




The rest of Day 1 was fairly uneventful, just trying to keep all 4 on the floor.




Day 2 was spent doing trail riding, visiting some of the local attractions. Top of the World, Competition Hill, the Flinstone House, etc. Generally cruising around and having fun.






Day 3 was pretty awesome. Slightly overcast most of the day made it real nice to ride in. Went through Rattle Snake Gulch up to Toquerville Falls. A lot of creek crossings!












Overall a great weekend. Sure beats going to work!!

 

[drivesitfar]

well other than you laying it on it's side a couple times those are some amazing pics. do you have to go totally off road and take risks of flipping over in a normal car to get to those areas?

keep your stick on the ice and enjoy the cooler weather now that you made it through the 100's again this summer. it's drizzling here now, but we had an amazing summer of very little rain, no fires to speak of close enough to give us bad air for extended periods and never got above 95 that I recall.

good thing your welding and mechanical skills have improved if you are going to play with your new friends.

 

[Finallygotit]

Overall a great weekend. Sure beats going to work!!

Hell yeah!

 

[j p smith]

Dang Todd, I always feel good about what I accomplish in the shop till I look at your post. Glad your trip was good even with the sideways driving. Thought I had an entry level mill for you from my neighbor (800), he told me about it, when i got ready to head back thru the fence and was gonna go back to the shop and call you, he says, oh yeah, it's already sold. One of our other neighbors snagged it as soon as he heard. Neighbor was able to get a real nice Lagun from his work

 

[StormcrowAz]

Drives – Other than the rock crawling area, most of the destination stuff isn’t too terribly tippy. Not something you could see in a “normal” car, though. Pretty much need some sort of 4x4 to get to these places.

Lots of sand



“Top of the World” Just the top of a hill with this sign post.





“The Flinstone House”





Dinosaur tracks out in the middle of no-where. There might have been an easier dirt road to get to this, but we took a longer, off-the-beaten-path route.





And yes, the temps are starting to dip in the low 100’s which is nice. One less excuse for not getting stuff done in the shop!



Dan – Only 4,745 days left for retirement. If I’m lucky enough to be able to retire…



Jeff – Funny, I always feel I never accomplish enough! Too many projects… And wow, thank you for thinking about me on the mill, even if it didn’t materialize. Much appreciated! I’ve been trying to talk work into letting me take one of the old Bridgeports we have. They are in pretty rough shape, but should be good enough for the less-than-precise hobby stuff I imagine myself doing.

 

[DeeDubz]

Thats a 10 min drive from my inlaws house in St. george. We passed that Lake going to zion last yr. It was a week after the Wrecker games.

 

[StormcrowAz]

I know, I know, I just got back from Sand Hollow…but my buddy called and said: “I need to go for a ride”. So instead of working on the Scout, I went out and played instead. This time we went up north a little and did Schnebly Hill Road from the I-17. Which is really just a dirt road to a nice vista at the top of a hill above Sedona, and then a really bumpy road down into Sedona itself. We took some side roads on the way there, to do a little exploring, as the main road isn’t very long and a quick ride.

Got the pup some new gear, maybe this will help him with the loud engine noise.



Beautiful day out. Perfect riding weather.







Good napping weather as well, I guess.



Top of the hill before heading down to Sedona.





Had lunch in Sedona. It was super busy and traffic was bad. If you’re thinking of visiting when it’s nice out, maybe consider coming mid-week instead of the weekend.


Blazed back up the mountain, dodging the Jeep tour guys. There were a lot of them. Loaded up and headed home. It was a good day.





So Sunday, back in the shop, I put off working on the Scout yet again. This time in favor of taking care of something that’s been bothering me for a while now. My sheet metal pile is getting out of hand. Spilling all over the place and it’s a pain to find the right piece when looking for something.



So figured I’d make a storage rack for that mess. The wife found an old moving dolly of sorts and I salvaged the casters and cleaned them up. We’ll see how they hold up.


Started with a piece of racking and some well pipe.



I originally told myself I wasn’t going to spend a bunch of time on this and not clean up the rusty pipe, considering I’m just going to be dragging metal across it, right? The more I thought about it the more it bothered me, so ended up wire wheeling it anyways. At least now if I move the cart around I won’t end up with a handful of rust.



Going with something similar to the Home Depot cart design. Seems to work well enough for them. Drilled holes, installed the casters, and tacked the uprights together.





Ran out of steam and didn’t finish weld it. Maybe tonight.

 

[PugetDude]

Nice cart! Does look like a Home Depot cart. Are you concerned about hair building up on your casters?

 

[StormcrowAz]

If I had hair, I'd be more worried about it. As it is, I do have a large collection of pliers, and you know, if all else fails...kill it with fire!


Finished welding this last night and loaded up a few pieces of sheet to test it out. Pushed it around a bit and it seems OK. Will see about grinding welds and throwing some primer/paint on it.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Put some primer/paint on the sheet metal rack. Went with a steel color, thinking the scratches from dragging metal across it won’t stand out as much.





Gave it a few days to cure and loaded it up.





Nice to get it off the floor. We’ll see how well it really works in practical use.


Got some time in on the Scout. Installed the high steer arms.



Measured like three times before I cut the DOM for the tie rod. Only to realize then, that I had them in the wrong location on the arm. Moving them up one hole changed the overall length enough to where I had to cut the other piece.



Hopefully the mistake-cut piece will be long enough for the drag link, or maybe the panhard bar. I suppose I needed another piece regardless. Just don’t like making mistakes like that. It’s only money, I guess.



My buddy got a new set of 33” tires for his Can Am so I asked him to bring his spare over to get a rough idea of what they will look like on the Scout.










Figured this would be a good time to put the heavy duty diff cover on. Several of the bolts didn’t want to thread in smoothly. I guess years of neglect will do that. Ran a tap through to clean them up.



Of course, nothing is easy and this is no exception. Three of the holes on the cover were just a bit off, enough to not let the bolts start. Die grinder to the rescue.



That done, it was time for arts and crafts in the shop. Need a truss on the rear axle for the upper links, and while I could have just bought one, figured it would be fun to make it instead.



Will import a picture of the cardboard cut-out into Fusion and make a cut file for the plasma table.



Will see how easy it is to get that half sheet of quarter-inch off the new rack.

 

[Finallygotit]

Nice work on the rack Todd! I have to do something like that for my collection of "stuff".

BTW, is the shop supervisor laughing at your arts and crafts work?


I'm anxious to see the final weld-up on the diff.

 

[drivesitfar]

What’s that saying if money can fix it then it’s not a problem? That said I don’t like making mistakes either but when you do things that need to be done it happens.

I saw your puppy photobombing your pic too and thought he was just enjoying it not being 100 degrees in the shop.

Keep up the great progress

 

[rattle_snake]

Hi Todd,
Looking great. If you have not already, I suggest figuring out how much clearance you have from tub to the top of that truss or link mounts. It may be the limit of up travel, if not the tire/fender.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Dan – Thanks! Yeah, that dog is a goofball and always makes me smile. Nice to have company out in the shop.


Drives – Good saying and good point. More money to be made and just keep pushing forward. It is pretty nice (comparatively) in the shop now, especially with the cooler on. The dogs are crazy though, even when it’s 115° they will still go outside and lay in the sun, black fur coat and all. Go figure.


Justin – Appreciate the input. I rolled the axle back under the rig and did some checking.




As it sits now, I’d call it 10 inches of clearance. Subtract an inch for the truss, probably another inch for going from 31’s to 33’, and then whatever the height of the johnny joint/bracket on the top of the truss – maybe 3 inches? So maybe 5 inches total up travel at the pumpkin? Doesn’t leave much, does it?

 

[zmotorsports]

Five inches of uptravel is pretty decent actually, especially if you are trying to maintain a low COG (Center of Gravity). You also have to figure that is dead nuts in the center of the vehicle, usually when off-roading the axle is not traveling up or down evenly side to side, one side will be traveling up and one down so that 5 inches in the middle will seldom be a factor anyways, unless you plan on jumping it.

 

[rattle_snake]

Agreed 5 is enough. I would still design the truss/mounts to be compact.

Have you tried an online four link calculator to see what vertical axle separation of axle mounts needs to be?

 

[StormcrowAz]

Mike – No jumping or hard-core rock crawling for this rig! Mild trails, forest roads, and scenic adventures is what I had in mind. Still want it to be capable, for those just-in-case situations when you’re far off the beaten path. Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated!



Justin – I got the 3 and 4 link spreadsheets from here: https://www.crawlpedia.com/4_link_suspension.htm

I’ve played around with it some, putting in guesstimate information. From my understanding of these, the center of gravity is one of the first critical calculating factors. They advise using the centerline of crankshaft for a baseline (I’ve also read top bellhousing bolt), so I’ve been waiting to have an actual crankshaft in the car before getting serious about real numbers. Once I have the engine/transmission/transfer case in with a final resting place, I was going to do a 3D model of the frame, drive-train, and axle placements, and then figure out where links and mounts would optimally fit based off the calculators and available space.

Regarding the vertical axle mount separation – from what I’ve read general rule of thumb is 25% of tire size, which puts me at 8.25”. Based off the tape measure suspended in mid-air (super accurate) I’m thinking I should be able to achieve this, or at least pretty close, without the lower mounts hanging below the axle tubes.



Again – Thanks for the input, guys. I’ve done a lot of reading on this, but reading and doing are two different things. It’s really nice to have the Voice of Experience from folks who have “been there and done that”.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Another big piece of the Scout puzzle arrived.






Got the rear truss programmed and a half-sheet of quarter-inch on the table.



Cool!



Both the cover and pinion side will require some grinder massaging for good fitment.





Better a little too much material than not enough, I suppose.





Mocked up for an idea of what it will look like.

 

[rattle_snake]

Nice.
Since you have a fair amount of grind/fit/weld, suggest making an adapter for engine stand to hold axle at comfortable height.

When you are ready to link, tack brackets and use PVC pipe to mock it up before committing to locations.

Love the IH logo.

 

[Finallygotit]

I love that you incorporated the IH logo! Nice touch.

 

[PugetDude]

That IH logo is a really custom touch.
Enjoying this project.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Justin – That’s a good idea, thanks! Instead of the engine stand, however, I’ll use the weld cart. It’s a good thing I procrastinated removing those “Y” brackets when I finished building the front axle.


I've also read about the PVC trick for mocking up the links. Since I still have hundreds of feet of that 1.5" well pipe left, I was thinking of using that instead. Just tack weld those to the bungs (when I get them with the link ends) for testing.


Dan – Thanks! I thought about adding something to the other side of the truss, like the “Scout” script, but sometimes less is more and maybe I’ll save that for another little touch elsewhere on the vehicle.


Scott – Appreciate it. Thanks for stopping by!



Fairly busy weekend. Finished up the neighbors small gate by welding tabs for the wood panels to attach to. Forgot to take pictures of that, though.


Did manage to get a few minutes on the Scout. Took the cover off the transfer case to check out what is inside.


Other than needing a good cleaning, all seems good. The gears/teeth appear to be in great shape and everything turns and meshes smoothly. Chased all the holes and cleaned the bolts up for temporary re-assembly. I think I’ve heard folks refer to this is as a “Dry fit”, just putting it together for mock-up and not installing gaskets or torqueing to specs. I’ll pull it all back out later to give everything a proper cleaning and final assembly.

Installed the Advanced Adapters plate to the transfer case and clocked it as flat as possible.





It’s nice when things go together as expected/advertised. Without modifications. So far, at least…

 

[drivesitfar]

I’m following along and reading and learning from your successes and few mistakes even though I’ll probably never do a car build. That said I didn’t think I’d do half the stuff I’ve done and will do.

Keep up the great work!!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Drives – I’ve tinkered with minor automotive maintenance stuff, but this is a whole ‘nother level of “I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’ll fake it until I make it” for me. Thanks for following along and the words of encouragement!



Worked on the rear truss a bit. Started by tacking the sides together and adding some support on top to minimize movement while fiddling with it.



Not a perfect fit, but figured that would be the case starting with cardboard template. Grind a little, check it. Grind a little, check it. Grind a little, check it. A couple hours later got me this…





Think I’ll re-do the DXF file with the good pattern. Just in case I, or someone else, would want another one cut.



I did a bunch of reading and watching videos on how to weld the mild steel truss to the cast housing. Seems like the main concern is the different cool-down rate of each material. One shrinks faster than the other and it can crack the weld. Two different approaches, both start with pre-heating the casting and then either throw a weld blanket over the whole thing to slow down the cooling, or use the torch and a temp gun to control the heat on both materials to slowly cool down together. I chose the torch/temp gun method. It took a while, as I only welded in small sections at a time and moving around to different areas to hopefully minimize any warping. Did this on both the inside and outside of the truss. It made for a pretty long weld session, as once started I didn’t want to stop and let things cool down too much.





I do have a welding blanket, but hey…this is Phoenix, and even towards the end of October it was still almost 100°. Throwing metal outside mid-day should have the same slow cool-down affect, right?





Hopefully I can get the top pieces on this week sometime.

 

[Finallygotit]

That should keep that axle straight and stout!

I do have a welding blanket, but hey…this is Phoenix, and even towards the end of October it was still almost 100°. Throwing metal outside mid-day should have the same slow cool-down affect, right?

I laughed out loud at that statement!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Dan – It’s funny because it’s true! (kind of)




Masked off the edges and put a coat of paint on the inside of the truss. Won’t be able to get to the rest of the inside once it’s capped, but at least there's a little protection in there.




After doing the rust repairs on the body and welding to the cast housing…thick and new steel was a nice change of pace.





Of course, I can’t do anything perfect it seems. Somehow I got off track with one of the beads towards the end of the pass and of course it’s top dead center and on the side that will be most visible to everyone. I couldn’t have screwed up on the back side on a bottom corner, or anything...



Other than that, all else went smoothly.



A good coat or two of gloss black should make everything look better. Except maybe those couple spots by the diff cover. If I grind those then I pretty much have to grind everything to match. What do you guys think? Spend the time and grind everything smooth or just run it as-is and show off my DIY novice welding skills (or lack there-of)?

 

[PugetDude]

Carefully grind the spots by the diff cover, then re-weld to straighten out the bead line.