I haven’t had much time for jeep play, as the property, cows and gardens have required and will require a great deal of my attention over the next week. Next weekend we will be welcoming two additional 1000lb steerings that get slaughtered in August or Sept (hopefully), while our three young heifers need to be moved to the neighbor’s pasture where they will spend the summer bulking up for slaughter (or sale) next fall. And, so much more!

So, there will be limited, if any, updates for the upcoming week. I’d say I’m taking a vacation week, but it won’t be much of a vacation!

As for the steering, I welded the floor notch into the floor cover and welded a shelf to the frame for the heim joint. I still need to drill the holes for each of the shaft couplers, get a stock rubber replacement boot for the Rack and Pinion joint, and paint some of the parts, but otherwise the steering is ready to go. Once I get the stock seat installed, I’ll revisit the height of the steering wheel; I may need to shorten the steering column and shaft by a couple inches. But, that’s an easily done thing after everything is together.

I have a plan for running these brake lines along the interior of the frame (not inside the frame), but I will likely wait to redo them until after I pull the cab. So, these lines will be clamped and more neatly run once the steering is in place.

What you see for the bracket holding the V-dog is a 3/8″ angle piece welded vertically to a 3/8″ thick horizontal angle piece held to the frame by three bolts that were already there. It’s a snug fit, but there’s just enough room to make it work.

You can see some of the welds underneath the frame that need to be cleaned and reworded.

I added a slot to the Heim Joint bracket because without it disassembly would be difficult.

My longer transfercase cable should be here Monday or Tuesday, so the transfercase shifter will be the next install. Once that’s in place, I can install the new gauges and build the new transmission cooler bracket. All that will be followed (or coincide) with the new gas pedal setup based on the late 1960s VW bus. Then comes the e-brake and, finally, the wiring.