Oscar's No Build Thread

I officially started on Oscars first real mod [emoji3]. I purchased a Warn VR8000 Winch from Rock Hard 4x4 for $399, no tax and free shipping. I'm happy to support a Wayalife supporting vendor:

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I plan to mount the winch upside down and hidden inside my stock JK bumper. I started with some surplus material from work and cut to 33" long:

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Next I marked 2 1/2" in from each end and milled notches flush to the top plate on a manual knee mill:

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That's as far as I can go today. Next is to take the bumper apart and test fit the mounting plate with the winch and mark the 4 frame and 4 winch mounting holes.

More to come!
 
Received my winch yesterday, Warn VR8000 from Rock Hard 4x4:

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Continued to work on the adapter plate today. Finished notching the "C" Channel so it will sit on top of and inside the frame rails and also set the winch in it. Looks like my material is just the right size:

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Proceeded to take the bumper apart to test the fit, but found interference with a couple of bump outs on the frame. To make clearance I mounted the plate to a manual boring bar and milled some clearance angles:

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Checked the fit again and viola, it fits:

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Set the winch on the crash bar. Looks like I have some interference with the vacuum pump:

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I'm not surprised and will have to research relocating it. More to come!
 
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sipafz said:
Finally, after many years of dreaming, months of test drives, research (including this forum) and soul searching I decided that this Black 2016 Freedom Edition (Oscar) was the perfect fit for me! I really liked what Jeep did with the graphics, badges and seats this year! I'm not expecting to do any radical modifications, just some small things to make it my own. Living in South-Eastern Wisconsin does not lend its self to many wheeling opportunities! I hope to pickup a soft top this spring and look forward to pulling the doors for some open air cruising. Now I need to get me a WAL decal or two!View attachment 185790View attachment 185791View attachment 185792View attachment 185793View attachment 185794
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She's beautiful! Nicely done


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
I worked on my winch project again today. Started with some layout and drilling of the winch mountings holes:

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Next I attached the winch to the adapter plate:

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My vacuum pump and bracket interfere so I followed Eddie's vacuum pump relocation procedure and cut off the bracket:

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Then I was able to test fit the winch assembly:

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After that I removed the winch from the plate and laid out the frame mounting holes:

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And drilled them at the radial drill:

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I checked the alignment to a pair of existing holes in the frame and everything looked good:

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I started to look at relocating the vacuum pump and know that I could buy a new bracket from Rock Hard, EVO or others, but I decided to try and keep with the built, not bought theme and started the hack up the bracket that I cut off from this:

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To this:

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And cut a notch in the steel bumper plate:

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By this time my wife had the pre-dinner snack about ready so it was time to put everything back together for the day:

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If I have the room, I'm going to flip the pump around and mount upside down and more inside the bumper to minimize exposure.
 
WJCO said:
Great work. :thumb:
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Thanks - I don't know, but the vacuum pump hanging down so far in front of the crash bar kept me up. I turned it around this morning and feel a lot better and believe that the winch should still clear. Time will tell.

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I might even mount it on the other side of the bracket just to get it up higher if I have the room.
 
I continued with the slowest winch install, ever! Started with removing the bumper and drilling the mounting plate holes into the frame with the porta-mag:

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Then I used a sawz-all to make the holes in the frame end plate into slots. This was required so I could have access to install hardware and get a wrench in to tighten the mounting plate:

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After test fitting the bumper, I found issues with not having access to all the bumper mounting nuts and fog light plugs. More modifications were needed to the adapter plate:

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Once those issues were fixed I started on hacking up the bumper plate. Vacuum pump clearance from the other day:

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Winch clearance and winch mounting bolts clearance:

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Fairlead slot - nice that the holes for the fairlead are already there:

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I'm not sure if this bumper plate, at 2.5mm thick is robust enough to support the fairlead. I'm thinking at a minimum of adding 4 more 3/8 bolts and custom making a pair of vertical backing plates to stiffen the assembly:

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Then I carefully laid out and used the sawz-all to cut the the hole in the plastic bumper for the fairlead:

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After that it was time to put it all together:

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I fucked up a little and cut the plastic bumper wider than necessary, oops:

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Good thing I got one of these - do over:

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I still need to paint the mounting plate and vacuum pump bracket, cut the fairlead hole into the front facia, mount the control box and wire.
 
WJCO said:
That came out clean. How do you access the controller port?
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Thanks, I still need to mount the control box. I'm thinking that it will go on top of the bumper right in the middle. I was thinking about putting it under the hood, but now think that it would be a PITA to pop the hood and deal with that when stuck.

On another note, I'm still a little worried about the stiffness of the fairlead mounting. I have a plan to add some more bolts and backing plates. I hope it's enough to withstand a heavy side load. 🤞🏻

10abadilla/jk said:
That came out real nice. Any plans on making it a stubby.

Sent from my LG-H900 using WAYALIFE mobile app
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Thanks and yes, I'm already considering taking the Sawz-All and chopping the ends. I would like to trim the cut-offs and reinstall for a clean look on the ends.

Mike_JK_Houston_711 said:
Awesome, that looks really solid!
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Thank you! The progress has been slow, but I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out.
 
USMC Wrangler said:
I beg to differ, but didn't time myself either. Seemed to take forever with mine too! [emoji15]

Good job! Looks great!


.......................................................................
Overall "build thread"
http://wayalife.com/showthread.php?26097-I-guess-it-s-the-quot-Super-Stocker-quot-build

DIY trail/tube door build http://wayalife.com/showthread.php?24449-My-DIY-Doors
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Thanks, I think I have about 16 to 20 hours into this project so far. It's a good thing that this is a hobby! Truth be told, I love messing around with this stuff!
 
sipafz said:
Thanks, I think I have about 16 to 20 hours into this project so far. It's a good thing that this is a hobby! Truth be told, I love messing around with this stuff!
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Yeah, as long as it took me, I love it when someone asks about it and say, "I did that!"

Yours really does look great!
 
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