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JPaul's Alpha build

SuperBuickGuy

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,403
Location
Woodinville, WA
a few weeks ago, I blew out the driver's side.... passenger side seemed dry so I didn't bother. What usually happens is the ends weld themselves shut (they're supposed to keep the bugs out).... I kept telling myself to just cut the ends off but I also don't like bugs so I left them....
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Yeah, I read about how they're closed up like that to keep bugs from making nests in them, but then they don't flush out all the dirt and grit that accumulates in them either. The passenger side was sopping wet underneath, so it's probably clogged up. Driver side was damp underneath, probably just hadn't dried all the way from last time. The carpet seems to be fairly sealed off from the foam rubber underneath it, so once it gets wet it stays that way until quite a bit of time has passed, or you've pulled the carpet back to expose it to the air.

By the way, I hope no one thinks I'm complaining about any of this. It's a ten year old truck that has been well used and is just showing it's age. Once I get started on something, if I'm given the opportunity (or even when I'm not) I'll go pretty far with making something perfect. It drives my wife nuts. I was able to make some really nice modifications to my first H3, and I'm really excited to have another one to redo a lot of those modifications to and this time around I'm going to make them be even better and want to try to spend more time on them getting them right. The convenience of being able to tear the inside of the rig apart to fix up any little issues and get it nice and clean for my turn with it is a huge bonus to me.

Also, SuperBuick did things his way with it, and that's fine, it was his truck. Now it's mine, and I'll be doing things my way, and there is nothing wrong with that. We each have our own ways of doing things and all that matters is that in the end we enjoy our rigs as much as possible.
 

Acer4LO

Well-Known Member
Messages
750
Location
Illinois
Nice job with the carpet! I might want to do this to mine now since it has so many miles and the previous owner didn't show much care for it. What do you think about splitting up the carpet like Humman did? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCds0eijc90) I have been messing around with the idea of splitting up the carpet strategically like the JK carpet: http://www.jkowners.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=68668&stc=1&d=1372083100

The reason I kind of want to do this so I can just pull the carpet out when I go wheeling with the doors off. This guy 6ohvan took his out: https://www.instagram.com/p/BVObLsZFoLH/?taken-by=6ohvan
It sure looks like easy clean up, but then once your done, you can put back in carpet for sound deadening. What do you guys think? Bad idea since there is electronic stuff close to the floor of the H3? What about bedlining the floor of the H3? Another idea had was to replace the carpet with some type of rubberized material like you get in commercial vehicles. Thoughts?
 
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JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
I watched that video before I pulled my carpet out. After pulling it, I honestly don't understand the reasoning behind him cutting it up like that. To me it seems like he just didn't realize how it comes out and thought he needed to cut it all up in order to pull it without having to completely remove the center console.

The problem I can see happening is you either need to really cut up the carpet so that you don't have to unbolt the seats every time, or leave it whole and unbolt the seats each time you want to remove/install it. However, you only have to remove the front seats and the bottom portion of the rear seats in order to remove the carpet whole, in addition to a single nut under the center console that is pretty easy to get to really. I'd personally leave it whole, and if you're planning on going mudding or deep water crossing, take the half hour or so to remove the carpet whole, go do your run, then another half hour or so to reinstall it whole. You don't even really need to remove any of the trim panels, you can feed the carpet back underneath them pretty easily.

I really don't understand the whole taking the doors off bit for wheeling, unless you're doing some really technical rock crawling. You can't see crap out the passenger side no matter what anyway, it's just the driver side you can kind of stick your head out and look. Personally I'd rather a camera system which is a lot cheaper than custom fabbing open doors or even half height doors, and it's always there so you don't have to mess around with pulling doors off or putting them back on, and our doors are heavy as heck. I swear those and the rear seat backs are half the weight of the truck. You can get a 9" monitor that can display 4 feeds at once, so you could either have a single camera up high on each side and then a camera front and rear, or a camera right at each wheel so that you can see where it's going. Total cost would be maybe a couple hundred with the four cameras and the display.
 

mjferencak

Well-Known Member
Messages
308
Location
Elbert, CO
So today was pretty nice out, so I think to myself that I'll go clean up the interior of the Alpha some more (I spent an hour or so vacuuming on Wednesday already). You know, unbolt the front seats and lay them back so that I can get under them better, wipe down the interior panels, etc.

Well, one thing led to another and....

lX5VWr1.jpg


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I was originally planning to wait until spring or summer to pull the carpet and give it a good cleaning, but I got a little overzealous. Ah well, now it's going to get a nice good cleaning as well as give me the opportunity to get some wiring done easily. I'm wondering if I should just wire up a heavy gauge supply line to the rear and put a fuse block in the back to be able to hook accessories to, like my fridge and an inverter and other things like that. Though if I'm doing that much power draw then I may want to run a heavy gauge cable underneath and feed it up through the rear pillar like I did with my backup camera wiring.

I got an idea..... plaid carpet!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Just a couple more damp spots in the foam rubber under the carpet that need to finish drying and then I think it will be ready to be reinstalled. Interesting thing to note is that the carpet itself appears to be solid rubber backed so water can't soak down into the foam rubber from it. Of course that also means water cant evaporate up and out that way either.

Also, except for some edges that get trimmed at the factory, the foam rubber was originally sealed as well to prevent water from soaking in, but time and use start breaking that seal apart in some spots which then allows water to get in if it pools under the carpet. I'm wondering if I can find something to seal it back up again to help prevent it from taking on water again.

Of course the weather has gone south on me (or north I guess, lots of cold and snowstorms lately) so it's going to be kind of miserable getting everything back in.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Preciously why I want quick way to remove the carpet. 30mins to put it in and out is too long.

Well, you could take the carpet out then cut it into three pieces: Driver front, Passenger front, Rear

Then trim and slit so that you can easily pull it out and put it back in without having to inbolt anything. If you do it like this you'll be able to have it still look fairly nice, unlike cutting it in half like that other dude:

J6Vk9VI.png


Cut out most of what goes under the center console, cut off the driver and passenger front carpet just behind the front feet of the seats, trim off the carpet portions that would be under the seats front feet, slit the carpet at the front seats back feet, trim off the back tabs and whatnot off the rear part of the carpet, and slit the rear carpet under the rear seats so that you can get it around the bottom portion of the rear seats. If you do all that you can still have it look like the carpet is whole to the untrained eye when it's in, but you can quickly pull it out and put it back in as needed. Maybe 5 minutes tops.

You'll also need to slit the carpet where the front seat wiring harnesses come through so that you don't have to unplug those first, though honestly it's easy to unplug them.


Heck, after figuring all this out maybe I'll do it too...
 
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JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Finally got everything cleaned and dried today. Thankfully I was also able to get it all put back together this evening right before some more snow came through. I took some pics but they didn't come out as well as I would have liked, so I'll take some tomorrow when there is more light. A few days ago while everything was still out I used a Turtle Wax deodorizer fogger in the Alpha to freshen it up a bit. I'm going to deploy another one on Monday now that the carpet and seats and everything is back in it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077JXS4Q6



Unfortunately I ended up with an extra 10mm nut after I got everything back together. I have no idea what it came from, but it definitely came out of the Alpha while I was pulling everything out. I had two 10mm nuts total, and one of them I knew was for the center console. I'm struggling to remember what the other one came from, but everything is back together now, so... :huh:


I also had a lowbeam out, so I picked up these off Amazon to take care of that:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U1OLOP0

They are really bright for halogens, and don't do the dumb blue tint. They are the ones Candlepowerforums.com has suggested for the best H13/9008 replacement.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
I finally started the process of stripping all of my mods off the red H3 and transferring them to the Alpha. Yesterday I was able to pull the UCP, OEM rock rails, Thor bumper with winch, roof rack, and pretty much all of the electronics and wiring I had on the front as well as the coax that went up to the antennas on the roof rack.

Today I was able to install my UCP and swap out the rock rails that were on the Alpha with the OEM rails. I prefer how the OEM rails protect the pinch weld, even if it loses some clearance over the rails SuperBuick had built and put on the Alpha when he had it.

I also swapped out the crossmember with the one from my red H3. I know at one point the mounting points had started to fail on the crossmember on the Alpha, though SuperBuick had repaired the one that was broken. However, seeing that this is a V8 and that the crossmember that was on my red H3 was beefed up at the mounting points from the factory, I chose to swap it out so that I wouldn't have to worry about having any issues with it. I'll repair the one from the Alpha using the same technique the manufacturer used on the one from the red H3 and put that in.

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It's a bit hard to tell with how dirty the one from the red H3 is, but if you look you can see the manufacturer has added a strap over the top of the bolt tubes (or whatever you want to call them) and welded it in place in several spots. This is a really good fix honestly, because it allows you to really tie those tubes to the crossmember body very well so that you shouldn't have any problems with them breaking off. I really don't know why they have those bolt tubes so close to the edge, the differential pushes down on the crossmember during acceleration (when going forward at least) which then has to be held in place by essentially eight thin strips of 1/8" steel, so it's no wonder they always end up breaking. The 5 cylinder engines probably get away with it more, but the amount of torque the V8 can put down probably wrecks these in short order. I don't understand why they didn't just extend down the brackets on the frame another half inch even and do the same on the crossmember. Then we probably wouldn't be having these issues since there would be plenty of steel above the bolt tubes to handle the stress of the differential pushing down under acceleration. It's almost like whoever was designing this got switched around and thought most of the pressure would be pushing up instead of down.

At any rate, while I have plans to modify the OEM rails to add another tube to use as a step, and I want to make some fixes to my UCP's design, I'm going to wait until the fall most likely. I just don't have time right now what with the Moab trip coming up in less than a month, plus a trip to Colorado at the end of June, and possibly the Rubicon trip in September or whenever they decide to do it. It's also too cold right now to get much done, especially since it has decided to finally start snowing on a regular basis here (We were enjoying 50+ degree days most of January and into February. Now that I have the Alpha and need to get work done on it, it's decided it's time for below freezing weather and snow.). Painting anything would be dubious at best with the cold. Plus I'm still basically the only sysadmin at my company right now (we have a new sysadmin now, but he's got a long ways to go before we can really turn him loose) so not having to work more than 40 hours a week is a pipe dream right now. Hopefully within a month or so though I'll be able to get more free time again to start getting everything else done.

For now my goal is to at least get my tires swapped over (35's are great and all, but since I drive this to and from work every day, they are kind of overkill), and hopefully get the Thor bumper installed as well, including the new Gen 2 pods I got from 4speed a few days ago. That will get me ready enough for the Moab trip, though really as it stands right now it is ready enough, though I should get the CB installed as well since we use that on the trails. But getting the Thor bumper on there would be ideal, since it'll give me more clearance and I won't have to worry so much about bashing my nose on anything.
 

SuperBuickGuy

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,403
Location
Woodinville, WA
interesting about the headlights - I had LED headlights in it for awhile and got exceptionally tired of having to send them back for warranty.... wonder if there's a ground loose in there somewhere?
 

Korby7

Well-Known Member
Messages
395
Location
Utah
What are the 35s you have? May be willing to trade for the 35” Couragias on 20” XDs if you are still interested.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
interesting about the headlights - I had LED headlights in it for awhile and got exceptionally tired of having to send them back for warranty.... wonder if there's a ground loose in there somewhere?

Maybe? Replacing the bulb fixed it though. But I've never felt like car manufacturers properly size the headlight wiring, it always seems too small.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
So I was hoping to be able to just get the outboard bushings from Outfitter Design to replace the stock bushings on the Alpha since it now has the center diff bushing, but they really don't want to sell them to me separate. Since this is an Alpha I would really like to get the diff locked in place, especially before my trip to Moab at the end of the month, so I'll probably bite the bullet and take the time to tear apart the front ends of both H3's and swap the outboard differential support brackets between the two. OD is also in Moab right now until the 19th, so by the time they get back and ship a kit out it'll be getting down to the wire for me on getting the Alpha ready for the trip. I'd rather not tackle a project like that right before the trip.


Another task I need to try to get done is tearing apart the spare axles I have and rebuilding them, two of the spares are pretty stiff in the outer CV and probably just need to be cleaned and re-greased, and the other has a tear in the CV boot that I think I can either fix or just replace the boot. The replacement boot might come from one of the other two axles depending on what kind of shape they are in. I also want to see about making an axle carrier tube using PVC or ABS pipe.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Some quick updates this morning. Finally took some pictures of stuff I picked up a week or so ago for the Alpha.


ARB Twin compressor and related accessories:

3Y1hZQK.jpg



I have had a compressor from Harbor Freight for years, and while it was a nice little compressor and is still running fine, I wanted something a bit more stout and faster. I had the money so here we go. I want to eventually mount it permanently in the Alpha, but I need to get the parts together to run some 2/0 cable to the rear to setup power distribution back there. In addition to the compressor, I'll have my fridge and a small inverter back there. I looked at putting the compressor in the engine bay, but there is just not enough room for it, and I don't want it underneath the rig, nor is there room under the seats or anything else like that, so in the back it will go.


Until I can either figure out a drawer system, or some other storage setup, I picked up a couple each of the MTM Ammo Crates to keep my gear in. Right now everything is in bags, which makes it near impossible to have any kind of level surface to put anything on back there. The crates will give me that ability and will make it easier to pull stuff out. The second small green one is still sitting in the garage right now, and these are actually empty, I was just seeing how they really fit in the back. This is pretty much the only configuration I can use, short of stacking them of course.


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And of course, my new Amateur Radio license plates came a couple days ago. I never got new plates when I upgraded my call a year or so ago, and figured a new vehicle was an opportune time to do so.

C34hgFk.jpg
 
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JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
I've made more progress, both in actual work as well as ordering a ton of stuff for the Alpha. We'll see if I can get it all installed before Moab (unlikely, but possible).

Last night I decided to start working on mounting the bumper pods to the Thor Parts winch bumper which was originally on my base H3. It was either work on this or tear apart the front end to get the outboard differential brackets swapped between the two. Priorities...


Here some pics of my test fitting process. I obtained the measurements from CJ (ThorParts) for the bolt hole pattern for the pods, since they simply bolt onto the main winch bumper. The first gen had some light pods that bolted onto the nose of the truck, but they are light gauge steel and I already bent one up whilst demolishing some little car. Unfortunately there wasn't a simple template I could print out and tape down to drill with, so I had to make my own. No worries, since I was able to eventually figure it all out and pushed the pods further forward than designed. Eventually I want to build a brush guard that bolts on and ties the whole thing together.

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JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Here's some pics of the process I went through today with actually installing it. I pulled off the stock bumper, grille, and removed the hidden winch mount SuperBuick installed, then I pulled the winch off the Thor bumper so that I could properly measure everything out. Blue tape FTW.

I first measured out the center point on the bumper based off the holes for the winch.

AcE9oKz.jpg



Next was figuring out the initial spacing for the pods. My testing the night before yielded a separation of 29.25" for the first bolt holes for the pods. This distance ensures that the grille that bolts between the two pods will fit right. There is some wiggle room with the grille since it has slotted mounting holes. Not that it matters right now for me, as you'll find out in a bit.

sVdH1nW.jpg


Once I had that in place, I then needed to test fit everything on the Alpha so that I could make sure I was spacing the pods forward enough. I was pretty close with my initial forward spacing to what it needed to be, but I was not happy with the stock location of them, so I moved them forward and generated a new baseline for the rest of the bolt hole measurements.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Here is what I ended up with. The baseline ended up being 29.25" center to center, and 6" from the front of the bumper to the center of the first hole. Then the rest of it I was able to line up using the measurements CJ provided me.

0Obs1VO.jpg


I test fit it all again to make sure everything lined up the way I wanted it to and that I had in fact measured right. I did one side first and verified it was all good and then simply replicated the measurements to the other side. I had to redo the first attempt after changing the battery in my digital calipers because a couple of the measurements were off just enough to cause the three bolt holes to not align with each other correctly.

Once that was all done then it was time to drill the holes. I did this in four steps, first using a 1/8" bit to get the hole started in the right place, then stepped up using slightly larger bits until I got to the final 1/2" bit to finish off the holes. Never start with a bit that large unless you don't care at all about alignment, because you're holes WILL wander and quite a bit at that. Fortunately I was close enough that I only had to slightly coax the third bolt on each side in, but all that took was using my ratchet to thread it in.

Here it is after drilling and removing the tape:

j71AJnt.jpg



And then all bolted up:

r9whnLT.jpg


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JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Last steps are to actually install it on the Alpha. Seeing how the whole thing is made with 3/16" steel it now weighs a fair bit. I'm glad I pulled the winch off, because just the bumper and the winch alone were barely light enough for me to handle on my own. I would not have been able to lift it by myself with the pods and the winch attached.

Ready to go on:

ba2WxoY.jpg


And bolted in place:

Z6hArMx.jpg



Winch mounted, cover put on the winch, grille installed, and license plate mounted to the clip on bracket I made the first go around using a few old plates as backing and Maglite clips to attach it to the fairleade rollers. This time around I finally added the license plate protector I bought ages ago to help keep the plate nice. Since these are my callsign plates, I'm going to be a bit pickier about keeping them in good shape. The winch is a 12K pound Badlands winch I picked up shortly after I first got my red H3, I snagged it for just $200 during a Harbor Freight parking lot sale, it was an open box item they had discounted by $100, and since they were selling brand new ones for $300, they knocked this one down to $200.

tEv9LpX.jpg


A shot of it outside:

jSmsodq.jpg



If the truck looks lopsided, that's because it was. I had messed around with the torsion bars when I first got it and had to change out the axle. Somehow the front had ended up at about 26" from center of wheel to bottom of the fender. It really should have only been about 23.5" at most. Not sure how it happened, but I think that is what lead to the failure of the CV boot. At any rate, once I had the bumper and winch all on there I went ahead and re-leveled it. Now it's sitting right at 23.5" center of wheel to fender which is about perfect.


The winch isn't fully hooked up yet, I just need to attach the cables to the battery, but I have some military terminals sitting here that I just got from Amazon to replace the stock ones. The stock terminals on these are known for causing issues, and I had already replaced the ones on my red H3 with some brass terminals I had on hand. I've also wondered if on the Alpha they are causing weird issues because my Ultragauge has intermittently been showing the voltage at around 12.9 volts instead of 14 volts or so while driving. I'm hoping the new terminals will correct that. No codes or anything have been thrown because of it yet at least.
 
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