5.2 Magnum Swap Part 10: Side Projects and Summer Fun

by ThreeThirdsFab
September 1, 2015
In The Shop
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Welcome to part 10 of our 5.2 magnum swap, follow along as we swap a 5.2 magnum from a 1993 ZJ in our 2004 4.0 WJ. This week we took a break from the Jeep to work on some side projects and spend a little time at sea.

Read The Rest
Part 1: It’s Finally Happening
Part 2: Out With the Old
Part 3: The Last of the Stock Components
Part 4: All About Brakes
Part 5: Pulling the 5.2 (time lapse)
Part 6: The Test Fit
Part 7: Cutting and (not) Fitting
Part 8: Broken and Upgraded Parts
Part 9: Leaky Plenum Gasket
Part 10: Side Projects and Summer Fun
Part 11: Setting the Motor
Part 12: Custom Exhaust & Driveline
Part 13: Cutting and Rebuilding
Part 14: Giant Radiator in a Little Jeep
Part 15: Custom Tube Bumper
Part 16: Driveshafts
Part 17: A Real Firewall
Part 18: Starting Final Assembly
Part 19: Extending The Engine Cage
Part 20: Still Assembling
Part 21: It Lives!
Part 22: Brakes and Wiring

Side Projects and Summer Fun

This week in the shop we did some minor repairs to what our client calls ‘The Dog Truck”. It’s only purpose is to transport their hound dogs around Southern California for hunting trips. They took an old flat bed truck and had someone expand the bed for their hound dogs. But whoever did the initial work left this thing less than roadworthy. They needed someone to make it safer for the dogs and other cars on the road.

The hacked together bed was falling apart after just one use so they brought it to us to make it right. Being that the client had already spent money on the initial build the goal was to fix the problems while keeping the costs down. Upon initial delivery to our shop it was evident that the entire frame of the cage needed to be rewelded to the truck frame. We cleaned up the steel and rewelded it to the truck frame then added mud flaps and re attached the gas filler neck as the zip ties were obviously not permanent. With this being a small budget job we focused on the necessary areas and had to back to our client within 3 days.

We also got a call for some remote work replacing a main valve and regulator on a residential home.

What Pays the Bills

You may not know this, but Three Thirds Fabrication isn’t our main source of income. Everyone involved has full time jobs ranging from industrial plumbing to boat salvage to graphic design. This means the shop only function after hours and weekends, making it a constant balance between working on the shop vehicles and finding other projects to help pay the costs of building race vehicles.

This week our main fabricator Dan spent his time aboard the USS Midway, a 1945 Aircraft Carrier turned Maritime Museum, installing A/C units. These new A/C units keep the temperatures below deck cool for both the main tours and areas where the Midway host overnight visits for local students. Being so close to the San Diego harbor and with offshore fishing being the best it has been is over ten years, Dan took a day off to test his skills off shore. After a short morning fishing he and his brother returned with 3 Yellowtail and 1 Bonito, enough for a weekend full of fish tacos.