JPaul's H3 Base build

[JPaul]

Next project for the welder is probably going to be a set of clamp on steps for the OEM rock sliders. It'll make life easier once winter hits so that I'm not having to lift my 4 year olds in and out of the H3 every time.

 

[JPaul]

So on Sunday I finally was able to pick up the custom decal I had my brother in law make for me. It's been over two months since I had finalized the design with him till now. I had to have it custom made because I couldn't find a decal like this anywhere, which I honestly found shocking.

I honestly couldn't find anything that had the phrase "R2-D2 is my copilot" anywhere. I figured something as simple as that would have been thought up and commercialized by now, but apparently not. I came up with the phrase thanks to inspiration from this little guy:

My wife bought him for me a couple Christmas' ago, but until the H3 I didn't have a car I was willing to risk keeping him in since my Neon had frameless windows and was super easy to break into (considering someone once stole a voucher for 4 car washes from my car once, I knew nothing was beyond getting stolen).

So after coming up with the phrase and finding no one had any kind of decal with it I decided to make up my own, since I knew my brother in law had a vinyl cutter he used for his business. I eventually found a good silhouette of R2-D2 to use and cleaned it up and filled in most of the white space it had so that it would work well for the cutter, and look good on the back window. I could have gone with more detail probably, but I felt it would pop better with the body mainly white with just the utility arms cut out, and then some detail on the head.

I sent it to my brother in law with the phrase I wanted and the general layout, and he sent me back a couple mock ups, one with R2 completely visible and one with him partly behind some of the letters. I went with the latter as it made R2 bigger.


My wife thinks I am a massive dork for getting this made and putting it on my H3, but it's really her own fault, she's the one that got me the R2-D2 USB charger in the first place! :wink:

 

[JPaul]

Received and installed the Air Doc intake from Bigunit, we'll see how it does.

 

[JPaul]

Haven't updated in a while, mostly because I hadn't gotten much done.

A few weeks ago I did manage to finally get around to getting the wiring put together for the spot lamps that will be going onto my winch fairlead (which I also repainted since whoever had bought the winch before me had ground off a bunch of the paint for some odd reason).


These cost me $19 off of amazon, I pulled one apart and it is actually sealed up pretty well. I don't anticipate any problems with them:

I picked up a set of 5 Deutsch DT weatherproof connectors and used those for the connections. It's a lot better than barrel connectors and looks professional:

I used a wiring set from some cheap halogen driving lights I had that one of the housing broke on (I was laying on the garage floor and it rolled off my chest and cracked the lens. Not very promising for holding up to rocks from cars in front of me :roll: ). sealed up the splice they had with some heat shrink and brush on plastidip.

Still need to figure out where I want to mount all of my switches (this one will be the first of many and I want to have it setup right and only have to do it once), but I finally picked up some 1/4" wire loom, so I'm a bit closer. I also need to get the plug I ordered off Amazon hooked up to the fuse center to draw power for all of my accessories from.

 

[JPaul]

This last week I finally finished up my undercarriage protection. I welded on additional bars to protect the transfer case more fully, and then cleaned off all the welding scale, rust, and then primed and undercoated it. I used the "professional" grade Rustoleum undercoating for the majority of it, but unfortunately the last can I got and used was their cheaper undercoating, which I found out is nothing like the first stuff I used. The "professional" undercoating from them actually dries relatively hard, even in cold temperatures. The cheap stuff however, apparently is not designed to harden at all, so it doesn't dry worth a darn in cold temps. Fortunately that last can was just to make sure the welds on the bottom side were completely sealed off, so I can always reapply more of the good stuff later on.

I used undercoating instead of paint since I figure it's going to get scraped up anyway, and applying more undercoating would work best. Plus it should protect the welds from rusting more readily than paint would. I also didn't want to spend the money on powdercoating, since you can't see it under the car anyway and it'd just get scrapped off.

 

[JPaul]

Went and got new tires yesterday because the ones the dealer put on are terrible in the snow.

33" Duratrac's (My usual spot at work was being taken up by someone else, so I ended up parking on the snowbank):

 

[Panzer07]

33's get serious here !!!...jk how I miss being able to park on snow banks like that or bigger...some of the perks of NY


Torres

 

[JPaul]

Ha! Yeah, I figured 33's were a step up from the 32's I had, and since the vast majority of my driving is commuting to and from work on surface streets, 35's would have been overkill. Plus It would have added the cost of cranking the t-bars and getting an alignment. I've already spent far more on those tires than I should have.

 

[Panzer07]

Yes I read your problem that was some scheiße. I paid $1580 for all my 5 35's MT/R mounted and all. About a year ago or so


Torres

 

[JPaul]

I did a lot of work on the H3 over Christmas vacation. It doesn't look like a lot on the surface now that it's all done, but it took me 3-4 days to get all of this done. Partly because it's been freezing here (sub 25 degrees F most days) and partly because I ended up doing a lot of prep work for other installs that will be happening later as well as researching the exact way I wanted to have this all work out.

Reinstalled the stock radio to replace the stupid Sony radio the previous owner had. It was a model that was setup only for either radio or iPod, it would actually store the iPod inside the stereo's body. I'm an Android guy so the iPod stuff was useless to me. In addition the user interface was the biggest piece of $#!% I have ever seen. It was next to impossible to do anything other than change the station and volume, and even that was tricky. Forget adjusting the sound, and trying to remember how to get into the setup menu without constantly referring to the user manual was impossible. One of the most irritating things was it had the clock in the upper right, tiny as could be so near impossible to see, plus it was setup to automatically adjust the clock using the signal from the radio stations. Problem with that is most of them don't bother setting those clocks correctly, some wouldn't adjust for daylight savings, others were just plain wrong. I couldn't figure out how to get into the setup to change it away from that and set the clock. Fortunately the previous owner left the factory stereo with the H3 when they traded it in to the dealer, so I was able to easily switch back to something that isn't a pile of crap.

I also ripped out all the bloody wiring he had in there for the amp he took with him. I hate when people use electrical tape on stuff like that. There is a reason car manufacturers don't use the stuff, it doesn't stay together in the heat and just becomes a big mess. I've been using the fabric tape that only sticks to itself for all of my wiring jobs on my cars (in addition to the split loom stuff). Much nicer (and more professional) results and when you go to remove it later it's not a bloody sticky mess. I think I got it at Autozone or something.

 

[Paranormal]

Nice build. Also looking to add a rear view camera to my H3 to make it easier for my daughter and wife when they drive it.

 

[JPaul]

Mostly what I spent my time on was installing my backup camera. I got tired of not being able to see well when backing up, plus I nearly ran over a couple of idiots that stood directly behind the H3 in a parking lot and didn't bother paying attention to the fact that I had started the truck and my reverse lights were on. I literally could not see them and it was only because I swore I saw something out of the corner of my eye that I didn't just back over them both. (One dude was driving one of those electric carts back into the grocery store adn stopped to BS with his friend, right behind me of course).

Here is the camera and monitor I picked up off of Amazon:
Camera: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZWO9MDU
Monitor: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007SLDF7O

The camera is pretty nice, it is the license plate mount type and this one in particular has a little button in the wart on the cable that changes the image flip as well as if it shows the guidelines or not. It's very versatile. Plus it is a 170 degree field of view which is nearly as wide as you can get I think. Wide enough at any rate.
The monitor is good for the price, though I wish it could sit lower on the mount. I'm probably going to put in another camera higher up in the rear as well as one on the nose of the H3 so that I can use it for getting a better view when wheeling. It has two inputs and will automatically power on the monitor and switch to input 2 when a 12 volt signal is applied to the blue wire (backup signal wire), and it will power back off when the signal is removed. I was happy to figure this out because I was worried I'd have to manually turn on the monitor every time I got in the car. You only have to turn it on if you want to see what's on input 1. One could also have it so that the blue wire is also hooked to the key on power so it just automatically comes on, but then you don't have a way to have it automatically switch when backing up.

So, on to the install.


First, after figuring out where to mount the camera (I decided to put it right over the hitch receiver, nice and protected and I can hook up to trailers a lot easier, I can't remember who it was that did this first on here, but they were my inspiration) I decided to just wire the power for the camera to the backup lights on the driver side. I debated having the camera always be on, but I decided that if I really wanted to do that I would add another camera higher up instead. So after removing the taillight and routing the wires up, I started by removing insulation from the back light wires. I did not cut the wires, I simply removed about 3/4" of insulation as the wires are loose enough that you can fold them over and crimp them:

Crimping on some ferrules to the camera power wires:

Crimped and heat shrink in place:

This stuff is crucial to weatherproof connections:

Liquid tape applied (plastidip basically, I've been using this stuff long before anyone started pouring it all over their cars, I was so confused when I started hearing people talking about plastidipping their cars):

Heat shrink shrunk:

Camera mounted (ignore the extra holes, and the fact that it's actually unlevel, just pretend I did this perfectly the first time...):

Here you can see the little wart that has the button in it and is where the power and video cable split out:

Wrapped the power connector and the video connector in 3M self vulcanizing rubber tape. Not terribly please with how it went on but that is probably because it was below freezing when I did it. That stuff sticks to itself awesome though, you basically get one shot to wrap it, otherwise you're cutting it off and starting over.

The next big issue was figuring out how on earth to get the video cable run to the camera. Someone had suggested elsewhere to run it under the chassis along the frame rail where the chassis harness, which I started to do, but quickly realized getting it past the fuel tank was a bigger PITA than I wanted to deal with. So I started tearing apart the trunk to see if I could find a way in and just run it inside. Couldn't find anything at first, so I turned to the internet and finally found a post on one of the other forums with a graphic of how they routed their wiring. Turns out in the rear of the drivers rear wheel well there is a opening in the body that is pretty easy to access, and leads right into the truck via another opening. Supposedly there is supposed to be a plastic plug in it, but there wasn't one in mine. I will have to add one eventually before mud/water/etc finds it's way in there when I am offroad. Here is a pic showing where the opening is with some wire I was using as a fishing line sticking through it:

The video cable in a split loom passed through the hole, shown from below (power cable is heading off to the left, video cable to the right):

And passing through the holes:

I then routed the video cable the rest of the way under all the trim up to under the dash. It would have been a lot easier if I had just taken the time to unbolt the upper seat belt mounting point on that rear side so that I could fully remove the panels, but I was stupid and did it the super hard way. At this point it was super dark and super cold, so I stopped for the day.

 

[JPaul]

Day 2 of the camera install. I didn't do quite as much this day because I had other stuff going on. All I really got done was more research and getting the firewall grommet installed. Oh, I think this was also the day that I switched out the radio's and pulled all the dang amp wiring.

One fortunate thing about the previous owner doing an amp was there was already a small hole drilled in the firewall for the power cable for the amp. After pulling the cable it left me with the perfect location to install the Daystar firewall boot/grommet. There is a part of the firewall that on the inside has a square piece of the second piece of firewall steel that is missing, leaving that location as a single piece of steel (the firewall is two sheets of steel from what I could tell). It's a perfect spot that comes out right between the fender and the master cylinder.

Drilling the 1.25" hole required me buying another hole saw, and I ended up having to remove the lower plastic trim piece under the steering wheel in order to get to it. I initially went and bought a right angle adapter for my drill, but it just wasn't going to happen. At least I can use it for other projects later, so it wasn't a waste of money, just not something I needed right now. Anyway, here is the panel removed. You unscrew the hood release (two phillips head screws) and remove the end trim piece (the part between the dash and the door) and then pop off the trim:

Then drilled the massive hole (I used welding gloves when drilling because the metal that is right behind the plastic trim is extremely sharp, didn't want to end up slitting my wrists during this part, I also tried to use paper towels to catch most of the shavings, but that didn't work very well and ended up having to vacuum it up anyway):

And installed the Daystar firewall boot:

That thing is awesome because you can start out with just a few wires and as you need to pass more and more through you can cut it down to the bigger and bigger openings. I don't foresee ever needing anything bigger than the 1" hole it ends up providing.

So part of the reason I ended up installing the firewall boot now instead of later with the winch controls and light controls, is that I needed to get to a backup signal wire to hook up to the monitor to have it turn on and switch to the backup camera input. The best spot I could find happened to be right where I needed to put the firewall boot, which is the master cylinder. The electric brake booster has a backup signal running to it for some reason (these cars are immensely complex when it comes to electrical systems!) but it is handy so I used a scotchlok (suitcase) connector (since I didn't want to cut the wire, didn't have enough slack to splice into it like I did with the rear taillights, and didn't want to solder to it and have to wait forever for the liquid tape to dry since i wouldn't be able to use heatshrink on it) and put it all back in the loom. The tricky part with doing this though is there is a second light green wire in that bundle, so you have to pull the connector off and pull off the black shroud on the back and find the right pin. It's pin 43, and there will be an empty spot on either side of the wire with a purple and a black or grey wire on either side of those. It's also in the line of pins that are spaced out from the other two rows of pins. Sorry for no pics but once you take it apart you'll see what I am describing. To disconnect the plug from the brake controller, just pull that white plastic tab back all the way, it will unlock the connector as well as disconnect it, so you don't have to be tugging on the connector itself to get it off. Putting it back on is the reverse, push the plug on until it stops and then push the white piece back in and it will suck the connector up and lock it in place. The black shroud on the back of the connector just unclips.

I routed the wire for the backup signal inside via the firewall boot and then put some split loom over it to make it look pretty:

That was it for day 2.

 

[JPaul]

Day 3 of the camera install. Finally got it finished and pretty much aimed.

First things first, figuring out how to wire the power for the monitor. I looked at options for existing wiring, but didn't like anything I saw, so I turned to another project I had sitting around, which was figuring out how to tap into the main fuse block in the engine compartment using the add on connector normally used for the OEM roof lights/grill lights/clearance lights: http://www.hummer4x4offroad.com/forum/showthread.php?10319-BEC-connector-(offroad-clearance-lights)

I went this route since I was going to be using it soon anyway for my radios and winch lights, and it has three leads that are powered off fuse 10 which is powered when the key is in the run and start positions which solves the problem of how to power the monitor only when the key is on. The monitor and my CB will be powered off of this, and maybe later I'll add a secondary fuse block that will have a relay to it or something. The option will be there at least.

I spent a fair bit of time getting that connector all setup with the factory fuse box, so refer to that thread for all the wonderful details and pictures:
http://www.hummer4x4offroad.com/forum/showthread.php?10319-BEC-connector-(offroad-clearance-lights)

Once that was done I added a wire from pin 6 (part of the SPO circuit which is hot when the key is on or start) to power the monitor, and then proceeded to work on getting a way to rout the cable for the monitor up to the dash. I decided to go the typical route of using the holes available under the bolt covers on the dash, but I realized quickly that in order to pass the cable through I needed to open them up more. I went ahead and did the center one since that was for the monitor, as well as the driver's side one which soon will be used for my CB and Ham radio's power and antenna cables. It took a bit of work with an exact-o knife, side cutters, end nippers, and bent nose pliers to get them opened up all the way, but it's done now at least. The pliers were all my small precision ones, as that is all that could really fit between the dash and the windshield right there.

Driver's side:

Center, after I routed the cable through:

I fished the cable up with my handy piece of wire. It was relatively easy once I figured out which way to go. I had to bring the wire in from the top and as I passed it down I brought the part inside the dash towards me so that it ended up coming out by the lower trim panel under the steering wheel. Hard to describe and no pics, but if you ever do this you'll see what I am talking about. Oh, I also had the trim piece around the radio removed for this so that I could see and route the fishing wire.

Next up was wiring up the power and signal to the monitor. More heatshrink (I have started to always use bare crimps, I hate the ones with the hard plastic sleeves on them, they look ugly and are super bulky and don't crimp very well, especially with small wires). I put a pronged bolt down connector on the ground and am using one of the bolts that holds on the metal plate below the steering wheel, you'll see it in a moment.

Hooked up the video cable, put split loom over the video cable coming from the camera to protect it where it comes up by the parking brake, more split loom over the monitor cable (lots of sharp metal under the steering wheel/dash!!), and some over the ground wire (more sharp metal nearby...) which you can see is bolted to the trim bracket in the lower left, and bundled up all the extra wire and zip tied it to the steering column:

 

[JPaul]

And here it is all finished!

Now I can finally see if I'm going to run over some idiot or not. Plus kids will be safe, cars won't be demolished, buildings won't collapse, and trailers won't burst into flames from having to try 20 times to hook up to them.

Seriously though, I love having it, it's great to be able to see and will be super useful. Plus I have laid a bunch of groundwork for later additions so they shouldn't take me near as long as this did.

The monitor is brighter now that I turned up the brightness (it was at 50 when I took that pic), I might need to re-adjust the camera aim a little bit, but it's pretty decent. Oh, make sure you put some blue locktite on the screws for that camera, they'll probably want to vibrate loose on you if you don't. The way I have it mounted I have to unbolt it to loosen the set screws that hold the camera in position (up/down motion) to adjust it. So I made sure to put locktite on so that I didn't have to keep messing with it.

 

[JPaul]

Nice build. Also looking to add a rear view camera to my H3 to make it easier for my daughter and wife when they drive it.

Sweet! I hope anything I just posted will help you with the install. If you have any questions just let me know!

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

 

[JPaul]

Picked up some stainless screws and trim washers to screw down the mount for the monitor. The adhesive really does not want to stick very well still. I might blacken the screws later but for now this will do:

I wanted to get some button head hex but there weren't any at Lowes, plus these were cheaper. I left the double sided foam tape in place since it helps keep it clean (no ugly gaps) and will help prevent any possible rattles.

 

[JPaul]

After some trial and error and research, I managed to replace the speakers in the rear doors with some Pioneer 6.5" 3-way speakers I got on sale at Bestbuy. The factory rear speakers were completely shot. I'm going to replace the fronts as well with matching speakers once the mirror heating mats come in from Poland, then I can just have the door panel off once.

I gutted the factory speakers to use them as mounts for the new speakers, since screwing them to the door directly did not work out so well. The volume was a lot lower than the front speakers and the bass had terrible distortion. I think part of this was caused by the foam rings I tried to make to seal the speakers between the speaker and the trim panel, they were apparently a bit too small inside and were crushing the rubber between the speaker cone and the speaker frame.

After I gutted the old speakers and used those as mounts, the sound is MUCH better.

I used a razor saw to score the braces between the mount and the speaker magnet, then broke them with some pliers. Then I cut the speaker out at the rubber between the cone and the frame using an exact-o knife and pulled out the old speaker:

Then I cut off the foam to use later with the exact-o knife, and then used a Japanese fine tooth saw to cut down the lip on the face of the old speaker to make it flush so that I could mount the new Pioneer speaker. I drilled the four mounting holes and then used the screws that came with the Pioneer's to screw down the new speaker. Then I used some headliner adhesive spray to mount the foam ring from the factory speaker. I made a mask out of cardboard to protect the speaker when I sprayed the adhesive on. If you just barely press down on the nozzle it will only spray a small stream rather than the fan pattern spray, so it makes it easier to do fine work like this with it.

This was from before I glued on the foam ring:

 

[JPaul]

I also fixed my rear wiper so that it's not so lame...

Now it wipes a more visible portion of the rear window, and after some fiddling I managed to get the washer fluid spray to actually reach the entire length of the wiper. Before it'd basically do the bottom half of the wiper.

 

[JPaul]

Picked up a little trailer for $100. Unfortunately the kid selling it had no idea what he was talking about. I asked him if it was made from angle, c-channel, or tube. I had to explain what each one was. He said it was tube. It was angle iron. Oh well. I figure for $100 I couldn't go wrong. My plan was to use it as a basis for an offroad trailer, but as you'll see it really isn't going to be worth it. It was built by his grandfather, and apparently his grandfather, while somewhat ingenious, was a bit of an idiot and did a pretty hack job building the thing.

It looks pretty decent from this shot:

But from the rear you can start to notice the problems:

You see the shocks he used? Those are actually macpherson struts from a FWD car of some sort. And one bracket is higher than the other. In addition, that expanded metal grate is only where you see it, and the edge by the plywood isn't even attached. Also one fender is higher up than the other somehow. Lastly, it's not a trick of the camera angle, the platform really is tweaked slightly. It might be from the plywood warping, but I won't know until I take off the plywood.

Another shot of the struts and the "axle" he built from what is not square tube, but actually two pieces of angle welded together...

Here is another area his grandpa did the same thing, the tongue is built from two pieces of angle welded together. And he simply notched and bent the sides to form the "A", one side didn't bend very neatly. The hitch is kinda jacked up as well.

Lastly, it's hard to tell here, but the springs don't have any shackles, and have eyes on both ends. A simple fix, and one of the first I will make to it (the other being adding lights).

All in all, it's a poorly built trailer, but it does it's job. After looking at it more closely, I've decided it's not worth trying to really fix it up and convert it into an offroading trailer. But for $100, it will do to help me transport all the parts I'll be picking up later to build a proper offroad trailer, and I can use it for light camping and other duties. I can easily sell it for what I paid as well, so that's not a big deal either. I may also just keep it as a utility trailer. We'll see what happens.

 

[RamRod]

So what's your plan with the trailer knowing what you know now?

 

[JPaul]

So what's your plan with the trailer knowing what you know now?

I'm probably just going to use it as is for now (though I'll at least add lights and proper shackles to the springs). I have access to a Hobart 140 welder that I've been using for my UCP and other projects, and steel isn't too expensive for a small trailer like this. If I can come up with $500 or so soon, there is also someone nearby that has a half finished offroad trailer project they are looking to unload.

But honestly a frame built with tube is going to be a lot better for an offroad trailer than angle iron I think. A lot less flex and sturdier for going offroad.

 

[JPaul]

So i was curious about what exactly the hubs and wheels came from, and figured out they are from a VW Beetle! :whaa:

I have to keep telling myself it was only $100. I'm surprised this thing has held together...

 

[JPaul]

Well, I got in some lights to put on the trailer, and decided to take of the wood deck to make it easier. Then I started cutting off the "shocks" since they are useless, ground some of the extraneous welds down flat, and in the process started noticing just how bad a job the guy did with welding. He had enough penetration for his welds to hold, but he also had a fair bit of the weld pool that never even bonded with the steel. So now I'm really questioning the strength of the rest of the welds on this thing.

Plus the frame is just twisted, flat out.

And I finally noticed that one tire is not the same size as the other, by a fair amount. Great.

So this is basically a pile of scrap steel that barely is worth what I paid for it. If you add in the tongue jack it's right around the $100 mark. And the tires, while mismatched, might be worth another $40 on the rims.

I *could* pick up a new axle for it, but I'm not sure it'd be worth it honestly. That's another $100-$150 and I'd have to redo the spring perches.

 

[JPaul]

I picked up a roof basket a guy up in Bountiful who had built it for himself and used it for a while. Didn't need it anymore so he put it up for $50! I got lucky and was apparently able to bump ahead of two other people that were interested and picked it up this morning before work (yay for having a job that is super flexible on when I get in to work!). It's 42" x 72" or something like that, I can't recall exactly and he's pulled the ad down.

Since I had such poor results with the trailer that I was sure to give this a good look over. The welds aren't pretty but they are holding well. I can always fix them up if needs be, the hard part is done already. It's pretty darn sturdy but is light enough that I can lift it up onto the H3 by myself easy enough. It has some surface rust but nothing bad, just needs to be sanded and repainted which I'll do in the late spring. The bars line up well enough that I was able to use my factory bars to mount it for now. Eventually I will fabricate some brackets to mount it more securely and have it be as low as possible. Another modification I'll probably make later is to get some expanded sheet to put down as a floor. But there are enough cross bars that I can at least use it for bulky stuff.

I could also eventually widen it to be sized better for the H3, but I think it's fine as it is for now.

All in all an excellent buy I think, especially for $50. I have the steel to build my own, but was apprehensive about it since I don't have a lot of practice, and certainly not with the thinner stuff. I'll use that steel for other projects now.

I'm sure I'll also make some brackets for stuff like a shovel and my farm jack, and I may or may not mount my CB and ham radio antennas on it, I'm debating still putting them on the roof versus the nose of the truck.