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Project White Cracker

363K views 364 replies 124 participants last post by  Swag Off Road 
#1 · (Edited)
Project White Cracker....Daily Driven TJ on 40's

I have ran and broken many, many parts in my day with a 91 Cherokee and 35” tires. These parts include (15+) broken Dana 30 parts, this includes ripping out the ball joints on a trail run, one busted front carrier in Moab, spider gears in Rubicon….I live in Oregon (2) Tera 4:1 Transfer case, Steering, Cracked frame.......uni-body, rear hatch, tail lights, lockers, and even managed to flop it on it’s side twice.

Once my life of being the poor college student had subsided, and my broken ass Cherokee was sold. I set out to build a dependable off road, daily driven TJ on 40’s
 

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#2 ·
I came across a salvage title 2001 automatic Sahara TJ. The money I saved from buying an ugly multi colored Jeep could be used to purchase a slew off road parts.
The first step in this Jeep was to remove all the factory BS that comes on a Sahara, the palm tree stickers, the plastic body cladding on the side, and even the boxing glove bumper caps.

My plans Dana 60’s, 40” Radial Iroks, WE bead locks, Atlas 5:1, 14” Coil overs on the front, PSC Extreme Steering with reverse rotation PS box, Genrite gas tank. The plan was to stretch the front 8” and the rear 4” giving a total wheel base of 106”-107”.
 

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#3 ·
Step one ordered the Genrite gas tank from Tony at Genrite.com. I believe I was one of the, if not the first tank he sold to the public. I a round about way my brother in Iraq met a guy who did the accounting for Tony’s company. Small world ahy? Installation was a snap, I had no regrets once the tank arrived at my door, a very well built Tank well work the $ in my opinion. I need all the room in a TJ I can get and a tank in the back seat truly defeated my intentions.
 

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#4 ·
SWAG MFG said:
I have ran and broken many, many parts in my day with a 91 Cherokee and 35” tires. These parts include (15+) broken Dana 30 parts, this includes ripping out the ball joints on a trail run, one busted front carrier in Moab, spider gears in Rubicon….I live in Oregon (2) Tera 4:1 Transfer case, Steering, Cracked frame and rear hatch, Tail light, lockers, and even managed to flop it on it’s side twice.

Once my life of being the poor college student had subsided. My college loans had diminished, and my broken ass Cherokee was sold. I set out to build a dependable off road, daily driven TJ on 40’s
Not to be a Jackass, but how did you Crack a frame on an XJ, exactly??????
 
#6 · (Edited)
Step two located a pair of 79 Ford Dana 60’s off of Craigslist. These axles came with and ARB in the rear and a LS in the front with 4:88 gears. These axles were narrowed to 65” front and 63.75” in the rear. The front axle was narrowed 2.71” on the short side and 2.00” on the long side. The rear was cut down 1” on each side and the spindles were bored to accept 35 spline shafts. Custom Alloy USA shafts will take there place.

And while it appears form the picture that I work in chaos it is a real pain in the ass to keep 3 different grinder chords from getting wrapped up with the air hose.
 

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#7 · (Edited)
This is where it gets tricky Let me explaining.

Step Three ordered up a set of Poison Spider front tube fenders with 3” flare. Since I live in Oregon, and fender flare laws are pretty tight. In addition I also purchased a set or 6” rear flares and custom crusher corners, with out the wheel well cut out. And a set of Warn Industries LJ rock sliders.

As stated earlier wish I could run a comp cut out the back and call it good, however as noted I wanted a daily driven, clean looking TJ.
With the Genrite gas tank in the rear it allows me to stretch the axle back 4”. I wanted a factory wheel well opening but moved 4” back. With the custom crusher corner ordered as a blank, I used the crusher flare as my template on material to be removed. With the corners clamped into position I market the center of the wheel well opening then marked a line 4” back. This allows the stock wheel well look even when the axle is moved back.

When doing this I noticed the rear Crusher Flare has a much wider opening than the stock fenders, in fact a perfect fit for a 40” tire. In addition I was able to move the rear flare up 2” by making a couple relief cuts in the factory pinch welded seam, with a little help from a BFH….Whhaalllla the flares sit 2” higher.

I orders a rear 6” flare with the intention of cutting it down, you will notice in the picture that the flare actually starts to wrap around the rear of the Jeep tub. This allows a great departure angle. In doing so the 6” flare was cut down to 4” so the rear of the flare fit nice and snug against the tub. After many nights of welding the flare to the corners, welding the seams, grinding smooth the finished product looks great. I moved the factory gas tank filler under the LED lights, because the rear flare was in the way and it provided a cleaner look form the side. I did have to rework the metal filler neck to a 60 degree angle, so the gas pump nozzle would fit in side and shoot the fuel in the proper direction. In addition I added a few extra holes in the side of the crusher flares, the 3/16” plate had warped and additional bolts were required to get the plate to sit flag against the body.

The Rear LED’s were purchased at Pilot Truck stop for 23$ each and the front were purchased as Six States for $11ea, I know some of you will ask

The Warn Unlimited Rock sliders were welded to the Crusher Corners for a smooth transition. Although the LJ rock sliders are some 8”-10” longer, I only had to cut 3” off of one end to fit my application, since the fender location was moved back. I added an extra hole directly under the JEEP logo in the side of the body panel to make the holes symmetrical, and put in counter sunk bolts to match the crusher corner. Again welded and ground smooth
 

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#10 ·
The front Crusher Flares were just as everyone explained a nice job on behalf of Poison Spider, however they leave it up to you to finish there half hearted job of cleaning up a “finished product”. Again weld the seams around the fender and grind smooth
 

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#12 ·
There was a theme through out this building process, every night I had some of the most terrific metallic snot rockets in the shower…..thankfully this only lasted for a couple weeks straight.

After priming and wet sanding all the parts the multi colored bastard child left for paint. A couple weeks later it was back home ready for more loving.
 

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#15 ·
I will install an Atlas 5:1 so a 1” body lift was in order, installation was a nice change of pace, other than grinding off the powder coating Currie puts on the aluminum pucks, to get the bling bling of aluminum, installation was nice and simple. I did have lower the fan shroud.

For the front bumper I used a Blue Torch Fab bumper winch combo that was a “custom” part they used for the project Rock Crusher. I thought the spider web winch mount was a nice touch, and since my front axle will be 8” forward I could not have anything sticking out side of the frame rails. Again weld and grind smooth.

I also purchased a front grill hoop, bonner bar combo from BTF, however the grill hoop did not match the Jeep body lines of the grill with the 1” body lift. It looked like something I created using a HF tube bender. Ohh well I have one for sale if interested. The support bars that connect the front hoop to the bonner bar were too short for my tastes and it kicked the front hoop too vertical. So I tilted the front hoop to my liking and created a web like gusset as shown in the picture.
 

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#16 ·
On a side note I was able to make new brackets to place the Currie Anti-Rock sway bar forward 3.5” by sticking the sway bar in the front bumper. It was a straight forward modification that once I capped off the front cross member where the Anti-Rock is originally designed for, it is now my .80 gallon air tank. I know kind of small but better than nothing.
 

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#18 ·
I picked up a set of 39.5” radial Iroks from 4WP they were having a 10% off sale and could not resist. The Jeep does not look so much like a puss with the correct tires, even though it is sitting on jack stands.
 

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#20 ·
I have been driving my Jeep around for a couple weeks waiting for a few additional parts to show up, it looks really odd. The rear flares are moved back 4” but the axles are in there stock location, it appears as though I was drunk when I did the installation.
 

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#23 ·
The Rubicon Express builder parts, cross member and rear springs are in the mail, as well as an Atlas 5:1, and a PSC reverse rotation extreme hydro assist kit.

I will keep you guys posted as this Jeep evolves.
 
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