Well ok, new here, feel free to flame if necessary :D

I had this happen to my first XJ a few years ago:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Sekalaista/Jeep_kaadettu_1.jpg

Swapped over the parts to another one, wheeled it some:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Sekalaista/IMG_4034.jpg

I had the usual shit installed, T&T Customs y-link system, rear leafs, around 4" lift on 35s.. Wheeled it for about one more year before I figured I gotta do something to it. Especially after rolling the first one, I was a little affraid wheeling it the way I want. Call me a looser if you will :crybaby:

My initial plan was running 1-tons (HP D60 + 14b), but living in the old continent it's sometimes fucking impossible to find what you're looking for. The easy part was the 14b, found one in about a week after started loking for it. Tried my best finding a Ford HP D60, no luck. Couldn't even find a damn passenger drop chevy lpd60 :mad3: I had already started fabbing the cage, replacing my rusty unibody rails, and doing all the other fancy crap.

I ended up cutting the whole uniframe off, building it in sections so I had something to keep the unibody in shape. I guess in the end would've been easier to make it a full tube buggy, but for some reason I wanted to keep it 4-door and looking somewhat like an XJ.

Cage is still far from being finished, so is a lot of the interior and all the control arms mounts etc... So don't mind the missing tubes on the cage. My welds look like shit, so weld nazis can shut the fuck up :flipoff2:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Eturungon_muokkaus_19.JPG

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Takarungon_muokkaus_21.jpg

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Paakaari_2.JPG

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Keskirungon_muokkaus_3.JPG

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Keskirungon_muokkaus_4.JPG

With the 1-tons out of the question, I started thinking portals. I narrowed my choises to the easiest cheapest ones that are easily available: Volvo 303/306 portals, or Unimog narrow-track 404s. Planning to run 39.5s or 42s, I thought mog axles are stronger; found a good deal on the axles for ~1400$. Axles had the hubs already machined for disc brakes. I still need to do the pinion conversion, get brakes, and fab steering parts etc.. but other than that they are good to go.

Jeep @ full compression in the pics below, so it will end up being a little higher than I wanted. Tough luck, I guess I will find out if it's too top heavy or not. Wheelbase will be 112", overwall width between 80"-82", rocker height around 32".. not the lowest around, but shouldn't be too bad. I should end up with 6" of uptravel, 8" downtravel. Budget is limited, so I will probably be running 14" SAW air shocks or coil-overs. Might end up running Fox coil-overs, if I can find working more overtime..

Right now I'm wondering between using 'yota control arms + panhards at both ends, or running 3-link + panhard front and double triangulated 4-link in the rear. Latter would work better, but space is limited on the mog axles without sacrificing the ground clearance etc..

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Moggiakselit/Moggiakseli_etu_1.JPG

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Moggiakselit/Moggiakseli_taka_1.JPG

Yea, your welds look stellar! But...some of mine do too. :laughing:

Not very many unimogger xj's around here...so welcome!

Build is looking good man. :smokin: Im lead to believe this is or is going to be, your build thread. Make sure to post up all your rig specs. Gotta get up way more pics too. This shit is porn to some of us.


Edit:... Well look at me jumpin the gun....carry on.

me likey :D

keep um comin...

Is that 2X4 120wall box welded under the unibody frame?

Is that 2X4 120wall box welded under the unibody frame?

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Keskirungon_muokkaus_3.JPG

Considering I see no front floor pans. I'm guessing those are his new frame rails.

Is that 2X4 120wall box welded under the unibody frame?

Yeap, that's what it is. It was much easier to fab new frame rails than clean off all the rust and hardened-up undercoating :smokin: I was planning using 4" x 3", but I got the 4 x 2 for dirt-cheap, so that's what I used. I'm gonna add enough reinforcement that the narrower rails should work fine. Rockers are 2" x 4" .188 wall. I'm thinking of doing boatsides while I'm at it, so it should make the whole thing plenty strong.

There aren't too many rock gardens where I wheel at, it's something like 70% mud 30% rocks, so I don't need to make everything bomb-proof 'cause I'm not smashing everything on the rocks all the time. If I break something, I'll fix it :D

A few other misc. pics from the building stages..

Seat mount and transfer case clearance - which will be a bit more when I can find a suitable 231 for a low price. Gotta love the 400-500$ price range people are selling them over here :mad3:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Penkin_kiinnikkeet_5.JPG

Engine mounts I fabbed look like this; I'm still running stock mounts on the block, but that's gotta change at some point..

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Moottorin_kiinnike_4.JPG

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Moottorin_kiinnike_2.JPG


Removed all the unused wiring, I'm pretty sure I got it right what I don't need. If I didn't, it's time for a new wiring harness that I strip again :flipoff2:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Johtokasa_1.jpg

A few more pics of the cage/ uniframe build. Like I wrote, I cut off everything from the uniframe, I wasn't keen on cleaning up all the dried-up, gummed, undercoating shit.

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Eturungon_muokkaus_4.JPG

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Eturungon_muokkaus_15.JPG


Here's how to the roof looks like. I will cut out the existing roof above the pillars, tie in the pillars to the cage, and use sheetmetal panels between the roof tubes.

..and yes, I can see there are no diagonals on the roof area, they will be added later :smokin:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Katon_kaaria_7.jpg

Sweet. You should come by pirate4x4.no aswell.

Could this rig be road legal in Finland btw?

Sweet. You should come by pirate4x4.no aswell.

Could this rig be road legal in Finland btw?

I could, but I already have build threads in Finnish off-road forum, here and jeepforum. I think that's about more than enough for me.

This would no longer qualify as a street- legal XJ in Finland, my inital plan was to do so but due to the street-legality (is that a word?) requirements I dropped the idea very quickly. Maximum suspension lift 77mm (~3"), max. tire size upgrade over stock 51mm (2"), maximum bodylift 100mm (which isn't even possible on XJs). However, you can't even add up all the numbers together, 'cause the maximum combined total lift height over stock is 150mm (6"). ..oh, and we can't do any wheelbase stretch, track width can be widened by 30mm, and max. tire width increase over stock is 100mm. So you can lift your vehicle some, but you can't add stability to it. How fucked up and moronic is that? :mad3:

But now I'll quit whining on the web and head for the garage to actually fab something :smokin: Some updates will follow later on today..

I took the liberty of linking to this thread on the scandinavian forum.
I hear you on the road legal issue. We got even tighter regulation over here. Per now we can't legally lift vehicles or even increase tire size by more than 5% :shaking:

Looking forward to seing the rest of this build, it's gonna be badass :smokin:

Per now we can't legally lift vehicles or even increase tire size by more than 5% :shaking:


Call us, we have 35" & 4"+2" all TÜV approved (but only for YJ's :homer:)

BG NOR A/S, Oslo, http://www.bgnor.com

Cut off the roof today.. should've done that first thing before starting the cage. It sucked trying to fit just about any tool in the tighter sections between tubes and the roof :mad3:

The b-pillar hoop will be modified, I had to build it that way because of the cage rules on my local off-road trial racing series. I can now remove the lower tube section, and gain quite a bit of headroom :smokin:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Katon_kaaret/Katon_kaaria_6.JPG


If I were to start this project now, I would integrate the cage into the unibody a lot more. Sort of morphing it to the roof perimeter and the pillars. Now it kinda hangs somewhere in there and looks like crap :barf:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Katon_kaaret/Katon_kaaria_8.JPG


This makes it look ok, and support the whole thing a little - basically I try to give some strength to the pillars and door openings. I ran out of weld wire at this point when tacking the metal strip in place, so had to call it a day :shaking:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Turvakaaret/Katon_kaaret/Katon_kaaria_7.JPG

I like how you removed the dash. Did you paint all the tube before welding it in place? What size and wall thickness tube are you using?

Nope, it was painted with protective coat to prevent rusting when I bought the sticks. It sucks removing the paint before welding :mad3: Tubing is metric standard, main cage is ~1.9" OD x .120 wall, thinner tubes are ~1.5" OD x .120 wall.

Damn it looks like you got a lot of time evolved. Nice build cant wait to see more.

Some updates after a long time... Building a house for me & wife, it takes all my time & money really. So I haven't really gotten anything done with this project :shaking:

However, I finally got the material for the links and the flex joints. I'm using 2" OD .250" wall DOM, Trail Gear Creeper joints; 9/16" mounting hole, 1.25" thread. I didn't start doing any calculations before getting the link material so I can do some modeling with the joints and start measuring all the stuff.

This is my first real build that involves doing all the links etc., so I'm a little lost with the figures I'm looking at in the calculators - especially so 'cause English ain't my first language.

I did my research the best I could, read through the TOTMs for 3-links, panhard bar, 4- link rear and tried finding as much info elsewhere on the net as possible. Got a lot smarter, but not sure if I got smart enough

Could you guys with more experience give some rough ideas if these figures look even close to a good starting point for the links? Any good, or pure crap at this point :confused:

Front:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Tukivarret/Front_3_link_ver_1.jpg

Rear:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/Timo_Lampi/Jeeppiprojekti/Tukivarret/Rear_4_link_ver_1.jpg

The numbers look good for the rear but with the short upper link and the separation at the frame, your might have drive shaft issues at the yoke of the axle on down travel.

You weren't lyin, those mogs are way narrower than mine, good luck with the build, definitely came fast outta the gates, how far is the rear stretched?

The numbers look good for the rear but with the short upper link and the separation at the frame, your might have drive shaft issues at the yoke of the axle on down travel.

Thanks for the info! I have room for longer upper links and can increase the frame- end separation if needed. I'll look more into that and see how it changes things.

I really don't know what to do with the front though, I think those figures look like shit, but I've no idea what to do about it :laughing:


You weren't lyin, those mogs are way narrower than mine, good luck with the build, definitely came fast outta the gates, how far is the rear stretched?

Yup, they are narrow. Only 54" WMS-WMS if I didn't turn the spindles around. I'm pretty close to scoring a set of wide-track version right- side axle shafts, that'll widen my track by about 6". Then I gotta build a jig to extend the housings by 6" :D With the added width, turned spindles & custom BS wheels I'm looking at around 82" total width with the 42 x 16 PBRs.

Both ends stretched about 5" +/- 1". I don't really know, there's nothing left of the stock uniframe :smokin:

Thanks for the info! I have room for longer upper links and can increase the frame- end separation if needed.
Reducing the frame end separation will have the drive shaft, not increasing it.
Id make the uppers frame side adjustable start high and lower if you need to for driver shaft reasons. or center limit strap the axle like most of us do.

I planned on doing both front & rear upper frame side mounts with 5 mounting holes, 1" spacing. Should provide me with enough adjustment. Front & rear limit straps are also on to-do-list :smokin:

How about in the front, what kind of figures should I shoot for frame- end separation, and what should the AS be to prevent excessive brake dive and "nose- up" on steep inclines? Couldn't find anything on that from the front 3-link TOTM. Am I stupid, or isn't the damn info there :shaking: The more I look at the front design, the more I feel it's just wrong..

Guess it's time do some more testing on the 3-link calculator and google a bit more to get this shit right :D

Nice to see your still going on this.

I dig the tube work :smokin: