Filarski's XJ Pre-runner build

[FatCity]

Ryan and I finally started building his pre-runner. The plan is a family friendly 4 wheel drive built for the deserts of Baja but still capable of trail riding and daily driving when needed.

He bought this basically stock 98 Jeep XJ back in 2008 for $1300. The steering box portion of the frame was so badly cracked/shattered that the previous owners just wanted the un-drivable little Jeep out of their driveway.


Took a weekend to tear it down, plate it, weld it up and put it back together. Otherwise it was in perfect shape… for a Cherokee.
Ryan put a new set of 31’s on it, a Detroit locker in the Chrysler 8.25 and drove it daily for five years. Even doing some duty in Baja for the 09 Baja 1000 when he used it to pre-run his section of the course before the race.



For 5 years now Ryan patiently collected, bartered and bought all the parts needed. Now its time to put it all together…

We started by going through both axle housings. A Currie fabbed 9 housing with 35 spline Ten Factory shafts for the rear and a custom Ford 8” with 31 spline chromo shafts also built by Currie.
Both housings did some time under different race Jeeps so we wanted to clean, paint and replace all the bearings first off.



The rear housing came with a spool and a 620 gear ratio. After some discussion we decided to re-gear an Aluminum 3rd member that already had a Detroit in it that had been waiting to go in to my F150. Ryan’s project time table is ahead of my axle swap time frame so we agreed to use it and we’ll work something out down the road.
We picked up some 9” Motive Gear Performance 457’s from National Drivetrain to match the front.



Front Ford 8”

[FatCity]

Next we parked it in Ryan’s garage and stripped the old suspension and axles out of it to bolt up the new stuff.


Deaver race packs slung under


We re-used the factory spring plate and just made shock tabs for it.







We got both axles hung and the brakes plumbed. Ryan yanked the T-case and installed a Rubicon Express slip yoke eliminator and had Coast Drive Line in Ventura make some 1350 drive shafts for it.





New tires on and rolling.
From here we drove it one whole mile over to my garage and started doing the fab work.

[FatCity]

Getting ready to do some work…
Once we got it over to my place, we gutted the interior along with all the doors to make it easier to work around. And had a glass guy come take the windshield out.







We’ve been talking about racing the 1000 with this car next year so we built the cage out of 1-3/4 .120 DOM so we can get it SCORE tagged.

We went about the cage a bit differently than we have in the past.
We decided to do the dash tube and stub out for the engine cage first, then build the rest from there.
Our thought was it would be easier, save time and allow us to pull the cage out for welding.
I cant say it was any easier or saved us any time, but it allowed us to keep the A pillars nice and tight and get a full weld around the tubes headed out to the engine compartment.

This stupid tube took two people all day to squeeze behind the dash…


It took a ton of cutting and fitting to get a tube behind the dash.
We had to lose air ducting to the side vents but once we plug the whole it should blow out the center vents like mother effer…

[FatCity]

Got the main passenger section of the cage done. As planned it slid out pretty easily so we could weld the tops

[FatCity]

Cage is back in and we’re off and running with the rest of it.

[skullver]

REally nice work!

[IRON-MIKE]

Awesome work Eric and Ryan.... looks verry good.

[Bigburlynakedguy]

What did you do with the dana turdy? Rob needs one for the honey badger.

[fuggy]

Nice! I had that same exact XJ once, stripped off some parts and sold the rest. Still got some doors, hood, grill and headlights if you guys ever need any spare parts in candy apple red (freebies).

[DirtWorshiper]

Bitchen build, great fab work!

[Dirt-Fab]

Looking good! I knew you guys could not stay away from racing a station wagon too long- LOL

[Shaffers Offroad]

Looks very good as always!

[FatCity]

Muchos Gracias everyone...

Made some decent progress this weekend.
One thing I skipped was the cage landing points and chassis stiffening.
We cut frame plates and some brackets that serve as the cage tie in, the nerf bar and allow us to mount a tube to help stiffen the chassis.

[FatCity]

Originally Posted by Bigburlynakedguy

What did you do with the dana turdy? Rob needs one for the honey badger.

Turdy's gone already. Wish we'd of known Ricky Bobby needed it...

[FatCity]

Ryan finished the triangulation and mounts for the PRP seats.



We started working the rear shock mounts.
Started by cutting the plates that join the two tubes. Then made a rough template to get a visual of the mount and then drew the rest in up CAD.



Cut and broke the main mounts and then made templates for the caps

[BigWoodyWag]

do you just use a flatbed scanner to get cardboard into the TMcad?

[FatCity]

Originally Posted by BigWoodyWag

do you just use a flatbed scanner to get cardboard into the TMcad?

On smaller parts, yes.
I've also just taken a picture of a pattern with my phone and then scaled it in the CAD software.

[FatCity]

Another thing we’ve been working on is the rear seat.
Ryan has a 7 and a 10 year old that need fit back there and your average racey bench/bucket seat just flat out doesn’t fit well in these things.

So in an effort to make the back as comfortable as possible (as possible, mind you) We decided to customize the factory bench by re-mounting it, shortening the back, moving the lumbar portion forward about 4 inches and adding padding on the sides and center to dish the seat.


This pic was taken before we added padding to the center, but I forgot to snap a pic before we sent it off to the upholster to have it covered and matched to the front PRP’s.

[Brushhog]

Very nice guys, can't wait to see it in action.

[tjmark]

Looks good.
intrested in a october death valley trip?

[David D]

Looks good. I really like the way the sliders tie in and act as a chassis stiffener.

[Jes]

Lookin' good. I like your Tecate CAD system.

[KINGSIZE]

Lucky one of the Filarski's has talent

[Fullsizexj]

Hey, is Mark still running the shop over at Coast Driveline, I used to take all my stuff to him when I lived in Ventura

[FatCity]

Originally Posted by Fullsizexj

Hey, is Mark still running the shop over at Coast Driveline, I used to take all my stuff to him when I lived in Ventura

Actually, Mark just left recently. Really really good guy though...