My '00 gets prepped for competition :buildthreadnotfor56k:

[Timmay]

Looks like I started up a bunch of questions in various threads recently, so I figured i'd post up a new build thread.

Many of you saw my axle swap thread. For those of you that haven't, here's the link:

http://pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=505981

This round of mods focuses on safety and performance. I had a bunch of issues I wanted to solve.

This season I will be competing in RCrocs competitions at Rausch Creek in PA. Hopefully these new mods will help me do well.

First off was my rockrails. I loved the look, but they just weren't high enough, and flexed a bit too much for my liking.

Here's how they started.





This is what I ended up with. The legs go through the floor.





High clearance. I gained a little over 2".






I also didn't like my tank sticking out in the middle of the rocks. The plastic tank took quite a beating, but I didn't like it. I did what everyone else does and just moved it up.

[Timmay]

Now it sat nice and I had good clearance all around. Pretty happy with this setup for the time being.










I wheeled it a few times like this, beat the hell out of it. It was fun and worked well.



The only thing it lacked was a true feeling of control. Sure I could play with the steering wheel and it would turn, but that wasn't enough. I needed more levers dammit.

So I started gathering some parts.



That's a NV3550 > flipped 231 > flipped 300.

I put that aside for now and threw these freebies in. Sebring power leather seats. Very comfy and the bolsters are perfect.



I also threw some speakers in my half doors. One of my favorite mods.




Sitting in a lecture class hungover as hell a few semesters ago I had an amazing idea. I started drawing, and like it more and more every time I thought about it. So I broke out photoshop and whipped this up.



I also did this one in Paint sitting in a CNC programming class. This one put me over the edge, I had to do it.



I couldn't bring myself to cut it up quite yet though. The body was still in decent shape.

[Timmay]

Luckily, the next trip to Rausch I tried some really really dumb lines, lost a ton of glass, and completely destroyed the roof.





I made a few more wheelin trips after this, all was well, but I still wanted levers and to cut off some ugly sheetmetal. I needed that 5 speed and crawl box/twin sticks first.



Luckily Duffy finally got me my box4rox kit, and I put it all together.





Put the pedals in along with the trans, tcases, and a new clutch. Can't forget that B&M shortie shifter.



I fabbed up some cable shifters next.

[Timmay]

Almost all in place.



Vetteboy giving some pirate salutage.



All ready to go.



Cable shifter control box was next.

[Timmay]

Then it was done, ready for Nov. 9th's wheelin trip. This was going to be my drivetrain shakedown run. What better way to be prepared then a test drive in the shop parking lot.

[IMG][/IMG]

Here's how it left on that trip.



That would be the last trip I took with more than 2 doors.

About a month later, I got customer rigs all done and decided to get to work. So out came the penthouse next to the chop saw, and all hell broke loose.



Welded the rear doors shut. Quite the moment of truth huh?



I wanted it to look factory. I cut a section off the back of the old roof and tacked it up to end the ribs nice and smoothly.



Then I cut a lot off the MJ piece, and fit it up.

[Timmay]

The MJ cab is a little taller than the XJ. Not a huge deal, I just section parts out in the right spots and it turned out well.









It looked decent at this point.



3 days later, christmas eve, I brought it home. I had another cage to build in the shop and needed the room. Here's more pics of what it looked like at that stage.







It sat here for another 3 weeks.

[Timmay]

Once I finally got it back in the shop, it was go time. This is Jan 10th.

I started off finishing out the bed with 16ga.



Completely gutted the factory garbage that was in the back.



Gutted meaning, nothing but outer skin.



New bedsides.



They have a nice simple bend in them to match the one on the outside that runs the length of the XJ.



They run all the way inside to keep a clean look in and out.





Cut more off the MJ part (somebody tell me why I even used this thing to begin with again?)



annnd fitted up the bulkhead. My favorite part up to this point.

[Timmay]

I got tired of working with sheetmetal. I had a tube rack full of tube that I just needed to play with.

There was no way i could make my roof halo in one piece. It got sleeved like so.



Perfect.



Tons of bends and planes. Here's the start of my B pillars.



Remember those rockrail legs coming through the floor? How convenient.







At this point, the rear tube work looked like this.

[Timmay]

6 hours later (hopped up on monster of course) I was at this point.













Why is that B pillar sunk in the sheetmetal? I can use all the room I can get at 6'4" 240lbs.





The bedrails enter like this...



And tie in to the B pillar like this..

[Timmay]

The B pillars are also stitch welded to the sheetmetal all over the place.



As it sat, another weekend down. FWIW, i'm a fulltime college student attending school 3.5 hours away from my shop. I travel home on the weekends to work on it.







Feb 8th I got a chance to continue on it. Started with these badass A pillars.







Tight fit.

[Timmay]

Couldn't have done that without this bad boy.





The rear upper tubes in place...



Nice clear VIN for street legality.




This is the dash mount in the center, it goes over the rear defrost vents. I have no more rear seat, so I drilled some holes in a plate and welded it over the mount right in front of the defrost vent. Then I made my center console off this bracket. I'm going to drill some holes in the console tubes near the triple sticks. They get COLD in the winter, so some heat there would be awesome.



I also remounted my cable shifter box to the cage for a firmer location.



Here's the back triangulation.

[Timmay]

The console is removable here and at that dash bracket. This is 1.75" DOM sleeved with 1.5" DOM and slit in a few pieces. Then I drilled and tapped it to make it removable. Works perfect.











Rcrocs team 343 representin.



Pretty beadsss.



Rub rails started...

[Timmay]

Started getting my battery relocation in order. It will sit here.



York 210L taking the battery position mounted to the motor.





Then I yanked the rear axle to work on the sleeves and suspension. Can you tell I like to jump around on projects a lot?



These are 3x3x3/16 to match my current sleeving.



Small gussets over the relief cuts.



Fits well.



Then I bent up some more tube.



Cut out the sheetmetal and fitted it up.

[Timmay]

Cut some more...





Welded some...



All done. This is stock wheelbase with the new fenderwells.




At this point I needed to figure out my rear suspension. I've had the slider idea in the back of my head for a while now, and I decided to just give it a try.

A little time on the CNC plasma here at school and I got this.



Tigged some square stock on to locate the UHMW and I was in business.





I also CNC plasma'd some front adjustable mounts. I have 3" of wheelbase adjustability now.

[Timmay]

Here's the sliders tacked in place at full compression.





.....and full droop.







Welp, they work well, lets move on...



I decided to play with more sheetmetal and cleaned up the pass side with some fill plates and primer.



Wavey much? Bondo will fix that. This also shows the new final wheelbase of 105.

[Timmay]

I really didn't like that big hunk of square tube on the back. I decided to spruce it up some.









Then I worked on tying everything together...









Both sides done up.

[Timmay]

Sitting nice and low.







Smoothed over miter. Beauty.



It was friggin nice out the next day, so I wanted to drive it. That means I need to wire up the fuel pump.



I cut off all the unnecessary garbage. Left three wires. Taillights and fuel pump.





Added a dash bar and winshield bars.

[Timmay]

Outside the shop...












That brings me up to where I am today. It's sitting just like this 200 miles away.




Whats left to do before the shakedown run March 22nd?

I need to do a SHIT load of welding. Almost all the sheetmetal seams have to be done.
Tailgate. It will be a heavily modified J10 gate.
Bed storage. I have a very slick idea for this, you'll just have to wait and see.
Harnesses.
FOA remote res smooth bodies, 14" up front, 12" out back. (need some fundage)


That's it for now, obviously i'll be updating this thread in the future.

[psulliva]

All I want to say is badass. You'r bends and Ideas are great, and beautiful. Keep the updates coming. good luck

[xj_man_646]

Oh...I love it. Looks really sweet watching it go from the beginning.

[vetteboy79]

You must have been bored as shit last night.

Nice to see it in one spot without all the BS.

[TJP]

That looks fucking sweet.

Damn it, all I had was about 4 minutes to scroll down the thread.... Now I got to wait 9 hours to read it....

[Choped4door]

Awesome rig, you got some skills. IMHO probably one of the sickest looking XJs out there

[Capt. Nemo]

All that work for ground clearance, and you're still running low pinion axles (and the notorious 14B pig at that?)? One of the best mods I did was going to high pinion axles front and rear.

Other than that, very nice work. I wish I had the time...

[[Memphis]]

Timmay you are nuts! I love this build, obviously done over a huge amount of time but you make it look like a weeks progress hahaha

What model Hobart are ya using?

Btw, your method of tying in the MJ cab is the best I have seen yet, I thought about doing something similar but I like my trunk space hehe

P.s. nice job painting over the dirt