To start things off lets do a little back story. Bought the jeep back when I was 16 when it was more or less stock other than a tired small block Chev. Over the past 7 1/2 years I slowly built it into a more capable PNW style trail jeep. The last year of jeepin it started to become a bit of a hassle with tons of little things breaking/wearing out and I started to worry almost everytime I was gonna be "that guy". Never in its life having a full tear down, it was starting to show its age and I did my best to keep it together by strapping the frame after it broke, tied cage into frame, redid the suspension, etc. Anyways, here's the old girl.
TBI 350
Dana 44's F/R
t18
4.27's w/lunchbox lockers
Dana 20
Spring under rear with yj's
Spring over front front with toyota rears
Chromoly shafts
Redhead steering box
36 tsl's
So I kinda lied about update coming soon :flipoff2: Got sidetracked with life which put posting on the back burner. Made some progress with the coilovers, transfercase adapter showed up, messed with the grill a little, pushed motor/trans back, etc. Still slowly chipping away when the funds and time permits.
Rode along last weekend with a buddy to get some much needed motivation and picked his brain on his build.
Redid my coilover mounts to fit the Fox's. Still gonna have to clearance the front tube for spring clearance, but for the most part they have found their home.
Clearanced the frame rail for the transfercase and went big with plans to most likely run an atlas down the road. Also, need to push everything back but the intake was limiting me so had to make a small hoop. Not my first choice and I'm not even planning to run the stock intake, but I want the option to be able to just in case. Plans are to run the Fitech Ultimate LS kit.
Short answer to your question is yes. My dilemma was that everything has been built to that hoop and the amount of effort it would take to raise the 1-1/2" just didn't make sense to me. Definitely not crazy on the aesthetics of what I did, but it will allow me to move forward. Looking at it today, I think I'm gonna ditch what I made and make it wider so it'll terminate at the bracing coming off shock hoops.
Ok, thanks. I've got a CJ5 and I'm loving how you're building yours. I'm very much considering copying yours, except also stretching the tub to CJ6 length.
Plated in the transfer case pocket and started in on some exhaust ports. Still waiting on front yoke before I can tackle the carrier bearing setup. Trying to stay busy with odds and ends.
I'm curious what kind of prep you do on the tubing for such pretty welds. Correct me if I'm wrong, they appear to be MIG welds, but I don't see even the slightest evidence of spatter...anywhere. I'm a decent welder, but I can't ever run that clean. I also haven't ever spent a tremendous amount of time prepping, cleaning the metal beforehand. Is that the secret?
Still waiting on some parts to show up so keeping my hands busy with probably the least important thing possible... A new steering wheel :flipoff2: Made My last one about 3 years ago when bored on Summer vacation from school and was pretty happy with the way it turned out. However, since then I've definitely grown as a "Fabricator" and figured I'd retire the OG wheel as wall art and whip up something new. And just to clear things up, it was made entirely with a step bit and cut-off wheel. Literally about as simple of tools as you can get.
First, here's the Anti-spatter we use at work and its hands down the best I've used.
My grandpa was cleaning some stuff out of his garage and came across a sheet of 4130 and asked if I wanted it, that's what sparked the new wheel idea haha
I was on the fence with wrapping in wood or G10, but settled on wood. I figured its timeless and I'm a big fan of a darker wood like walnut and brass pins for contrast.
Spent some time mounting the grill and starting to fit fenders. Plan is to have fenders be a part of the chassis welded to the firewall hoop and some supports off the shock hoops. On my old jeep the fenders and grill hoop/winch mount were all one unit. It worked pretty good, but was kind of a hassle when you need to pull the winch off or even just wanted to remove a fender you had to pull everything off making it a two man job. The plan this time around is to make just the grill hoop removable to made pulling the motor easier in the future.
fab work looks great, I have to say though that while I understand using that style of Warn on an old CJ its causing to major issues. 1) it looks to be blocking almost all the airflow through the grill. 2) and most importantly, its blocking our view of that beautiful grill.
The air flow is my biggest concern, but I'm not giving up the upright :flipoff2: Much more than just a look for me and with the terrain I'm building the rig for I really don't want to sacrifice neither line speed nor line capacity. I really hate running up on the cable mid hill when gaining traction and having to stop.
The quality of work on this thing is insane. Just what i needed to get me back wrenching on my junk. Love the progress and attention to detail. Keep it up
When I first built the fenders, I made the side panels removable to make getting to the bolts that tied into firewall easier. Since they are now gonna be a part of the chassis decided to ditch the removable idea and just stitch some new sides on.
Then the whole winch lowering cluster f@!#... Absolute pain in the ass.
Ultimately, I didn't want to extend the front frame rails any farther forward because I like the idea on of driving up a straight ledge. When it came time to cutting it was very tedious and tried my best to make it not look like an after thought. I guess the pics will tell the story better, let me know what you guys think.
Best part of the day was when I was starting to get irritated and my mom swung by out of nowhere and surprised me with food :flipoff2: "I know you won't stop to eat when working on this thing."
More or less laid the winch in there to get an overall width and just started trimming away till she fit.
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