[justin'sbig7]

build: saggy bottom girl

Finally time to perhaps post up my build from beginning to never end :flipoff2:.

Started in 2002, I was young, just left the dealership as a tech, starting an apprenticeship as a union electrician and taking a short term paycut to do so. So when a $300 1985 cj-7 popped up i was leary of going to look at it, I had about 7 jeeps in various stages of rust at the time anyway... My buddy talked me into looking at it and after draining my savings to do so, I bought it. It had custom paint on an aj's fiberglass body, absolutely NO rust on the frame (hard to find here in PA), 4 cyl 4 spd and all done up pretty nice, every nut, bolt, part, etc was painted and detailed. the guy was getting divorced and losing his storage. so $300 was the price !

this is the only pic i could find from stock, I had no digital camera at the time its the jeep cut off on the left.

after a couple of pay raises i ditched the 4 popper for a hot running, built 304 amc from a 78 cj7 i picked up. Did a 2" spring, 2" body lift, 35" tires, detroit and superior shafts in the rear and got into wheeling with the local jeep club. I wheeled the piss out of it like this and got bit by the rock bug HARD when I made my first trip to paragon park :smokin:.

The 304 was great tearin up the mall lots, but really sucked on the trail, it was cammed and had higher compression, so it was always loading up.

That winter I went SOA with yj springs and put a TBI 350/700r4/d300 in it. Flopped it twice the first time out, and built a set of axles for it. waggy amc 20 rear and a chevy d44 front narrowed to 60" wms-wms trying to stay PA street legal. I bumped up to 37" mtrs and then 36" iroks... i ran it for quite a few years like this doing little things like cromoly shafts, hydro assist, got a tube bender and started adding things like tube fenders, cage, etc.

my hydro assist install
hydro assist steering

pic of my iroks

I started getting bored and have been intrigued but the go fast racing and bigger better rock crawling... If you arent bored this is where it gets better. I havent wasted time showing tech to this point because what was done has been done a million times.

 

[justin'sbig7]

So, the plan was: stretching to 100" wheel base too long is a bitch here in the woods of PA. I planned on keeping leafs and focusing at the time on building bulletproof axles. front and rear ford D60's, 5:13's ARB's chromoly shafts. Keeping the driveline as it has worked well and was upgraded to a mildly built 350. I decided to do my own flipped D300.

i picked up a set of dana 60's, hp king pin ford front and a rear with 5.13 gears already installed, ballistic rear disk brackets brand new front calipers and rotors. then i picked up a pair of arb air lockers, one new, and one NIB for a good price. then i got a complete outer setup in good cond with highsteer arms and an extra set of shafts. so i put the axles together and figured on swapping in the fall.

i sold my iroks, and was just about to order a set of chromo shafts when i found a set of 40" maxxis creepy comp stickies on 17" allied double beadlocks, so there went that $$$ but i got tires to run

had to outboard the front springs, and i put ballistic frenched hangers on all four corners since the wear and tear was taking its toll on the stock cj spring hangers. i stretched the rear 2" and the front 1.5".

 

[justin'sbig7]

I added a torque arm and trussed the rear axle.

I was going to build a full hydro steering setup with junkyard sourced stuff, but time and the fact that a system engineered to work together seemed to outweigh the DIY side of me, and i ordered a PSC kit. For shocks I am running bilstein 7100 14" travel. The tube fenders were built when i was still at 60" wms to try staying PA street legal. they keep rocks from smacking me in the face now.

wheel base came out to 99" and i have the rear slightly squatted more than the front.

 

[justin'sbig7]

for the D300 flip (I have a thread here with the info but to save having a link to click here it is again)


started with 1.25" 1/8th wall square tube, welded it into a box that fits nicely over the pan opening. after it was all lined up right, i drilled all the perimeter holes to bolt the pan and adapter to the tcase

then located and drilled the holes for the shift rails (oversized to .75" using a crappy chinese bit that makes crappy wobble holes)

mock up of the new .625" shift rod through the shift fork (using dom tube for the rail)

then i took a piece of 1.25x1.50" solid bar stock, marked my EXACT centers and bored the holes through to 41/64ths with a good usa made bit. this creates a nice guide for the rods to slide on as opposed to the square tubes thin walls. i then used a 1 7/64ths bit and bored a .25" deep hole in the outside of each rail block. this allows a press fit for factory 1 1/8" shift rail seals to seal the rails on both sides.

the blocks are then welded to the spacer. i took extra care in aligning everything so that there was no binding on the shift rails. shift rails are .625" OD .120 wall dom.

i then made a bracket for the cables to mount to. (in the process of adjusting it all here)

the cable rods slide up into the tubing wich solves two issues, it helps keep the cable rods from deflection under load and keeps the the overall length of the shifter compact.

i then center drilled and tapped 2 pieces of 3/8" round stock. this slides into the dom with almost no slop. this allows the cables to thread into the rails as the attachment method. there are no interlocks or detents, this will be managed at the shifter end.

this pic gives you the idea of what it will be when done, the slug will just be further up in the rail and welded at the other end.

seals installed (skf brand from napa PN 6903)

 

[justin'sbig7]

final assembly time

ready to go back in

heres some shots of the shifters. after much debate as to how i was gonna do it, i picked up a set of Kluhsman Racing Products circle track locking shifters.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-KRC-7300-DUAL-LEVER-3-SPEED-SHIFTER-RODS-NR-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem1c0745ffc2QQitemZ120381112258QQptZRaceQ5fCarQ5fParts

i am going to make a limiting bracket to go between the shifters to keep them from shifting into high and low at the same time, as well as a "keeper" to make the stops a little more effective. these were a nice base to build off of at least.

 

[justin'sbig7]

I decided after 4 rolls :flipoff2: that i should probably get a better than stock roll cage. I drew this up in bendtech.

my kids are *hopefully* going to ride with me so i made it to cover the rear passengers. I also still have this dream to run this thing in some of the RCrocs race series... I realize leafs arent gonna cut it and all, but I just have this itch. I was going to try to get out to a race last season and see how it did, but my oldest came down with a blood disorder and so this past summer i had the jeep out twice... hospital stays and missing work cut the jeep fund to nil, looks like were starting to get this under control so hopefully we'll have more seat time this year.

anyhow, enough rambling and back to the execution.

out with the old

main hoops

going together

latest additions

 

[justin'sbig7]

dash layout

This is pretty much where Im at for now. I am adding air bumps, cromo rear shafts and a rear suspension seat nestled into the cage for the kiddos at the moment. Bladdered fuel cell, front chromo's and lots of other stuff i havent thought of yet to come.

kiddo likes her new seat

as far as links and coilovers etc, I think i will focus that energy on a buggy. I would rather build something from scratch and make it all fit accordingly to achieve all of the dimensions and geometry that i want as opposed to trying to make it work. having to sacrifice some things being constrained by using preset dimensions (jeep frame) just seems to be a bit redundant.

 

[Deadman 94 xj]

Kick ass build!

 

[Phat95YJ]

Nice man, Nice find for 300 bucks!

 

[justin'sbig7]

Nice man, Nice find for 300 bucks!

:laughing: by what i have dumped (not "invested":shaking: like the people on craigslist)into this the $300 initial jeep was like the first free bump of coke

 

[ky scrambled]

:laughing: by what i have dumped (not "invested":shaking: like the people on craigslist)into this the $300 initial jeep was like the first free bump of coke

I bought my YJ for $200 and sold the doors within 2 hours for $300. The tides changed very rapidly after that day :laughing:.

 

[02dmax]

Nice man, great build.

 

[mechanicalmongoose20]

:laughing: by what i have dumped (not "invested":shaking: like the people on craigslist)into this the $300 initial jeep was like the first free bump of coke

Well said, sir.

 

[justin'sbig7]

started mounting the kids seat.

I put in a harness bar for the shoulder belts (using jr dragster harness)

 

[justin'sbig7]

since my cj is no longer street legal, and was a fire waiting to happen the way it was wired before, i decided to rewire it. i used a cherokee fuse/relay block for ease. once you separate it from the main harness, it really makes a nice wiring solution. theres 4 relays, 4 15 a fused circuits, and about 6 20-50a circuits. since i am no longer running the street required electricals, this is plenty.

My ADD shines when it comes to vehicle wiring, and the painless EFI kit was nothing short of embarassing on my part, i threw it in to get it running and never straightened it up since. the rats nest of a factory wiring harness had a lot of soon to be shorts/fires, so i ripped EVERYTHING out of the jeep and started over, minus the ADD lol!

i didnt take pics of the wiring before removal, it was too embarassing, but here it is on the floor to give you an idea.

so i re installed the EFI harness engine side first

i added some heat protective sleeving for the wires that run to the starter around the exhaust

 

[justin'sbig7]

then came inside the jeep
cherokee fuseblock mounted

close up of the cherokee fuse block (the wiring is a lot cleaner than it looks in the pic, the engine feeds are coiled on top of the block)

I then added a new dash panel with master kill switch and a bunch of toggles to run all the necessary crap. my arb's and winch control are mounted on the shifter for easy use. it really cleaned it up

 

[justin'sbig7]

I have been developing a bad habit of wanting to go faster and faster, and so it was time for some bumps (in case i ever make it to a race like i have been saying for the last 4 years ) so i scored a set of profender 4" front bumps and FOA rear 2" bumps from some folks on the pbb :smokin:

I stroked the profenders down to 2"
coming apart

spacer installed

profenders installed

FOA's

waiting for the big brown truck to drop this off :grinpimp:

http://www.atlinc.com/super-cell-300-series.html

its going under the jeep tight to the body, i didnt want anything questionable of quality or in the jeep since my kids will be back there...

it will also come in handy if i run KOH :laughing:

I have been working a ton of doubles... so i hope that after some bills are PAID OFF I can swing a set of reid knuckles

 

[Deadman 94 xj]

Lookin good. That cell is sick!

 

[justin'sbig7]

I started installing the fuel cell this weekend. straight out of nascar and into my jeep :grinpimp:

Its a 22 gallon atl kevlar bladder tank.

I am gonna blank off the 2.5" fill tube and use the 1.5" vent as a fill point. ill have to put a rollover vent in as well as a fuel return for the TBI setup.

Box of goodies for plumbing the fuel system showed up. going to all braided hose and a-n fittings.

I had to cut the frame rails to get it to fit. my plasma decided it wanted a new cutting tip so i am waiting for it to show up before i can cut the plates to re box the frame.

then i got a bit nuts and cut the floor out to tuck it up higher into the frame.

I need to get some plate to make the cradle to hold the cell, and sheetmetal to box in the rear floor area to maintain a barrier between the tank and interior of the jeep.

 

[justin'sbig7]

Well, i got a chance to work on the thing this weekend...

Re boxed the frame

Then i started building the skidplate/mount. I used 3/16" plate

Its tucked up even with the frame rails. Now i just need to plumb it all and build the floor. I also got the fill plate block off, i fitted it with the rollover vent and fuel return fitting. I still have the 1.5" fill tube.