Nathan9Mile

let me start by saying i had a build thread that i started but its really far back and i enjoying posting in this section more and imput from the pnw crew is always nice since this is where i wheel lol.
If mods have a problem delete it if u wish. That being said here we go lol.
i picked up this 88 xj few years back was told by the po (newbi in 4x4s at this time) 4.5in lift other then that he didnt no lol. Got it home found this forum and found out how much of a pos it was it was at 7.5in of lift on stock short arms with drop brackets stock track bar really badly done bastard pack in the rear with blocks on top of that plus it had some frame damage i found later that the hitch was hiding and that was so caked with mud i didnt see it.
But i wheeled the crap out of it anyway for awhile kept breaking things like crazy lol broke the drivers axle and both upper and lower ball joints and that was it im done with d30s started doing research and after awhile and some convincing, my good friend (thats helping me with this project) talked me into full widths. i picked up a 78 ford f250 for my donor truck from a friend hp d44 and d60. now that you have read my book time for some pics haha

Nathan9Mile

THis is how it looked the day i got it home also came with a set of 33s

I got this this up on the lift and just went to town ripped front and year susp out you guys all no what that looks like no need for pics of that but here is the frame damage


so here is what we came up with lets cut it all out and start with a new frame


another few showing the rust hole in the floor board i have to fix

Nathan9Mile

went ahead and picked up a 20 foot stick of 3x3 3/16s steel for the frame rails.
here we are figuring out our angles for the first bend


drivers side frame rail done


all finsh welded and ready to go in the jeep for good

it slides into the frame around 15in and will be welded in and the stiffeners will tie both pieces in

Nathan9Mile

guess i also forgot the plans for the jeep in order
replace rear frame rails
hang chevy 63in leaf springs
full frame stiffeners
comp cut the rear lower quarters
home brew front long arms and cross member
2x6 rockers
front bumper plus other stuff lol
shooting for 5in of lift on 38/12.50 tsl's
538 gears spartan locker in the front
538s in the d60 rear welded up
i no im forgeting some stuff. tomorrow im going to finsh the comp cut and start designing the new rear floor.

Nathan9Mile

All i got done today with my friend is the ruff stuff stiffeners finshed up over head welding sucks lol

BuckB91XJ

Looking good! I really like your new rear subframe that is actually a real frame. I would like to do that front to rear to my new XJ. One of these little rigs would last forever with a real frame under it.

Nathan9Mile

Double post

Nathan9Mile

Thanks buck! Honestly this is my first real big fab project and after building the rear frame it would not be to hard to do it front to back mainly time is all lots of it lol. Cost would not be much either the 20foot stick i bought was $90 bucks i used about 17feet so two sticks would do it lol. I just want this thing done so bad! As the weather gets nicer it just seems like I get less time to work on it lol

Nathan9Mile

got the hp d44 prepped for the tnt truss also takes a bit of work and lots of cleaning lol

all the stock brackets cut off and ground down

to get the truss to sit flat on the tubes you have to cut around 2 3/8s of the casting off were the factory leaf spring went this was a little nerv racking but turned out great.




all cleaned up and ready for the truss!

Nathan9Mile

few pics of the parts i got in for the heep
tnt truss sitten on my 38s lol

my stock knuckle i got back from the machine shop thats ready for histeer

heims bushing perches ect

little idea to show how big ruff stuff 1.25 heims are

and my 12k winch little over kill but price was right

Cheepjeep95

Looking pretty sweet. Thats alot of work, but I can tell its gonna be slick.

odgreen

I aint got no problem. It stays. Lol

BuckB91XJ

I agree with ODgreen. Keep this build going Mr. Nathan.

Nathan9Mile

Thanks guys, im hoping to have it out in a few months if racing season does not slow me down to much. I wanna do a transfer case swap along with some other stuff that i need to source from my work steering box ect ect. Bumpers blah blah the more i think about it the more my wallet hurts but that is any project lol

BuckB91XJ

I'm feeling similar pain with my new Jeep project. I was thinking I could start over with a straight stock newer Jeep and just transfer all of my 4wheeling parts over from the old Jeep. That was a good idea in theory. However, the reality ended up being just about every part I pulled off my old Jeep needed to be fixed in some way or replaced...$$$$$$$$$$$$