so heres how the day went.
-got my material to start building some stuff. a 3 foot piece of 4x4x1/4in angle iron and a 2.5' piece of 4x6x3/16" square tube. the angle iron will be used for the front crossmember. more info to come with the 4x6
-i cut a few inches off each end of the angle iron to get it to fit perfectly up against the old crossmember.
-my old crossmember was pretty beat up and bent so i torched the bottom section so i could start fresh
-got the angle mounted up flush and held it tight with some C clamps then proceeded to weld it into place. the crossmember is actually thicker than it seems so it wasnt too hard to weld on.
-while taking time to let the crossmember cool between welds i cut the grill to the dimensions of my smittybuilt winch. i want to set the winch back as far towards the radiator as possible. there is no need for this i am just sick of it sticking out so far and hitting it on stuff.

so thats about it for today. heres some pictures to better explain

more

man i'm really liking this build!!! :thumbup1: is your D44 also 8 lugs like the D60? if not you gonna change out hubs to make them match?

the front and rear are both 8 lug. came out of the same vehicle. im planning on leaving it 8 lug and just change my wheels

sweet man!!! i'm gonna keep an eye on this since i'm planning on running full width on mine soon. gonna grab a D44 and 9.25 off a full size dodge 4x4 as soon as i get the extra cash. i'm really anxious to see the stance you end up with. how much lift you going with?

well i am going to run stock waggy leafs up front with a 1.5" lift yj shackle so i should get roughly 6" of lift in the front. im a little over 6" in the rear. ya the only reason i decided to go full widths was because i got a deal on them. front and rear complete for $300

Oh man that's a good deal!!! Hope I can find something like that!!!

Looking good Branden. Those axles are monstrous!!!

didnt get much done today but did get a little done.

i got the bumper cut up and mocked up. it now sits about 8 inches further in than it did before. very happy with how it turned out. just gotta weld a couple tabs and its good to go

then i split the 4x6x3/16 tube in half to sleeve the frame rails.

also got my shackles today.

then when i was just laying around lookin in the classifieds and found an awesome deal i couldnt pass up. i have been looking for a set of 8 lug wheels and finally found a set. so i went and bought them immidiately. they are 15x8 8 lug bead lock wheels ;) i will post a picture of them tomorow.

heres what got done today

ya they are pretty beefy but now i feel better about not babying the axles lol

today was another slow but successful day. i didnt realize how time consuming making your own frame stiffeners really is. started the day off by cleaning up the frame where i wanted to put the first part of my stiffeners. i am plating the rail right behind the lower control arm mount so that i can get my leaf spring mounts all mocked up then i will continue down the rails. i had to cut off the pinch seam behind the rails in order to fit the tubing around it. then i noticed that the rail gets wider as it gets closer to the front of the vehicle. to compensate for this i split the tube down one edge and bent it back to make it fit over the rail. (i will be welding a piece in the open area that i bent back) then i grabbed my neighbors drill press and started drilling some holes! did roughly twenty 3/4 inch holes all down the tube. i set it up to the frame and everything looked good. only got one side done today. hopefully will have that side welded up tomorow and start on the other side.

the other project i got done was my bumper. my original bumper had a small stinger (for looks) and the winch stuck out way to far. so i cut the stinger thingy off (you can see it in the earlier pictures) and cut the winch mount back. the gril was already cut out (cut it out a few days ago). i welded on some new brackets and fairlead mount and mounted it up and painted it. tomorow i will mount the winch back on it and show some pictures of the finished product.

went and got my waggy leafs today and also got a picture of the beadlock wheels i picked up. they are red and white now but i bought new stainless steel screws for them and some black paint ;)

so today was time consuming but i am happy with how it went

are you going to paint the rims black

yes. i am gonna take them to get sand blasted then paint them black

sellin your old rims?

i will be as soon as the rear end is sold