ExTrEmExJ99

Nice looking good what are you thinking for a lift?

Brambles

I wanna make my money last as long as possible so I'm piecing a kit together with whatever I can find

Found this Rough country partial kit for $50, but will probably only use the springs, also bought Rough country relocation brackets and rear shackle.



RE Gen II disco's $40




Rough country Control arm drop brackets $60






Springs on the Left, they are Big RE ZJ springs I think but not sure, might have to cut down to suite whatever my rear height is $60



Still looking for Adjustable control arms.........anyone?

Brambles

Bought this for $60, best I can tell its a RE 1600 adjustable track bar.


I'll put a little bit of elbow grease into the parts and make em look new again. Also need to find shocks but these will probably be new unless I can find some real gently used ones.

docmedpros

HOLY RUST BATMAN!!! I like the way you described working the sheet metal, and your cut and fold idea i think is much more sound

Brambles

I run a lot in the snow and you often get ice built up on anything flat, I was worried about this when I built the rockers because they mount so close to the bottom of the door that any kind of buildup of ice and snow could potentially lock the doors shut.

When I built my triple threat rockers I mounted them so that they had a slight angle to them, they don't sit perfectly level side to side. Any water that gets on them can run off, any ice that builds up will be a little easier to break free.

Also because I wanted a little more standoff from the body so I can mount my square tube flares to them I ended up with a gap at the front and back that needed filling. Plus the floor pan isn't paralell to the rocker so the gap at the front is less than the gap at the back. This is the front.





So a lot of test fitting later. This is the cap I built for the front. finish it off with a little seam sealer and its good to go, keeps the debris from getting behind the sliders

Brambles

Lower front fender was a bit rusty so I cut it off and made a new one



Welded it on and ground down the welds

Brambles

The I figured I'd temporarily change gears (no pun intended) for a bit of a break and start prepping the 8.8



Cut off the brackets with the plasma cutter, the tip is wore out on this set of consumables but its alright for rough work.



As far as I got before the wife had to go to work this AM, I gotsta watch the 3 year old now.

Brambles

I am/was thinking of building my own custom control arms. Until I priced out all the Johnny Joints, tube adapters, jamb nuts, tubing etc etc.

Its actually cheaper for me to buy prefabbed control arms. So I abandoned that idea.

So I phoned a guy that fabricates all things XJ and he (and everyone else on the planet) is stongly suggesting a long arm upgrade as its only a couple hundred $$$ extra over the custom short arms.......

My limited funds is getting its *** kicked....

jhampton

way to go man looking good so far....

docmedpros

like the progress, and yeah funds are always the short coming for most

Brambles

I decided I needed to spend some money to get things going so I ordered a Staangs Fab Long arm upgrade kit today. I want a nice ride when Im out hunting. Also ordered from him frame stiffeners and an 8.8 swap kit

Coil springs, track bar and swaybar disco's were shipped today.

Might try and get the rear springs out and new ones in soon, the shackles and shackle relocation brackets showed up

Brambles

Removed the rear leaf springs, everything went well till I got to the last bolt, passenger side front. It spun free the weldnut. Had to cut a slot and burn out the nut, Welded a new nut in place and was back in business.

Got the leaf springs all cleaned up, painted and installed with the shackle relocation brackets

Had to repair the unibody where the factory trailer hitch sat, rusted pretty good. Made some patches out of 3/16 angle and welded them in place, Cut all the holes out for the mounting locations.

Then fit the new smittybilt xrc rear bumper in place. Fits real nice, had to make a couple relief notches on the bottom for my shackle relocation brackets to go through but it looks awesome.

Now its time to get the 8.8 under. Ran into an alignment issue with some freebie spring perches so I ordered a set from RuffStuff and am awaiting delivery along with their ubolt top plates.

Brambles

Staangs Fab long arm upgrade arrived, painted it all with POR15, assembled all the pieces together and have installed the crossmember. Those Johnny Joints are unreal huge.

Removed the D30 and all the suspension parts for cleanup and regear to 4.10

Snapped a steering box bolt when I removed them for the Smittybilt XRC front bumper install so now I bought a C-Rok spacer plate to help with that, again I am waiting for delivery. I was gonna buy a JCR as it was cheaper but their checkout wasn't allowing me to do anything and I'm in a hurry so we'll see how the C-Rok one is.

Clean'd up and painted the RC whitetube shocks, they are just gonna be a patch job till I can get this thing up and running. They are for 4.5 lift but I"m gonna be more like 6.75-7.5" I think

Brambles

Lots happened since the last update, I'll try and snap some pics to prove It.

Got the D30 rebuilt and re-geared to 4.10

All the front suspension parts cleaned up and installed, Bought a set of 33x12.50 Duratracs mounted on some 8x10 3.75bs black daytona wheels.

Lift ended up being 6.25" Front and 6.5" rear.

Worked my way all around the body cutting out rust and welding in new metal.....done!!!!

Installed the Advance Adapters SYE kit and new 33T speedo gear, Pretty easy but I did it with the transfer case still up on the Trans mount an it was a PITA to align the front steady bearing, shift rod, and oil pump and get everything to slide together. Finally after giving the kids and the neighbourhood a good lesson on F-bombs and other creative profanity...I got it.

Measured for a new rear driveshaft and ordered from Curtis Tatton....I'm just awaiting for Ebay international shipping to get it to my door.

Interior is all back together.

Once I get my driveshaft I can set the pinion angle on my 8.8 and finally get it welded in.

3 of the 4 bar pin bolts came out easily.....last one broke......had to drill it oversize and i"ll just nut and bolt the BPE's in place and be done with it. Maybe even spot weld them for good measure.

Looks good with the high tummy of the raised cross member and the sliders combined with the 33" tires...

RegularGuy

cant wait to see the new pics.