After spending a lot of time on the '86, it's finally time for the '88 to get some well deserved attention. Plans are to try and use as much stuff I have laying around to keep costs down, buy used where I can, and when I have to let the moths out of the old wallet for new items, buy smart.

She was picked up in June or July of 2011 at auction. In the end with auction fees she cost around $825. Known problems at the time: locked up motor (ended up being a locked up accessory), blown hydraulic line down to the slave, and no rear brakes. At the time of purchase the driveline consisted of: 3.07 geared D30/35 combo, Puegeot 5 speed, np231, and Renix 4.0. Most of this will not be there by the end of the build.

Loading her up at auction:


Interior shot:


She spent a short time in a friends driveway, but eventually she was moved to my building. The second time we moved her the Dana 35 let loose. We ended up having to bump her up on the trailer with the starter and the D30 pulling.

There's an xj hiding in there somewhere:


Ah, there she is:


Free at last:


So first thing was to get her on the lift and check her out. First thing we noticed, she leaks... a lot. On the plus all those fluids helped coat her underside and kept rust issues from getting super ugly. Still, there's rust. It's kind of hard to avoid in the salt belt. Second thing I did was pull the cover of the D35. Even though I had no plan on doing anything about whatever happened, I wanted to see the carnage!

Spider gear tears were shed here:


A few pieces of spider gears I nabbed out of the bottom of the diff:


Now that my curiosity was satisfied, I started removing the interior. So far, not bad:


Sliders that I stole from the '86:


Picked these up over the weekend. Not sure how much lift they are, but they were cheap enough:


Sporting the rear seat back and letting some light shine in on the engine bay:


I also pulled the front ds out and pulled the tail lights. So that's a nights worth of work. Nothing exciting yet, but it'll get there. One thing I can say, there's a lot of work to be done. I'm hoping, hoping mind you, that I can have her going before the end of summer. Updates coming.

 

Spent a little time working on the '88 tonight.

Pulled off the flares... mmmm, rusty:



And worked a little more on pulling the interior:


Hopefull I'll get more done this weekend. I've been far to lazy of late...

 

Blew off working on the Jeep for most of the weekend. Got the leaf spring eye bolts free, but they're seized in the bushing. Guess I'll deal with it later. Went to pull out the center rear seat belts and the bolts were seized. Guess I'll deal with it later. Started trimming the fenders and the only cut off wheel I had left was spent before we could finish one frickin fender...



So I did the one thing I could do and started making a template for the mini truss.


Lesson learned: Don't procrastinate and start working on your junk at 8pm on a Sunday. Nothing good comes from it.

 

Finally went and picked up some more cut off wheels and started working on the mini truss today. I started with 2x3 box tubing a buddy gave me. I traced out my templete on the tubing and started cutting. It still needs a little more finishing, but here's what I managed to crank out before dinner. Not bad for $4.

 

In the middle of moving, so the '88 has been thoroughly ignored again. Tried to make up for the lack of work with an all day marathon of tearing her apart.

Started by pulling the Dana 35 out and decided to try installing the leaf springs I had picked up. Fun stuff followed after the bolt and sleeve started spinning in the bushing. Since the bolt was out of the way on the body side, we decided to pull out the toys. We used the grinder to get at the sleeve and the sawzall to cut the bolt:



After that, we attacked the shackle side bolt, which came out without issue (it had been doused with penetrant multiple times weeks before):


One area of concern is this front spring pocket, which is starting to rip off the body:


At that point we tried to remove the shackle, which didn't want to budge and the drivers side was being equally stubborn. So we decided to skip over installing the leafs today and moved on to other areas:


I really didn't have a lot of time to take pictures of any particular step as the day progressed.

The gas tank was removed for future installation in cab:


Finished cutting the fenders. Instead of simply cutting, we decided to do a cut and fold like done in the rear hoping for a little more rigidity:


Trying to see where we need to be to fit 33's:


Rear carpet finally pulled all the way out:


Checking how the Farmer Matt light boxes fit before they're finished:



Don't be a zero, be a:


So that about sums up what went down today. I'm hoping to get some more time in on her tomorrow, but who knows. Still so much to get done and I only have till the end of May in this building. However, I'm mostly concerned with getting the rear suspension finished before I lose my lift. After that I'll be begging for lift time between my friends and work.

 

Spent two days working on the old heep.

Day 1:

Worked on removing the shackles without a torch handy.

The bolt and inner sleeve were spinning, so to remove it I started by cutting one side of the shackle.


Next I took a tie down strap and attached it to one side of the shackle and a hole in the x-member to pull the shackle forward.


I made my second cut and now the bushing was exposed.


I made two cuts on the outer metal sleeve and pulled it off.


Next I made quick work of the rubber bushing.


I took my chisel and hammer and knocked the rubber and outer sleeve out exposing the inner sleeve.


Using a grinding dish, I ground down the seam area of the metal sleeve and 180* from the same seam. I then used my chisel and hammer to open the sleeve up.


Here you can see where I ground down the backside allowing for the sleeve to open a bit easier.


Then I installed the lift shackles and springs.


Next I went to work on cutting the rear wheel well openings.


And this was where I stopped at on Day 1.


On Day 2 I finished up the wheel wells.


I think I did a better job on the second side. Good thing you can only see one side at a time.


After that, I finished putting in the other leaf spring pack and peeled off the pin stripping. We slapped on some 31 BFG ATs, mainly because that's all that was laying around. We also ended up having to use 2" lift blocks as the threads on the u-bolts we had laying around were too short. After I get new u-bolts cut they'll be pulled out. But here's how it sits right now. I need to measure to see how big of a lift I ended up with, but it's looking pretty dang tall.








I'm thinking I'm about out of cheap on this project... Till next time.

 

went to work on the rear quarters tonight.





ignore the crappy shackle angle...


also did some measurements and it looks like the leafs are 6.5". a little higher than i'd like, but i'm going to rock 'em and see how it works out. saving up for my long arms and maybe slider boxes. still got a lot of work ahead of me...

 

Since I did the cut and fold fenders and quarters, I needed to do something about the chipped paint. Decided to two tone her using satin black spray paint. I'm pretty low buck on this paint job. When all is said and down I'll have under $30 in it.

My paint of choice:


Scuffed it down with 180 grit sand paper after taping off:


My buddy is the king of spray bombing vehicles. I have to give him all the credit for the actual painting:


Not too shabby, eh? Tomorrow we'll tackle the hatch and the driver's side. I have to say, she's starting to look respectable... well, at least in my mind.

 

Finished painting the heep, and yes, it looks incredibly funny in these pics.



I'll give you a few seconds to laugh....



waiting....



waiting....



...and deep breath.

Besides that, I've been researching my options for the front suspension. I decided to go 3 link, but I'm torn between going mid or long arm. The more I read it seems like a lot of guys like the mid arm setup. Any opinions or thoughts on mid vs long? Back to reading build threads... insomnia is great for research! Hopefully there'll be more interesting updates in the near future.

 

I saw your other rig at Badlands during this years Winterfest. I'll be watching this one develop. Interested in seeing your version of a 3link come together.

 

Well things have come to a sort of grinding halt on this build. I've been slowly gathering things as funds allow. I had wanted to go with a 78-79 F250 D44 and Chev 14 bolt, but just don't have the cash right now. So I decided to try using a spare D30 I have laying around and sticking with the 8.25 I installed.

Getting the axle ready to truss. Obviously I'm ditching my old truss and will fab up another. Trying to decide if I want to lay the coin out for some new coil mounts or stick with the stock junk. Being broke sucks.


Picked up some new 6.5" coils on CL for cheap.


Beached whale.

 

Subbed... I wanna see where this goes.