I finally have some updates worth posting for the jeep.

We got settled into this house, having an extra deep 2 car garage has helped a lot. A far cry from a shop but it does the job.

I used 1.5x.120 hrew tube and bent it 180 degrees to use for shock hoops.
I got the coilovers mounted. It was a little tricky to get the remote resiviors to fit nicely under the hood.

After that I got the 231/300 doubler mounted. I worked on that off and on over a span of about 2 weeks. It was a huge pain to have to elongate the holes on the rear of the transmission. The bolt pattern on a 231 transfer-case is not symmetrical
I finally got that bolted in, got the dana 300 clocked and had quite a fight to make the t cases clear the seat mount and still be able to patch up the floor with sheet metal.



The floor on both sides of the transmission tunnel is now bolted on which makes it really nice to work on without having to crawl under it as often.

After getting the 3 link, c/o's and the doubler in I wheeled it for a while like that.
I finally hit my rear hatch on a tree which really bummed me out since it wouldnt close which led to me taking all of the windows and windshield out of the jeep.

Its finally a trailer queen.

 

I added a dash bar and windshield bars for a little extra support.

 

With the jeep set up this way, the front end rode like a dream, smooth through the rocks, whoops and stable in smoother sections at speed.

The rear is stable as leaf springs naturally are that way, the shocks and springs in the rear were too stiff and had too much rebound.

I was talking to a family friend about this issue who used to work for the cannidae race team. He had a few sets of shocks left from his racing days and at first it was just a crazy idea to put bypass shocks on my jeep. The next day I found myself at his house making a deal trading light bars and cash for a pair of these...




They are 12 inch travel shocks, I tried for a few weeks to sell them to find a pair of 16 inch travel bypasses but I didnt have any bites. I wasnt very patient as I had them off my jeep to sell means I couldnt go wheeling.

I tried making some mounts on my jeep which looked like crap and to my surprise the tire would rub on the shock. That wasnt going to fly so I took them back off after the weekend.

With the rear part of the unirails looking like crap because of being welded, cut and re welded a few times over, along with the old cage that wasnt that great I figured it was time to start fresh.

Then this happened...

 

I picked up 2 sticks of 1.75x.120 hrew from the steel yard, 4 sticks of 1.75x.090 tube, and 1 stick of 2x4 .120 wall box tube.

I knew if I designed the new cage and took my time I could make a lighter cage that is much stronger. After seeing a friends toyota pickup with a cage take 3 rolls on a cage made of .090 wall hrew tube I knew that I could make it work.

The unirails are 3x3, so going from 3x3 to 2x4 meant that I had to brace both sides really well at the seam where the new part of the frame met the old.

 

Next thing to do is start with the new frame rails. Pretty simple just made sure everything was level.







The plan for fenders is to cut the old fender sides off of the jeep and re use them as skins .


I didnt get any pictures while building the cage. I used .120 wall tube for the A B and C pillars, the rest of the tubing is .090 tube.

I used 1x.060 hrew tube to help support the bottom of the fenders. This is plenty strong because of the fenders being dove tailed the fenders arent likely to be hit by rocks anymore.

I also got the shocks mounted properly. they barely fit but their placement worked out great.




The shocks are mounted at a 30 degree angle. This gave me 16 inches of wheel travel out of the 12 inch travel shocks.

 

The passenger front wheel looks odd because its not mounted to the jeep. The axle is sitting on the ground. I had an issue with my coilover.

I am waiting on new parts so I can put it all back together. Kind of ruined plans to go wheeling this weekend but with 40 mph winds today it isnt my favorite of days to go wheeling.



In the end I have 7 inches of up travel in the front, 8 inches in the rear, 108 inch wheel base. 85 inches wide, and the drip rails near the roof sit at 67 inches from the ground.

 

wow your drip rail sits about 5" lower than mine and I'm only on 37's. but that's the price I pay for being narrowed and full bodied.
bypasses on leaf springs. that's the first time I've seen that! can't wait to see how this thing does on the trail now. heck of a rebuild man, ETA on next wheeling trip?

 

As soon as I get the parts to fix that coilover then ill be good to go so probably next week.

Im unemployed right now so I go wheeling with some friends multiple times per week around local places that we have. (A few of my friends work odd hours and have week days off).

When I built the new frame rails I raised the rails up about 3 inches, this helped the jeep sit lower and allowed for more up travel in the rear. The same is going to happen to the front when this engine dies.

 

Atmos how far are you from hesperia?

 

looks to be about.. 6 hours. I'm up near sacramento. I do most of my wheeling up in the sierras and reno. I'm not planning on dragging this thing down to socal till KOH. but if you wanna come up here this summer I'll show you where to party!

 

Theres been talk of a few of us heading up to the rubicon this summer. Id like to cruise around fordyce also as long as I dont need a scuba tank to drive across the rivers there. lol

If we go id let you know.

 

rubicon trail can be completed in a day during the summer. all the difficult stuff has been blown up.. still a fun trail though. Fordyce is where the challenge is. and due to the drought the lake is really low. I checked the website a couple weeks ago and the water was at 35cfs. I have crossed it at 350cfs, and it is supposedly impassible when it is up near 500. make sure to check the site before you go.

just for comparison, it is at 27 today. barely a trickle. lowest I've ever seen it in person was 80cfs. which comes up to about the hubs, or maybe to the bumpers in some deeper spots http://www.dreamflows.com/flows.php?...m=norm#Site063

it's a killer trail man. the bypasses are just as difficult as the obstacle itself in most cases. I'll be there 2 times a month as soon as the jeep is done
safe to say your jeep will be fine for crossing

 

sounds like a good excuse for week long extravaganza to me

We have the mojave river here that we go play in sometimes and im familiar with the deep water thing, going up to your hubs wouldnt phase me at all, its when it gets above the headlights is when it gets a little scary...

 

Wat a transformation epic build man just shows with hard work and skills you don't have to spend a ton of money to have a bada$$ rig keep it up

 

The money part is unavoidable as some parts like gears and shocks are not worth trying to make yourself.

I feel like ive worked on it a lot more the past year than I have been wheeling it so its finally at a point where I am happy with it so its time to go wheelin

Funny thing is I am planning on buying a new cherokee and putting it on 35s and leaving it that way.
This way I have my wheeling rig, and a street legal rig thats more family friendly.