4BangerDanger

High clearance shock mounts are a good idea, thanks for the recommendation.

Some updates:

My Christmas present to myself was a set of unibody stiffeners from JCR.



I bought front, mids, and rears. I'm currently working on burning them in. I'm still learning how to weld and I'm pushing the limits of my 140 amp unit, so I'm intentionally leaving out pictures of my welds. They're really ugly lol. But I'm learning and I'm confident in my ability to get the stiffeners installed. They just aren't pretty. What's that old saying? "A grinder and paint makes me the welder I ain't."

I also picked these up, which I am pretty happy about.




A set of TJ Moabs with 285/75/16 BFG KO2s! I'm debating what my final tire size will be on this build (for gearing), and it'll either be 35s or 37s, but these tires are in great shape and I've wanted a set of these rims. These will be great to get me rolling and I only paid $360 for the set plus one 15 inch spare with a 33 on it. I'll probably eventually sell the spare and get a cheap 16 inch steel rim for the spare so all five wheels are the same size.

RockinRonnie

Will be following this!

4BangerDanger

I dropped the gas tank today. I wanted it out of the way for when I weld in the rear stiffeners and I wanted to see what the cargo area looked like from below.





I was surprised to see how much dirt was above the oem skid plate. I was hoping to reuse the skid plate but I'll have to clean it up and see how bad the rust on it is.



Got the tank out!




It really doesn't look too bad, which is nice.

RockinRonnie

A surprise like this is nice sometimes !

thetastelingers

Dual 44s. May as well run 37s!!!!!

4BangerDanger

I'm considering it.

From everything I've read, if I build the axles the way that I want to (JK 44 gears, chromoly shafts, trusses, etc.), everything should be able to hold up to 37s with the big exceptions being the ball joints and the unit bearings.

I've been trying to research solutions for that, but so far my Google-Fu skills haven't turned up much. We'll see.

I also didn't realize until after I picked up the TJ Moabs that there is not many options for 37s on 16 inch rims. I would love to find some 345/75/16s but I understand that is a unicorn of a tire size.

unidentifiedbomb

Rear stiffeners? Might as well weld in some shock towers!

4BangerDanger

You know, I've been playing with the idea of stretching the rear wheelbase just a bit, and shock towers would fit quite nicely with that... Good suggestion!

unidentifiedbomb

I love them. Made a big difference on cornering and over rocks.

4BangerDanger

Where did you relocate your lower shock mounts?

unidentifiedbomb

If you check out my build thread you'll see some more details but I welded a mount to the u bolt plates and welded in some F250 shock towers through the wheel wells. They stick out about 8-10"s tall into the cab and about 6"s into the cab narrower than the wheel wells do.

4BangerDanger

I've been collecting parts and working on rust removal... Cut, grind, weld... Rinse & repeat...

Be gentle when judging my welds, I'm a beginner...

Welding in rear stiffeners on passenger side:







Cutting out the rocker on the passenger side... I'm planning on following the 2x6 (+1”) method outlined by Baddad here.






Replacing some metal in the wheel well area...







I opened up the floor above the rest of the unibody frame rail to inspect it, clean it, and POR-15 it.







Then of course I had to replace the metal I cut out. I used 16 gauge sheet metal and I painted the underside with weld-thru primer. I ran out of shielding gas about halfway through, so I had to switch to flux core wire.







I ordered some door bracing from T&M Metal Fab, both their latch brace and hinge brace. I got those installed on the passenger side.






Halfway decent flux-core welds...

I also ordered and received a rear D44 truss from Iron Rock Offroad:




I haven't decided on a front truss yet... Any suggestions?

I've also purchased recently:
Nut strips from Mean Lemons
XJ Leaf Spring Mount Stretch Kit from IronMan4x4Fab
XJ OEM rear sound bar off eBay
Front driveshaft found locally

My leaf spring hangers are a little rusty which is why I ordered the kit from IronMan4x4Fab. I'm waiting to install the mid stiffeners until that kit arrives as I think there will be a slight fitment issue.




As you can see in the images I took from IronMan4x4Fab's website and a screenshot from a PBR Boys video, I think the stiffener and stretch kit will overlap a bit in front of the spring hanger. Once the kit arrives and I can take a couple quick measurements, I'll trim the stiffener so that it butts up right behind the spring hanger.

unidentifiedbomb

Great updates!

4BangerDanger

The leaf spring stretch kit came.




I cut out the old spring hanger on the passenger side. I might've taken s little too much out... but that's okay, I'm putting in more material than I took out.



Cleaned up...



Primed...



Installed!




I also ordered some no lift shackle relocation brackets from H.D. Offroad.

4BangerDanger

I've wanted to do something different with the mirrors on this Jeep... I like the stock ones fine on my '93 but I decided to try to hunt down the rare tow mirrors found on a handful of early XJs and MJs.

I was looking for something like this:



Here is what I found:




These are not the rare Jeep option but they are off a 1983 F-150. They also fold in, unlike the Jeep ones. They look close enough!

I also ordered a MJ parking brake pedal assembly off of eBay.



I plan to delete the parking brake lever to give me more center console options to use with my mini-console.