Very good for 8-9 months of work!!
Couple questions:
1. Is this a registered emergency vehicle?
2. What have you been using for SAR during build?
3. How did you choose name for thread? Is that what you call your Jeep?
4. Have you ever seen the movie "A Clockwork Orange" ?

 

Larry's XJ;3028713]Very good for 8-9 months of work!!

Thanks, but I think it took longer than that (certainly felt like it)
Couple questions:
1. Is this a registered emergency vehicle?
Yes

2. What have you been using for SAR during build?
One of my other cars, mostly my Santa Fe.

3. How did you choose name for thread? Is that what you call your Jeep?
No particular reason for the name of the build thread, was really just the first thing with "orange" in it that came to mind. I suppose "clockwork" could have some applicability, though. I've never really been one to name my vehicles.

4. Have you ever seen the movie "A Clockwork Orange" ?
Yes, a couple times. Pretty dark, even for being 40years old. Yeah, I realize the build or theme of this truck has absolutely nothing to do with Kubric's adaptation of the novella. Then again, some may question MY sanity with the way I approached some things in the build. So, maybe it's not so far removed after all..

 

So, I took some more pics, and will try to plug in the better ones. I don't think I really went into much detail about how this is built, so I will try to describe.

First, several years ago, I built the rear shelf/package tray thing which the "drawer" is mounted in. That is a 1.5" X 1.5" x .125" welded aluminum square tube perimeter frame on three sides, and open toward the back.

I don't have the exact dimensions, but it just fits between the seatback and tailgate, and nearly the whole width of the rear area. The top is about an inch below the top of the rear seat, to keep things from sliding off the top.

Spanning between the side rails are .5" square solid aluminum bars on 6" centers to support the center. They are dado'ed into the top of the side rails to keep it short as possible. The top is skinned in .063" aluminum and covered in carpet.

It mounts on some custom pivots I built out of .25" aluminum plate, and some .5" bar stock pins. They mount to the upper seatback catches. The pins go into holes in the rear of the side rails, and allow the shelf to pivot up for access. The rear just rests on the "constriction" in the tailgate opening trim.

The drawer itself was originally going to be all bent aluminum as well, but time and $ prevented that. So, it is framed with 1" x 2" poplar, and skinned in whiteboard.

The slides are the tricky part. In order to get the amount of extension I wanted (27"), in a short profile slide, I had to use some leftover server rack slides I had at work which are not ball bearing. Ball bearing slides would be better, easier to work, and stiffer when deployed, but too tall for my liking, and I couldn't find any that extended that far.

The slides have two .375" 10-32 socket head screws with spacers on them screwed into the front and rear. The screws engage some milled slots in the side rails of the shelf, which are about 2" long. The ones up front are straight slots, the ones at the rear are cut out at the bottom, so that you can slide the whole thing back a bit, and drop the rear out of the side rails for the working angle. The extended rails rest one some rubber bushings I put on some longer screws which go into the upper trim holes on the sides of the tailgate opening.

It is a good workable height for me with the lift. It could be stiffer when deployed, but as long as you don't lean on it, it is fine.

Hope that helps.

 

Very much so thank you sir

 

Hey just spent an quite a while going through your build thread. Looking good. Since you have asked everyone opinion on the grill I'll chime in. I'd leave it chrome. It sets your color scheme off nicely. Hope to bump it to you on the trails. That would be cool!

 

what size tube did you start with to sleeve the steering linkage? what are the lengths for the drag link/tierod? if you dont mind measuring when you get the chance

 

I'll have to get the measurements of the overall length again, as I have forgotten. But there's a foot of snow on the ground right now, so not today. The "sleeves" are internal, I turned down some 1" solid rod to fit snugly inside the cut tierod tube and drag link. I can't measure those now, but was something like .92 if I recall.

 

thanx after a lot of debate i think cutting down the stock stuff i had rather than buying the jks stuff.

no rush on those measure ments im not in a bighurry. i really appreiciate it

 

Yeah, I came to the same conclusion after comparing prices, esp if you don't take the extra step of doing the OTK conversion. MUCH cheaper, and nearly as beefy.
Ok, my measurements are:
T/R is roughly 53" eye to eye on the TRE's, and the tube itself is 37.25. That's about 1.25 of thread showing on the TRE's.

The DL is 35" overall, and 19" on the tube. Again, about 1.25" of thread showing on the rod ends.

I don't recall what the original lengths were, but it was something like 6" out of each one.

 

Thanx a lot!

I figured since i have my own welder now that theres no reason not to cut down the wj stuff

 

No Problem. I would however, not just build them to my dimensions, as depending on the amount of lift, how you set up the steering, etc, may affect the overall lengths you want.

I did the tie rod on the bench. I clamped a couple pieces of 3' straight stock to the knuckles, and then "aligned" it by equalizing the measurements between. Then measured the center-center distance of the TR holes, figured out how much adjustment I wanted on each end, then backed out the final dimension of the TR tube from that.

Basically the same for the DL. Once I had everything put back together, and it sitting on its own weight, I did a rough axle centering alignment, and then measured for the length eye to eye.

If you set yours up similar, my dimensions might be close, but if your amount of lift is different, that will affect your DL length.

 

wow this jeep is nice.great work....

 

Oh yea, any updates on this?

 

Haha. Honestly, not really much to update at this point. Pretty much just been driving it every day.

There are still some things I need to fix, finish, etc. Handling still isn't where I would like it to be, wanders a good bit still. A T case is in my near future I think, and possibly a motor. Some of my emergency lighting didn't come out like I want, and I still haven't finished all the other little stuff on my original punch list.

With all that in mind, I've probably spent more time considering V2.0 than actually doing stuff. Not sure yet if that will be another complete teardown, start fresh with another rig, etc. But it will involve a drive train swap (prob LS v8, or maybe even a Ford Ecoboost if I could make it work), 6speed, hybrid cage, etc. The usual pipe dreams.

 

do an ls swap.

im doing mine over the spring