Oh snap, totally missed that. sweet

 

Most people have a personal trainer, I have a personal fabber. Stratton came over last night again and helped me tackle a few things. First thing we did was hacked the factory control arm brackets off, it actually went faster than I expected. We sharpened the chisel for the air hammer and it cuts through uni-body like butter, sad, but true. You can see here.


Then we plated the uni-body back past the coil to strengthen it for the track bar bracket. Then we bolted axle up.. again. Centered the axle and started figuring out a track bar bracket, drag link, all the fun stuff. It's all going to be pretty tight, but I think it will be fine. Due to the low amount of lift (about 5.5" right now) and the 38's I will only have 3-4 inches of up-travel, which is fine with me, it should have plenty of droop.

Stratton welded up the fancy track bar bracket and plated the back side of it, I love the looks of it. (just had to throw that in there) This thing is stout, he finished it with some gusseting. Looks sweet! These pics are about ride height.. I may need another inch of lift, but I don't want it any higher than that. You can also see how much we pushed the front axle forward.

This thing is getting close!







Track bar angle...

 

Looks sweet.

Edit: You might already know this, but you're missing 2 bolts on your front driverside beadlock. Just thought I'd let you know just in case, you didn't.

 

Gotta be one of the coolest builds right here. I can honestly say I wasn't super fond of the full width swaps but you and 98CherokeeSport have changed my mind. Especially yours, i like how its turning out and those beadlocks are sick! Planning on putting the Bushwhackers back on?

 

Thanks man! It's definitely been quite the project so far. Nope, no bushwackers. I am running FIberglass pre runner fenders on the front, those will give me SOME tire coverage. I'll have to see once they're on where I'm at. I'll figure something out for the rear, tube fenders or something.

 

I had a little time last night, I finished mounting up the one tire, then got a second one done. Bolted them on and sat the front on the ground. I like it a lot, LOW and WIDE. I've got 3" coils up front right now, i'm trying to figure out just how much lift i'm sitting at. These are supposedly 3" lift coils, they are 12-1/2" compressed. Can somebody with 3" coils confirm that's close to the right length compressed? Also it's 23-1/2 inches from the ground to the bottom of the pinch seam below the driver door. Maybe a couple people can measure their's and tell me how much lift and what size tires they're running. That should give me an idea of where i'm at.

I'd say right now the hood is 2-3 inches lower than before I started. That was on 7.5 inches and 35's.

Here's a couple pics...





I've still got to finish a few things on the front. Replace some of the bolts with Grade 8, move the right side bucket back 1/2". Cut the drag link to length, swap the pitman arm, and install. Plate over where the factory control arm brackets were.. and I think thats about it for the front.

 

sweet build working on my 44 swap right now waiting on my steering kit from ballistic fab and then its mock up time... im also using ballistic fabs xj/tj front coil control arm mount brackets rotated up 2" to keep the bottom of the lower arms from dragging through anything

 

Looks sexy all low and wide

 

That thing looks like its gonna be about impossible to flip (but I have a feeling you'll try your best)! Good Job!

 

Got some time to work on it again last night. Mocked up my Ballistic coil buckets and got them welded up.


Getting better with the welder. Laid some nice beads down.



Then I tore my gas tank out. I stole this idea from a different build on another website. I want to push the rear back more than 2-3 inches, but don't want to ditch the factory gas tank. If you look there is a few inches behind the gas tank, so it can be pushed back about three inches.

Here are the hangers in factory location.
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I built new brackets using some plate, drilled a hole large enough to get the top of the hanger through, then cut a notch that it slides into. Worked great. I tacked them into place and mocked the gas tank back up to make sure everything still fit.

You can see the bracket here...


Crap cell phone pics... Brackets tacked in. Fuel tank mocked up.


This is about there the axle will sit.


Tonight i'm going to burn the brackets in, do some bracing on them. And put the gas tank back in.

Then I can start mocking up and tacking on the four link bars and tabs.

 

Oh wow thats wide! I like it!

 

sick stuff bro keep it up...

 

how high are you going to comp cut it if any or do you have a difrent idea for stretch the rear that far back

 

I'm going to bump stop the crap out of it, I won't have a ton of up travel, 4-5 inches. I don't want to cut a ton, probably open it up as much as I can without affecting the fuel door. I'll really have to see once it's together and on the ground.

 

Nice build man. You guys are doing some good work. I thought the fullwidths stuck out far on my s-10, they really sit out there on an XJ!!