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Wow I haven't been on here in a long time!
Love the pic awork! That's like my twin! I remember when mine looked like that....
I've been busy collecting parts and wheeling here and there.... Beat the crap out of the poor thing really. I keep saying I will upload pics, and I will, one of these days. Actually tweaked the whole body at some point in a rock garden back in February, so that kinda sucked.
Finally getting around to the stiffeners (I know I should have done them first!!!) and cutting out the rockers. Also finally installing my front bumper and ordering a rear bumper. Beyond that I'm kind of in a holding pattern right now. I knew I needed more axle for the tires I have, so I scored a ford hp 44 which is being retubed and a Cherokee Dana 44 (which I payed almost nothing for). I also wanted deeper gears so it's a win win, but once I have everything together I'll be doing an axle swap, and when I do the axle swap I will be changing coil springs, ditching the RC long arm for a 3 link, moving the front forward 1" and a few other small changes. Basically phase 2, just wish I would have skipped phase 1! Would have saved a ton of money, you'd think after 5 XJ's I would have learned but I guess not....
I'll try to drop updates and pics here and there over the next couple months, because that's what's always kept me going and given me ideas (seeing other peoples builds)
Couple recent trips. Likely be the last bit of wheeling I'll be doing for a while. Picked up a '97 that I'm building for my brother, gonna be a real handful.
To top it all off I've got the axle/steering/suspension swap to do on mine as well. More to come.........
Been a while.....
A lot has changed, and it's finally almost done! So while working on a 'build' thread for another forum I thought I may as well update this one too.
Quick run down, I had been eyeing a axle/tire/wheel combo a guy on another board had for sale. I got a small bonus last year so I figured if the guy still had the stuff I'd snag it. Sure enough he did; ford hp 44 narrowed to waggy width, 5.38's and arb with Chevy outers (6lug) and high steer arms. Rear was an Isuzu 44 with 5.38's and a lunch box. Wheels were new 17" Racelines just like my old ones, and a new-ish set of 36" bias iroks.
Got all that stuff home, already had a plan for the direction of the rest of the suspension from watching a few other builds. Ordered a Clayton 3 link crossmember, wide open design aluminum lowers, a bunch of tabs and brackets, heims, some 2.0 fox's custom valved, and a bunch of dom.
Along the way I ended up trussing the rear, changing the steering, changing front calipers, picked up a teralow 4:1 np231, rad design shifter, dirt bound rear bumper, dirt bound gas tank skid, jcr belly skid,
rear tail light boxes, brown dog brackets and rubber mounts, arb compressor and a bunch of other odds and ends to complete the rig.
As with everything on this jeep it's been a real pain in the ***. Nothing ever seems to go as planned. I've spent a small fortune in parts, tools and time to get this thing going again and it's only about 80% there, but it's finally running and moveable again.
Tear down was right after the 4th of July 2015 so it's been down at least 1 year. Started by pulling the 30/8.25 and selling them to a friend. Then did the standard oil pan/rear main change out (tired of leaks) which then led to the oil filter adapter. Having no axles under the rig makes doing that and the brown dogs pretty nice though!
I'll throw up a few pics, and hopefully here in another month or two I'll actually have some wheeling pics to post!
Had a cracked and leaky header like most xj’s So finally got around to swapping in a new one. Pieced together a hydro assist setup and did that at the same time.
needed to free up some space under the hood so I went with a thor intake, which is a whole story in itself, fitment is a joke but it does it’s job.
Basically I was able to get it thrown together enough for a quick ‘shake down’ close to home, then sent it off for the cage, and have been working on the assist till now. Just wrapped it up however since I had to run the ram under the tie rod I get to build a sort of skid/bumper for that too.... yay
Picked up a set of 37” kevlars and an old tattered set of steel beadlocks as I opted to ditch the iroks this go round. Do wish I would have kept the wheels but a new set of aluminum beadlocks are on the short list.
Basically just have to whip up some out riggers for the rockers, put some limit straps on the front, and bump stop the rear and it’s ready to go. Although my last task is laying out ‘storage’ on the interior since the cage kinda changed things (for the better)
Yesterday I finally got around to the out riggers for the 2x6 rockers. The rears were cake, whipped them up first shot, the fronts on the other hand were a pain! Guess that’s how it goes with an old twisted up XJ
Also got the rear bump stops cut out, I’ll get to burning everything in early next week
Limit straps are in, reservoir’s moved, and outrigger’s on. Finally!
Later I will probably do a boat side type thing but need to figure out skid plate situation first.
Temping in some rear bump stops and hopefully have it ready for a shakedown by the weekend
Steering skid is built, and turned out amazing! I’ll have more pics of the finished product tomorrow, checked everything while it was on the lift and limit straps are good, and plenty of length on the hydro lines. Also got the bridge built for the rear shock hoops, and the ham and antenna setup. Almost there
ram skid all done, turned out better than I expected given the limited amount of space we had to work with. Only drops about 1/4” below the tube in the lowest spot, and that was mostly to protect the bolts for the removable skid part. Buttoning up a few more little things and It’s ready to roll
06-04-2015, 12:02 AM
