My input shaft

 

Disk brakes on the 14 bolt done. New seals painted and ready

 

Got the fenders cut. I like the back but rethinking the front. I will need to cut the inner fenders and rebox them where the battery box and air box are.

 

Been a while since an update. Got a custom fuel cell from RCI. I ordered it with only one vent and no pickups. Got an adapter ring from genright to mount in it. The tank is 30x12x9. 9" tall is exactly the same as the stock tank. I drilled out the holes with a ¼" bit. Then did the 6" hole with a jig saw with a metal blade



The fuel safe gasket maker I used. It was thin but sticky



Ring mounted



The gasket goes in first. Not on the sending unit.

 

Also been working on the rear fenders. Boxing them back in has been a pain but will be worth it. Since I'm using the stock seat belts right now had to rebox the inner to outer then the wheel well.

The open area at the door



Piece I used to start closing it up



Welded in



Primed and filled



The door



Door shut



Boxing in around seat belt bolt.




Wheel well



Rough fit of fender well I bent up



Welded in



All boxed in



Cut the trim panel to fit new fender well. Haven't decided if I like where the storage compartment was but kinda stuck with it. I could just use from the seat belt forward ???

 

wanna sell old rims and tires?

 

Already gone. Sold them, axles, bumpers, hitch, steering box, spare tire. Anything I wasn't going to use is gone.

 

looks good so far! I would recommend trying to cut fenders with some curves instead of straight cuts.

 

That's pretty lame if that's all you can come up with! This guy is building a new jeep, for all intents and purposes. The craftsmanship is superb and the manhours incredible! Nice job! I hope you plan on a full roll cage, because to push the limits of this rig, you're liable to need it!

 

Full exo is the plan. That's why I did the straight cuts so I could follow the body line with the exo.

This is the one that caught my interest. Since the bender I'm using is a 90° I figured this style would best suit what I am trying to build. Only 1 90° bend at the rear and 45° or so the rest of the cage.



This one too how the bars follow a straight cut. Saves me from buying a roller.



Thanks for the complement dave, there has been a lot of hours. I will be doing a few bars inside too for seatbelts and extra cab protection. (Gotta keep the kids and wife safe right?). Hahaha

 

You guys must have some good women! I'd have to knock my wife out to get her into a rig like that! The only time she rode in my Chevy 3/4 ton 4X4 was when her Caravan was in the shop. My son loved it.

I have a question. Has anybody had any luck with heavy duty CV joints in the rear driveshaft? It seems to me they'd last longer the Carden joints because of the angles.

 

Hahaha my wife loves it. I hope she drives this one more cause of the auto than she did my last jeep. It was a 77 cj5 stretched 21" with locked scout 44s and granny 4 speed on 37" iroks. I miss that thing. It was a beast. It wouldn't fit the whole family anymore.



I have never ran any special driveshafts. My group hasn't ran anything special on driveshafts. In fact we have always made our own. U joints on ends with slip joint on one end. I am planning on having this jeeps made by a local drive line shop. But I have some double cardigan ends I'm planning on using.

 

Got the jeep spun around in the garage this past weekend. Now I can start on the driver side rear fender.

Took a break on the fenders to work on the steering a little bit. Got the new pump.

Made templates for the orbital mount. Plan on using the steering gear mounting holes to bolt the bracket to the frame.



And cut the steering shaft so it will slip in and out. It was pressed at the stock length. Grinded off the pressed part and now it slips

Stock length 21"



Collapsed to 16"



Also had to file a little on the inner shaft cause it had some kind of a coating that made it to tight to slip easy.

 

Got the bracket for the orbital made up. It was harder than I thought it would be to fit it in there. It ended making the steering shaft a little closer to the header than I wanted but ended up good. If I would have angled it the orbital lines would have ran close to the belt.

The reason for the bracket. The unibody has an offset where the steering box was.



Test fit





All mounted up







Ran wire for the lengths of the hydro lines. Got them all mocked up.





May run this one in front of the upper bracket. But there is more room than it looks.

 

Looking good! I have always been a fan of ZJ's. Nice to see one getting built here.