[Brent99]

I was curious about your tow bar. Did you construct it yourself? If so, do you happen to have any dimensions or tips? I would be interested in any information that could assist in my tow bar build.

[Fflintstone]

Originally Posted by Brent99

I was curious about your tow bar. Did you construct it yourself? If so, do you happen to have any dimensions or tips? I would be interested in any information that could assist in my tow bar build.

I bought the tow bar off Craigslist for $20 it was a homemade deal for a bronco. The guy used ½” x 2” bar stock for the 2 sides. That was real overkill, but I only paid $20. I had already fabricated the front bumper with ears for lift shackles and a tow bar. I had mounted the ears on the bumper inline with the centerline of the frame rail. I wanted to keep the forces inline. The tow bar was bent for brackets on a narrower mounting so I had to straighten them out and then re bend them to my dimensions. the guy put a round solid steel bar as a spreader reinforcement. He added expanded metal decking to the front of it. After I widened it to fit my ears, the over all width is 30” and the dimension from the pivot centerline to the ball centerline is 40”. That is slightly longer than the ones I have had before. The longer length SHOULD help in towing. I have not had to tow the jeep so I cannot say how well it works. If all goes right I will never flat tow my jeep. I now have a trailer and can borrow trailers big enough to put it on, but in a pinch I would not be afraid to use it.

I was planning on making a tow bar out of a coupler and some L2” x 2” x 3/16 wall angle, but I couldn’t pass up the deal on a heavy one. I would have made it to the same overall dimensions. It is real handy to have on an older jeep that is prone to breakdown, or when you are single and need to pickup a car somewhere. You can drive there in the jeep take off in the car and comeback with a tow vehicle.

You should also fabricate a bracket with a way to lock it in the upright position. Gravity and a real strong bungee cord held up the tow bar on my CJ8 scrambler and on my 46 CJ2A. If the bungee ever failed and I hit a lip in the road at speed it could really cause some problems. I checked the bungee often on my scrambler. Now I have a bracket with a large homemade thumbscrew. The winch on the receiver mount keeps it up now as well.

If you use lift shackles to mount the tow bar make sure you drill the holes in your ears to the right size before you weld them up. I had to drill ¾” holes out to 7/8” on the jeep PITA!

[Fflintstone]

I haven’t been able to do any more mods to the jeep, but I have done a little “offroading”
I have been pulling all my tools and junk out of the barn to pour a cement floor but things are conspiring against me to get that done. The barn is empty and the dirt has been leveled to with in 1”(best I can do). Today was the second time a buddy was going to come over to tweek it a little further, but once again a no show. I cant blame him he, he has to squeeze me in when he can but I am tired of not having a floor.

[Fflintstone]

With the help of an old friend I have made progress on my WWII willys grille swap. I will post pictures when my new digital camera arrives. (They keep dying on me)
In the meantime I am actually doing a bit of offroading with my 4 year old. Its 7 miles to his preschool by road, and there is a great 2 track right behind the school. Sometimes it takes us an hour to get home.

[Fflintstone]

I promised some updates on the grille. The first photo shows the condition of the grille while I was starting to remove the 7 different layers of paint. You can see the grille is not strait, not flat, and pretty jacked up. The second photo is what it looks like now. It still needs some TLC but much closer to being ready to graft in the TJ.

[Defiance665]

Saw you (or looked like you) on the boyscout trail in Mills today, we were in the muddy black Cherokee pulling out as you came in.

I pulled over to let you through.
I waved, you didnt...

[Fflintstone]

Originally Posted by Defiance665

Saw you (or looked like you) on the boyscout trail in Mills today, we were in the muddy black Cherokee pulling out as you came in.

I pulled over to let you through.
I waved, you didnt...

That was me. Sorry I didn’t wave. My four year old was telling me something and I didn’t see you wave. All I noticed was the mud. After I was 100 yards down the road, I thought I should have stopped and asked if the trail was blocked. I have a few trees down on my property and was hoping I would not have to backtrack. I heard one fall here a few minutes ago. Lots of wind today. I took my son to the trunk or treat at the church near there and he wanted to go “offroading”. The “trail” runs all the way up to deer road and I can go home from there. My son goes to the preschool right there beside the trail so we use it a lot.

[Defiance665]

Yeah, we drove a ways up there but it started getting dark so we turned around.
I was surprised there was still any mud.

I posted this on gl4x4 in the sightings section. Youre on there too, arent you?

[DaFuzz]

This one caught my eye for sure. Subscribed so I can read up on it.

[Fflintstone]

Originally Posted by Defiance665

Yeah, we drove a ways up there but it started getting dark so we turned around.
I was surprised there was still any mud.

I posted this on gl4x4 in the sightings section. Youre on there too, arent you?

I didn’t really notice the dark and didn’t use hi beams till I was out the other end on deer RD.
I actually avoid mud; my winch isn’t hooked up yet (not that there is bad mud on that trail) my son likes it if I splash a puddle enough to dirty the windshield.

I am on GL4x4 too but mainly read or post in the PUB, since a GL4x4 sticker would not go with the military theme I don’t pop up on the sightings there.

PM me your # if you want to bs sometime.

[Sky68]

Flinstone , i want to thank you for the first camo paint post . I admired your work on that JEEP long time ago . That work was an inspiration for me .
Can not write too much because I realize that my English is poor, but I want to show you my work. Since I do not know how to put pictures on the site, I'll give links to places where they are already posted. Thanks for the inspiration
Land Rover Defender Urban Digital Camo - Forum Club4x4 - RO
First one is a Romanian 4x4 Forum , and the second one is a Flickr Photostream.
Flickr: gherghev1968's Photostream
Send you my best regards Sky68.

[Fflintstone]

Originally Posted by Sky68

Flinstone , i want to thank you for the first camo paint post . I admired your work on that JEEP long time ago . That work was an inspiration for me .
Can not write too much because I realize that my English is poor, but I want to show you my work. Since I do not know how to put pictures on the site, I'll give links to places where they are already posted. Thanks for the inspiration
Land Rover Defender Urban Digital Camo - Forum Club4x4 - RO
First one is a Romanian 4x4 Forum , and the second one is a Flickr Photostream.
Flickr: gherghev1968's Photostream
Send you my best regards Sky68.

Your English is far better than my Romanian! Your English is better than half the people on Craigslist.

I am glad that my jeep was an inspiration for you.
Here is your land rover on our site! Welcome to the USA!

[DaFuzz]

That looks pretty sweet. It appears that diamond plating has been riveted to the body panels. I'd wheel it.

[Fflintstone]

here is a picture of the empty rear housing, and the 4:11 gear guts.
I am waiting on delivery of new pinion and carrier bearings.
4:88 gears and a brand new aussie locker for the rear!!!

[06camarodude]

I'm going to be honest here. . . I wanted to do some sort of Military theme on my YJ, and after seeing yours, I was really trying to figure out ways of making it work. . . lol

I was wondering if you had any more big plans or custom ideas you wanted to use on the TJ? Did you do anything else to the interior? I'm hoping to get started on making my YJ unique, but honestly, it's been hard to do. Between working 40 hours a week and not making nearly what I used to make, I really have no money to throw at the Jeep.

I know this has been answered here before, but what kind of paint did you use? Did you make stencils, or did you mask the designs off when you painted them? If you could do it all over again, would you do anything differently?

Also, if you could, I would like to see a couple pictures, one of the interior from the back of the Jeep, and one or two straight-on from the side of the air intake. . . I know that's probably one of the more labor-intensive custom parts of your build, but I think I might have to use that one. If I don't go an actual camo route with mine, I'm going flat desert tan again, but I'm going to swap out the stock lighting for military lighting (with blackouts), and I'm going to make it look like something you'd see in an Army unit's motorpool, if they used Jeeps today. lol

I wanted to just to do a single flat color, but honestly, I know now that something more. . . intricate. . . would probably look better and get more positive responses from people than a desert tan YJ would. I don't want to steal your paintjob, though, because honestly, there can only be ONE digital camo jeep that everyone wants. lol

I had thought about doing this with my previous YJ a few years ago, but I wound up selling it before I could make it happen.