Its about time I got around to making one of these, not that anyone cares about my junk:laugh:
Spelling and grammer nazis beware...Its 2 in the morning:laugh:
I started out with a bone stone 99 sport that I purchased my junior year (07-08) of highschool. I paid 8k and it was relatively rust free and had 98,000 miles. I put a BB, skyjacker hydros, and some disco's on it with some 33x1050 bfg all terrains and wheeled the living piss out of it until last year. I got a Hobart 187 MIG for my graduation present and have been working on my welding skills. Ive been accumulating parts since and the work has begun. The approach Im taking is different and somewhat odd I guess. Feel free to point out oversights and errors in thinking. You can bash on the D35 but don't fill up my build with 6 pages of the same exact comment of how it will fail, especially if you haven't even broken one yourself!
Ultimately I want to make skinny 33's (probably KM2's) perform the best they possibly can with the most clearance I can get with least amount of lift without being silly. It needs to handle on road like a boss, handle windy mountain roads like an audi, excel in snow driving, be smooth over washboard forest roads at a good clip, crawl some moderate sized rocks, and be semi quiet on the freeway. Oh, and this is all being done on a college budget and payed for with money from lifeguarding when in highschool and interning at a shipyard nearby during the summers now (Im at ODU for Mech. Engineering). There were a few Christmas gifts along the way too
On to the good stuff…
How it was wheeled prior to the build, just BB and disco's.
Then my front fenders rusted through and I built some tubes. They are modeled after PSC's somewhat and are skinned with 1/8".
JK turn signal housings in the grill and the side markers are LED's from Northern. IIRC they are 2 wire and required a sequence of resistors and capacitors (that I should have written down) to make work with the 3 wire factory harness which utilized a floating ground that wouldn't work with the LED's.
Overall they came out pretty decent I think. I cut out the old inner fenders and took some angle and notched it to allow for the curve and welded it to the tube fender. It allowed me to have the lip to keep air flow from going under the hood. The latched were switched to Daystar hood wranglers at the same time. They were primed and spayed with duplicolor rattle can. After almost a year they still look the same as day one.
You can see the PSC steering box in this pic. This and a PSC pump and 4" aluminum pulley were done at some point
Then progress stopped for a while as I restored a classic ski boat. I had about 600 hours in it when it was all said and done.
I also helped my neighbor rebuild his 4runner engine. The 351W in the pic wa s rebuilt for the boat. .030 over, a hot cam, 750cfm 4bbl double pumper, 3" straight exhaust etc. Boat was gutted to bare hull and all stringers and bulkheads built/redesigned.
New stringers and bulkheads in process...
Anyways got that done and its time to focus on the jeep again. The BB had to go and I need better handling as I drive about 200 miles one way 3 weekends a month to visit my GF at her school. I picked up a set of 3" rusty's front coils and 3" pro comp coils for the rear. Front net about 2.5" and rear after the relocation about 1.5".
I decided on 5100s and was considering outboarding them. I sketched up some ideas but ultimately decided to "shock shifter" them instead.
Idea
I also built spring perches and took the bow out of the stock springs.
The clamp is just to make adjusting bumpstops easier. Find the correct length and cut the tube. I hate stacking washers and adding pucks, too caveman for me. It also makes putting the springs in 900X easier because you can just loosen the bolt and drop the bumpstop/tube into the coil and slide it in and out without it being in the way. The jouncers are from either a grand or an XJ, cant remember. They are 1" longer than TJ ones and will hopefully make bottoming out at speed on fireroads smoother.
Then I made the lower "shock shifters" that would be welded onto the back of the LCA mounts. All hardware for shocks, swaybar, LCA's etc is all 1/2-13 UNC grade 8 Both the perches and the shock mounts were made from scrap I picked up from BESRK. Thanks again!
I also made the upper mounts. Ultimately if you used something like the Tera brackets you could have and inch more uptravel, but I live in the rust belt and I want access to my shock without removing those four *****es of bolts and lowering the mount:laugh:
Then I hacked off the spring perches in the rear and positioned my new perches.
Mock up
Burned on
Old crap
New setup with 10" travel bilsteins. 4.5" of uptravel on 2" springs which give about 1.5" of lift after being relocated. Got a set of currie lowers on and uppers sitting in the corner waiting to go on. The bumpstop obviously hasnt been adjusted at this point
Some shots from underneath. I welded the upper shock brackets as well as bolted them as the bolts broke and were drilled and tapped when I did the BB several years ago. Im not entirely certain of their strength and it aint gettin removed any time soon.
I also made double shear swaybar brackets (hillbilly simple I know :rofl for my new hellwig swaybar with a slightly lighter rate than the factory TJ rear bar. Ive been assured by their rep that it will take the abusive twisting its going to see. If I dont like it Ill go antirock down the road. A engine rebuild, trans rebuild, front currie arms, and front antirock are way higher on the want list though.
At the same time I also did a daystar 1" bodylift and a browndog MML. Both were very high quality products. I like the daystar bodylift as it doesnt just stack spacers on top of the original pucks, it includes full new ones. 6 of the body mounts were collapsed and the two rearmost ones had the bolts break. Super fun bodylift experience.
Collapsed bodymount repair. Most looked about like this.
NASTY huh? Sad part is I pressure wash the underside of my jeep every other week in the winter and right after driving on the beach. Its not like i leave mud/roadsalt on there:thumbdown:
Repairs. Cut back to good metal and ground clean.
Got some 3" 3/16 wall square stock and cut internal braces out of them. Drilled the mount hole and tacked a grade 8 1/2-13 nut on the backside. Then slid it up inside the rail and welded the edges.
Then I bent some 16 gauge sheet metal to cover the whole repair
Over top of the 3/16 square tube bracing, It overlapped the repair about 2" on each side
Some finished repaired ones on other spots on the heep
Feel free to ask questions, Im not going into super detail because there is too much stuff:laugh: If you want to know something specific ask away
Thats all for now, I have a ton more pics Ill post in the next day or two. Rear axle beefing, some chromoly shaft geek talk etc. Eventually I will build a flat skid with aluminum skin and floating front bumper with a sunken winch. Got to get this thing back on the road first and more importantly the trails.
Happy new years eve! and somebody reply for God's sake! Ive seen like ten of ya viewing this as I typed.
You've done an awesome job. I subscribed. I personally don't care much for tj's as they are mostly the same but yours is very unique in what you are doing and I have a great appreciation for the custom work you've done. Let me know if the ride changes with the new location of the coil springs being more vertical. Great looking welds and craftsmanship. I'm a cj guy so it takes alot for me to pay attention to a tj build that's not on tons.
Thanks for the kind words. My goal is to be different, keeping a somewhat stock appearanceand stance with narrow 33s tucked into the fenders. This thing has to be on the road by next week. Still finishing the body repairs and the axle and brakelines. Have to wire wheel and paint everything as well.
I think Im going to go to some 35x10.50x15 SSR's this spring. I'm saving for a JD2 tubing bender so I may copy your fenders.
What shafts did you stick in the D35? I went with alloy USA and so far they are doing OK....Did you ever truss the 35? If your Tj doesnt catch on fire or explode with a trussed D35 I may have to give it a try myself...
Yea the rear bumps were a combo of my and my buddies ideas. I was tossing around the idea of the daystar stinger bumpstops until I realized they were 107 each not a pair
:thumbdown:
Thanks Eric. I did get the turd trussed. Its tied into a modified btf diff cover. Its simple and only out of 5/16 but it will help keep the center from flexing. Shafts are crown 4340 that I picked up cheap. With a truetrac i think it will be fine on light and narrow 33s. Ill post pics later as im on a tablet currently.
Headed to canaan and timberline wed though sat. Hope yall get some decent snow tonight through tuesday.
It rained all day in Elkins so it may have snowed in the Valley. If you get over there and their isnt enough snow hit me up and we will hit up a few trails. Im off till Thrusday...
According to weather.com and wunderground its supposed to snow in the valley starting tonight through tuesday afternoon. Im driving 6 hours there better be some damn snow. And Ill be in my dads stock XJ with saggy leafs (next project) so anything more than a fireroad aint happening:laugh:
For the rear axle Im keeping the D35 for now. I ended up trussing it with a simple 5/16 spreader.
I also did a DIY Blue Torch Fab truss diff cover. Its a 3/8 ring and 1/4 skin, pure beef. The company I bought it through didnt ship it with bolts or the drain plug so I contacted BTF and they sent me them for freee:thumbsup: I ended up cutting the top of it and angling it 90 degrees and tapping the holes for 1/2-13 grade 8 bolts. Theyll go through the top of the truss and into the diff cover. Mainly did this for trackbar clearance at full stuff.
before I cut and angled the top portion
Here you can see it angled back and how the bolts come through.
I also had a truetrac put it and all new bearings and seals in the center. Guy did it for 100$ and is a former gear/trans tech at a dodge dealership. He does his stuff right. Its also got Crown 4340 shafts. I also pulled the outer bearings and seals and replaced them with SKF bearings.
Nifty little bracket to make a 3 prong puller work for the bearings
New bearings/seals
I also cut and bracket the axle end trackbar mount as it was bending from overflexing before the new setup. More flex would certainly kill it.
Cut out and welded
New bracket
burned on
Old shock mounts vs new
Here I should point out that the new mounts arent actually lower than the old ones. They stick back a lot further than old but have 1/4" more under axle clearance. Most of the pics are from an above angle and make them appear way lower
Im about to do a snow dance...Ill post back up in a few days for more:laugh:
Back from skiing. A foot of snow when we arrived on Wednesday night and got 2" more through the night. Flurried all the next day rounding it out to about 15" on the mountain. Off the wall and Silverstreak were the best Ive ever seen and we trekked there for the huge dump 2 Januaries ago.
All thats left on the project for now is 2 more body mounts, bolt up the swaybar upper links, gas tank and Savvy GTS in, and ziptie brake lines. Everything is painted and reassembled. Shoe creek run this weekend. Got to get it inspected Friday
Only issue is I cant find the damn lugnuts I bought for the rear and I already tossed the old ones:thumbdown:
Took it for a test drive a couple days ago. This thing handles
I ran into a little trouble when working on the last bodymount, the one under the B pillar on the pass side. Had the carpet out, seat folded forward out of the way, and the seatbelt around the seat buckled in. Struck an arc underneath and caught the seam sealer crud chrysler used in the tub corner on fire. Caught the seatbelt, pass seat and door panel on fire in about 2 seconds. Pass seat is wireframe only, doorskin melted off, and I need a new seatbelt:brickwall
Fire was only about 6-8 seconds but had 4' tall flames. Good thing the fire extinguisher was arms reach away.
Picked up a set of 04 seats for 250 with brackets and a seatbelt and window crank from a local jeeper for 40. Hoping to get her finished up tomorrow. Inside of the hardtop is charred so its getting painted charcoal grey now
I ran into a little trouble when working on the last bodymount, the one under the B pillar on the pass side. Had the carpet out, seat folded forward out of the way, and the seatbelt around the seat buckled in. Struck an arc underneath and caught the seam sealer crud chrysler used in the tub corner on fire. Caught the seatbelt, pass seat and door panel on fire in about 2 seconds. Pass seat is wireframe only, doorskin melted off, and I need a new seatbelt:brickwall
Fire was only about 6-8 seconds but had 4' tall flames. Good thing the fire extinguisher was arms reach away.
I did the same thing when I was welding floor panels into my Tj. But lucky me I had the tub stripped and sitting up on its side; off the frame. That sealer does go up like lighter fluid...:highfive:
Ill snap a pic of the seat remainder tomorrow. Scrubbing the soot of the windows is a PITA! The inside of the hardtop was charred so it now has a fresh coat of charcoal gray on it. My CB in the overhead console melted and the console is toast (literally) as well. All the rollbar pads are done too and the speaker bar is struggling for life. I think I may take it out and when the cage goes in make some overhead pods and fit 6x9s or maybe 6.5 component set.
And sure, take the body mount idea:cheers2:
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