[Jeepinty]

Well I moved all my stuff around in my photobucket account the other day without thinking about it totally screwed up my other build thread. Anyways, instead of taking hours to re-link all my pics I decided to make a condensed version of the thread.

Preface: I bought this 1998 TJ Sport wrecked in the rearend with a salvage title a few years ago from a friend. The purpose was to keep from destroying my 2002 TJ which I was still paying on back then.

I threw some tires on it and a locker in the front and wheeled it for a few years like that without worry of body damage. Got kinda bored with it and since my buddy had all the neccesary tools (bender, notcher, welder, plasma cutter, etc) I bought some HREW tubing and began the transformation to buggy.

After I graduate next spring I plan on doing another major overhaul including nitrogen shocks, longer wheelbase, 1 tons and full hydro steering and 42s.

I am married, go to school full time, have a job and just had our first baby so I am constantly trying to dig up money and time to work on it but here is where I'm at so far.



Don't really have any good "before" pics. Here is when I started cutting of the rear. Notice that it was already smashed from the accident that totalled it.

Has locked 30/35 with 4 inch Procomp springs and shocks and 35 BFG muds.




Another view with DD in the background.




I bought the downbars for the front already bent to save some time and had the wife help me fit them before moving the jeep.







Hauled it to my buddies shop and played with the plasma cutter.






Capped off the frame and installed the first hoop. Tubing is 1.75 .120 wall HREW. We didn't add any gussets since the down bars in the rear will be tied into this area making sure it was plenty strong.

[Jeepinty]

After a lot of thought on how to tube the rear we decided on a rather simple idea. I actually didn't really have a plan on how to do it, we just kind of made it up as we went.

One side done.




Then the other.




Burning in some down bars. My buddy did most the welding since I don't have a lot of experience with a mig. I owe him a lot for his time and help.




Rear starting to come along.




Playing with the tubing notcher.




Practicing my welding, yes I got a major sunburn.

[Jeepinty]

Time for some dash bars, you can also see the temporary track bar mount starting to come together.






I knew that I was going to be either running the windshield down or taking it off so we added some support. Funny enough I dropped the windshield bar on the windshield and finished it off so I took the windshield off.




We were doing this the weekend before a big run so we fabbed up some quick shock mounts and braced the track bar mount.




After that we welded everything up, tossed in a seat, threw in the gas tank and took it for a short test run through a ditch.

[Jeepinty]

Originally Posted by thedirt

Four link that rear!

All in good time, perhaps you didn't read the part where I have no money

[Jeepinty]

Dragged home for some paint and cleanup. Went with a hammered finish spray paint and turned out pretty good for $12.






Midnight test run on the street, no tail lights, plates, inspection, registration, blinkers, windshield, blah, blah, blah.

[john NC]

looking good so far, nice work

[breckboarder55]

How do you have time for that!?

I go to school, and work near full time, and have no time.

[mjstranz]

what bender are you using/ were using

[Jeepinty]

Originally Posted by john NC

looking good so far, nice work

Thanks, I'll finish up with some "done" and wheeling pics later.

[Jeepinty]

Originally Posted by breckboarder55

How do you have time for that!?

I go to school, and work near full time, and have no time.

Tell me about it. Late nights and weekends, we actually built this in about a week.

Originally Posted by mjstranz

what bender are you using/ were using

The JD2 bender with hydro kit.

[Diablosjeep]

I really like what you have done so far. It looks super tuff! Keep us updated. I can't wait to see it progress.

[Jeepinty]

That weekend we hauled it 7 hours to Trees Ranch Offroad Park in "middle of no where Texas". Pulled off the trailer and actually did the first "flex test" to check clearances on my buddies trailer.





Everything went well wheeling and the jeep it did great. No worry about body damage or flopping it. It started raining about halfway through which forced me to use 2nd and even 3rd gear on some hills to get enough wheelspeed. I was just careful not to be on the throttle when it bounced so that the d35 wouldn't grenade.









Third gear, tire smoking climb. Wet rocks make everything 10x more difficult.




After Trees we hauled it another few hours to my home town of San Angelo where I realized I might need coil retainers.






My build was bases on a TJ my other buddy owns. His is a little furthur along then mine but I am catching up. You may have seen it in an issue of JP mag last year where they did a feature on it. He also happens to be the person that sold me my black TJ.

[eBayfreak]

Man, looking good... that was a pretty fast build!

[jeepbro's]

i wondered where that jeep went it looks great, i'd love to get another one to build like that

[Jeepinty]

Originally Posted by thedirt

The rig looks pretty cool.

My knowledge is fairly limited about the different types of tubing.. but usually DOM is preferred, no? Any reason you went with HREW over the DOM? Is it stronger, or at least comparable in strength?

No DOM is actually stronger but due to the enormous price difference (the same amount of DOM would have cost me easily 4-5x as much and had to be shipped in) and the fact that I have seen many successful cages and even full buggies done with HREW, I decided to go ahead with it. I am not concerned with the cage integrity as HREW is plenty strong, it just tends to dent a little easier. Since this it not the final configuration for this jeep and it will likely see a full tube chassis and cage in the next few years I deemed the welded seam to be sufficient.

Actually, Shaffers Offroad offers their Diablo Sport chassis in HREW and DOM.

Thanks for the comments everyone, it was my first real "fabrication" and I think it turned out well. We'll see how far I go with it since before too long I will need a third seat for the kiddo. I think the blue DD will start to be built then.