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Just another YJ build... My version

166K views 889 replies 63 participants last post by  bgredjeep 
#1 ·
Heres my shot at a build thread. i never took a lot of pics through the yrs but i will try to get everyone up to date. most of this build thread is from my build over on Wranglerboard.com

I bought my YJ when i was 16 yrs old. almost 9 yrs ago. she already had a 4" procomp lift and some 33" bfg mud terrains. that and the sweet 2" round bumpers were the only mods on it.

i ran that setup all through high school and thought i was on top of the world. my jeep could do anything. i added some lights and some bushwackers flares

when i was 19 i joined the military and moved to Virginia. with multiple deployments to Iraq and non-stop training my 3 yrs there i only wheeled ONCE on the east coast.

right before my only run out there i went out and bought a smittybilt tire carrier so i can have a spare for the trail ride. a couple months afterwards i bought a matching pro comp front bumper and got rid of my tube bumpers.

here i am in Gore, Va


and the new front bumper i bought


rear tire carrier


after 3 yrs on the east coast i begged and pleaded and got stationed in San Diego. once getting out here everthing pretty much went down hill.

within my first month here i bought a welder and started fabbing some stuff up.

my first project was my rock sliders




i wheeled a little around SD and back home in vegas some more then came another deployment. while on deployment i ordered a couple parts and went right to work installing them when i returned Dec 2010.

installed a Warn m8000 winch
 
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#555 ·
Chris,

Some buddies and myself and making a run at the Adventure Off Road Park. It's West of Chattanooga which I know is a haul for you but just letting you know before July is over. We want to get there Friday July 26th and roll out Sunday.

http://www.adventureoffroadpark.com/
 
#557 ·
Unfortunately I dont think I'll be able to make it. I told myself i wasnt going to work on the jeep this summer and just wheel, but then I started buying everything for my cage. Now im way over budget and wont be able to make a 9 hr drive to TN. :thumbdown:

Im dumb. But it should be worth it
 
#556 ·
Picked up some more steel today. Once my harnesses arrive on Thurs I think I'll have everything I need for the cage. I plan to start this weekend but its been raining the last week and the weather report says its supposed to rain through next week. Hopefully it'll die down for the weekend so I can get some work done.

3 more sticks of 1.75x.120 DOM.



100' of DOM right here.

 
#561 ·
I definitely will. This will be my first real project with the bender. Im pretty nervous actually. Tube is way to expensive right now to mess up a 20ft stick

Have you got your design all layed out? Not even joking, do a lay out on the floor of the garage to start matching pieces and prepping for the actual assembly. Its helped me in the past, past thing you need is 2 passenger side winshield bars and no drivers side...

Lookin forward to getting up there and helpin out
No I havent layed anything out yet. I was gonna rely on the Bentech software. That is a good idea though. Wanna come over today and play with some tape on my garage floor?
 
#560 ·
Have you got your design all layed out? Not even joking, do a lay out on the floor of the garage to start matching pieces and prepping for the actual assembly. Its helped me in the past, past thing you need is 2 passenger side winshield bars and no drivers side...

Lookin forward to getting up there and helpin out
 
#562 ·
Well some things that I ordered for my cage build have slowly been filtering in this week.

Some tabs and cage feet I ordered from AA-MFG. Pretty good prices and fast shipping. Their website is really hard to find things but my package came with a great catalog. I would suggest trying to get a catalog first then find your part numbers from it before ordering. Would have been so much easier.



Also received the harnesses I ordered. My budget is pretty tapped out right now and harnesses are EXPENSIVE so I searched around for some cheap ones. Instead of spending $200 on Mastercraft harnesses I searched Ebay and found some JDM Racing ones for $46.99 for a PAIR. I figured I'd run these for a while til i can afford some better ones.



I also started stripping the interior and washing the rig in preparation. My gf Jessica was kind enough to help :D


 
#570 ·
So I started some of my Cage build over the weekend. Its been raining nonstop the last 2 weeks here so you just have to get in the work whenever weather permits.

I started Fri by myself by pulling the old cage and getting some of the tools set up.

Starting photo. Say goodbye to the old cage.



Then I cut the old cage in half and pulled it. I tried to get it out without cutting but it didnt even budge :laugh:




after that was done I got the bender set up, took some measurements and started bending



started on my first piece. This is my A-C pillar




After getting the one piece built the weather was slowly starting to change on me. Id been outside working on the jeep for 7 hrs straight at this time so i decided to call it a day.

The next morning i got started early. I started drilling out the cage plates i got to 1/2" and i also traced them and cut some more out. Sorry but I didnt get any pics of this boring job.

A little later that morning some friends showed up to help out for the day...

We promptly started bending my second A-C pillar. Here is Buck(USMCBuckWild) and Garret(Duggan98TJ) working the bender.



Then we checked fitment in the jeep. It needed a little trimming, but that was expected. Id rather have it long and cut some off then bend a piece thats too short.



Then we threw in both pillars and started taking measurements to get them tacked in. Here we see Buck airing up one of my tires to level the jeep with my driveway.



After we got these tac'd in we called it a day. It was a long productive day. There is a lot more involved than these pics show. A lot of measuring and triple checking measurements. Also drilling and mounting the cage feet etc, all while drinking beer and eating pizza :D

Sunday it was raining so I wasnt able to get any work done on the cage. Plus my gf was mad at me because i spent all day Fri and Sat on the jeep, so i took her out to lunch and a movie :thumbsup:

Yesterday though I did get a small amount of work done.

First thing I did was mock up some tape and see where I wanted my B-pillar overhead bar. Once i figured out the location I took some measurements, measured some tube and threw it in the notcher. I failed to take pics of this part. I looks the same as everytime i notch tube though.

B- pillar overhead bar tac'd in place



Pic of notch :drool:



Now before I could move on to making the B-pillar uprights, i had to make some B-pillar cage feet.

spent some time taking some measurements then I whipped these up




And thats as far as I've gotten so far. This is definitely taking longer than I thought it would, but thats ok because i want to take my time and get it 100% right. Doesnt help having bad weather on your side either.

Thats all for now folks :cheers2:

EDIT: please excuse the white glare in the bottom left of all the pictures. I cracked my camera lense and need to get it fixed
 
#579 ·
Thank you for the kind words

He'll ya I love hue slant back cage look.
Awesome. Can't wait to see the outcome!!
Yea I can't wait to

any plan to tie those cage feet through the tub to the frame?

also, you should definetly bevel the edges of the tube on that notch before you weld.

if you didn't already know that :D
Yes the cage will be tied to the frame.

As far as beveling the notches, its not really needed. I sometimes bevel and sometimes dont. As long as you clean up the notch with a flapper there isn't a problem.

.120 wall tubing is only 1/8" thick. A small bevel is not going to have an effect when welding with my MM175.
 
#583 ·
I hope everyone had a good and safe 4th of July.

Today I knocked a little more out of the cage.

First thing i had to do was drill out my B pillar mounting feet and get them bolted to the floor. Heres is what i came up with. I think it will plenty strong as it will be tied to the frame as well on the underside



Before i moved on to my B pillar vertical bars i decided i wanted to move the overhead bar a little further back. I didnt want to risk smacking my head on it. When i removed it I went ahead and beveled the notch JUST FOR TAYLOR(climbit) :rofl:



Then I measured and cut my verticals. They are kicked back 11 degrees.



And of course I had to do some creative notching.



After the B pillar I moved my way to the front. I started on the windshield bar. I've been going back and forth with myself between making the windshield bar straight or having an angry brow. I like the look of a modest bend in it. Nothing too steep. But in the end I just decided to keep it straight. One less thing for me to possibly mess up by bending it then notching it and getting it perfectly level and square.

Windshield bar tac'd in



Finally I cut and notched the dash bar.



And this is as far as I got today. Spent about 8-8 1/2 hrs on it.



I plan on working on my seat mounts next, that way i can lay out my overhead bars only once without having to cut them out because i found out later on they got in the way of my head. :laugh:

:cheers2:
 
#584 ·
Looks AWESOME! Wish I had some more free time to get back up there. I still want your old seat risers, mine are FUBAR.


Damn, I knew I was ugly in the mirror, but those pics make me look like a troll!
 
#587 ·
Worked on my seat mounts for a little bit today.

I wanted to be have a slider with my seats that way different sized drivers can still fit. My GF is about 5'4" and has to slide the seat all the way up when she drives. I though about making some trick sliders or going the polyperformance route. Then I remembered that my Mastercraft seats are compatible with the stock risers and sliders. So I ended up just bolting the stock sliders to the Mastercraft frame. I am then using some angle iron bolted to that to mount to my cage. I will have tabs that come off of my cage seats mounts that bolt through the angle iron. I saw this done on Pirate and it seems like a simple effective way to retain the stock sliders.

Here is the angle iron all bolted up to the sliders/seats




after I got that done I headed out to the garage and looked at my blank slate



before I got started I threw the seats in just to see what they're gonna look like. I like it :2thumbsup:



Then I started notching some tube and laying out the plan



And I capped off that dead tube



I wanted the seats to sit as low as possible. I've read up on the subject and it seems to be the minimum space that you want under a set of suspension seats its around 2.5"-3". I've got around 3" the way im going to set it up. This should leave plenty of head room as well.

With around 1"-1.5" below the tube, then 1.75" tube, then the 1.5" angle iron and sliders on top of that I'd be a little too high. So I notched the angle to sit lower on the tube frame.

This is how I cut out the angle iron. I used a 4 1/2" grinder and made a bunch of slits



And then chopped the little pieces off



Hit up up with a flapper and threw them up to check clearances




This is as far as I got today. Next I need to start working on the passenger frame then get the mounting tabs tac'd on and the seat angle drilled out.

:cheers2:
 
#590 ·
:laugh: Well thanks for checking it out. I always follow your thread as well.

Good job man! Why not use the notcher to cut the angle? Or put the notching bit into your drillpress.

When are you gonna get started on mine? Hahaha
Because I wanted to notch it with the seats still attached. It wouldve taken about 30 mins in disassemble and reassemble. The notch doesnt have to be a tight fit. Its not getting welded, just clearing the tube.

And I'll start on yours once you come over and help me finish mine. Still have a lot of work to do.
 
#589 ·
Good job man! Why not use the notcher to cut the angle? Or put the notching bit into your drillpress.

When are you gonna get started on mine? Hahaha
 
#595 ·
Oh, BTW, as a tip, you can trace out the 1/2 circle then draw a V in it & use the cuttoff wheel to cut the V. Then use a squared hard disc to grind the rest of the material away. I have found this technique to work pretty well with a few basic discs.
Thanks Joe. When does yours go under the knife for the 4 link?

I might have to try your "V" technique sometime.
 
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