Project "Constructive Deconstruction"

[VAhasnoWAVES]

these damn photos... oh well.

trip to wind rock in 12 weeks. i plan to start tearing into the jeep soon. for now, ive been building some things to add to it and staging my back room for when the weather breaks...

with petes help we made a relay/fuse block. 4 relays total.

current plans are OBA (using the AC compressor), E-fan over ride (to pull air across my power steering cooler at all times), and a small china light bar. 4th relay will be wired in and ready to go once i find a use for it... hence the novelty rocker switch.

tank is all plumbed, just waiting on my air filter from china express to show up. decided to put everything on the tank, as some of the componants like the water/air separator arent rated for under hood temps. people do it i guess... but this will give it the air time to cool as well. ill just protect it somehow. not sure if ill keep the regulator on the top or not.

also bought a pair of stock TJ rubicon inners... my nitro shafts and joints have been great, but with 3 days in tenn and harlan only being an hour away... id rather have them and not need them. just got to find the outers i need.

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

made a dent with the warm temps yesterday. cab is all wired, only thing left is under the hood, and that is mostly running power to each accessory.

even tied the lower independent light to the dash light circuit. upper is luminated in the on position.

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

spent a couple days wheeling royal blue and windrock. photos are starting to filter in... ill take my time posting the good ones. but the jeep recently took a turn to buggy status.

flipped her over. checked the plugs for oil. checked oil level. then cranked her right over. not a puff of smoke. and finished wheeling the rest of the day. jeep crawled super well. but i was getting a little nutty hot rodding, and drifting on the gravel roads. lost it, and flopped it. damage below.

the side glass popped out, unbroken. i cant believe the back glass is still in one piece. it is SO twisted.

 

[MKR5150]

Itll buff out. Chop top, cage and go. Buggys are dumb

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

Itll buff out. Chop top, cage and go. Buggys are dumb

first order of business is cleaning up the garage and giving myself a space to work.

but thats pretty much where im at... boat sides. tube. couple buckets. and wheel it. id like to keep the windshield, but we will see how well i can straiten it.

what i think im aiming for:

 

[ExTankerGuy]

Sucks about the Jeep. Glad YOU are okay.

 

[MKR5150]

Ive seen that build. Mine started out that way but ended up mostly tube due time. Ive got few major things I'd do differently if i were to do it again. Its a lot of fun starting over. Take the time to plan it out is my only advice.

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

some random good photos in no particular order:

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

day 2 was a lot more expensive and scary...

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

Sucks about the Jeep. Glad YOU are okay.

thanks. i learned a little lesson about show boating. thankfully myself and the other occupants were fine.

 

[PacificEd]

Are all these pictures from Windrock or are some from Harlan?

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

windrock and royal blue... we never made it to harlan.

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

dunes this weekend, hoping that with the deaver coils and prothanes itll be a completely different animal. last time i couldnt keep it off the bump stops.

 

[MKR5150]

You will Love them!

 

[John D]

It's true, you will love them. Then you will start jumping and want to jump higher. Then you will end up with air bumps

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

short answer... holy crap these things work. lol

so... i dont like the instability of having the tires down to 5psi or lower. i feel like that sort of pressure had something to do with my roll over as well. but the traction is always great, the jeep is point and shoot anywhere at the dunes, even mostly in 2wd. and ive gotten comfortable hanging it at 4k rpms or more... unlike the street where i spend most of the time below 2k. engine is running good, rarely hitting 210.

i didnt spend a lot of time in the air. im still not comfortable sending my 4k pound piece of crap through the air. but it handles woops pretty good. really good actually. rolling into them at 45+ mph really wasnt violent at all. but i also dont know what it looks like outside. haha. i just dont have the power to stay in it and skip across the top. other big issue now i think is shocks. 5100s are come digressively valved, and of course arent rebuildable. so when ya start cycling them hard... its all spring. the deavers dont leave much room for improvement in that department though.

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

doing dune stuff...

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

prothanes work good crawling too

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

little more of a substantial update. the jeep is just flat out working. i have a few house keeping items. but im thinking one more good trip before i start cutting it up.

spent a day at rocks and valleys with John D and the rest of his family trying to run as much as we could. started out right in the parking lot, and hit the lot crawl before the jeep was even warm. no issues, drug it up and over.

let a buddy of mine run python.

some posing after big ugly and hump trail

finished up on the long crawl and got hung up. i think its about time for a new clutch. ive been stuck in this spot twice now in two separate occasions where the clutch started smoking.

didnt manage to play on winch hill... but it was a fun day. long day. but overall a great success.

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

also been putting together a to do list for the winter:

- move steering gear box
- clearance inner fender
- stretch front axle
- lengthen track bar

-new fab 9 housing out back
- stretch axle
- traction bar

- chop sheet metal
- make strait-ish
- position suspension seats
- drop tube on it



we will see how the budget goes... but the two big wants are a 4 speed atlas and 37" creepy crawlers.