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the sound of inevitability

Yeah the top bar I wasn't sure about. But with the chop and rake the angle upper bar that I like would look goofy cause it would be really close to the dash.

Anyways the dash bar is in, huge thanks to the Jason and Nate at Twisted for their help. The dash bar was a pia and I screwed it up but Jason helped fix it so it fits somewhat decently.

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I got the spreader bars in today and Nate got the upper spreader bar done but it's not in the picture.

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Going to be working on getting the X in the back tomorrow. Then we can square it up and have the guys start welding on it.
 
Just throwing it out there but it doesn't seem like there's a lot of headroom? Not sure how tall you are, but based on myself (~6'2") and knowing those seats, I'd be real close to the roof bars.
 
oh I have plenty of headroom. 5'2" :D

The passenger seat will be dropped.

Can you even get into the Jeep:laugh3:

Are you going to be running harnesses and aftermarket seats? Concerned at all by the B pillar and your head coming into contact with them so close?
 
backflip lol..

yes on the harness and stock seats for now, the headroom on the passenger is better than it looks but I will be dropping the seat 2-3" or more. If not I can always throw a suspension seat in it.
 
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Ditch the rear leaf springs now. At this point its not all that much work, and the rig will perform so much better with a 4 link now that you've removed all the weight in the back, and have no room to add weight in the form of tools and spare parts anyhow.

I tried the truggy with leaf springs thing for as long as I could, with and without traction bars, custom leaf packs, a few thicker leaves, then ditched that and went to more thinner leaves... the dual triangulated 4 link kicks the shit out of it every day.

I at 6'3" have concerns for the roof height as well, but at 5'2" - I could see where that would work really well. Looks good otherwise.

Make sure to desgin the rear cargo area to hoold a reasonable size cooler. :D
 
If I linked the rear I will just start with a full tube chassis from Twisted. That's in a few years. I hear what your saying on the leaves but they are staying for now. I still have a spare, cooler, parts, and tools bolted down in the back. Links are tough to get the right geometry on a buggy anyways I don't want to mess with that on full bodied rig (or what's left).

What I've seen is starting with a factory rig you are always limited and won't reach what a buggy will do. Completely going nuts you can get to 80% of a buggy. For the time and effort at that point I'll go full buggy from Twisted.
 
well back at it after a break and a baja race.

working on the rear bumper-ette's.
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trimmed up:
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tacked in place:
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still have to cap the ends, and drill a hole for the leaf spring bolt.
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drivers side:
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been awhile without any updates:

rear end is all tacked in:
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bumperettes:
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main chunk of the sliders in. Went in much easier than was anticipated.
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but patching in both ends of the sliders are going to be loads of fun.
 
patching in the rear holes:

start with this:
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trim out the spring bushing sheetmetal:
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trim off the edges of the spring hangers and 45 to the front edge.
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And the passenger side pieces cut and tacked in place.
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front part of the sliders are patched in:

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And the rust and open holes in the passenger floor are now fixed.
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The back section has some warpage but it will be all storage, bummer though I was trying to keep it all flat. Turned out pretty good, will be decent once it's all sealed up and coated. Now I can get the lower half of the X done and the passenger seat mounted.

Will probably do the drivers side as well just to make it all nice and flat and clean up the pitch seam area.
 
Re: Re: the sound of inevitability

been awhile without any updates:

rear end is all tacked in:
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bumperettes:
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This "bumper" is really simple but I'm a big fan! I was just wondering if it would be possible to recess a small LED turn signal in there, allowing you to remove the LED and access the leaf springs bolt? That would be pretty sweet.
Anyway, got any updates for us?
Billy
 
Yeah you could put a LED in that hole. I'm trying like heck to keep all of the wiring out of the back end, back of the seats is as far as I want to run it if possible. Plus I'm not sure I could keep the light usable and not crush it.

Bottom half of the X is tacked in and the door bars are tacked.

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So all the main tubes are in place for the rear 3/4 of the vehicle. Need to start getting everything welded up. Once that's done I have a couple of small braces and reinforcement pieces to add, cage gussets. Then rear spare tie down and the rear light bar. Also seal and coat the floor once it's welded. Lots done but alot of stuff left.
 
ok really behind on the updates but our event, Dakota Territory Challenge, starts Thursday so I'm been cramming as much work in as possible. I think I'm sitting pretty good at this point.

After it was running we flexed it up and determined the front end caps had to come back a good inch, so they and the body was cut back more and patched up:

Passenger side:
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Drivers Side:
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The new panel seams and all the gaps have been sealed with 3M Marine 5200. Stuff seems to work really well, strong but it takes awhile to drive. Like 24-48 hours to firm up. 7 days is full cure! So that was a pain in the butt to work around. Next was the bedliner. I used Metal Shield coating. I started to brush it on and it looked okay but had alot of brush marks. Jason looked at it and thought his Schutz gun would work. We had to thin it out with mineral spirits but it worked and looked great. Almost like a professional shop did it.

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But this stuff takes forever to dry. We sprayed it Saturday night and it was tacky Sunday and still soft today. They say 48 hours to firm and they are not joking.

Also got the cage painted. Black hammered paint, Rustoleum. Worked well and dried pretty quickly.

Tonight I got the seatbelts in, the wiring pulled and mostly weeded out, and the seats in.

No pics with the seats, did it right before I left and forgot to takes pics.

Gas tank extension:
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Roof:
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Rear fender trimmed flush to fit with the rear panels.
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So unfortunately I ran out of time to even think about starting on the front half. So I will be bolting the front clip back on for DTC. I wasn't sure what to do for the side panel so I got some 0.40" racing aluminum in red and we will be breaking panels and zip tying them on for the time being.

Have the wiring to finish up, mount the light bar, high lift mounts, install spare tire, front clip, interior console, install roof and probably a few other things. Going to be a busy couple of days.
 
Got it all together and on the trail for the Dakota Challenge. Everything worked great, have quite a few finishing touches I want to do but there is wheeling that needs to be done!

Day before the event, front on and most extra stuff bolted down. Back to Twisted to get the gooseneck and pick up the temporary side skins.

dtc_trailer2.jpg


dtc_trailer3.jpg


Temp skins zip tied on. We didn't go full bore with the skins as the front end still needs to done and unsure where the body lines will land. Need to figure out something to break up the flat panels. Maybe a break like the stock body sides have. Picked up some red stock car aluminum for cheap and it will work for the time being. While not a direct match it's close enough.

dtc_trailer.jpg


Night run to start the event.
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Day 1 of the DTC

Day on the trail:
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