2 jeep build thread/blog.

[Drftem]

Just finished camping at Beardsley on Father's Day and explored a few of the forest service roads up there. It was nice and quiet but the water is low.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

Just finished camping at Beardsley on Father's Day and explored a few of the forest service roads up there. It was nice and quiet but the water is low.

I really want to go up there and camp, where did you end up at?

 

[Drftem]

I camped in the camping area just on the other side of the danm.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

Ive never been there but i have been reading through all my topo maps for some cool forest roads that look less travelled. ..

 

[Drftem]

Most of the forest roads I came across were fairly smooth and very tame

 

[Luke95]

So what's going on with these rigs?

 

[zachandandy]

Unfortunately nothing lately. Working a lot this year and working a night shift since June has put a damper on things. I've only had 3 Saturdays off since may. Wj needs a new engine as either the water pump or Tstat went out and she got REAL hot without the temp gauge moving. Xj is mostly together and I should be back to a more normal work schedule in a week or 2. Hope to have her ready for snow wheeling.

 

[zachandandy]

First real update. Got the 37's mounted and buttoned up the rear 4 link. Sitting on her own weight still slightly shorter than the wj on 35's.

Started on the cage today, got the main halo bent.




And for all the haters on the interweb how say you can't bend tube with a conduit bender, look at those silky smooth bends. Yes the radius is on the large side, but 1.5" emt has an 1.74" od, so the 1.75" dom fits like a glove in my sidewinder for push button 1 handed bending.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

nice man. I dig it. you are putting in some serious work.

 

[zachandandy]

It will be like a whole new jeep. You've done quite a bit yourself.

 

[zachandandy]

More progress, I like how it's turning out.


Obviously doors won't ever be going back on. I plan to stitch weld to the drip rails, tie in plates to the door hinges, make a windshield bar, and add some internal cross bracing.

 

[CAJJ93XJ]

probably coulda cleaned the metal off a bit better before welding..

 

[smokinu]

probably coulda cleaned the metal off a bit better before welding..

looks like he is using a 7018 or variant of that rod. i agree in order to get good clean welds with that. but 6010-6011, those rods will burn all that out anyways.

 

[zachandandy]

I flap wheeled the end sat the joints and it .045 flux core wire. Yes I could have cleaned it up some more, but no I am not worried about it failing. There will be so many tie in points between cage and unibody that it will hold up to anything short of being driven off a cliff.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

I am diggin the cage man. Very nice .

 

[smokinu]

I flap wheeled the end sat the joints and it .045 flux core wire. Yes I could have cleaned it up some more, but no I am not worried about it failing. There will be so many tie in points between cage and unibody that it will hold up to anything short of being driven off a cliff.

.045 flux core is no joke. yeah, you should be alright!
:cheers:

 

[zachandandy]

Thank Jon, still a long way to go. I plan to hook up my ram assist before I drive it again as those creepys are hard to turn in the driveway. I'm still undecided about how I want to finish the rear. May chop it and do a sort of pickup bed? I figure as long as I finish it by December I'll be happy.

 

[zachandandy]

I'm a self taught welder, but I'm a commercial/industrial electrician by trade. The professional welders don't clean the steel before they weld half the time and their welds get inspected and xrayed. If you are on a fab table with sheilding gas then by all means clean it up and make pretty welds. Outside in the middle of a wind storm running big flux core you're probably gonna go over the welds with a flap wheel after anyway.

 

[smokinu]

I'm a self taught welder, but I'm a commercial/industrial electrician by trade. The professional welders don't clean the steel before they weld half the time and their welds get inspected and xrayed. If you are on a fab table with sheilding gas then by all means clean it up and make pretty welds. Outside in the middle of a wind storm running big flux core you're probably gonna go over the welds with a flap wheel after anyway.

just realized you are out in paterson, im in hughson now.

thats very true. im at mjc running through the welding program to get my AS degree.
unless it is structural for a high rise building i wouldn't worry about it. your welds look good, and .045 should have more then enough penetration on that tube.

 

[zachandandy]

Well what do you do when you're rebuilding most of your rig and can't decide how you want the rear of the cage? Start another project! Dove tail.


Took 5-6" out of that side today, obviously a work in progress. I'll need to cut down my rear bumper, and I think I'm going to need some bigger mud flaps lol.