Just Another XJ on tons, coilovers, 42's, etc. Build

Did ya get em installed yet?

Not just yet. I ended up re-doing some of the suspension (moving the front and rear axle 1" forward, inboarding the front lower links some, etc.) and that took a good part of my workdays.

The front mounts are "done", but need some more boxing/gusseting before I really want to put weight on them. Rear is moving along, just need to fab up two more brackets for the rear, then duplicate/box/gusset and it will stand! :D

Hoping to have that done mostly tonight...gonna be a LONG night.
 
So....I came home and then see this...

Jeep2570.jpg


:eek:
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ITS...A...ROLLER!!! :party:

Been damn near TWO years since this thing has been on its own weight!

Lots of pics :D

Jeep2566.jpg


Jeep2565.jpg


Jeep2567.jpg


Jeep2568.jpg


Jeep2569.jpg


Jeep2571.jpg


And since I know there will be questions on some things...

*This is basically full bump it is sitting at in the picture, sits ~68" tall to the top of the tube...forgot to measure the belly

*The semi-cirlce tube in the back near the strut was tacked in since I thought I was going to need to notch the bed frame...moved some things around and didn't need it :D

*The mounts are NOT done...I just needed them to be done enough for it to hold its weight since I'm moving later this week to a new place...(luckily next door :laugh:) There will be boxing and gusseting of the mounts in time to come...
 
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So....I came home and then see this...

Jeep2570.jpg


:eek:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
ITS...A...ROLLER!!! :party:

Been damn near TWO years since this thing has been on its own weight!

Lots of pics :D

Jeep2566.jpg


Jeep2565.jpg


Jeep2567.jpg


Jeep2568.jpg


Jeep2569.jpg


Jeep2571.jpg


And since I know there will be questions on some things...

*This is basically full bump it is sitting at in the picture, sits ~68" tall to the top of the tube...forgot to measure the belly

*The semi-cirlce tube in the back near the strut was tacked in since I thought I was going to need to notch the bed frame...moved some things around and didn't need it :D

*The mounts are NOT done...I just needed them to be done enough for it to hold its weight since I'm moving later this week to a new place...(luckily next door :laugh:) There will be boxing and gusseting of the mounts in time to come...


looks great, what size welder did u use for your build.
 
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Dude fawkin sweet! I really need to take a trip up there to see this thing... was supposed to go a couple weekends ago but my friend bailed on me and he ended up going and not telling me... justin your gonna have to pm the new addy. I will make time to come give a hand one weekend
 
She's puuuuurrrdy.

So, what comes next? And when's this thing gonna be trail ready?!
 
looks great, what size welder did u use for your build.

Hobart 180 (its a 220V unit).

Dude fawkin sweet! I really need to take a trip up there to see this thing... was supposed to go a couple weekends ago but my friend bailed on me and he ended up going and not telling me... justin your gonna have to pm the new addy. I will make time to come give a hand one weekend

Yeah feel free to try come up again :D

She's puuuuurrrdy.

So, what comes next? And when's this thing gonna be trail ready?!

Next...well I still need to get my new garage hopefully wired for a 220V outlet...just need to play with some breakers im thinking.

THEN I now get to do a whole bunch of sanding/wire wheeling the tube since it got some surface rust going on from sitting outside under tarps as it was raining :smsoap:

Really need/want to get cranking on this thing again ASAP. School starts again on Monday which is gonna eat up a LOT of my time...but still shooting to have this done come the end of this year.

But once I can get going again on it, its time to get my fuel cell, action packer bin, and radiator/fan layed out in the back bed...
 
Ok so I guess it about time for an update with pictures :D

Getting things in the rear planned out :

Offroading539.jpg


Been working on my fuel cell cradle on and off for the last couple of days...its finally done minus the over the cell straps. For this being hand cut with an angle grinder and some drill press work, i'm pretty happy with how it came out...though it did cause me to have to go get metal drilled out of my eye...

Offroading542.jpg


Tube work out of 1.25" in the back...its been actually flipped from this to move the fuel cell behind the passenger to offset weight in the buggy.

Offroading541.jpg


It all "in place"...

Offroading543.jpg


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And finally getting the rear strut mounts braced...

Offroading545.jpg


Thats where i'm at right now...next it getting the Action Packer bin mounted as well as my radiator. :D
 
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Simply incredible Justin. :thumbup:
 
the work of art continues...

"though it did cause me to have to go get metal drilled out of my eye..."

I had that last fall, after the base Dr #1 froze then poked at it with a needle, civi Dr #2 froze then poked at it with another needle, finally the emerg Dr #3 got the "dremel" like tool out and it was outta there.
not something I would like to do again, and I was even wearing safety glasses, as always.
 
Awesome!

beakie, welcome to the club :thumbup: I spent about a week in january going in and out of the hospital, they had me in for checkups every day or two... got a piece of metal smaller than a grain of sand embedded 30% of the way into my cornea, it snuck around my eyeglasses. If I hadn't waited two days to go in (thought I just scratched it and it would get better... not) it would have been a single day affair. They didn't freeze it, but they used a needle to fish most of it out, then another doc used another needle to fish some of the rust out, then another one used a burr (that'd be the dremel like tool :scared:) to remove the rest of the rust.

I got another piece in my eye wearing safety glasses a few months later, this time I recognized the feeling the next morning, said "no way in hell am I going through that again", sterilized a rubber glove with peroxide, washed it off, stuck a smooth cornered hard-drive magnet in it and removed the metal myself. It was not unlike putting in a contact lens and I couldn't even tell there'd been anything wrong within 2 hours.

After those incidents, I wear the best eye protection I have on hand... generally a "birth control" style face mask from harbor freight. Calculated it out and I can buy one of those every single day and throw it out, even on days when I don't work on my jeep at all, for the next 3-4 years before it equals the amount my insurance company ended up paying the hospital.
 
Been working on my fuel cell cradle on and off for the last couple of days...its finally done minus the over the cell straps. For this being hand cut with an angle grinder and some drill press work, i'm pretty happy with how it came out...though it did cause me to have to go get metal drilled out of my eye...

Offroading542.jpg
Why are there no dimpled holes on this thing? :(
 
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Its not even a cherokee anymore! But im sure theres some unibody left in there somewhere. lol Ok, so this is the first time I've actually seen this build. I have a question about your front link setup. There is an awful lot of triangulation on your lower links and the top link is at quite an angle. Good If you were adding another link to run a triangulated four think (which I dont get why you didnt since your going full hydro anyways). But, you are running a track bar. Do you know yet how much your axle is going to move side to side through travel yet? And when you pull a tire up on an obstacle and flex out arent you worried about bind occuring or atleast pinion angle changes especially since your running solid joints?
I dunno, maybe im just visualizing it from the wrong angle. But besides that, great build, you do really nice work and its evident that you dont let a little extra time stop you from doing something right the first time.
 
Its not even a cherokee anymore!

Sure it is, it still has a cherokee VIN, part of a firewall, and some framerail :D It will look a lot more XJ like when its done

But im sure theres some unibody left in there somewhere. lol Ok, so this is the first time I've actually seen this build. I have a question about your front link setup. There is an awful lot of triangulation on your lower links and the top link is at quite an angle. Good If you were adding another link to run a triangulated four think (which I dont get why you didnt since your going full hydro anyways). But, you are running a track bar.

I didn't go a dual-triangulated 4-link for several reasons. First There is triangulation in my links for reason. First and foremost...even with all the cutting i've done...a 4-link front that
1.) does NOT hang below the frame rails what so ever and
2.) fitting a 4-link in the front with desirable characteristics with OUT making the rig a skyscraper...well it just isn't much possible. Closest I've ever seen was Jon (Kaczman) and even he said if he did it over he would just go a 3-link.

From your sig it seems you might know a thing or two about suspension so I won't have to go TOO in depth :D My lowers are triangulated for a couple reasons...one being that I refused to let ANYTHING hang below my framerails as I wanted a completely flat belly (therefore they need to be tucked in and up). As well the triangulation of the lowers allows for a better turning radius, and I couldn't inboard the axle side lowers anymore than they are without sitting on the cast housing. The upper is triangulated since well, thats where it fit and that gave me desirable characteristics when plugged into the 3-link Calc. Lastly I guess you could say it takes a little more stress off the trackbar mount, though that won't really be an issue with the full hydro steering.


Do you know yet how much your axle is going to move side to side through travel yet?

verrrry little, maybe 1" or so

And when you pull a tire up on an obstacle and flex out arent you worried about bind occuring or atleast pinion angle changes especially since your running solid joints?

I would only be worred about that if I had a 4th link. With a 3-link (unless you set it up incredibly bad), there will be no binding in the system since you don't have links trying to fight one another. The three link I have built keeps the pinion pointed towards the T-case throughout its range of travel.

I dunno, maybe im just visualizing it from the wrong angle. But besides that, great build, you do really nice work and its evident that you dont let a little extra time stop you from doing something right the first time.

Thanks, gotta say i'm happy with the results so far :D
 
So got a little more work done this weekend...

Got the ORI mounts in the rear finished up:

Offroading002.jpg


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As well got the Action packer mount knocked out...pictures and lighting make it look a little worse...

Offroading005.jpg


In place...

Offroading006.jpg


With the bin all clamped in...

Offroading007.jpg


Now to get the radiator done...
 
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Well...I must say progress has been slow. School had been absolutely reaping me of my time and soul lately. My senior mechanical engineering project is extremely demanding...as well as the rest of my classes in my 17 credit hour semester :banghead:

Worked on the rig yesterday for the first time in nearly a month :smsoap:

Won't lie, it was kinda hard to get motivated since it feels like i've done nothing but work on stuff lately but I finally did get some.

Picked up a set of G-Force 5-point restraints from Troy:

004.jpg


Picked up a D300 from another freind for $100:
It has a broken rear output (which happened near 4 years ago now and I was partially responsible for it breaking by persuading someone to a certain line :D)

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Gonna use this in a Box4Rocks Doubler setup with 32 spline outputs replacing the stock ones :firedevil:

Started the radiator cradle for the Griffin Radiator I got from another buddy:

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Got ONE tube done for the rear (really was not in the mood to notch yesterday) :rolleyes:

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And I've been working on stripping the harness with help from Sam...this stuff is what nightmares are made of:

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Stuff that has been gone through or still needs to:

009.jpg


What has been removed:

008.jpg


Between 2 exams, 2 long lab write ups, a homework assignment, FE exam review session and studying, and senior design this week I probably won't get to touch it until next weekend :cry:
 
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