Project: Ground Up

[hot_rod_hooligans]

Ok so I guess I've waited long enough to do this, but here it is.

89 MJ Pioneer, LWB, 2wd, 4.0L, BA10/5, D35. I had originally purchased to use as a DD/parts hauler. Turned out that between a lot of needs and several wants, I was looking at an entire drivetrain swap. I bought it as a parts hauler because I've been gathering a lot of parts for a new rig, namely the entire drivetrain. I had intentions of getting a near bare TJ tub and frame to put everything in, but after weighing the costs of buying and building a TJ the way I wanted to, and the cost of building the MJ, the MJ won the battle.

Specs:
Propane injected 4.7L stroker 11:1 compression
AW4
NP231J/D HD hybrid case
Jana54 w/Chevy high steer
Ford 9"
3/4 link
Bob/chop/back half~ 109" WB
Rear coil overs or ORIs
37"x12.5"R17 Goodyear MT/R Kevlar
17x8 KMC Enduro bead locks
And a neat blue paint job!

 

[hot_rod_hooligans]

The renix motor has BAD blow-by, which made it a great candidate for the 4.7 stroker I was already gathering parts for. The block was given to me if I got it out of the guys shop, 4.0 out of an early WJ that the owner was apparently too cheep to bother changing their oil. Spun the #1 rod bearing, lack of oiling from excessive sludge build up.

I got the head from an engine out of an 04 TJ, had 13K on it when the owner snapped off two of the passenger(?) side motor mount bolt bosses off of the block. I picked it up for $150 and promptly sold the A/C compressor, crank, and oil pump for twice that. Kept the rods and top end for myself.

Engine specs:
4.7L stroker
Clifford carburated 4.0L intake manifold
GotPropane.com conversion kit
JBA Header 00+ 4.0L
TUPY revised 0331 head - ported and polished
Mopar Performance 0.043" Head Gasket - P4529242
Victor Renz engine gasket kit
COMP Cams 68-239-4 Cam and Lifter kit
COMP Cams High Energy Timing Chain Set - 3219
Harland Sharp Pedestal Mount Bolt-On Series Rocker Arms - S40196
Keith Black Forged High-compression Pistons .060 over - IC945-060
Stock 4.0L connecting rods
AMC 258/4.2L crank
99 WJ 4.0 Block
M.O.R.E. BombProof Block Brackets
Projected power based on "Rule of Thumb" Guestimated Mathematics: ~330 HP/400 lbs/ft +/-

Block and head after coming back from Thermoblasting

Stock intake ports

I got a little overzealous with the ports, everything I have been taught about port design and flow was always higher RPM race application, so that's kind of how my port work unintentionally ended up going. Gasket matched the port opening, then ported the rest to match that, with a little extra around the valve guides.

Block is at the machinist this week getting bored/decked, should have it back Thurs in time for class.

 

[hot_rod_hooligans]

88" long bed, minimal rust/dents for it's age

To bob it and get the wheelbase I want, I'm cutting it in two sections: 12.5" out of the front, 18" out of the rear. Should leave me with a 61" bed with the wheel wells fairly centered front to rear. Since I hate doing extra body work, The bed sides are coming off, and will be cut down after the main section of the bed has been shortened.

this will also let me spot weld inside and out of both the bed and bed sides with ease, as well as fix the little bit of the rust starting there.

12" section to be removed from the front, I'll cut out the little bit of the kick out thats left and patch it in so it sits flush with the rest of the inside of that section

18" section out of the rear

The bed side will have a 26.5" section cut out of the center, tacked back together, wheel well re cut, then finish welding the two together.

Here is where some of my custom roots are coming into play: Hannemann fiberglass Jeep Speed bed flares and fenders, nice clean look to achieve lots of wheel well for large tires without a lot of lift, and allow me to drive this thing around town and to/from the trail if I want without giving cops any extra ammo to pull me over because my tires are completely outside the vehicle. I'll be attaching these with Dzus fasteners just incase I need to get skinny quick.
Once the bed is cut down, it will sit about like this

I'm pretty optimistic that the corner will come out with some nice clean lines

I'll box in the old tail light housings, and recut new ones to use 78/79 Ford truck tail lights, two screws hold them in, compact shape, and I think they cost about $13 each.

 

[hot_rod_hooligans]

No turning back

Going back together

Flipped it over for the front sectioning, and to weld the underside of the bed floor.

I had to cut the flange off of the backside of the forward most crossmember to make the cut where I wanted to, I'm not thrilled about that, but I'm going to go back with a 1x1 angle and plug weld the hell out of it to the back side of the forward crossmember and the front flange of the second.
I also ended up cutting a crossmember out when I sectioned the rear, I will go back and cut part of that floor section up with the crossmember as part of it, and weld it overlapping the rear seam, allowing me to double up the sheet metal there, as well as adding a crossmember under it for added strength. You can see I have done a similar thing to the bed sides also.

Flipped over for a better view of the finished product

Shortened a total of 28" exactly, but don't ask where I cut the extra 1/2" from, it wasn't planed that way lol.

I'm thinking about some 1x1" 1/8" angle to weld to the back side of the lip that the bedsides attach to across the bedrail. Then capping the bedrail with a piece of 3/16" plate bent to cover the inside edge(sandwiching the factory seam between it and the 1/8" plate). The 1/8" piece will give me something solid to weld to since I completely drilled out the original spot welds, as well as add a little more rigidity to the bed side, the 3/16" plate will add a lot more rigidity to it, as well as armor up the bed rail for when I end up rubbing up against a tree or rock.

 

[dasbulliwagen]

Subscibed! Nice work so far.

 

[jakeWI]

looking good. to bad you didnt use a rusty bed.

 

[hot_rod_hooligans]

looking good. to bad you didnt use a rusty bed.

Of the two beds I have, I left the better of the two alone.... For now.

 

[hot_rod_hooligans]

Snapped a couple of pics yesterday when I had to run up to my Dads to pick up some stuff, just a couple of pics for comparison of a kind of before/after:

And a little bit of a mock up(as much as I could do without someone to hold the flare) of things to come.

I have the 25-27th off work, so I'm going to head back up for another run at it. I hope to get the patch work and overlapping patches welded up, as well as a couple more passes of tack welds done on the inside of the bed, and ground down. Then cut the bed sides down and tack them back together for test fit. I'm going to wait to weld them back on the bed, till I can take the section I cut out to my buddy and have him use it as a templet to bend up the bedside re-enforcements.

 

[EricsXJ]

Interesting build and good work so far!

 

[89eliminator]

looking good thus far. cant wait to see the finished product.

 

[hot_rod_hooligans]

A few small updates nothing big right now, but I'll be trying something I'm not sure a lot of you guys know much, if anything about.

Spent a couple days working on the truck again, making progress on the back seam but it's not going together the way I want it to. I am really trying to avoid using body filler on the bed floor unless I absolutely have to, but using weld is proving difficult with the thin sheet metal. Grinding the spot welds smooth is making the sheet metal too thin for comfort, and ends up blowing through if I even point a welder in its direction.

Here is were things were still ok, I should have stopped and looked at the options I was thinking about at the time and been great, but I didn't. I just took long enough of a break to double up the bottom with the section I had cut out originally, placing the original cross member directly under the seam. Then I got froggy and figured with the metal doubled up, it would be a good time to clean up the seem. Not a good idea at 8 o'clock at night after working on it all day, it went down hill from there.

I got way too happy with the welder, ignored everything I know about welding thin metal, and got crazy with the heat. I finally called it quits and started researching lead.

Ever hear the term "Lead Sled" when somebody was talking about an old chopped top 'Merc? Yeah that comes from them using lead before plastic body fillers like Bondo existed. This stuff is almost a lost art anymore, and it will suit my needs perfectly. The biggest advantage to Lead over Bondo is lead will actually move with the metal around it if it gets dented, as opposed to Bondo that will crack. Bondo has it's place, and there is a lot of places I will end up using it, but the floor of the bed, right at the back where it will see the most use, isn't really a place I feel comfortable using it. Yeah I plan on using a spray in bedliner, but I'm expecting right there to see a lot of use, and it's one of those places that I can see the floor getting dented, and body filler cracking, then causing nightmares with the bed liner.

Here is everything I got with the leading kit I got from Eastwood:

Contents left to right:
Body file half round
Body file flat
2 Flat paddles(bottom)
1 Half-round paddle(top)
1-lb Tinning butter
Acid brushes
10- 1/4lb sticks of lead solder
1-lb. Tallow
There is also an instructional DVD not pictured

 

[moparmansfield]

i like where this is going.

 

[hot_rod_hooligans]

Alright finally got pics of the relocated crossmember and doubled up floor pan.

Here is what it started at

Spent some time grinding down the welds from last time, now that I wasn't feeling so impatent it didn't go so bad.

A mid-leading pic

This is about as close as I'm going to try to get it with lead, I might finish it with some body filler or even a high built primer, and then bed line the whole thing. It is a lot harder than it looks, especially without someone to tell you what you are doing wrong.

Where I left off

And this is a big reason why I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted done, my Dads 61 Chevy Impala. It had recently been rebuilt with a flat tappet cam. My dad isn't the most mechanically attentive person, and managed to wipe out 12 of the 16 cam lobes. With all that metal floating around in the oil, it nearly seized all the wrist pins, broke a piston skirt, trashed all the bearings, and scared the crank..... Moral of the story is, if you have a flat tappet cam, use oil with zinc in it! So after a fresh rebuild with a roller cam, and an Edlebrock Performer RPM intake manifold, the engine went back in yesterday.