Colin994
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Wellesley Ma
So its finally come time to say goodbye to red jeep as we know it. To give some background, I bought red jeep from Ross back in october hoping to be able to give it a new life and add on to what had already been built. A month later, I was rear ended by a lady and got pushed into the car stopped in front of me, destroying his trunk and the entire front end of the volvo that rear ended me. Cant even tell you how upset I was. The front end took absolutely no damage which honestly surprised me. But considering the lady was going around 35 or so, the trailer hitch got pushed down and the bumper tie-ins crumpled the frame on both sides, arched the trunk, and crumpled the quarter panels. It still drove fine, but insurance called it totalled and so I bought it back. Decided to drive it until I either fixed it, or found a replacement which I really wanted to avoid. Considering ive got hardly any time or resources, finding another 2 door 5 speed with the insurance money and swapping all the parts seemed like the only option.
After beating on red jeep through the entire winter, putting on a couple thousand miles, and driving to and from ma bell twice for its last proper wheeling trips, I found a 97 red 2 door 5 speed with 124k for a little less than what I got from insurance. Bought a RC 4.5 in lift with new leaf packs, and so the swap begins. Probably the most bittersweet thing ive done, its already hard seeing red jeep go. But at least a good amount of parts will live on.
swap time. the end goal is to put in the new suspension, have both axles, the tcase and shafts, control arms, steering rack, bumpers, pistol shifter, throttle body spacer, exhaust, and other bits here and there swapped over to the new jeep. the rears an 8.8 and the front a d30 with a good amount of reinforcement fabricated by Ross. Both with 3:55, the np242 already has a sye, so might as well swap it along with the axles.
My house sucks and doesnt have a flat driveway nor a backyard. Up until yesterday I thought a car couldnt fit in my garage due to the stairs, but with some good space planning we got the door to close. For the new jeep, the road would have to do.
got the 8.8 and 242 out with out much trouble, wish I could say the same for the new jeep.... spent way too much time and way too much money getting those damn shackle bolts out. The bushing sleeve ceased to the bolt making it impossible to pull the bolt out of the hole in the shackle box. After pbing and torching the shit out of 2 of them we just decided to sawzall them off and try and find replacement bolts.
you can really see the buckles in the frame, found some cracks that werent there a couple weeks ago too
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2.5 in lift took its toll, but god was having a low cog fun.
gave it a quick spray
out and in the new jeep now. good. the 231 in the new jeep was quite a bit harder since it probably had never been taken out, but after many busted knuckles and a lot of patience it came out.
Michael and I were pumped.
oh and i think theres some nest or somethin in my frame. fuzzy stuff is coming out of the nut in the shackle box. weird.
threw some tires in the wheel wells to make it look like its just a parked car. Im so damn sneaky.
aaaaaand now i have duallies.
so got the rear end from the new jeep bolted into the old one, still need to throw the t case in there and bolt up the driveshafts, bleed brakes, and then do front axle later, but a good start for 1 weekend. just need to bolt in the 8.8 with the new leaf packs and then theyll both be sitting on their own weight at least.
input is always welcome, id rather be called an idiot than do something wrong
After beating on red jeep through the entire winter, putting on a couple thousand miles, and driving to and from ma bell twice for its last proper wheeling trips, I found a 97 red 2 door 5 speed with 124k for a little less than what I got from insurance. Bought a RC 4.5 in lift with new leaf packs, and so the swap begins. Probably the most bittersweet thing ive done, its already hard seeing red jeep go. But at least a good amount of parts will live on.
swap time. the end goal is to put in the new suspension, have both axles, the tcase and shafts, control arms, steering rack, bumpers, pistol shifter, throttle body spacer, exhaust, and other bits here and there swapped over to the new jeep. the rears an 8.8 and the front a d30 with a good amount of reinforcement fabricated by Ross. Both with 3:55, the np242 already has a sye, so might as well swap it along with the axles.
My house sucks and doesnt have a flat driveway nor a backyard. Up until yesterday I thought a car couldnt fit in my garage due to the stairs, but with some good space planning we got the door to close. For the new jeep, the road would have to do.
got the 8.8 and 242 out with out much trouble, wish I could say the same for the new jeep.... spent way too much time and way too much money getting those damn shackle bolts out. The bushing sleeve ceased to the bolt making it impossible to pull the bolt out of the hole in the shackle box. After pbing and torching the shit out of 2 of them we just decided to sawzall them off and try and find replacement bolts.
you can really see the buckles in the frame, found some cracks that werent there a couple weeks ago too
2.5 in lift took its toll, but god was having a low cog fun.
gave it a quick spray
out and in the new jeep now. good. the 231 in the new jeep was quite a bit harder since it probably had never been taken out, but after many busted knuckles and a lot of patience it came out.
Michael and I were pumped.
oh and i think theres some nest or somethin in my frame. fuzzy stuff is coming out of the nut in the shackle box. weird.
threw some tires in the wheel wells to make it look like its just a parked car. Im so damn sneaky.
aaaaaand now i have duallies.
so got the rear end from the new jeep bolted into the old one, still need to throw the t case in there and bolt up the driveshafts, bleed brakes, and then do front axle later, but a good start for 1 weekend. just need to bolt in the 8.8 with the new leaf packs and then theyll both be sitting on their own weight at least.
input is always welcome, id rather be called an idiot than do something wrong
arty:
