So what do you guys think??

[John(XJ)Jeep]

I just did this early last week and have been looking for some opinions about it
So I took some pics and you guys may want to have a look at it. For the most
part I think it looks pretty good but I'm sitting on the fence about the chin for it.
It didn't seem to fit right but I think that it may just be the edges being too
straight for the natural curve of the front. I try to tell myself that when I fiberglass
it will look better smoothed out a bit. But I don't know yet.

It's made of this sandwiched resin and aluminum honeycomb I found, it's very light just about
the same weight of the stock piece but It's like 3 times stronger than it. I've got lots of it
and was thinking about doing the sides with it as well. Maybe like 1.5"-2" just straight with
the rockers to bring the lines closer to the front airdam piece. The corner pieces are made
from 18awg steel that's got this weird hard paint. I've been using that stuff more because
it doesn't hardly rot at all.

It sits about 3" lower than the stock piece as well and would be about 3.5"-4" with the chin
and with the 2" 5" drop it should be about 5" off the ground so it'll be pretty low. :shocked:
At high speed it seems to do it's job it does feel much more stable than before and may be
noticeable increase in that with the chin too.

It looks nicer now with the wide tires in the front and the somewhat wider ones in the back
I just put on this week. Still the same 225/50R17 in the front but I changed to a 245/45R17
in the back now. Now I just need to get started on that SS exhaust and the drop.

So what do you guys think??

 

[bigalpha]

If it nets you a few extra mpgs, then I say roll with it.

 

[bjoehandley]

I'm liking it so far, and the exhaust sounded a bit rat roddish, seemed like all it needed was some spark plugs at the tail pipes and it was ready to throw some fire:laugh3:

I'm also impressed with how you twisted up that Jato drive shaft on your SCT too. Been running a set of those on my Stampede since '05 and have torn apart 3 stub axles after swapping in a VXL back in '07 (not even using LiPo's either) and have yet to do that to them!

 

[John(XJ)Jeep]

Ya, heh heh! That's good to hear, I don't want to go overboard with it.
I want to try and keep it as simple as possible. I don't like the one that came with
the Comanche that much so I figure I'll take a shot at it with my own idea. The
exhaust will be changed to a SS setup I'll be doing it my self this time so I'll end
up putting pictures of that when I'm done, plus the drop as well.

I made a new drive shaft out of 2 steel hardened yoke sets and a hex tube from
a screwdriver and a long bit. Silver soldered them together, trued them on a
lathe and was as tough as nails. The diff actually exploded from the power and
half the spiders turned into goo. There was only enough metal to make 2 of
the gears!

Both halves of that driveshaft came out at the same time on that plastic driveshaft!!
Both yokes at both ends spit the driveshaft on the ground after the punch control
came off. It launched and after 10 feet it just rolled. lol

 

[Talyn]

I made a new drive shaft out of 2 steel hardened yoke sets and a hex tube from
a screwdriver and a long bit. Silver soldered them together, trued them on a
lathe and was as tough as nails. The diff actually exploded from the power and
half the spiders turned into goo. There was only enough metal to make 2 of
the gears!

At first I was like "wat?". Then I realized you were talking about RC cars.

That air dam doesn't look half bad. It would probably be even less noticeable with the screws or rivet heads painted to match.

 

[John(XJ)Jeep]

Hey guys, I've run into a little decision to make and I'm hoping some of you could give me
your opinion to help me out a bit here. I came across some round tube material recently
and I can't decide whether to use it or not. Now I'm not experienced in what tubes are
used to do suspension components but I figure I can use some of the material here for
steering, the control arms and/or my Caltrac. But I don't know for sure, I have my doubts as
well. It's looks to be strong enough since it's a tube and it is a little thicker than the stock
stamped control arms and steering but I'm just not sure. Simply what's putting me in doubt
is all I've read about control arms and steering linkage say to use as thick and heavy as
possible but that's for hard 4x4ing, this thing is going to be strictly street use only.

I've got some pictures as you can see and in the picture shows the size. The wall thicknesses
are around .090-.100" and they seemed to be rolled and welded like exhaust tubing then chrome
plated for the whole length. I have no idea what they came off of or where they came from
it was just picked up as scrap. I've used some of the tubing already as a handle for a pitchfork.
I've broke the fork 3 times trying to get a stump out and had to weld everything back up but
the handle didn't even bend while that happened so I know it's strong just not sure if strong
enough for a car or in this case a street only Jeep.

I'd like to use it simply because it's there and it's chrome but I figure I'd ask first and get a
census from people. I've got 5 pieces of it and it's more than enough to do everything so
ya, let me know what ye think.

 

[IXNAYXJ]

Simply what's putting me in doubt
is all I've read about control arms and steering linkage say to use as thick and heavy as
possible but that's for hard 4x4ing, this thing is going to be strictly street use only.

You're talking about making control arms out of that stuff? There's no need, and not knowing exactly what it's made out of, I'd steer clear. We run all stock control arms and steering on our road race XJ and it's been more than up to the task in 10k race miles.

-Matt
facebook.com/teampettycash

 

[John(XJ)Jeep]

Well, I guess I'm not entirely asking if will be strong enough. I won't be using the stock
control arms since I'm going to be changing the suspension geometry almost completely.
It's hard to say what I mean here, what I mean is it is thicker and tube which makes it
stronger than stock but I guess one part is answered already cause you said the stock
can handle all road only maneuvers. But how much stronger is what I'm guessing at. If
anything I can use for the Caltrac and steering but I can just as easily go and get thicker
and stronger tube for not much money I guess. I'd rather not waste money if I didn't
need to.

I'm almost positive that it's cold rolled and none of the pipes were bent by a manufacturer,
they aren't annealed by some process either. But I still have nothing to compare to so I
don't know if there is going to be a strength issue. If I had a tube from say a ladder bar
kit I can see how much a difference is but trying to figure out what it's even made from
is hard to find out I guess short of calling manufacturers to ask what kind of DOM they use
seeing there are many different types and different brands use different types of tubes.

What your opinion on this? I'm not trying to fight you here I'm just putting up an argument
to see if we can get into more detail here.

 

[IXNAYXJ]

...I'm going to be changing the suspension geometry almost completely.

How? The factory Quadra-Link is really quite good. We lowered ours significantly (I assume that's your goal, given the street bias of your project), to the point that we can't go much lower before the axle gets dangerously close to the oil pan.

-Matt

 

[John(XJ)Jeep]

With the current tires on it now which are 225/50R17, the top of the tire will be pretty
much be at the height of the fender flare which is about 2 inches. The upper control
arms are going to have to be modified to get the frame clearance, I might have to notch
a little part of the frame out too. I guess the best description will be an inverted
triangulated 4-link.

I have some other issues to solve first but the axle has to come before that to figure
them out.

 

[IXNAYXJ]

With the current tires on it now which are 225/50R17, the top of the tire will be pretty
much be at the height of the fender flare which is about 2 inches. The upper control
arms are going to have to be modified to get the frame clearance, I might have to notch
a little part of the frame out too. I guess the best description will be an inverted
triangulated 4-link.

I have some other issues to solve first but the axle has to come before that to figure
them out.

What are you trying to accomplish? We're running 245/45R17s with no rubbage issues, frame, control arms or otherwise. Are you just trying to get it lower? We cut a coil or two and went SUA and there's maybe 1.5" between bumpstops and axles.

-Matt

 

[IXNAYXJ]

Also, I saw you asked about SUA set-ups. We went to an Exploder 8.8 in order to get LSD, disc brakes and 4.10 gears. The Explorer is SUA to begin with, but the springs don't line up so we torched the perches off. Then we got some Comanche spring perches (which come sprung under) and adapted those to the 8.8 tubes. This required a little bit of fab to get the shocks to line up right and not interfere with the axle tube, but it was pretty straight forward.

I don't know what axle you're running, but something to keep in mind if you're doing the 8.8 swap like we did, the OD of the axle tube is larger, so that will affect the amount it lowers it. We're running a stock leaf pack, but with a 2" Rubicon Express add-a-leaf...this served two purposes, one to lift it up because a SUA conversion would be too low to clear tires and the gas tank, but it also stiffened it up. It gives the Jeep very good body roll characteristics. We're running stock sway bars and it is very planted in corners.

Hope that helps.

-Matt

 

[John(XJ)Jeep]

I don't know what I'm going to do with my rear axle yet. For now I'm keeping it but later
I might swap it for something else.

 

[John(XJ)Jeep]

Finished my exhaust today, don't know how it will sound though. I put in a lot
of effort so I'm eager to hear it but I'm also little scared that I won't like it too.
It's 3" stainless with spinbun cats and my own mufflers. It looks really good but
hoping it will sound as good as it looks.



I have to make a adjustment because the passenger side is hitting the frame when
I tighten the flanges down before the mufflers. Just need to chop out a little slice
on the one bend before the flange on the downpipe side and it'll be good. I'll get
better pics tomorrow with more light, I didn't expect them to be that crappy.

 

[John(XJ)Jeep]

Here's the rest for tonight's work.

 

[MoparManiac]

3" duals...?

Holy hell.

 

[Keithmania]

Whoa! Huge collector area. Did you maintain 3" all the way to the end? If so you might look into some heat wrap for your headers to keep egt's up to maintain a scavenging effect and to prevent some low end torque loss. Would love to hear this thing run though. Looks awesome.

 

[John(XJ)Jeep]

Ye I was thinking about that. I might do a coating instead but I'm not doing anything right now because I'm
thinking about making my own stainless header. Clifford's header is just steel and if I wrap it, it will rust away
so it'll be a definite consideration for the next header. I should be able to run it today I have a bunch of
pictures and I think I may have managed to find a way to adapt a new TPS to work with the Jeep.
I'll let you guys know tonight, I'll be making a video as well so I'll get a video up soon.

 

[John(XJ)Jeep]

So I got some more work done today and I'm almost finished for now. I still haven't got my heim joints yet (grrr) so I can't
get that stuff done yet. I did manage to finish the exhaust, intake (like %98.7) and almost done the hood. It was a pain
but I feel it was well worth it. Tomorrow I'm going to do some touch up painting on the body, bumpers etc. I wanted to do
for some time now and some rust control. I won't be driving it much if not at all this winter to minimize the damage the salt
does to it so I can have a good as possible base to redo my entire floor plus some ladder reinforcement to the frame while
I do the suspension drop (hopefully, if I get heim joints) to make new shock mounts and put good strong points for a cage.
I've got a bunch of 18 gauge stainless steel sheets to use for the floor so I'm putting that in instead. But that's all a different
story that won't start till next year I guess.

Well anyway I guess you guys would rather see some pics so I'll get those up right now. Lo and behold, Digital Imagery!!

 

[John(XJ)Jeep]

More?...