OrvisKrawlers 96 chevy standard cab shortbed build

A month or so ago I picked this truck up on ksl after selling my grand cherokee, the goal was the same as the grand, build a vehicle to go wheeling, take to moab and do some hard trails, be a daily driver, and be reliable, plans were for a dana 60 and a 14 bolt, so here is what I started out with
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it was a pretty clean fairly low mileage truck with some horrible spray tint on the lights, the first thing I wanted to do was sand and buff the lenses and rip all the moldings off, here was the result
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a few weeks after I picked it up I started looking for a 14 bolt and a dana 60, found my rear 14 bolt at a local junk yard, it was out of a 96, after making some measurements I realized it would bolt right in and the stock drive shaft would even work( with a conversion ujoint)
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at the time I couldnt find a 78-79 d60 so I picked up a really clean '90 version off ksl after doing a little research and seeing that it would work for my needs
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now that I had the axles I needed to get the parts to build them, decided to go with 5.13's and detroits front and rear, high steer kit from balistic and cross over kit from ruff stuff, and some SOLID covers from polyperformance, got all that ordered and got the axles put together
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I was surprised at how easy they were to set up, only took a few hours, my dana 30 in the grand cherokee was a pita compared to these, anyway next I needed front springs, I went with 52" blazer rears, found them from a forum member on here, after I got those I was able to score a good deal on some 37" BFG dot Krawlers, then went and pulled a pitman arm from a dodge pickup, the taper for the tre is on the wrong side, in the past Ive used this arm and just fill the hole up a little with weld and taper the other side and its worked well, so thats what Im doing this time, just waiting for my tapered bit to show up
the time came this weekend that I would have some shop time so I got everything ready, went and got my steel for the front cross member and shackles, and shackle hangers, decided to do the rear first since it was just a bolt in deal and a shackle flip, here is how it started
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I ended up taking out the chicken killer bottom leaf and needed a set of shims to get the right angle for the drive shaft after the shackle flip
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forgot to take a pic of the shackle flip, Ill have to get one later, anyway rear was almost done, I modified the brake line mounts to be able to use the stock brake line, and tomorrow I need to go pick up a conversion ujoint and bolt up the drive shaft
so saturday I started on the front
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diff and torsion bars out, next was everything else
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Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
Nice! I'll be watching this one come together for sure! I like the build plan.

How bad was all that grinding on the frame, after removing the IFS?
 

sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
I loved your grand cherokee, and I'm sure I'll love this build just as much, if not more. Congrats on selling your old rig and finding such a clean donor vehicle. I think a full-size could be sick, especially in a short bed. This one always makes me weak in the knees:

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What's your wheelbase on this thing?
 

OrvisKrawler

Captain Obvious
Location
Eden UT
Nice! I'll be watching this one come together for sure! I like the build plan.

How bad was all that grinding on the frame, after removing the IFS?
thanks greg, the grinding wasnt bad, I trimmed it up close with the torch so there wasnt much left to grind, just had to clean it up

anyway here are more pics from the weekend, cut off brackets
f553a3231a4a__1341628677000.jpgno turning back nowcad4ab3ec1ee__1341628609000.jpg
Ill post a pic of it all cleaned up in a min, next was to cut out the cross member from the 4x4x1/4 square tubing I was going to use, here is a pic of it installed and welded in, just used a chop saw to cut it out
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I had mounted up the leafs so that I could get an idea of where the hangers needed to go and to get a width measurement once the axle was centered in the wheel well and centered under the frame, it worked out perfect once it was all lined up, so I cut out some tabs and bolted them to the leafs and tacked them in place, then unbolted them and burned them in
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also forgot to mention that I left the main cross member in while I burned in the new one I made that way the frame wouldnt get out of position when I cut it out, anyway next was to cut out the main stock cross member and bolt up the leafs and axle, for now I just used some tie downs to support the rear so I could get some shackle angles and figure out where my rear hanger would need to be mounted.
cross member out and frame cleaned up a bit..
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I mounted the axle centered in the wheel well, I originally wanted to set it forward a few inches but ran into a problem with the high steer and the pitman arm and drag link angles, I saw some threads on pirate where the guy used the same axle and high steer and set the axle forward of center and his pitman arm tre hole was right over his tie rod, I didnt want that to happen here so I left it centered, even with this Im going to have to drill a couple new holes in my high steer arms a inch or so behind the ones that are in them, its close to lining up but its just not quite there, Ill post pics of this as soon as I get my reamer bit and the steering is in.
next on my list were the rear shackles and hangers for the front leafs, I had some old bushings laying around from the jeep so I got some tube and some 2" flat strap and fabed up some shackles, Ill post a pic of this tomorrow, forgot to take one,
for the hangers I used the 4x4 tubing,the leafs were so close to the inside of the frame I set it up so I could use a nut welded to a washer then cut a hole in the frame and welded the nut and washer to the frame with the nut sitting in the hole, with a piece cut out from the 4x4 welded to the frame above it with a gusset
anyway this all worked really well, it sat almost perfectly level when I lowered it down and the shackle angles seemed to be pretty good, I ended up using the front brake lines from the truck I got the donor rear axle from, they were 24" long and are going to work great, bled the brakes and found that the master isnt pushing enough fluid for the front dual piston ford calipers (figured that would be the case) so I went and bought a new master for a 99 c3500 with disks front and rear, just need to install it, at this point I was exhausted so I called it quits, here is the last pic I got this morning
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it seems like I got SOOOO much done this weekend but it seems like there is sooooo much left to do, here is a list of what is left just to get it driveable
-ujoint for rear (done)
-install new master cyl (done)
-redrill and taper arms 1 inch back (done)
-weld drill and taper pitman arm (done)
-build drag link (done)
-build track bar
-shocks (done)
-front drive shaft (done)

long term stuff
-sliders (done)
-bumpers(done)
-rear traction bar(done)
-bump stops & limit straps(front bumps done)
-rock lights(done)
-cb (done)
-winch(done)
-cage
-rear disk conversion(done)
-Co2 bottle mount(done)
-links and coilovers front and rear (further into the future)
 
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OrvisKrawler

Captain Obvious
Location
Eden UT
I loved your grand cherokee, and I'm sure I'll love this build just as much, if not more. Congrats on selling your old rig and finding such a clean donor vehicle. I think a full-size could be sick, especially in a short bed. This one always makes me weak in the knees:

View attachment 73975


What's your wheelbase on this thing?

thanks steve, that truck and gregs build thread is kind of what inspired me to sell my grand and do this, Ive done 2 of these in the past for myself and a few more for friends but they were more show than a rockcrawler, I guess I miss my solid axle chevys haha, the jeep just wasnt me
 

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
Wow, coming together fast! That last pics looks great! Were the rivets for the shackle flip easy enough to remove? More torch work, I assume?

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Do you happen to have a part number or a link for that conversion u-joint?
 

OrvisKrawler

Captain Obvious
Location
Eden UT
here are a couple pics of my shackle hanger in the front
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here is the rear shackle hanger, it looks like hell right now, but will look better when its done, Im going to add some gussets and fill the holes with weld where I cut the rivets, just used the stock hanger, cut the bottom off and welded it on upside down
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Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
OK Greg, got my Ujoint, they were out of spicer so I had to get a cheaper one, but it should cross reference in their computer, I got it from six states, the part # 2-1153 neapco brand

Thanks! You've done some homework for me.... :D Looking forward to the rest of the build! When do you think you'll have it out on the trail for the first trip?
 

OrvisKrawler

Captain Obvious
Location
Eden UT
Thanks! You've done some homework for me.... :D Looking forward to the rest of the build! When do you think you'll have it out on the trail for the first trip?

its going to be a couple or 3 weeks until its maiden voyage, I have 3 things I need to do first until its wheelable

-track bar
-shocks
-front drive shaft
 

OrvisKrawler

Captain Obvious
Location
Eden UT
well got some stuff done today after work, rear drive shaft is in and is perfect as far as length goes, my steering is done, drag link made, set the tie rod back a little on the arms so the drag link would be parallel with it and not come in contact with it where it hooks to the pitman arm, this made it so I couldnt set the axle any further forward like I really wanted to without some major modifications (moving the steering box forward) but it worked and im happy how it turned out
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after I bolted it all up i checked clearances of the tire, it was hitting the back of the fender A LOT so much so it got stuck and i couldnt get it back straight, had to lift it with the lift to get the tire where it would clear to get it straight again, then I started cutting with the die grinder, now it clears, actually drove it home tonight, it needs shocks BAD and a track bar, and the brakes pretty much still suck but it stops (wasnt able to get the master cyl changed out today) however it was nice to drive it
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OrvisKrawler

Captain Obvious
Location
Eden UT
thanks guys, i appreciate the compliments, got some more stuff ordered today, flexed it out with our backhoe at work and got some measurements for the shocks, so I got those ordered, and also got the heims ordered for the track bar, already have the tube, so hopefully this weekend I can get that stuff put on
 
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