update of project with pics

[N-Smooth]

http://community.webshots.com/album/90411961QPnUDi

my jeep is out of my garage... i am almost done with it, i just need to get my steering built this week and drivelines. then it will move. and then i need to build cage and bumpers. it is big though, and really wide even though i haven't gotten my 2" wheelspacers yet, they should come this week.
but yeah i stuck the waggy tierod on and pushed it out of the garage.
take a look and tell me what you think.

-nate

 

[gcb17]

looks pretty good. what axles r u running? what size tires are you gonna have?

 

[SAMI]

that's huge......

i like it

 

[Herzog]

Looks good. You need to do something about those rear shackles though.

 

[N-Smooth]

gcb17 -
i am running waggy d44's with 5.38's and spool/locker
those tires are 36.5x14... i got them out of the thrifties for $250 (5 of them on wheels) they only measure 34". but i want to run bigger, maybe 37's or 38's. i have some 2" wheelspacers on the way. since it is so high i want it to be stable. BTW i did a leaf conversion up front.

sami - thanks... i have a sami too, but my uncle ran into it with his truck while him and my brother were going up the opposite sides of a hill on saturday... the passenger front is mashed... it had such a straight body.

herzog - what about the rear shackles? yeah i hate them too, those xj lift shackles always sit straight up and down. they have no back angle, that has to restrict mad droop. i am actually planning on moving the shackle hanger forward on the unibody, which will give me a better angle and i might cutoff anything behind it. i have another post about it.

thanks for comments, i hope more people respond
-nate

 

[RockMonkey]

Looks good! Have you thought about traction bars? Looks like you're gonna need em to keep spring wrap under control. Do you have any shots of the undercarriage? Did you build any sub frame, or do any reinforcement of the unibody?

 

[N-Smooth]

oh yeah i am going to build a traction bar for each axle, probably with a j-joint on the frame end. i have not done any reinforcement yet, and i doubt i will be taking it out until i do. i am going to build a full internal rollcage/exo combo, rocksliders and bumpers and tie them into eachother. i will also build a crossmember that ties into it as well. i am actually kinda putting that part on hold for awhile cause i need to decide if i want to bob the rear and run the shackles i was thinking about. i need to decide that before i start bending tube. i think i might just build a rollbar for going to moab in october.

-nate

 

[RockMonkey]

Good, sounds like you have thought it through pretty well. If you cut the back and do the shackles like you want, would you cut the roof off too? I just can't invision any way to really make that look good, and I'm not sure how much benefit it will be anyway, since the springs are already lower and further back than anything else. I would just move the gas tank up out of the way, and make some high clearance bumpers, and leave the body mostly lintact.

 

[N-Smooth]

oh hell yeah i am cutting the top off. i have wanted to do it forever, then everyone else started to do it and i got discouraged, but i will still do it. yeah i will move the gas tank behind the front seats and the leafs will be the only things behind the wheels. leafs will slide off of rocks, bumpers don't do so well. and eventually i am sure i will 1/4 ellip, so the bobbing is necessary. and i think that it will be easier to support the unibody if i bob the rear and just weld a thick, homemade bumper to it and build a crossmember under the rear where the tank was... tie it all into the cage and it will be stiff!

 

[RockMonkey]

Ah, okay. So you want a Cody-mobile? Have you taken a good look at Cody's (Grocery Getter) ZJ lately? You might want to take a look at it before you start cutting, it is very similar to what you describe, except his suspension is a coilover/four link in the rear.

 

[N-Smooth]

yeah i have seen his zj, it is bad. my project is far from his. i have a 2door xj not a 4door zj. i have a 4 cyl he has a 5.2 prolly. he has a 9" in the rear i have a 44. ok so we both have front 44's big freaking deal. he has 4 seats, i have 2. mine is silver his is green. he has coilovers, i have leafs etc etc etc.
has he bobbed the back? i know he dovetailed the fenders, which is sweeeeeet! i thouht my plan was pretty original for being an xj, i think it will turnout cool. there is only one way to find out, i'll have to just do it.

oh yeah and he cut the whole top off, i want a half cab... you know i will have roof over my head for protection from the storm even though i don't have doors...damnit

-nate

 

[RockMonkey]

No more doevetailed fenders (if I remember right), the whole back is cut off and tubed. Still sounds like you have very similar concepts... How much head room will you have with the original cab over your head, and a cage shoved inside it? Enough? You want to run a windshield?

 

[N-Smooth]

wow, cody changed his rig? i haven't seen it for a while.

i was thinking about the internal cage just barely and it shouldn't fit over my head, expecially not if i have helmet on (for the crazy stuff). the bars on the top sides would fit fine, but no x would fit. i think i might do an internal roll bar behind the seats and have it come up into the cab overhead on the sides and down to the floor passenger side and a bar behind the windshield that i am not sure if i even want to keep and a bar at the top of the windshield. and then i will do and exo over the cab that ties into the rockrails and have it be more elaborate on my side. so basically, the internal will be elaborate on the pass side and the exo will be elaborate for my side. make sense? it kinda sucks being tall for that reason... but the extra tube will be good for the unibody.
about the windshield and cab top, don't you think it will be nice sometimes? at ejs this year, when it was all rainy, i am glad my uncle had a softtop. i have seriously lied in bed at night thinking "no top, top, no top, top..." or "windshield, no windshield, windshield?"

-nate

 

[utahxjer]

That is one bad xj. How much wider are those waggy axles than regular xj axles?

 

[RockMonkey]

There have been a couple (very few) times that I wished I had a windshield, but 99% of the time I am very glad to have the visibility, and hearability (that's not a word...) of having no windshield. As far as the top goes you can always drape a bikini top over your cage. For me (I can only speak for myself) the benefits of being topless and windshieldless far outweight the drawbacks. I can see how you could cut the top off at the B pillar, and build kind of an exo-cage over the front roof part, and make it strong enough, it sure would be heavy and weird looking though...

 

[N-Smooth]

yeah i have been trying to figure how much i would actually need the top versus how much i would love to lose it....

utahxjer : these axles are like 62" wms to wms... i am not sure what xj axles are, but these are not much wider. the front looks wide cause those are 36.5x14's and my fenders are chopped to hell. just wait until i get my wheelspacers in...gwahaha

-nate

 

[Snowman]

Hey this is Ryan when I get mine fixed we should go out to mini moab is would be sweet hopfully befor it snows I broke my rear locker I don't know what's wrong with it yet but I'm soon going to find out

 

[utahxjer]

Snowman- you gotta try Rattlesnake or Constrictor, your like the Little Moab Mayor aren't you? Your out there every weekend.

 

[N-Smooth]

hehe mayor of lil moab...
dude you should check out mineral basin, it is a way fun trail and the rock garden is sweeet!
yeah when i get it done, which should be this weekend, we will have to take it out once i break in my gears and t-case and stuff. i trailered it to ms conception today to get my steering built, i am going to post some pics in the general 4x4 forum in a sec.

-nate

 

[NC Zuk]

I wish I could open webshots at work!!! I'm missing out on all the fun!!!