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XJ "Budget Build"

raptor314

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Berkeley
So I started building an FJ40 I got about 25 years ago, but decided I was going to build a "budget" XJ because I figure I'm about $20K from finishing the cruiser. I explained my plan to my wife and she agreed to the budget build, so we bought a pretty nice 1996 Country for $2800...It turns out she didn't understand what a rock crawler was and she was adament that we weren't going to modify this Jeep.

Soooooooooo, with most of my wod spent on the '96 that I couldn't touch, I settled on a '90 I found that was in pretty decent shape. It had changed hands about 4 times in 6 months. Somebody had just replaced the radiator and water pump and wired the electric fan to run off a switch.... but it was still getting hot. It ran great, but would just die randomly. So I bought it for $500 guessing that the Renix radiator cap and the CPS were bad. The next day I replaced both, rewired the fan to come on when it was supposed to and it ran great.

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So I started building an FJ40 I got about 25 years ago, but decided I was going to build a "budget" XJ because I figure I'm about $20K from finishing the cruiser. I explained my plan to my wife and she agreed to the budget build, so we bought a pretty nice 1996 Country for $2800...It turns out she didn't understand what a rock crawler was and she was adament that we weren't going to modify this Jeep.

Soooooooooo, with most of my wod spent on the '96 that I couldn't touch, I settled on a '90 I found that was in pretty decent shape. It had changed hands about 4 times in 6 months. Somebody had just replaced the radiator and water pump and wired the electric fan to run off a switch.... but it was still getting hot. It ran great, but would just die randomly. So I bought it for $500 guessing that the Renix radiator cap and the CPS were bad. The next day I replaced both, rewired the fan to come on when it was supposed to and it ran great.

AAAzOPHUZYa3AY9_WQXZQH_6a
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Now 3.5 years later, it's almost done. Most stuff I R&D'ed (ripped off and duplicated) from other people's rigs...and some stuff is probably fairly original. If you see something I copied from your rig, I thank you, and take it as a compliment.
 
So the first order of business was the front suspension. I decided to ditch the short arms and decided to kinda copy the Iron Rock Offroad long arm kit with the "Y" shaped arm on the driver's side.

I wanted to have a removable crossmember so I could drop the tranny without removing the front control arms.

I also wanted to add unibody stiffeners, but I didn't want to do all that welding to the unibody.
 
So I started with the stiffeners. I went to my metal supplier and bought a sheet of 3/16." I had them sheer strips off it at widths for the stiffeners and for the bumpers I planned to build at a later time.

I wanted to cover 3 sides of the unibody so it would be stronger than the commercially available ones, and so I could make it bolt on. I figured with it being removable, I could bolt it onto my next XJ after I destroy this one.
 
I shaped the outsides and bottoms using my floor jack and series of relief cuts. The inside isn't flat so I used my homemade press brake to put a bend in the plate ti match the shape of the frame
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I didn't want to crush the unibody when I tightened the bolts down, so i decided to drill and sleeve it to accommodate 1/2" bolts. I welded the sleeve on the outside and ground it smooth.
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Next I started working on the crossmember which would be the attachment point for the front lower links.
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I bent these brakets up on the press brake.
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Forgot to mention, but the crossmember uses the 2 stock bolts plus 2 additional bolts. I welded nuts on the inside of the stiffener and then drilled holes and then clearanced the unibody so the stiffeners sit flush.
 
I don't have pics of how I made my links, but as I said this is a budget build. So instead of using expensive DOM, I saw where others successfully used square 2"X 1/4" wall tubing with round tube insterts welded in. I used some extra Ballistic Joints on the frame end and poly bushings on the axle end.
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Here, with the lower links installed, I just played with it to make sure it would flex.
 
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Next I made a truss to give me a place to mount my upper link and to help strengthen the D30.
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I bent this up on the press brake using some 1/2" plate.
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I ground off the stock upper mount.
 
I finished the truss off with some 3/16" channel iron that I angled off of the top of the main body down to the inside of the passenger coil bucket. I then plated the front and back with some 3/16"
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I then welded 2" DOM for a poly bushing to the top of the truss for my the upper link of my "Y". That's a chuck of 3/4" bar in between.
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