The 4500 MJ Build

[TORX]

Headed over to the shop the morning, and ended up having a pretty productive day.

Driver seat is in. You can see the rail it slides on for adjustment between drivers. Smaller tube being 1x.120 DOM, and the outer tube being 1.25x.120 DOM. Still need to drill the slide, and add the lock pin.

Putting the final touches on the passenger side seat brackets. This side is non-adjustable, they're in it for the ride.

TIG magic.

We drilled out the frame to weld in some 3/8 tubing, which we then tapped out to 1/2-13". This is what the front seat post bolts to. Our goal was to have almost all the interior brackets and support tube removable.

Seats are in. The seats themselves are from Twisted Stitch. You can see the adjustable seat cushions on the driver side. We have 3" of adjustability for different height drivers. These are by far the most comfortable suspension seat I've sat in.

Joey was also out at the shop today plugging away on the dash. He's keeping a lot of the original, which should be pretty cool for the "Comanche" theme we're trying to stick to.

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

Those seats are stunning

 

[BPB]

Those seats are stunning

We wouldn't fit

 

[TORX]

The guys and I have been steadily plugging away at car, trying to finalize the small projects one-by-one.


With the seats in position we started thinking about how we were going to finish off the interior tin work. To support the transmission tunnel and give framework for the floor, we chose to run two 1.5x.120" tubes. These tie into the lower cowl dash bars that run into the frame, and the rear 2" tube that spans the rear of the cab. These will also be our tie-in point for the inside lap belt tab. The Atlas shifters will be bent away from the passenger seat a tad. You can also see how Joey's been working on modifying the stock dash.

Both tubes are removable via four tube couplers from, Chassis Unlimited. They're pretty trick, and will allow us to strip the cab down for any work needing done.

Playing with some templates for the flooring. We're going to try and reuse the factory mini console for the trans shifter. Got to have a spot for the parking meter change.

Winton TIG'd up some tube extensions for the outer lap belt tab. These will get welded to the 2x4x.250" sliders for a solid mount.

Machining some "fairleads" for the shoulder harnesses to pass through, more on this later. The mounting points for the five-point harnesses are all coming together nicely.

For our lower radiator mount Winton machined some solid aluminum stock down to make some "billet tube clamps." The top portion is welded directly to the radiator, and is then tapped with heli-coils. We plan to run some rubber isolators around the tube help reduce any fatigue from vibration or twisting. Top side mounting is still in progress.

Quite a bit of tube work has been added to the rear over the past few weeks, all of which has a purpose. The rear frame really had no cross bracing past the back of the cab. We felt in a hard tumble (cart wheeling) there was a pretty good chance we'd tweak the frame. To kill two birds with one stone we cross braced the rear cage to the frame, which also serves as our spare tire mount. The spare tire mount will also serve as our spare hub and spindle. In addition to the cross bracing, we also got our bed side / rear skin support added to the sides. This is all built from 1.5x.120" DOM. Lastly, you can also see we got our radiator shroud cut down from .125" aluminum, and SPAL 14" fans mounted.

Even though we'll be racing on 37's, we're building the car to handle 40's, even the spare tire mount.

Little sneak peak at the skins. Rear is at full bump, so it appears to have the trophy truck stance going on. The rear wheel cut out will be a tad bit more square to mimic the MJ/XJ wheel wells.

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

You know you're building a legit race-jeep when...

You mount rollers to Raceline monsters for mock up..

 

[JENSSEN]

Hawt,.... Love it!

 

[josefxj97]

Looks like there is still alot of work left to do before KOH 2015....maybe next year?

 

[TORX]

Looks like there is still alot of work left to do before KOH 2015....maybe next year?

Yup, we should be dialed in for 2016 KOH, and hopefully other races this year.

We're still plugging away at it (just got back from the shop tonight), and progress is speeding up with the more projects we complete. However, a build like this is so incredibly time consuming when you don't do this type of work every day. Not to mention separating the unibody, shoving a LS2 through the firewall, and building a suspension with 8" of up-travel on a MJ isn't exactly straight forward. None-the-less, we're still committed to the end goal, and aren't about to cut corners just to have it ready in time.

The holidays slowed down progress, but I should have a good update soon.

 

[TORX]

Moving forward with the outer skin support tubes on the front end. These will be the foundation for which we mount our "fenders."

We connected both 1.5" tubes with a removable 1" cross-member. Winton machined some custom tube adapters for the ends. This will tie both sides together, and give us something to mount our grill off of. You can see we ran a small .5" tube hoop to capture the factory grill mounting studs.

By the days end Winton had some more tube adapters made, and we added one more 1.25" cross-member to brace the shock hoops for the compression force they will see. This sits just below the hood line. The tube work for the front is now pretty much complete.

Ryan also made it out to the shop today to start on the wiring job. Task #1 was mounting all the circuit breakers for the accessories for the car. These are pretty trick, and will be within reach for the co-driver if needed. An aluminum trim panel will probably be added to finish it off.

Progress.

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

Wow, Info on the circuit breakers?

 

[TORX]

Wow, Info on the circuit breakers?

Summit carries them, but I can grab a part # if needed.

Not really practical for non-race rig applications (not cheap), but a totally cool concept. If you experience an electrical issue while racing, circuit breakers make trouble shooting a snap. It's a lot easier to reset a breaker than replace a fuse while trying to limp it to the next pit. This style is nice because you can visually see if one has been tripped.

We'll have all of our main accessories wired to breakers, both fuel pumps, fans, lighting, air pump, etc.

 

[TORX]

The guys and I have been steadily making progress over the past two months. As always this build is very time consuming, and we're trying to do things right the first time.

To go along with Winton's custom seat slider, we chose to use Poly Performance's adjustable steering column. This will allow each driver to dial in their seat position and wheel height. We mounted it on a piece of 1.5x.120" tube for a solid mount.

We still need to dial in the steering shaft length, but the steering wheel is in. After putting in a year of work, it was nice to sit in the drivers seat with your hands on the wheel.

We reached a point in the build where we really needed to start getting the interior tin work completed to move on with the wiring and plumbing. Winton really took the lead on this project, and has steadily been making progress over the last few weeks.

Tech requires us to completely seal off the motor from the cab. With all the tube work we've done, we scratched our heads at just how exactyly we were going to do this. Panel by panel, we constructed a tabbed enclosure around the LS2. The top pieces are mostly .125" aluminum, while the rest is .030" aluminum and some sheet metal mixed in.

After a lengthy process the tin work is nearing completion. Joey also wrapped up the dash. All that's left on it is mounting the electronics, switches, gauges, lights, and then wrapping the panels for a trick finished look.

The floor panels were a chore to fabricate over the clocked up Atlas, but in the end they should all be easily removable. There's still a bit of finish work to be done.

We were really shooting to keep it somewhat MJ, and Joey definitely achieved that with the dash. How many 4500 cars still have a locking glove box, with the owners manual?

Meanwhile, Warn Industries graciously got on board with the build and sent us one of there 9.0RC winches. We all know Warn's reputation for building the some of the most reliable and powerful winches on the market. Plus they even color matched it for us.

I started on machining some tubes for the front winch mount.

We used some tube couplers on the frame side of the mount to make a fully removable winch mount. The cross tubes are 1.75" tube, and also serve as a lower cross-member below the shock mounts.

Winch mount complete. You can also see we've mounted our bump stop cans for our ADS air bumps.

Moving along, we stuck with the tube theme, and got the B&M trans cooler mounted up front with a 10" SPAL electic fan. This should keep our trans cool and happy while racing through the desert heat.

 

[TORX]

While down at KOH this year Winton and Maureen picked up our LED lighting for the build. Outlaw LED, hooked us up with floods, spots, and a nice 40" light bar for the top. Don helped us out by getting some A-pillar spots mounted.

For the front we'll be using these 4" LED's.

Some plate cut to size, and getting the press brake treatment.

Beginnings of a "headlight bucket." It'll get put on a diet before mounting.

Joey's original idea for headlights was to stack two 4" LED's to mimick the original Wagoneer stacked headlights. We'll be running floods on the bottom, and spots on the top.

As summer approaches we're all getting antsy to get this thing running, and out tuning! Updates to come.

 

[TonkaYJ]

WOW! Awesome!

 

[XJ_ranger]

looks like you have a ton of room between the grill and the front of the engine. No way to run a front radiator? drastically simplifies plumbing, increases rear visibility, and reduces weight if you can...

I do realize the tranny cooler and winch go there, but moving those things around would be worth it if you could...

 

[BPB]

Looking great

 

[xjeepers2]

The build looks great. Keep up the good work. I'll be headed out to KOH 2016 hope to see you guys there.

 

[Colin994]

By the days end Winton had some more tube adapters made, and we added one more 1.25" cross-member to brace the shock hoops for the compression force they will see.

Any chance he made a couple more than you need?? Been trying to find tube adaptors exactly like that for a while but still can't find anything

 

[TORX]

Thanks for the compliments, guys.

We took a break from working on the MJ for the last few weeks while some of the guys went down to Moab for Easter Jeep Safari. We're settling back in the groove of working on the rig again. I'll try and get some pictures this weekend of the new updates.

looks like you have a ton of room between the grill and the front of the engine. No way to run a front radiator? drastically simplifies plumbing, increases rear visibility, and reduces weight if you can...

I do realize the tranny cooler and winch go there, but moving those things around would be worth it if you could...

All great points, Opie. I think what it comes down to is what this car will be used for, racing.

Griffin set us up with a massive radiator (~30x19") in the early stages of the build. With the narrowed front end, we were pretty much set on a rear mounted set up from the beginning. While rear visibility would be great in the rocks, it's not a huge necessity for racing. We kept the radiator mounted as low as possible to hopefully be able to run a rear view mirror.

We're also trying to keep the weight distributed as evenly as possible, front to rear. With the motor shoved half way through the fire wall, the fuel cell and radiator in the back should off set some of that weight to the rear. We'll see how that theory pans out once it sits on the scales.

The build looks great. Keep up the good work. I'll be headed out to KOH 2016 hope to see you guys there.

Thanks, hopefully KOH16 will be our year. Keep an eye out for us.

Any chance he made a couple more than you need?? Been trying to find tube adaptors exactly like that for a while but still can't find anything

Most parts we make are on a one off basis. We're pretty fortunate to be able to make a specific part in house, rather than wait for an online order, or settle for something else.

We've joked a few times about putting some of this stuff into production (Unibody_delete_kit ).

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

It's amazing to go back and look at page 1, and then click page 8.