Joel's multipurpose XJ build (rocks/boulevard)

^Don't get caught up in all the drama dude. I love this thread and I hope it keeps delivering. Your work is fresh and contemporary take on a vehicle that mostly get hacked up and rigged.

I come to naxja, because it seems to have the most collective experience when talking Cherokees. Sure there's some BS here and there. But every forum has that. Brush past those who don't listen, and move about you day.

Anyways, I think it's time for a new challenge... Big brakes. You're an engineer, this would be the perfect task. Brembo srt8 calipers.

On the BS front. I agree, just had to get my head back on straight after the whiplash WTF moments yesterday.

As to big brakes. I really want to do it. The brakes on this thing are underpowered already and it's only going to get worse if I just up a tire size. Did I read somewhere that you can do a booster swap that helps? Can't remember.

I'm wheel limited by my 15s at the moment so if I did go after big brakes it would probably happen at the same time a new wheels and tires. If I'm doing that it means heavy axles (from my reading it seems like stockish D60 front, 14B rear would be good for most things). If I'm running heavy axles, then maybe I should do that engine swap (or maybe not, there's still CA smog to consider and I already told y'all that story)... Anyways, I'm sure you all know how these things snowball. It just makes for a much bigger tear down than I'm planning in the short run.

In the meantime I still do need to truss the D30 front and redo my track bar mount.




But since you mentioned it





And because this thread is sorely in need of more pictures, I did do a DIY version of big brakes on my RX7. It's based on the stock calipers, but split, powdercoated, widened w/ longer bridge bolts. (If you're going to advertise for sale, please obtain Vendor status. I got dunned for that as well...)

Assembly:




Ready for install:




Final version (two piece, curved vane rotors from a 350z, 2" larger diameter, 1/4" thicker than stock):

frijolee said:

Great link. Thank you. I just printed a copy. Do you have anything similar for steels (cast iron, stainless, etc)? I always dig on reference materials.

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Here's some good reading for you, but in general steels can be more forgiving on weld strength, filler metals can differ depending on method as well.

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/assets/US/EN/literature/C150.pdf

http://www.advancedweldingsupply.com/charts.html

and how to decode the filer metal part number
ftp://doaftp1380.wi.gov/master_spec/Utilities/Weld Filler Metal Selection.pdf

~Alex

Hope you continue the thread, Ive been following it looking for ideas for my jeep. The brake booster swap i believe is for the renix era swaping in the booster of the 94-96 jeep (someone correct me if IM wrong). as far as brakes go, I think my friend told me the brakes from a crown vic swap on, cant remember for sure.

The best info on brakes upgrades I've found to date is here:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1004721

I think you're right about the earlier xj's being the ones to benefit from the wj booster.

well I was actually talking about using a newer xj booster. The WJ might help the newer XJs, not sure. my 88 had a booster swap done to it when I bought it so idk if its a newer xj or a wj booster.

Any updates on the brake upgrade for the XJ? Your work is awesome BTW. I love this kind of tech.

moparmansfield said:

Any updates on the brake upgrade for the XJ? Your work is awesome BTW. I love this kind of tech.

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Thanks for the kind words. No updates on brakes for the time being. Frame stiffening is the main thing on my mind these days. I keep feeling like there has to be a better way to do this than just plating the rails which seems so inefficient from a torsional rigidity perspective...

Anyways, here's a small update… I needed to add a fire extinguisher to run with Naxja at So Cal Fest. Didn’t want to have it buried in my storage bins in case I wanted to get to it in a hurry. Did a little shopping around and ended up with this guy.

It claims to be DOT rated, it’s pretty solid metal construction, and it seemed like a good size for me. The best part was that it comes with its own mounting bracket which was a perfect size for the OEM spare tire mount I’m not using.

FWIW my second favorite tool these days (right behind my angle grinder) is my riv-nut puller.

This is probably basic to anyone who’s been wheeling/wrenching for a while, but rivet-nuts (aka riv-nuts) lets you set threads into sheet metal that would be too thin to tap. This becomes super handy for all kinds of random things. I like to countersink the holes slightly so everything sits flush.

The aforementioned bracket fits perfectly using a couple of SS button heads. I think these were m6 riv-nuts but it might have been m5. I did this in a hurry trying to get ready for the event.

Nice and secure with decent access. I throw a towel over it for padding when there's junk in the trunk. I thought about the tranny tunnel in the passenger footwell, but my rig does see a bit more boulevard than rocks these days so I kept it in back.

FWIW Rig did great out at SCF. Plenty of pictures from the event (including most of mine) are here:
http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1099620

But here's the panaramic group shot I took:

Three year old's verdict of the weekend (this pic makes me happy).

-Joel

Haven’t had a chance to post up yet about my experience trussing my D30 front axle (also was SCF ’13 prep).

First off, if you can do this with the axle off the car you’ll be a lot happier than I was. There were some seriously annoying angles to try to stuff a MIG tip into.

Truss runs from spring perch to spring perch so I needed to cut mine up to dodge around control arm mounts. Que the cardboard paper doll studies.

My passenger upper arm was already gusseted so I just notched around what was there.

Stitch welding was about 2 inches on 4 inch centers. We moved around a bit to try not to put too much heat into one area all at once.

Full truss just before painting. All the bent axle failures I’ve seen have been in the tubes so I notched around the driver upper arm mount point as well since I didn’t think I could improve much on the beefy cast mount that’s integral to the cover.

Seems to clear everything fine when flexed so I’m content with it. $83 to save me a bunch of fab time? Money well spent if you ask me. http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/Front-Dana-30-Truss-for-Jeep-XJ_p_1748.html

Only thing I would have done differently was to paint the backsides in weld through primer. I shot primer/paint into as many interior spaces as I could get to after the fact and this is so-cal, so rust isn’t a major concern but still…

-Joel

PS… Be warned the truss will whistle in the wind. I notice it mostly at 30 and 70 mph (naturally, this is 80% of my street driving). I’m pretty sure it’s the dimply dies doing it so I’m going to have to source some plugs for those.

just weld a peice of 1/8" over each one....

Redacted

Would be cooler to tack some sheetmetal or whatever inside and paint it a different color... I like to think the rocks I conquer like the nice little touches like that.

Just a bump because I haven't revved this thread in a while and wanted to say hello. My rx7 has been getting the lion's share of my love these days and it's almost back on the road. Since some folks seemed to be interested in that as well I figured y'all might like a few shots of a scratch built set of headers I made for the car. By the way, this directly dovetails in the exhaust theory thread I wrote a while back in case anyone wants to try something similar: http://www.naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=245877178&postcount=149

Paint by numbers:




Piecemeal:






Not your average merge collector (Burns Stainless).




Comparing CAD:






Fit check:




Primaries:




Silicon bronze tacks (redid these a few times):



Burning them in. Stole the heads off my coffee table so I'd have something to clamp them to help minimize warpage.





That was 4-5 months of work by the way. I was at 4 revisions in CAD on one side and 6 on the other before I even started cutting.

Anyways, the Seven is almost back on the road. I'm looking forward to giving the Jeep some attention when this is done. I finally threw down for my own TIG welder so I don't have to be borrowing one all the time. Should make frame stiffeners a bit easier but I'm still debating whether there's a clever way to do that which makes sense to me from a geometry perspective.

-Joel

Nice, golden welds!

Thanks. To be fair, most of the pretty welding in this thread was done by friends. I've cut and tacked a bunch but mostly had others burn it in on a favors and beer basis. Now that I finally have my own TIG I can try more on my own.

For what it's worth, I did quite a bit of research before throwing down on the TIG. Everything from Everlasts to the Miller Dynasty series. At the end of the day I went with an HTP Invertig 221.
http://www.usaweld.com/TIG-Welders-s/26.htm

It's only 41 lbs, as an inverter style it's tiny (give or take 7.5" x 20" x 16") and has effectively the same feature sets as the big dollar Millers. HTP has a reputation for excellent reliability, killer customer service (a real person picked up the phone in three rings when I called) plus a modular design that uses industry standard connections. The Invertig 221 makes 220 amps instead of the more standard 200 yet only pulls ~30 amps from the wall.

Also doesn't hurt that they have a "pre Black Friday" deal running right now and it's not like I was paying "the blue tax" for a miller even before the deal.
http://www.usaweld.com/TIG-WELDER-Invertig-221-Welder-p/70221-12.5.htm

I called them in early October to see if they would be running the deal this year and they gave me the discount before it's official launch. Was already planning on the 25' leads and a torch holder so using the accessory part of the deal worked out great.

Mah coffee table...

I already mentioned I used a old set of heads to clamp down the header flanges at the last step. It was nice that I had a spare set of heads I could use to do that. Well the only reason had these heads lying around was because I blew a motor on track one time. Eventually I made that block into a coffee table and I thought a few of y'all might like to check it out.

I spent quite a bit of time cleaning and then clear coated all the bits prior to assembly so hopefully it’ll stay nice for a long time. Attempted to make it an exploded view so I could check out the internals. It fit the glass better this way as well.



I dig the fact you see the one blackened journal and the windows in both sides of the block.









Glass is padded with some clear tubing along the edge of the heads and the whole thing is bolted to a welded frame I scratch built. The ends hang over so two dudes can carry it, a la “Ark of the Covenant” style.



Yes, it’s in the living room and yes my wife loves me.

-Joel

That is pure freaking awesome. Puts my Volvo I5 table to shame in several ways Nice work!

frijolee said:

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I love these. Bad ass how you brought the crank and heads out, looks great.

yossarian19 said:

That is pure freaking awesome. Puts my Volvo I5 table to shame in several ways Nice work!

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There's never shame in furniture made from car parts. Thanks though. I have some rx8 seats waiting to be turned into office chairs at some point.

Lurch said:

I love these. Bad ass how you brought the crank and heads out, looks great.

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Appreciated. I love showing folks that burned up journal. You just know something bad bad bad was going on before it let loose.

A few questions for the forum. I'm circling back to two of the first pieces of advice I ever got given on this rig. Specifically: Frame stiffeners and a dual sheer track bar mount. A little background first.

Frame stiffeners: The more I think about torsional rigidity the more I think the key is going to be not only doing traditional frame stiffeners but also in tying those into my welded box beam drip rails to make this something of a ladder structure rather than independent rails with nothing but floorboards tying themselves together. Real stiffeners would let me use bigger hardware on my skid as well (just weld nuts in to the backside as I install them).

I'm looking at the 3 piece HD engineering stiffeners. Using the middle ones is going to make my mid skid too narrow but I figure I can cut and redo the two long welds at either side where the skid has vertical flanges. In terms of tying the stiffeners to my drip rails, I'm picturing some rectangular tubing (1" by 3" maybe?) cut at diagonals so it tapers toward a tip at the end under the drip rails. Almost like tiny boat sides but ribs only. A few questions:

• What wall thickness do y'all recommend for these braces? I'm thinking 1/8" since they'd only be an inch wide but I'm open to suggestions.
• Do I cut this with an angle grider or a plasma cutter? Not sure if that screws up my ability to weld it.
• Do I tie this into the frame rail and THEN install the HD stiffeners after cutting notches in the stiffeners around my braces? That seems stronger, but the easy route says screw it, do stiffeners first then braces over that and not bother tying this all the way to the rails.

Dual sheer track bar mount. I'm planning on modding the BDS track bar I have.

• Just a sizing sanity check. A while back I picked up a Ballastic Fab Johnny Joint http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/20-Ballistic-Joint_p_1722.html Does this look reasonable to weld into my track bar? They've since come out with a heavy duty and ulta duty versions thereof (or maybe they had them and I missed them).
• Can anyone recommend a company that sells fab parts to make my life a little easier than starting from scratch on the mount side?
• Any suggestions on the easiest DIY method for fully cycling the front suspension? I'm hoping to tie in a cross over brace as well and I have to watch out for long arm range of travel.