YELLAHEEP
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Littleton, Colorado
Well it's finally here at the house. Grant made me a SWEET deal on his old project XJ and you'll see from the pics, it's a very nice platform to build a great XJ almost-buggy.
There's a little bit of welding and bracing to be done to complete the cage and there's absolutely no drivetrain in it so my options are wide open. My initial idea is to build it using as many junk yard pieces as possible to keep costs down and still build a solid rig. I anticipate the biggest expense is going to come from putting together the axles, gears and lift but I am going to try to source the rest of the pieces needed from other vehicles.
Here's what my thoughts are:
Drivetrain: Chevy S-10 Vortec 4.3 V6, 700R4 and HD 231 - Hoping to find a wrecked '91-95 Blazer or truck as the donor.
Axles: Super-Turd D30 trussed, welded and locked or a bastardized Ford HP D44 with Dodge 3/4 ton hub-less knuckles. XJ D44 rear, trussed, welded, locked.
Suspension: This is where I'm undecided but it'll likely be mid-length arm 3-link for the front and leafs out back - unless there's a way to build a 4-link cheap using the trendy air shocks. Cage has a nice cross bar already built in to accept the long shocks.
Cage / Unibody: With the cage mostly done and the engine bay empty, I'm thinking of running tube from the dash bars thru the firewall and out the front to a tube bumper and stinger. I could do some bracing from that tube down to the unibody and anchor it to the front frame rails near the radiator support. That should give some fairly sturdy support for the old unibody.
Electrical: Painless Wiring or similar product for basic chassis wiring (XJ wiring is gone). Factory GM 4.3 harness and CPU for engine, trans controls.
Cooling: Factory '85 3 core radiator with elect. fan, Trans cooler possibly mounted in the pass. side rear window opening with fan.
Fuel: Late 90's XJ tank w/ internal pump or fuel cell mounted thru rear floor or center of the rig behind the "B" hoop of the cage.
Dash / Instruments: Since the cage is built all up in the area where the dash would be, I'm likely going to have to build an aluminum sheet, race inspired design. Hopefully find a good E-bay deal on a Speedo/Gauge set.
Armor: I'd like to put on those rear quarter plates, build a roof slider set up similar to the Farmer Matt / Scrappy design, a beefy trans cross member, and probably cut out the rockers and weld in something boat sided and braced to the cage.
There would be no heater or other vents, doors would get cut down, Lexan or mesh for the rear glass and hatch glass.
One issue already needing priority attention is the raw tube and replaced floor metal. Once the welding and bracing is done, I'll need to clean up the floor and tube that runs along the floor - it's pretty surface rusty. I'm thinking a thick coat of POR-15 then some bed liner for the floor and lower tubes - any better ideas?
I wish I had the $$$ to just go crazy on this rig, but this will be a lengthy project. Still debating on parting my current rig to build this one with it's parts or fixing it so I can still wheel while building this one.
Anyway, I'd appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on building this thing on the cheap - particularly where lift and axles are concerned.
Some pics:
There's a little bit of welding and bracing to be done to complete the cage and there's absolutely no drivetrain in it so my options are wide open. My initial idea is to build it using as many junk yard pieces as possible to keep costs down and still build a solid rig. I anticipate the biggest expense is going to come from putting together the axles, gears and lift but I am going to try to source the rest of the pieces needed from other vehicles.
Here's what my thoughts are:
Drivetrain: Chevy S-10 Vortec 4.3 V6, 700R4 and HD 231 - Hoping to find a wrecked '91-95 Blazer or truck as the donor.
Axles: Super-Turd D30 trussed, welded and locked or a bastardized Ford HP D44 with Dodge 3/4 ton hub-less knuckles. XJ D44 rear, trussed, welded, locked.
Suspension: This is where I'm undecided but it'll likely be mid-length arm 3-link for the front and leafs out back - unless there's a way to build a 4-link cheap using the trendy air shocks. Cage has a nice cross bar already built in to accept the long shocks.
Cage / Unibody: With the cage mostly done and the engine bay empty, I'm thinking of running tube from the dash bars thru the firewall and out the front to a tube bumper and stinger. I could do some bracing from that tube down to the unibody and anchor it to the front frame rails near the radiator support. That should give some fairly sturdy support for the old unibody.
Electrical: Painless Wiring or similar product for basic chassis wiring (XJ wiring is gone). Factory GM 4.3 harness and CPU for engine, trans controls.
Cooling: Factory '85 3 core radiator with elect. fan, Trans cooler possibly mounted in the pass. side rear window opening with fan.
Fuel: Late 90's XJ tank w/ internal pump or fuel cell mounted thru rear floor or center of the rig behind the "B" hoop of the cage.
Dash / Instruments: Since the cage is built all up in the area where the dash would be, I'm likely going to have to build an aluminum sheet, race inspired design. Hopefully find a good E-bay deal on a Speedo/Gauge set.
Armor: I'd like to put on those rear quarter plates, build a roof slider set up similar to the Farmer Matt / Scrappy design, a beefy trans cross member, and probably cut out the rockers and weld in something boat sided and braced to the cage.
There would be no heater or other vents, doors would get cut down, Lexan or mesh for the rear glass and hatch glass.
One issue already needing priority attention is the raw tube and replaced floor metal. Once the welding and bracing is done, I'll need to clean up the floor and tube that runs along the floor - it's pretty surface rusty. I'm thinking a thick coat of POR-15 then some bed liner for the floor and lower tubes - any better ideas?
I wish I had the $$$ to just go crazy on this rig, but this will be a lengthy project. Still debating on parting my current rig to build this one with it's parts or fixing it so I can still wheel while building this one.
Anyway, I'd appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on building this thing on the cheap - particularly where lift and axles are concerned.
Some pics:
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