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another build thread. . .

Sorry to hear about the accident, but glad to hear she is doing better... Take your time with the build stuff, it'll be there waiting for ya while she gets better, as I'm sure you know :)
 
Well, while the wife was sleeping yesterday and today I did end up getting quite a bit done! I started by hacking into the driver's side quarter panel and fenders. It wasn't half as hard as I thought it would be, but then again, it isn't all that pretty. (I've never done body work and never plan on doing it to look good :) )
I started with this

and ended with this

It's fully welded, except the back by the taillights, I've got something else in mind for that later. Then I started on the fenders. I knew what I was going for, but wasn't all that sure how to go about it, so I just started cutting.

I knew that I'd have to cut and fold the outer and inner wheel wells together, but wasn't sure how I'd have to cut the inner to do so. Once I got it all apart and pried apart I decided to fold the outer part of the fender in and the inner wheel well over that.

It made welding it up alot easier. It isn't pretty, but I'll be making tube fenders in a couple weeks, hopefully, so it'll all be covered up anyhow.


After getting it all cleaned up and painted, I realized how poor of an angle my shackles are, so I'll either be rebuilding the boxes or plating over them and relocating the shackles there. Not really sure how I'll be going about it. I'd like a couple inches of lift from it, so I can hopefully remove two leaves to help smooth the ride out. I'd appreciate some incite from anyone with experience building either of these. . . hint hint. I got all that done on sat morning. Then this morning I knocked out the other side in about 2 hours. It came out looking a little smoother in about half the time of the other side. I had a little more time to kill so I knocked out the front bumpstops.

Nothing to special with these. I cut the bumpstops in half and took 2" exhaust tube and butt welded it in place. I wanted to sleeve them, but I wasn't about to drive into town and buy a swedging tool for it. After getting them burned in, I worked on angling the bottom coil buckets more toward the rear, to help line up with the stock Jeep upper. I just stacked washers under. I don't like it and will be removing them once I build some shims.
I also noticed a bunch of other things I need to take care of before the first shakedown run: The front brake lines need to be relocated much much farther forward and on the other side of the shocks. I'm taking in the front driveshaft to get extended another 1.75", right now it's what's limiting front droop. Which brings me to the limiting straps. Need em. I bought the new rims off a guy down the road who had a buddy with extended ford radius arms who didn't have limiting straps and actually twisted the arms off the body when one of the front wheels dropped off a rock. Since I'll be driving this girl the 4 hours to the trails, I'll need to drive it back, can't afford that happening. I've got a whole long list of things I need to do, but I'll save it for later. Since the jeep's now my DD, my wife has to take the other car, I can't afford to tear this thing apart without being able to get it back together quickly, so the exhaust and vertical bracing will be waiting for quite a while. Thanks again for everyone's concern and good wishings, it's much appreciated. My wife says she's feeling alot better, she's moving all over the place and actually went into work for a little while today to do office stuff. Crazy woman. . .
 
nice work on the trim, very moderate, looks clean in that last pic.

hope your old lady is doing better.

are those the stock rear leaf springs?, they look nice and flat, bet it rides pretty smooth.

you oughta get a little bit longer main leaf so you can fix that shackle angle, you'll be glad you did, my betsy is flexin real nice now, cant believe how much of a difference the shackle angle made.
 
mscans said:
nice work on the trim, very moderate, looks clean in that last pic.

hope your old lady is doing better.

are those the stock rear leaf springs?, they look nice and flat, bet it rides pretty smooth.

you oughta get a little bit longer main leaf so you can fix that shackle angle, you'll be glad you did, my betsy is flexin real nice now, cant believe how much of a difference the shackle angle made.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm not all that excited about how well the rear chop turned out. If you look in the light you can see the metal buckled outward a little on both sides. I'm hoping to take care of that when I build the tube fenders.

I do have plans for the shackle angle, I almost scored a set of 63" chevy leaves with good bushings, hardware, and shackles for $50, but I was about 6 hours to late. Damn, huh? Oh well. I'm thinking about rebuilding the shackle box either flush with the frame, or slightly below it. I'd like to get a little lift out of it, so I can take a leaf or two out. I'm running two full leaf packs, all those springs make for a stiff ride.

I've been really slowing down on the build to take care of other more pressing issues, but I did manage to get a little done this weekend.
I had originally planned on making some sort of bracing to run from the belly pan to the tranny tunnel, but after spending a good while with a tape measure and some cardboard, I decided against it. Things were just turning too complicated for something I don't see causing to big of an issue. Instead, I cut out all the 1.25x1.25x0.25 angle that ran perpendicular to the vehicle and replaced it with some "homemade C channel". I took a section of 3x3x.25 tube and cut it in half, then welded it directly behind the tranny/tcase mount.

[/URL
Then I extended a couple of the previous reinforcements to tie into the "C" channel.
[URL="http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2522117710103787292epckSO"]



I'm feeling pretty good about how it'll handle getting dropped on a rock. I put it back on the Jeep and used a jack in the center of it and it didn't move. I know it's not going to be the strongest thing in the world (close to the heavest at 107 lbs), but I feel it will be more than sufficient for what I'll throw at it. I've got some more plate steel that I'll be using to cover from the bellypan to the front spring hangers, that'll also tie into the bellypan, which should help the rigidity of it.
I didn't get much more than that done. I started to relocate my front brake hoses, but decided to wait until I get my new rightside caliper, so I only have to bleed the brakes once. I also got my front axle vent tube taken care of.


I just took 1/4" nylon air tube and ground the original vent fitting from the axle, heated it, and slid the tubing over it. I basically plastic welded it onto the fitting, but I'll be using a clamp as well for peace of mind's sake.

I also figured out another problem I was having. I couldn't get a snap ring onto the groove of the stub shaft. So when the wife got in the wreck and had to take my car, I ended up releying on the Jeep. The hubs ended up moving out just enough to sling grease everywhere. So just about everynight I ended up repacking the hubs with clean, fresh grease until I had time to figure out what was the deal. I took a spare set of shafts and compared the two. The ones from the 78 hpd44 had the groove about 5/16th" up the shaft, while the ones from the 76 hpd44 had them about an 1/8th". I swapped them out and the snap ring went right on. No more greasey messes, or repacking them nightly. Other than that, the front build is slowly winding down. Just need to build the front tube fenders, install the mini spools, finish with the brakes (to include a new MC from a 2500 dodge), build the trackbar and steering braces, drill and tap the steering box for hydro assist, look into a sway bar, and replace the front coil bucket "shims". Once the holidays are over I should be able to knock that all out in a couple weekends, then I'll start on installing the roll cage I'm picking up next weekend, and start to relocated the gas tank. Kind of indepth for my very first build huh?
 
get that tranny pan done man, i have no idea what you're making there, i am sure it will all be clear once you mount it.

score those 63" chevies, you'll be glad you did

img1221medium3ev.jpg

http://www.yotatech.com/f88/63-chevy-spring-swap-86936/


that is what i have front and rear. didnt' get crap done today but bleeding my brakes, got rained out so, couldn't use the welder, i'll have some flexy shots of my chevies maybe tomorrow, so you can see if you wanna use em.
 
Whitey, for being such a budget build, you're getting a lot of cool stuff done! Keep it up!
 
sorry, been in a couple different states the last 2 weeks or so, haven't seen been home in 2 some odd years so the wife and I thought we'd make a vacation out of it. I'm waiting on a call from a guy right now for a roll cage. I'll hopefully have a couple updates this weekend.
 
Well, I didn't get alot done this weekend. Instead I got screwed by the guy I was supposed to buy a roll cage off of, for the second time. I drove 2 1/2 hours to the guy's shop and he never shows up-for the entire day. . . happened again yesterday. Seemed like a cool guy the first time I bought parts off of him. Sucks!
All I got done today: I relocated the brake hoses behind the shocks, bought and installed a new passenger side caliper (bleeder stripped and piston felt like it was sticking a little), drilled holes and installed cotter pins in all steering and suspension nuts, and started my trackbar brace.
Here's what I started with for the brace: 1.25x1.25x.25 tube.

I started by measuring the width of the oil pan, approx 9" with a little extra on the sides, found center on the tube and went out 4.5". I just started with the width of a cut-off wheel and bent the tube up and measured the angles to ensure they were the same side to side, and mocked it up under the Jeep.


I only had to make 2 passes with the cut-off wheel to get what I needed, ended up being 10* bends. I mocked up where I needed to cut the ends at and lopped them off, then welded up the cuts.

I cut up 4 pieces of 3x3x3/16ths angle to use to mount the brace to the frame.


I plan on welding the brace to the track bar bracket, then welding the angle to the frame on the opposite end and also welding angle from the brace to the frame on the bracket side. I was thinking of welding some patches over the seams in the brace, to eliminate any potential of cracking there. Any thoughts?
I'm hoping to get the brace done by the end of the week, and get the front mini-spool in, then maybe the rear one next weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to make contact with the guy about the roll cage. For the price he's selling it, I couldn't buy the tube to build my own. That's it for now, nothing that exciting.
 
Got a couple pictures of the roll cage.




It was in another guy's XJ, so it's used but in good shape. None of the tubes are bent or dented, but he did cut the upper tubes from the B to the C pillar vertically, not along the welds, so I'll have to see how much shorter that'll make the roll cage when I re-notch it. I also have to make a couple plates for the A pillars to the floor boards and all the squash plates, but I'm not all that worried about it. I'm more worried about getting it in. He had his back hacked so he had no problem getting it out, I'm not so sure I'll have that luck, I'm trying to not cut the top off until later.
I got most of my track bar brace done tonight. I finished welding the notches I cut for the angles, then I cut and welded little patches to cover the weld seams. I'm not sure if this is overkill, but I'm trying to eliminate any chance of the welds cracking from the frame twisting. I quit early otherwise it would have been finished, thought I had something to do, I was wrong. . .



I tried to build it as low as possible so when I have to drop the oil pan I won't run into a nightmare. Pretty sure it's still to high, but I can always pull the engine up a bit if I need to. I still need to finish burning in both sides, then the passenger side I'll be welding in a plate to go flush with the frame down to cover the hole in the tube. Then it's paint and pull the carrier for the mini spool.
 
I finished the track bar brace today.


I got the mini spool in the front today also, had a 4 hour break in the middle to drive my buddy to the hospital. Thankfully no one was hurt and he got away with only a badly sprained angle.
I started by pulling both hubs apart and pulling the shafts out.

Then I drained the oil into a clean container to reuse (stuff's not cheap) and pulled the cover, bearing caps, and used two pry bars to gently work the carrier out.

I made sure the put the carrier on top of a clean rag to keep contamination to a minimum, and pulled the ring gear off.

Then I used a spring, or roll, pin punch and knocked the retaining pin out of the center pin.

After which I used a drift pin, brass punch, to tap the center pin out.

Then took out the 4 spider gears. The side gears have little washers or bushings or something, need to make sure those come out too or else the minispool won't go in.

Here's the mini spool apart:

Start by installing the sides

Then insert the center square pieces, making sure the taper goes toward the outside of the carrier.

Then rotate the minispool until the center pin holes align and drive the center pin in and roll pin.

The being installing the ring gear bolts with red loctite. Make sure to tighten the bolts evenly and in a star patern.

Then make sure to torque the bolts to 55 ft/lbs , (hpd44).

And that was it! Had I not had to run to the hospital I could have had the whole thing done in an hour.
 
When I began reinstalling the hubs, the passenger side gave me a hell of a time. I ended up driving the locking hub into the hub with a hammer :shocked:. Not sure what the problem was. I went to install the front driveshaft I just picked back up, it needed to be lengthened again, the place didn't lengthen it correctly again. I even wrote on the driveshaft 1.75 more inches underneath what the total length collapsed and extended should be. I got it home and it measure more than 3" had been added, not 1.75 on top of a nice big new dent and two notches where they must have clamped something to it. So I've now spent a total of $150 on a stock style DS that is now to long, dented, and for all intents and purposes is now ruined. I'll be trying to get my money back for the two times I went there and for what I payed for the DS originally. Not sure how that'll pan out. I got pretty discouraged and called it a night, which is when the garage door cam off it's hinges and bent the tracks all to hell. :flamemad: Got that fixed and decided it's time to plan for tomorrow. . .
1. build shims for front coils and get washers out of there
2. put the stock sway bar on the frame see if I can use it
3. start of the second half of the bellypan
That should be more than enough. Not sure when Uwharrie opens but I'm hoping to be ready for a shakedown run by Feb. Cheers!
 
I purposely cut the bolts that short, I also drilled through the nut and bolt to insert a cotter pin. I feel pretty confident the nut won't loosen with both the pin and generous amounts of red loctite.
 
Bryson said:
better hope you don't have to pull the oil pan.

you sure the F D/S is going to clear the radius rod?
Click to expand...

It does, I don't have the driveshaft in because I went to get it extended to utilize my full droop, but they screwed it up again. It's so long that at full droop it won't fit fully compressed.
 
Bryson said:
better hope you don't have to pull the oil pan.

you sure the F D/S is going to clear the radius rod?
Click to expand...

It's funny you say that, I think I found a front main seal leak today. . .
I'm not to worried about it, I can always pull the engine up a couple inches to drop it.
 
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