[xeberus]

Rusty its coming along nicely

I've never done much 4x4ing or crawling but it looks like a good time and I gotta give it a try at some point :P

Originally Posted by UFC_OWNS

Rusty What Is Your Profession! Mechanic And Hunter Sir!

This video is about the life of rusty

[Rusty]

That video is terribly accurate

I figured I'd rebuild the steering gear until I got about a quarter of the way into it and ruined it as far as a core charge goes. Should have just left it alone



Loaded the wrong pic on that one and my core turned out to be acceptable. Saved me a hundred bucks woo hoo!

They're much more complicated than I thought.

The drop pitman arm was removed though so that counts for something I guess.

[Rusty]

After calling in this morning I slept til about 9 and then had a nap til about 1:30 after that it was jeep time

Took the columns out of both so I can have my tilt wheel in the new one.




Had to swap the ignition switches since they were different. Getting the 30 year old connectors unplugged was the biggest pain in the ass for the whole operation.

Had to get the steering gear off the red jeep to swap over to power but for some reason jeep made it damn near impossible to get to the mounting bolts so my friend torched a hole in the frame rail to access them.

We're gonna build something for the front anyways where the previous owner cut out the factory crossmember to put in some hillbilly ass angle iron, crooked cut plate combo
The plan is to weld some bolts inside the frame rail pointing down to use for the gear mount. It's not a very high traffic area so wearing out the bolts shouldn't be a problem.

Next thing to do was to ditch the ridiculous rear bumper. Of course the assholes had to put the mounting bolts so close to the body mounts that you couldn't get anything on them but an open end wrench. Broke three of them off and torched the rest.

That strip of black metal is there to hide the gap between the body and frame where the 4 inch body lift was installed. They used sheet metal screws into the body mount bushings to mount it. They moved the body up so much that the column had to have an extension welded on it to reach the steering I'll be getting rid of that crap.

Also got rid of the super gay steps they had made. Of course they used self tapping bolts to mount them. Nothing but the best for these retards. You can imagine how well those anchorous bastards would slip over a rock...


Also got a pic of the crossmember installed that I talked about earlier in the thread. Need to take it down and paint it of course.

That's it for now but I seem to be getting back into the swing of it. My new steering gear should be in tomorrow and the plan is to put it on after I get off work. Sucks not being able to turn it so we've been moving it in and out of the shop with a skid steer type machine. Stay tuned

[Rusty]

Hit the shop running at 6 and pushed the turd back in. Wanted to get the steering gear on and the column back in but after some thinking figured that if the hillbillies had to add an extension to the steering column to reach, mine wouldn't work with the body lift still on. Set out to remedy that. Didn't want to hurt the sides of the body so we rigged up a 2x2 lever using the chainfalls and a 1x4 for tub protection.



Worked like a charm but instead of being able to get to both sides of the body bolts jeep used little bullshit inserts in the bracing of the tub. They either turned the nut on the backside or didn't leave enough room to get a wrench on them.

There were two that the impact gun took out next to the gas tank, thank god and the rest were torched off or wrestled out. If the ones by the gas tank wouldn't have came out on their own I'd have had to remove the tank to torch them. Got lucky for once There were two like this that couldn't be torched and had to use a wrench and channel locks to undo. Good thirty minutes wasted on each



I wish I could take credit for this next idea but honestly saw it on a Chevy truck 10 years or so ago. These will be a little taller than stock body mounts but should work great.



Since Jeff builds engines for a living he had these triple throwdown, double deluxe valve springs off a 383 drag motor he'd freshened for a guy this summer. If I remember right they hold 190lbs of pressure at installed height which is 2.300. Guesstimating that there's about 800-900lbs of tub weight including me, tools, 1.75 liter of Yukon Jack, spare tire and a six pack of chaser. Divide that by 8 total mounts and deduct a touch for wear on the springs and I should have a lot more cushiony ride

This was right before clean up which was extensive.



The guy I bought the jeep from apparently went mudding the last time he drove it, got it stuck, and left it for a while. The frame rails are filled with dirt about halfway up and there are very few holes for shit to get into.

Probably gonna have to cut the bottom of the frame out in a few places to get that crap out of there. If I don't, everytime I hit a water crossing that dirt will get wet and rot the frame out from the inside.

Planning to get back on it tomorrow and get some more stuff done. Feels good to not be neglecting it, this build should have been done already. As always, thanks for reading

[UFC_OWNS]

Yeah was gonna say that is a dirty jeep, needs a good cleaning

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by UFC_OWNS

Yeah was gonna say that is a dirty jeep, needs a good cleaning

I didn't clean anything but the frame The underside of the hood does resemble someone using the backboard of the toilet though. I'll hit that with some brake clean tomorrow if I remember

[Rusty]

I wish I had an excuse for this build being abandoned but I don't really have one I did get another toy and did run out of funds for this project for a little while but laziness and lack of ambition were the main culprits. I have done some stuff to it here and there but nothing worth posting.

I am back on it fulltime as of today and hope to have it done for either Labor Day weekend or the weekend after.

Got the axles out from underneath the rusty jeep.


Decided to stretch the wheelbase so the front crossmember that was badly butchered and rigged up was removed.
Before:

After:


The front axle will be moved forward 6 inches and I'm planning to relocate the rear axle another 6-8 inches back. That'll put me at about a 97 or so inch wheelbase which is pretty decent. 100 would be better but without a coil spring setup in the rear it's hard to do. It'll make it a little more stable and improve approach and departure angles.

We used 3X2 tubing to extend the frame rails the 6 inches but I forgot to get a picture. I'll get one tomorrow. Wish me luck

[Rusty]

Somehow managed to get back at it this morning at 7:15 or so. Jesus, I'm hungover

Here's a pic I meant to post last night of the framerails we added. It's actually made out of the safety bar of a semi trailer.



Got the axle back underneath the front and welded in. The springs weren't sitting perpendicular to the axle for some reason so I had to loosen the u bolts to get it to line up straight. After that my buddy welded the perches to the frame. Tightened everything back up. Here's how it was sitting when I left.



Shot of the weld where the rear perch was moved up.


Now I'm gonna take a nap and go back out around noon to remove the shock mounts and move them forward and figure out how the brake lines are going to need ran. After that it's on to the rear axle.

[Rusty]

Should have taken more pictures but oh well. Got to the shock mounts moved, brake lines ran and since the steering is going to involve a bunch of r&d we decided to move on to the rear axle. Here's a couple shots of it after removal.


Here's a couple shots after the other axle is underneath.



It looks like it's riding lower in the rear because the old engine is sitting in the back. It should be level once that's outta there. Got the brake lines routed and hooked up and everything tightened back down. I wanted to move the rear axle back but will have to go to a coil spring setup and some type of 4-link. Don't have time for that if we are to make the deadline.

Next up will be mounting the steering gear, putting the tilt column in, and installing the transfer case.

I can't believe how much progress has been made in just a weekend after I let it sit for so long. Gonna be weird driving aa Jeep again and I can hardly wait, thanks for reading

[M.C]

Good stuff, Rusty, projects like that can be a lot of fun or a lot of pain in the ass, but it seems like it's going smooth for you.