Yet another slow build thread. . .

[OldGreen]

Look what followed me home today!



1994 4.0, AW4, D30, 8.25

2 DOOR!!!!!!!!!!

[mattawajeep]

I think I have some white spray paint if you want it.

2 doors are cool.

[commando14]

Nice! Where did you find it? I've been helping a friend shop for a Cherokee for the past few weeks and we were having a hard time finding a decent one for a decent price. So today we made a road trip down to Puyallup, the first two we looked at turned out to be not so good.. it's amazing how deceiving pictures can be sometimes But we finally found a nice stock '98 limited that we brought home.

[OldGreen]

Same guy had it that I bought the last one from. Never was advertised. Needs a few things to be race ready.

[Jafo]

Uh oh, jose.... where's the ranger? Cant sell a ranger with jeep parts on it. Lol

[OldGreen]

Uh oh, jose.... where's the ranger? Cant sell a ranger with jeep parts on it. Lol

I winged the Ranger so it couldn't escape.

[Wrench]

I saw you dragging that home yesterday as I was headed back home from Oak Harbor. I believe I passed you just as I was leaving Yakima.

Didnt know it was you, but I sure eyeballed the Cherokee!

[Jafo]

What size tires are you gunna run on this little girl, she's gunna need some tubular lovin.

[OldGreen]

What size tires are you gunna run on this little girl, she's gunna need some tubular lovin.

Tubed and chopped. 235/75R15 MTs with big shocks at roughly stock height. 2" backspaced wheels. Rear radiator and batteries. Everything that doesn't make it stay cool, strong or fast will be removed. Anything that can be moved to the rear for balance will be moved. Will race with a 9.65 effective gear ratio. . .top speed of around 50mph.

HOWEVER. . .My ADD is KILLING me on this. It needs some floor repairs and the normal XJ reinforcement, but the dang thing runs so well that I'm considering either making it a street and trail limited type racer or maybe just a trail rig to replace Orville. . .But there really isn't anything wrong with Orville. . .It is just ADD. See. . .since it is a 2 door, it is easy to trim the rear wheel wells to fit bigger tires. There are plenty of 2 doors with 3" of lift and 37s. Not gonna do that because of the other cans of worms that would be opened. . .but . . .but . . .but. . .

At any rate, stuff's starting tomorrow. I'm cleaning it up and stripping off some parts. I hope to make the final decision then. Probably what's killing me the most is that I haven't driven O since Rimrock. I will put him back together tomorrow and drive him around a little just to remember how well sorted out he is. Just needs a tiny bit more lift and some body work to be 5x5. I have new fenders and plastic bits to apply. . .

[Wrench]

Ha! ADD, I can relate.

I am trying to itemize and tackle one thing at a time...

[OldGreen]

Race car it is........

[OldGreen]

Or not. . .The ADD seems to have taken over again. . .more on the plans later. This is what I WAS faced with:



I say "was" because 90% of that picture is now open air. . .More to follow. I've decided that this is going to be FUN.

[SPR]

Yuk... Rust sucks.

[Lurch]

That's ugly!

[mattawajeep]

That kind of fun looks oddly familiar.

[79chevy39.5's]

It's light weight for racing

[mattawajeep]

I think you need Plexiglas floors, it'd make for great views flying over rough roads.

[OldGreen]

No ideas will be dismissed.. .no matter how odd.

[OldGreen]

I struggled with which thread to put this in since it is being built for the Green Jeep but will ride around on Orville in the mean time. . .but since I used the green one for measurements and that will be where it ends up. . .

I played hooky from work yesterday to play in the driveway. Mostly, I ran the drill press and ate grinder dust, but I did manage to run a couple of welds.

Started out with some 3/16" x 6" bar and made these:



Rumor has it that the factory steering box spacers are weak. . .so,

I found these in the garage:


and made this:



and this is where I ended up for the night. . .the tube is 6x2 .188.



It will get "wings" of course but I ran out of time. Also will get a receiver mount for a shackle, winche, boat launch, etc.

[OldGreen]

And winged. . .

Toby and Marc helped me cut and and design the wings. The design phase took a few dozen beers and even the next door neighbor's help, the cutting took Toby and his plasma cutter about 22 seconds and then I took half the day yesterday welding, capping, grinding, fitting, welding ,grinding, and finally painting.

Still have to finish the driver's side, but here is the wing on the passenger side:



and with paint. When this whole thing gets put on the Green XJ, it will get "winglets" that are made from 2x2 tube that go back under the fenders and will match the lines on the flares. Orville isn't straight and I'm using measurements from the green one to build everything. . .so, the winglets will wait for a couple of months.




After the driver's side gets done, I'm going to roll back over to Toby's and highjack a 2.5" square hole for the receiver tube. . .unless I get impatient and just do it with a skinny wheel.

Toby's neighbor's son suggested that I throw a little prerunner tube on it to mount some illumination. I'm pretty sure that I'm down with that idea. Stupids kids. . .

[OldGreen]

Just so you are pickin' up what I'm layin' down, the winglets will be kinda like these ones from JCR only more awesomer cuz I'm making them myself. Also part of the design process included angling the ends of the bumper to slide of of trees and such. So, that will be a big difference in the overall look.

[OldGreen]

OK, so I thought I'd document how to build a "wing" for this. I've build little stuff like this before, but never anything this big and with sort of compound angles.

Here is the starting point:



This is the result of 2 cuts. First, the angled cut to kick the bumper in at the ends. We did this by measuring the distance at the middle of the bumper to the grill and matching that at the end of the bumper. That way, even with only two bends, it still appears to match the arc of the front of the Jeep a little bit. This was just skinny wheel. . .Then, we took a pie shaped chunk out of the tube so we could bend it up at the right angle. We did it this way instead of just chopping the angle in so we could keep the radius the same the whole length of the tube. The bent in section was tacked up. . .

Then, when I got home, I roughed it all together with a little chunk of 3/16" flat bar and filled the gaps with the squirt gun.



Then, before I finished grinding, I matched it up with the other side to make sure that it was all the same and made a little jig to get it all straight. Maybe there is a better way to do this part, but this worked well for me. . .



Then I tacked it up and removed the fixture. . .haha:



Eyeballed for continuity (no, it isn't perfect. . .but I love it)



Satisfied, I prepped it all up, turned the juice on BoyScout's glue gun to max and burned it in. . .followed by a round of grinder/flapper love and a couple of coats of Krylon.





Again, the next step is to drill a new hole in the receiver tube a little farther back from the one that came in it and mount it dead center. Exactly when I will be doing that part is a little up in the air. It would be FAR easier to do it with it off of the Jeep, but because of the frame issues with O, that is going to take a skinny wheel to make happen, so it won't be coming off until it is getting ready to go on the Green Xj in a couple of months.

[OldGreen]

So. . .another part of this journey is to be able to flat tow the little fella when I have a family along. . .the WK2 is FAR more comfy to ride long distances in. . .

Problem: the hitch is very low to the ground and the homemade XJ bumper negates any aftermarket towbar mounting methodology.

The first part means that the tow bar really should be mounted below the bumper so I don't have to use a massive rise hitch. So. . .I built these brackets that hang the tow bar below the bumper and are removable so that I get that clearance back when I'm froadin'. . .





They will get some grinder love on the sharp edges and a coat of paint, but you get the picture.

[Don]

Ooooo ... when you get it all done, I'll help test the road worthiness! 8 wheel drifts are actually pretty fun! That was one of my best memories with the Bunny ...

[OldGreen]

Ooooo ... when you get it all done, I'll help test the road worthiness! 8 wheel drifts are actually pretty fun! That was one of my best memories with the Bunny ...

Funny you should mention that. They are also built so that they can be flipped over and mounted on top of the bumper. That way, I can tow bar to a similar rig in front of me in the deep snow. . .chugga chugga chooo chooooo

This one is going to have a ton of "lessons learned" cool schnit and little details like that. And it will be all done by Camp Schamp. . .done. . .no. . .wrong. . .it will be trail worthy and the heater will work. These things are never done.