Build Thread Jimbos 1 of 2 build thread

[Jimbos76cj]

Heres my current build thread.. its 1 or 2 because I have another one that Im collecting parts for to begin building in the fall. Im buildingthis for my buddy John who has been wanting a jeep for quite some time. It started off as a joke of "hey you should by this CJ" and next thing I knew we were on our way to pick it up.



Thats not some of it... besides the 2 totes in the back of his truck thats all of it.

First order of business was to sell the tires to buy a tub. From the beginning he wanted it to be on 35's so figured the money was better spent on some sheet metal. As quick as I found a buyer for the tires I found a tub, tail gate, hood, fenders, dash and windsheild frame in what looked like decent condition









In great CJ fashion we quickly found the rot on the frame so out came the welder



After fixing the frame we placed the tub on it for a looksy

 

[Jimbos76cj]

While the work was being done on the body we placed it on a set of jack stands.. the folowing morning the rear half had started to sag from all the rot.

Heres the windsheilf from the original frame



Here it is with the rest of the body parts on and the rear lifted 4"



Primered




Little buddy doing some body work

 

[Jimbos76cj]

Got bored and shot some black on the grill


Hood


Got some help with motor work


Paint on tailgate

Windsheild frame


Dropped the speedo in to see how it looked

DId the glass myself


Body work and primer done on the tub


Black on the tub. Its a semi gloss so it dried flatter then it looks here.


Got some 35s for it


I kept trying to tell him that it would be taller then him

 

[Jimbos76cj]

I sub at the local tech school for automotive. I picked up 3 consecutive days and decided to get some work done


Student put some time in and diamond plate on.

they really liked to be able to sit under it to wire and hook up the drive line

 

[Jimbos76cj]

Heres it almost all done.

Found out the brakes were shot and all the TRE and linkage was either bad or rusted to bad to be road worthy so I decided to donate him a set of J-10 Axles, AMC20 one peice 6 lug LSD rear, and 44 front.


Beside some randomness the last big things to be completed is the outboarding for the axles. After regear the axles John will have maybe 3k into it.. not a bad deal.

 

[zuba]

Good Job ,Are you going to take the guys for ride for their hard work.lol

 

[Jimbos76cj]

I would like to but the thought of a 34 year old man running around with a bunch of high school kids gives me the willies.

 

[Jimbos76cj]

Got a new to me front 44 from a j-10



Got my new welder and had a buddy that's a good welder come by and give me some pointers. 2hrs and half a spool of wire later I was ready to get to work making the outboard mounts







Postman dropped off my new rear spring mounts



Welded the support plate on it.. The plate wasn't a tight fit but I managed


First up is to swap the rear. Then rebuild the front and get it under the jeep

 

[elwood blues]

Looking good .

Nothing more gratifying than making parts, I take that back, making parts that work correctly, lol.

 

[Jimbos76cj]

Thats true.. I can't wait to ge this thing on the road.

1 its one of the things standing between me and my build
2 it will give me a little more confidence in my pile of parts
3 it will be the first of 3 other project jeeps that made it back on the road

 

[Jimbos76cj]

Finally got the Gear set to swap into the rear.. Hope to get cracking on in in the next week or two.

 

[Jimbos76cj]

I finaly got the front axle taken care of. I had to swap every thing from the knuckles on out to the new axle. I started measuring and marking for the out board set up on the front and noticed the the mounts would have to attache to the repair work that we did when we first got it. Im worried that the mounts would stress the repairs causing the frame to crack. Luckily I have a frame that is pretty solid up front and is already out boarded. Since we are not using either axle that came with the CJ I would mount the axles then swap all the big systems over. Figured it would take only a day or two to change it all over.

 

[Jimbos76cj]

(this post is a few weeks old copied from my build page on another site.)
Alrighty.. Back onto the build with a few hiccups. The front end has been gone through and set up. I'm hoping to get the steel to make my own shackles this week and the right spring plates that I need for the pass drop 44. I need to get the rear dropped off to Brian for the gear swap and set up.

Now here's where the hiccup comes in. When we first got the jeep the frame had a bunch of rot that we repaired and reinforced. When I started to measure for mocking up the out board set up I realized the was alot of interference were the reinforcing plates were, where the new spring mounts need to go and the area where the rot was repaired. So then I became paranoid that the frame wouldn't take the eccentric load that the outboard brackets would apply on the front spring mount. I ended up making the tough choice of swapping frames. Luckily I have a few extra frames laying around and one is already set up for full width axles. So today I drug it onto the deck and got to work cutting off in-needed brackets. The rear of the frame needs a little love it I thing I may cut the rear 6" of the original frame off and weld it onto the new frame. Here's how the day started.



After doin some slow cutting and waiting for my air tank to refill I got it to here.. I know it's not much progress but it's nice to get back at it again.


Hopefully after a week or two it should be ready for a parts swap.. Maybe a wrenching drinking day may be in the future.

 

[Jimbos76cj]

Got the rear spring hangers welded on along with the body mount. Im one bolt short of completely having the front end finished.






So now i need to make some room in the shop and get ready for the big swap a roo. Im thinking wrenching party.

 

[JR74CJ5]

:drool:

Very nice work jimbo!



Jr

 

[Jimbos76cj]

Thanks.. I picked up a few cans of gloss black to take care of the primer look to it. The guy doing the rear says first of next week. Im debating on picking up parts on friday or working in the shop. Monday I should be going out with a buddy that just picked up a YJ with a 4bt in it. IF not its back to work on mine.

 

[Jimbos76cj]

Alrighty.. back at it again today and Im hoping to sneak in another solid day tomorrow and one on thursday.. Any one want to come to the cloud thursday morning and help move a jeep tub, motor, Transmission to another frame??

Heres todays progress. unloaded all the that accumulated in the back of the jeep, removed the roll bar, rear axle, and got one side of the rear frame cut off. My sawz all battery died prior to cutting the other side. so for sheits and giggles I rolled the rear end up to see how well I measured the spring hangers.. Bingo.. slid right in.. actually easier then they would go into a stock set of hangers.


the 2 different rims are because the front is a 6 lug 44 and the rear is still the stock WT 20. Speaking of axles... John J-10 axle went to Brian to get regeared and of course some thing has to go wrong. I got the call that the posi unit was shot. After finding the replacement parts for about $100 I remembered about a guy with a Lunch box locker with 325 miles on it and a new case for $80 so for about $110 shipped Im going to go that route with it. Im hoping its in before the weekend so brian can finish it up by next week.

Im crossing my fingers that the end of january will be bye bye Diablo time.[

 

[Jimbos76cj]

Woo Hoo... got the repaired end welded on and the frame off the jack stands. I still need to clean up the welds and pick up some steel to plate the repaired area.


If any one wanted to know what the difference between the CJ and J-10 axles are.. here you go

 

[Jimbos76cj]

Got some time today to work on Diablo again.. did get as much done as I wanted to but looking back it still a decent amount.

When working on the frame to get it ready for the swap I noticed the side wall near the rear shackle hanger was rotted away. I figured there was little chance that this area would rip out since it was boxed and seemed solid on the other 3 sides, then a buddy called to tell me how he was mudding his CJ5 and ripped that area out of the frame.

So I decided a few pounds of prevention were in order. I started by removing the rotted rear cross member.


I used a sawzall to cut as close to the frame as possible



then I used a grinder to thin down the top corner


Solid work of the air chisel peeled back the top



When I did the frame repair before I welded the top of the cross member to the frame so I have to pry it up and use a sawzall to cut the weld



I then used the grinder to grind do the factory welds on both side and it fell right off with a light hit from the hammer



Now on to the plan to repair the damaged area. I picked up a peice of 3/16 angle


Measured the distance back for the bolt holes and drill em out to 1/2"


I drill out the holes in the shackle mount to 1/2" also then bolted the shackle mount to the angle


I welded all 6 sides of the bolts to the angle when I removed the bolts I was pleasantly suprised at the results



I then cut out the old rotted rusty stripped out bolts and fit the angle to the frame


I ran a single pass over it to get it all aligned


My next day out I will give it another pass and clean it up

I also was mid weld when I got a sniff of a funny odor..


First time for a fire in the shop.. Yeah

Oh disregard the 1/4" plate. I used it to align the two sections of the rear frame that I had put together. Even though I didn't get the whole rear done today I did get the other plate made for the other side and went to the local metal shop to have a new rear crossmember made. Custom made with out all the extra holes formed out of 3/16 steel for $60!! Can beat it. And it's less then 1/2 mile from home.

 

[Jimbos76cj]

Got the bottom peice welded all the way in.


Didnt take pics of the other side since it looks just like this one but now all the nuts and bolts for this area have been upgraded to 1/2-13 grade 8

Heres the new member



and here is the cross member installed


I wanted to get the gas tank and lines in but a buddy called for help on his CJ5 . next week in off 4 days so hopefully I will be able to get the rest of the rear section done and painted. then just waiting for Brian to finish up the gear install.