Tell me about it. It's threads like this that are detrimental to my wallet.

I also got these from Absolute Offroad after seeing how he used them on his jeep... these are for strengthening the steering box frame bracket.


steering box mocked up in place (reinforced plate being wasn't welded here yet). its purdy


rez


pump



steering shaft is too long cuz the new saginaw box is longer than the old Mercedes Benz box. If anyone has a spare 97-02 TJ steering shaft please let me know. I'll call around to places tomorrow.

I got a steering shaft from a pre 02 TJ which fits the new steering box perfectly.

been awhile since i updated this thread. the front axle is out and at Joes. Johns making some custom body mounts that I got to check out today. pretty slick and mega clearanced so no more snagging them. cool design and i'll post pics later after there on.

Hunter sanded the grill and sprayed it with some black paint. turned out nice

headlights are in too. new alum radiator is next. also looking into some LED offroad lighting from "rigid industries" for the front of the jeep. low low amp draw and super bright and just plain looks cool plus I won't be putting a huge drain on my electrical system. the company who makes them are designing some rock lights that should be available soon too from what i hear. Hunter's got connections and I'm getting a good deal on that stuff.

so, the steering box reinforcement plates are welded in too. super beefy. although is overkill since the hydrolic assist will do most of the work now.

its coming together nicely.

pretty sweet. more than i would ever need. but totally tits anyway. whats your bill look like up to this point?

Hunter cut some aluminum sheet to fill the gaps in the cage roof. This will give shade in the 120 degree hotness and I won't be tearing up bikini tops anymore. We were going to use one single solid sheet but the bends in the cage bars prevented that so he went with these segmented pieces. These aren't bolted down yet to the tabs. Hunter sent this from his camera phone as a teaser while I'm on vacation in Laguna Beach... can't wait to return to check out his progress.

new roof lined up and a few extra tube bits and pieces:





body mounts, frame tie ins:



a-pillar cage tie in:


the middle and rear body mounts are gone for good... replaced with cage/frame tie ins:


the rear side body mount is gone:


replaced with this B piller cage/frame tie in (teaser photos... still yet to final weld to cage and frame and to gusset it):



the front side body mount is hard mounted to the tub. John bent some plate into an "L" and punch a hole in it for the bolt, reinforced it with tube and used special flanges he made up to properly form-fit to the tubs dimple shape where the body mount bushing/pucks wouldve gone.

The middle side body mounts were tossed out because right next to them was the A-pillar's cage tie in so a body mount just 3 inches away wasn't needed.

The rear side frame rail body mounts were tossed all together too. Instead John hard mounted the cage to the frame. So now when the rear axle is relocated back 10" those side body mounts will never get hung up cuz they aren't there anymore. John thinking "outside the box".

I got word from John that the front axle is done and should have the teraflex knuckle on it thanks to AO. John will be grind off any unnecessary brackets and welding on new brackets and tabs for the new crossover steering and hydro assist.

additional bracing/tube added for the shock "hoops"... getting ready for the coilovers install soon.


teaser photos of some of John's new bling for the sheriff buggy. He's got tons of cool new LED and strobe lighting from Code3 and Rigid waiting to be wired up on the buggy. All controlled with a special Code3 digital control box within the cab. Scottsdale police would be sooo jealous!:

Thats some beautiful work.This is my first project doing all my own work.I now know first hand why it takes so long and it all cost so much,and how hard it is to get that good.Looks great!!

That thing will go anywhere! I would not want to try and run from it lol Amazing work!

Ben that roof is sweet! You should replace a couple of pieces with lexan so you can see the ground when on your lid.

great idea!

Absolute Offroad rebuilt a new rubi front axle. The internals were all still good from the bent housing so that helped me alot.

Hunter has the axle mocked up under the jeep. THis is with the teraflex knuckle on the passanger side and the RK steering. Using the Teraflex knuckle means I don't have to use a rinky-dink bracket with the drag link and trackbar like I would if I had kept the factory knuckle. Instead each of those links goes to a seperate steering arm on the knuckle.

okay okay okay enough!!

I think my keyboard shorted out cuz all the drool on it!


Such a nice rig. Keep the pics coming!

while i'm waiting to wheel i spend some time ordering little stuff for the jeep... today i got this 5"x6" filter in the mail to mount on the turbo city intake tube. its a nice k&n with filiment on top to get in more air. also got some sweet blue tube sox for it . thats a size 11 converse shoe next to it for perspective. lol

filter is RX-4870

John (Hunter) will be awarded the Sheriff Cal Boise Award tomorrow evening!

Cal Boise was THE sheriff of all sheriffs in AZ in the late 40's and early 50's.

John was selected for this award by the men and women in the sheriff department and Chiefs for basically being the best all-round possey(sp?) dude. Congrats John!

back in early august John (Hunter Offroad owner... the fabricator guy building my jeep) got interviewed by the good people over at www.TheFireArmsChannel.com. They put together I nice little piece. Take a peek.




In addition to all his work with the Sheriff department he's also made some excellent progress on building my jeep...











at the moment he's removed the front axle from underneath the jeep and he's finishing the welds on all those brackets. the coilovers are 3 piece coils... one 220 coil... one 250 lb coil and one helper or tender spring to keep everything under pressure and from rattling around when nearing full droop. Only the lowers are on in the photos so John can confirm they clear the frame, tires, etc

Shooting for December to have this puppy all done and ready for Joe Daro's (the owner of Absolute Offroad) birthday run around Dec 24th or so.

She is beautiful! Great work, i have looked threw this a couple times. Wish i had that talent!

I'm cruisin on vicodin today because of a toothache and dentists are all lazy and don't work on Fridays. bahhhH!

But I got to stop by Hunter's shop before taking the prescription. He's mostly finishing things up putting on the final welds of things that were previously just tacked in place. Getting close to painting time

closeup photos of the tabs and bump pads on the axle. He made a hole in the gusset for me to be able to access the bolt for the coilovers. John does alot of origami with paper designs before working with the metal to get it setup just right so it would work. It paid off and it all fits nicely. not sure why he prefers working with the pink paper though, but i don't judge.



triangulation for behind the seats and frame tie in from the b pillar...


upper CO tabs and the tabs for the crossover bar that goes over the motor to the other hoop...

Keep up the good work!

sweet build man looks great!

one question. why not just hard bolt plate to plate the top section of the engine cage? why use a bushing.

awesome!

you mean why not just metal to metal. That is a good question. The tube that crosses over the motor is, first of all, bolted instead of welded for when I need to work on the engine, replace cover, get to engine accessories, etc. And so we thought it would be good idea to put some bushings in there for when I need to disconnect one end and swing it up out of the way. Plus, bushings are generally a good idea vs metal to metal. It dampens the impact of side loads from the opposite coil over hoop and stuff. if it was just metal to metal it would rattle and there would be some slop.

also picked up a be-cool aluminum radiator, a flex-a-lite electric fan with thermostat and automatic & manual speed adjustment.

also got an alum overflow tank with sight tube to replace the old plastic one that was cracked in the rollover:


and since I was getting the fancy radiator and stuff I thought I'd also get some silicone hoses (got them in black):
Quality Silicone hose kits for Jeep.


Ordered a mean green alternator that should arrive soon. Will work nicely with a Sears DIehard Platinum and the Warn xp

Awesome build, it has given me some ideas. Would you be able to provide the part numbers of the be-cool aluminum radiator, the flex-a-lite electric fan with thermostat and automatic & manual speed adjustment.

I am looking for this to be my next upgrade.

Thanks

The radiator part number I think is 60242. I had to google for that part number. It is for the 4.0 97 - 04 TJs but will probably fit all years of TJs. It is labeled as being for manual transmission but mine actually extra inlet/outlet for the automatic transmission cooler built in to the bottom of it, just like the oem.

The part is actualy at the shop so I'd have to go check and see the number off the box. I'll try remember to look next time I'm in there. I paid about $530 or so for it.

Here is a link to the wrangler flex-a-lite fan installation instructions (part # is on the front page):

http://www.flex-a-lite.com/auto/485-99485.pdf

The jeep has been backed up against the shop wall for 8+ months. John was able to push it away from the wall tonight for the first time since its been there.

He sent this text to me:

"Good news, i see your tailgate. Bad news, its still ****ed up. LOL."



he cracks me up I might just get rid of the tailgate

Here's the latest photos. mostly painted

The project looks really good.

I'm thinking about trying the genright pitman arm...

GenRight Twisted Pitman Arm




its double sheer and would give my drag link a little additional angle to keep it more inline with the track bar. We're putting the drag link on TOP of the upper teraflex steering arm and even with the stock pitman arm the DL is nearly horizontal which makes it unparallel to the trackbar. The genright pitman arm will add some angle and prevent bumpsteer.

I think I'll try the stock pitman arm first though, but if bump steer is more than I can stand then I'll get the genright arm

Looking good, great work!

on 2nd thought, I don't think I'll go with the genright pitman arm shown above. The concern is that it would transfer tourque/stress to the sector shaft... so instead of a pitman arm breaking and being an easy repair... I'd end up with a broken sector shaft and no quick trail repair for that unless I carry an extra steering box, lol.

Funny, Tony has been running this exact same double sheer pitman arm and the same AGR Hydro Assist in his YJ for the last 5 years. He's out wheelin 48 weeks out of the year. Still no slop in the sector shaft.