Hi,

trying to keep this thread clean as possible of off topic stuff. just FYI. Thanks!

Jeep front end project

the front half of the frame was bent four inches to the drivers side.

and the drivers side was bent at least that much UP while the passanger side was bent down. and the motor mounts were sheared off.

Its been straightened... it maybe a little bit bent still but very close to factory specs.

The tub however had been pushed about 2 inches to the passanger side. strange huh? frame bent one way but tub was pushed the other. it was a good hard barral roll.

The front end work is being done by HUNTER OFFROAD in TEMPE, AZ with the exception of the front axle work which will be done by ABOSLUTE OFFROAD in PHOENIX, AZ.

STRAIGTEN TUB ONTO FRAME
the body mounts will be removed and the tub FORCED/TUGGED back to center where it needs to be. Then new frame tie ins will be made at all four courners of the cage and plus the soon to be added front tube work which will also tie into the frame... at least 6 tie -ins all together. The body mounts and brackets will still remain but we may cut those off, later.

HOOD AND HINGES AND FRONT GRILL
the factory hood will be reused, HUNTER (John) straghtened it and the hinges so it aligns perfect with the cowl. My grill was finished so Fatbob was cool and let me have his old TJ grill.

FRONT AXLE
I'll stick with a rubicon front D44 like what is in there now. But the hosuing is bent bad and will be replaced with a fresh new housing. The guts (locker, gears, axle shafts, etc) will be swapped over to the new housing. The axle work will be done at ABSOLUTE OFFROAD in PHOENIX, AZ.

FRONT SUSPENSION
the coils, shocks and related brackets will be cut off from the new housing and from the frame. 2.0 14" FOX coilovers will be used with FOA 2.5 4" hydraulic bumpstops.

FRONT BUMPER
1/4" square tube with some cool angle cuts on the ends. Bevelled welded edges and the ends for the caps for best quality welds/penetration

TUBE WORK
single long tube wrapped from the cage A pillers following the hood lines, wrap around the front grill and back along to the other A piller. It will only hang a little below the hood line to allow max tire clearance. Thought about highlining the hood but isn't necessary. A radiator hoop will protect the grill and radiator. Tube will span the top of the motor from shock hoop to shock hoop. the hoops will also brace/tie into that wrapp around hood line tube. The fenders are all gone, I don't like wheeling in mud anyway... I may later get some plastic or rubber sheets to keep the engine clean from mud/water but its not on my list of things to do right awaay.

No stingers because I want to have the best approach for steep waterfalls.

hooks will be added last. want to keep the front bumper as free as possible to help when approaching verticle rock ledges.


Heres a few pics showing the newly added front bumper. And also showing the front suspension stuff that will all go away... I can't wait to get rid of the factory front coil setup, coils popping out all the time or jamming against the TB bracket or unseating, etc. lol.

I didn't think to take earlier photos of the jeep when the frame was bent.... but it was UGLY

more photos to come in the next few weeks as things progress

Dang man, thats quite the roll over. Looks like you got things under control though. I really like that front bumper, very clean. Your rig looks sweet even without a front clip, lol. Hey, what tire size you running? I ask because I got a hp44 from an f150 and Im gonna be running 36's on it and Im not sure if I should be worried about busting something or not. Are you rims single or double beadlocks? Those tires are on double beadlocks and the tire/rim combo is heavy as hell.

38" TSL/SX on steel wheels with rock ring... no bead locks, yet. 30 spline chromo front shafts with yukon superjoints... 35 spline chromo shafts in the rear. factory rubicon air locker in front... ARB locker in rear. replaced front ring and pinion. I believe that was special circumstance. lol. stupid driver error... I was tugging a broken jeep out of a trail while I was being pulled also from the front by a strap. took two jeeps to extract the broken jeep and in the process I broke a tooth off the front ring gear. I won't volunteer for that kind of extraction again, bring in the big trucks instead

Haha, thats ironic, my 36's are tsl sx's. I was gonna keep stock shafts for now and go cromo's if/when I brake.

my plans LOL

hunter will hopefully make it look better.

not my jeep obviously but its neat. Hunter is working on a frame/tube buggy based on a willys. The very very old frame is on the left.





old...


new...



now here is my jeep... front body mounts removed so we could straighten the tub on the frame and that got the hood and gril to line up straight on the frame (it was way off to the passanger side before). The plan is to cut off the bodymount brackets and weld on new ones higher up on the frame. no more body lift.

lineing up the grill hood with the center of the frame...


hunter checking it is even...


new winch arrived. Its a warn 9.5xp. going to go synthetic and alum fairlead

these are the 2.5" with 4" travel bumpstops that arrived today. F-O-A has a great deal on these right now with the mounting cans included.



the FOX coilovers are at the shop but I forgot to take pic of them, more pics next week. Thats when John will begin bending some tube.

I really like the shiny stuff, and bubble wrap too.

I'm not going to afix an end date to this because that would be impossible but just enjoying the progress.

Yep, the body mount frame brackets are being cut off and Hunter will make new ones from scratch. I checked with Jeep parts department and they wanted $110 PER BRACKET! and over $30 PER body mount bushing! crazy! So Hunter will probably use his Piranha Ironworker machine to make up something and he'll figure out what to use for the bushings... maybe some aftermarket poly bushings or cut down my old ones.

Here are a few more photos. This is a single 17+ ft long tube that wraps around from one side to the other. He did this alone using his magic bender skills. Imagine trying to work a 17' long tube with at least 12 bends in it by yourself thru the bender machine... let alone getting it setup on the jeep and having it aligned and fit correctly. The tub, hood, and frame are bent still a little so that makes the job even tougher. Wish I coudve been there as he was bending the tube and fitting it to have gotten photos of that happening.

Looks killer though and gives lots of clearance for the tires. Just getting rid of all that old inner fender sheet metal and all the old steel plate tube fenders saved me some weight I think. Next come additional cage tie ins, a radiator hoop and then he's going to begin removeing the front axle and cut off the suspension frame brackets and start on the shock hoops and bump stop mounts etc... then the axle goest to AO for them to work on it (*I'll be talking to you soon AO).

Looks great Ben. I like the aggressive lines from that single tube. Hunter should change his name to "The Magic Man".

more stuff from the other day when I stopped by the shop






yeah, hunter is amazing working with steel

I snapped a few high quality photos with my phone while I was there today. The front is welded and he's got brackets tacked in place for holding the grill to the frame.



hunter got some small (sheet?) metal pieces shaped like triangles to clean up the looks where my cowl and old front fenders use to meet. And then he trimmed my genright rockers to line up with that.


He's also done a few new cage tie-ins. John made a couple of small tubes to reinforce the tubework over the passanger and drivers heads (those are not tacked in or welded yet... I just put one of them inplace for a quick photo).



removed one of my factory rubicon air pumps (only puts out 5psi) that I don't use anymore after I went to an ARB locker. A friend who is installing rubicon d44's front and rear can use it.

I didn't know this but appearantly these things lift right off...




but really these things are not easy to remove at all... lots of plasma cutting and grinding. The ground was thick with steel dust powder. But John took good care not to accidnetally cut into the frame with the plasma cutter and the end result is really nice...



also, the body mounts are completely removed and ready for new ones he'll be making


also started talking with AO and Hunter about what steering, knuckles and which tb brackets etc to use. more to come later.

I don't know who else is following this build (I'm sure there's a bunch), but I'm loving it!! Keep us posted. That is (and will be) a badass Jeep!!

Yup its AWESOME !!!

I've wheeled with Ben in his Rubicon since it was a baby. He hit a few rough spots with it recently, but his build is going the right way and the guy who's doing the work here in PHX Hunter Offroad does top notch smokin fab work.

Man sweet project and loving the looks of the tubing & cage work as well. Looks great cant wait to see it finished.

Chris

I stopped in at AbsoluteOffroadPHX.com today to check out Joe's new jeep project and to take some photos of his jeep. Actually, I only took photos of some front axle brackets, passanger side terraflex knuckle, and steering. I'm going to maybe do the same setup so I wanted to have pictures of his setup as a refference.

Here's the photos of Joe's front axle/brackets, etc. A mixture of Terraflex, RockKrawler and Genright stuff

The knuckle is from Terraflex and allows the use of the RX X-steering with seperate arms for mounting the drag link and tie rod instead of those two links sharing the same knuckle arm as you would on a standard TJ d30/44 knuckle.

The lower control arm brackets are from RockKrawler. I couldn't remember if the lower coilover brackets were from Genright or RockKrawler... but they were designed for a JK front axle buit obviously work on TJ axle tubes too.

The big trackbar bracket on the axle is from Genright.

I also talked with Joe and Ryan at the shop about getting a PSC steering box and PSC power steering pump. My factory setup is really very weak for my 38" tires. Just the upgraded pump and box make turning the big meats super easy... I may later go with hydro assist. Ryan showed me a setup with the upgraded pump and box that was on a YJ with BIG tires and the turning was effortless even when not rolling.

clever idea using PVC to check for clearence and stuff with the hoops, suspension cycling and frame, etc. The hood will be notched with "mouse holes" to clear the tube. A crossover tube will go over the front of the motor but will use bushings and tabs on it's ends so it can be easily removed.





this time i remembered to snap a photo of the coilovers (minus the coils)...


couple photos showing the Willy's project. The roof rack is really nice, it uses oval tube which looks really cool.




a few more shots of the "hoops"...

All I can say is "that is some tank" You should be pretty safe riding in that. Can ya still call it a jeep? LOL. Nice fabrication work.!

The reason this is happening is because the cage he got made was soo tuff, it bent the frame.

Really liking the tube work Ben.

I ordered a PSC hydro assist kit and a fluid cooler. comes with cylinder arm, steering gear box, pump, pulley, remote resevoir, and resevoir mounting bracket for mounting the rez to the brake booster (not sure if I'll use that braket or if hunter may have a better idea)



also got a fluid cooler... not sure how good it will be but better than not having one I guess



I was really digging the PSC steering box/pump that Ryan was showing to me over at AO. I was thinking that would be sufficient but figured why not get the hydro assist since it can be purchased as a "kit" sooo

Dude I love the frontend tube work and the bumper and all of it, its sexy as hell

a little more progress... John made some "mouse holes" in the hood so it can close over the tubework.




waiting on the steering pump and its remote resevoir before adding more tube in the engine area. need to be sure that all fits and we don't want to get ahead of ourselves with any tube bends that might get in the way. hopefully that PSC stuff should arive soon so I can...









[wait for it]







... take some more pictures. ha. also shopping around for a good and reliable alum radiator and overflow tank. we were flipping thru a catalog and found some cool bling polished alum tank.

yeah toys! Getting parts in the mail makes up for all the wheeling I've been missing, sortof.

A single big heavy box. PSC packaged the parts well. Lots of hoses and fittings! I'm glad I don't have to do this alone... looks really complex. Hunter, Joe, Ryan... you guys can figure this out right? It does come with a few pages of instructions though.







do you think this simple aluminum cooler is sufficient? There is another one I was looking at getting instead that made several u turns with lots of fins like a traditional radiator looking thing. I'm thinking the radiator looking one might work better but I don't know.


pump resevoir and its bracket for mounting near the brake fluid resevoir.



I don't know what this bracket is for... looks like its an optional bracket to mount the pump for different year wrangler. Not sure.


Tons of hoses and fittings and a tabs... Most were not labeled so thats were I hope the instructions are good. But Hunter and AO do this stuff all the time so I'm not worried :ninja:

It's like Jeep PORN!!!!!! I bet I've gone through this thread a dozen times looking at all the pictures.

come to find out, the mystery bracket works with the other bracket to attach the resevoir to the brake booster. I've since read thru all the instructions and the install isnt looking as overwhelming as it first did when i pulled all the parts out of the box.

I've packaged it all back into the box and I'm driving it over to Hunter's shop today so we can perhaps get some of it installed soon. I cant wait, going to be sooo nice to have hydro assist

DAM!!! looks soo sweet, cant wait to see more