My 9 Year Build So Far.......

Table of Contents:

Page 1 Condensed Introduction

work done from June 03 to Feb 09:

parts swap from old MJ

Ebay bed swap

2001 Nose, Doors

Floors

WNC Bumper

1992 4.0L/2001 NV3550 swap

Box 4 Rox crawler box D300

Frame grind & POR15

Page 2 More Info & Details

WNC ft Bumper info

Rocker/Cab corner swap

Renix to HO parts

Air tube

backwards 231 shift lever

high clearance X-member

Pics of old MJ/donor (RIP)

2001 Seat swap pics

Page 3

Mopar 5 on 4.5" D60 info

Atlas Q&A

Eldelbrock ft shocks

T&T track bar bracket (w/modified RE Trac Bar)

Page 4

Start of FSJ tailgate

Page 5

Atlas is in

'Little kid' race seat installed

255r85-16's on 2001 Anniversary wheels

Page 6

Rear winch bumper

Hi all,

I mostly just lurk here,

but I figured it's time to post up a build thread.

Build shouldn't be taking this long, but life keeps getting in the way.

Here's my MJ in June 03, when I bought it.

200k+ mile $500 2wd MJ 4.0L 5spd.

I bought it to replace the beat up bent MJ I'd wheeled since 1995, or so:

old MJ, 1998 pic:

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old MJ, 2002 pic:

New one was covered in thick rustoleum Yellow, with some questionable bodywork underneath, but it ran, and the price was right.

I started swapping stuff from the old MJ:

RE 5.5", SOA 69 Dodge Charger (car) D60 rear (4.56/Detroit/35spline Mosers), Q78 fronts & 37" Boggers in these pics

and started to dig into the bodywork:

You can see how bad the cab corner is here (after I took out 2" of bondo, and pounded it out a little):

also bought a donor 2001 XJ that had been rolled (in background):

getting ft axle ready here (HP D30, 4.56/Lockright/Alloy USA)

3/04: Picked up a $100 Ebay bed (wheel well edges were gone on 'yellow' one)

and bolted that on (along with the rear bumper from the old MJ):

& the rolled XJ's nose:

(rt fender creased from roll)

4/04/04: got a very nice WNC winch bumper

Sits as flush as the stocker, or more (mount locations easily changed to move in/out):

Starting to come together:

but needs to be all one color to not look like a circus Jeep.

the cab corner & stuffed rocker look bad as ever

but the floors needed to be done first:

2001 donor floor (I used flat sheetmetal for the other side):

March/05, finally did the doors:

and bolted the winch in:

Put the TSL's & Boggers back on, trimmed the front, and dropped it a little (went from 5.5"XJ/4.5"ZJ RE coils to 3.5" ZJ RE coils):

Got to use the new winch on the neighbor's bushes:

Then finally pulled out the old 210K+ Renix 4.0L & BA 10-5:

Had to adapt the fuel lines to fit a 92 HO (from a 25k mile YJ Renagade).

(I don't know why this pic looks so much like a chop :???: , it's not)

92 4.0L + NV3550 (from 2001 XJ rollover) ready to go in

(HO converted to Renix accessories & electronics):

you don't by chance have a pic of the way you adapted the door strikers for the '01 doors??

Looks awesome also!!!

nice so far, keep up the good work!

I swapped the 231 for a flipped D300 + flat skid:

sitting completely above the framerails (ignore bootiefab temp headpipe):

The I got the idea that I needed a crawler box in front of that, so I chopped the new passengers side floor up a little

to fit a Box4Rocks:

Still experimenting with stuff, so I flipped the rear leafs at the same time:

(I didn't like it, and switched back :D )

you don't by chance have a pic of the way you adapted the door strikers for the '01 doors??

 

Looks awesome also!!!

Thanks,

I put a plate behind the striker on the passengers side (no pics, but my vertical-sheetmetal welding skillz aren't the best. :D ).

The drivers side is just bolted through the original hole + a new hole.

I haven't completely addressed that, since the cab corner swap.

sweet, looks like you have put alot of time and thought into the build. Keep up the good work and keep the pics coming... :cheers:

Finally dug into the drivers side rocker (replaced with NOS), and pulled the cab corner completely off:

I have more pics of this, but none online.

Basically just kept drilling spotwelds, till the stuff I wanted to come off came off. :D

I burned the rocker in, but since the MJ was still driveway jewlery at this point, I bolted on a replacement cab corner (used), till I finally figured out how & where I wanted to cut & splice that in.

Finally made up my mind, and put the seam behind the bed, but not as far in as the factory corner joint:

There's still a little more filling in to do, but it's close

(bed looks funny, because it's not bolted down in pic):

Thanks for the comments so far. :cheers:

I'm happy with the build, just need to get it back to the 'working truck' point again. :D

The rear *frame* was decent, except for the bend in the X-member, normally above the tailpipe, so I patched that in:

Ground the rear frame down to bare metal:

and POR-15'd it:

In the mean time, I also dropped it a little more, to make getting that first inspection sticker a little easier (I'ts been off the road for a long time now):

Paint is just Rattle Can Duplicolor Sienna Pearl (T362),

I just want it to be one color for now,

maybe when all the mechanical stuff is done, I'll like to DA the whole thing, and shoot some real color on it.

I love your truck. Just gave me a whole lot of ideas. Do you have any more info on the front bumper? Did you buy it somewhere or did you build it yourself?

Odds & ends,

Street tires will probably go on these 60yr aniversary/5.9L wheels:

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I had a problem with one of the (used) tires, so I'm not sure if I'll stick with these 265/75-16 TrXus for street, or something else (BFG KM2's maybe).

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FWIW, about 5 minutes after seating the beads, then filling to 60psi (max for these is 65),

as the tire just sat there undisturbed, the bead exploded off the rim.

Also, I finally made up my mind about transfer cases & splurged a little: :D

5:1 low range & HD ft output. :banana:

Pic comparing it to doubler + D300:

Still have lots more to do, just need the snow to go away, and stay gone:

I love your truck. Just gave me a whole lot of ideas. Do you have any more info on the front bumper? Did you buy it somewhere or did you build it yourself?

I bought the bumper (it's nicer than anything I could make :D ).

The guys's name is Dave, and his handle on JU & NAXJA was 35XJ.

He was awesome to deal with, and made the bumpers while working at wnccustomjeeps (wnccustomjeeps.com was their website, but the site doesn't come up anymore :dunno: ).

Basically the bumpers were built to order (I could've gotten it wider, or with a grille guard, etc, etc).

Price was very reasonable, but I really don't know the status of either him or the company anymore.

FWIW, I had to cut out the sheetmetal behind the bumper to fit the winch (I'm using an M8000), but IMO, the bumper adds much more strength than you lose by cutting the sheetmetal.

There was also a couple threads on NAXJA about it, maybe they know if the bumpers are still being made.

Would be a shame if they're not.

holy hell! what a build. i am so jelous of the atlas.

WOW! I'm very impressed with your outstanding work and your perseverance. :cheers: I'll bet the little guy you close the series of your pics is big enough to look directly into the windshield and give you some quality help now. :cheers:

Hey man that is a nice job with the front end and doors. I have yet to see one that had both of those upgrades. Very nic work. Keep us posted.

Thanks guys :cheers:

I added some more pics,

I'll start with the rocker swap:

'Before' cab corner pic (8.25.03):

9.29.07:

Rot was mostly limited to rocker itself:

Just kept drilling & chopping:

10.20.07 finally had time to get back to it.

Didn't look bad under the rocker:

Even better after hitting it with the wire brush:

Primed (painted before final fitting):

Straightened & clamped together

Burned in:

Good as new:

Couple other projects done along the way:

9.20.05: Renix TPS to HO TB:

Cut up an old HO TPS & used as an adapter to fit the Renix TPS:

Replaced the air box with an air tube some time later (6.20.07):

XJ HO vs YJ HO (decided not to use either):

Side view:

FWIW, clean the pipe before you let your engine breath through it. :ack:

Started with some nice U-bends:

to make something that would get the filter away from the grille & higher up under the hood (bettwer for water X-ings)

Finished off in some 1987 Jeep grey I still had around from my first XJ

Couple pics of the 231 reverse shifter lever:

I tried something different, & took out the bellcrank pivot between the 231 & shifter.

Also swapped the L-lever for a conventional post shifter.

I don't know how it would work long term, but it seemed to do fine for the limited use I put it through.

Couple pics of the flat x-member:

X-member isn't meant to support T-case/tranny by itself, skid underneath would be beefed, bolted under the frame, and add to the strength:

I also plan to beef up the MJ-only brackets on the inside of the framerails that the X-member bolts to.

Prefabbing & comparing to stock (2001) X-member:

Gains about 2 3/4" over the stock X-member (less once the underskid is in place).

X-member bolted in (still need to grind these rails & POR-15 them :ack:

Last few pics dedicated to old MJ that gave up it's life for this one. :cheers:

Sometime in 2000:

6.25.00:

a CJ-5 had just Hi-centered taking this line, so I wanted to see how bad it would be in the MJ. :clapping:

5.22.02 somewhere in Mass:

2001, on the ramp.

Pics of the rack loaded up (6.11.00):

Bolted the 37" Boggers up front (for driveway pics, D30 was :eek: even at that :D )

I miss this one, but it was way worse than the pics show. :(

what lift kit are you using?

Mostly RE stuff,

5.5"XJ coils (same as 4.5" ZJ) in the biggest pics (gave ~6"),

3.5" ZJ coils when I lowered it the first time (~5").

More recently, it's sitting on 2" spacers + 3.5" REAR ZJ coils (up front), for ~2.5" lift, atleast till I finally get an inspection sticker.

I'm using RE upper & lower arms (tho the lowers are ancient RE Heim jointed arms), RE HD track bar + bracket.

Rear are usually SOA MJ packs (w/o the overload), but right now it's SOA, with an MJ main leaf, and XJ leafs below it to bring the height down some.

It's been unregistered for a while,

and the inspection shops get extra nervous about putting stickers on lifted trucks that don't already have a current sticker.

I'm only looking to run ~4" eventually, so once I get it back on the road, and stickered, I should be able to bump it back up, without worrying next time.