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Nick came down this weekend and helped out while we banged our heads against the floor... seems like everything we tried to do had clearance issues... but what ever, got a plan to move forward. Cut the firewall and cowl out and got the motor pushed back 6 inches. going to have an access panel in the cowl to remove the distributor. the 300 stock shifters interfered with the trans so i had to take it apart and going to have to move the shifters to the top of the case. i wanted to run lexan panels in the foot wells so we decided to cut the whole fire wall out and trim some more off the frame so i can run longer lowers. with the manual my foot pedals were going to be close with a 4 link and the boat sides so we decided to run a 3 link with pass side upper. got the rock jock set at full bump, which is 6"s of up travel, should be able to get away with a one piece drive shaft. also bought another set of air bumps. ordered my headers this morning so once they show up ill be able to get moving with the front geometry. pics... works better this way, ill be able to run some more structural tubing down to the frame and have a flat firewall without all the BS holes to fill. also plan is to build a removable dog house and trans tunnel so everything will be serviceable from above. bring on the hate...

Gf was in town for a couple of days so last night we went out and tinkered a little.

We don't have a whole lot of mud here in TX, and I try and avoid it whenever possible. SMORR gets a little sloppy at times but usually stays pretty dry in the summer. I've thought about making some lexan panels to inlay in there but not sure yet.

Thanks! Bending tube and making roll cages is prob the most rewarding part of what I do. I love suspension design but nothing defines a rig like a BA cage... But man notching irritates the crap out of me some times!

got some time in this evening after work side protection dash bar mis bent the a pillars and they ended up being perfect for how i wanted my door bar so went ahead and threw one on tonight

I'm going to fill in between the double b pillar on the roof to maintain the cab corner lines, got some cool ideas for that. And prob going to fill in the roof diagonal bars in the center so I can run some interior lighting. But gonna keep the area above my head open

all i can say is stick with it... itll be cool when its done. love it, hate it, don't really care lol. now that we all understand yes i cut up an MJ, can we move on now?

Guess ill throw this in here too... but yeah, the truck youve taken a fair bit of work to get drivable. and thats not what I'm looking for right now. have a one ton dodge. don't need another truck... ive delt with jacked titles in the past with other salvage vehicles ive rebuilt... "Trust me, its been asked many times... So originally when i sold my jeep a year and a half ago the plan was to build a buggy. but after a career change and move to TX i was left with out a shop. and as you can see my alternative was very limited in space. I decided it would be easier and faster to build off an existing platform bc i was getting really tired of driving all the way back to MO to just ride along with friends. So i started looking for a cheep jeep to build off of and always thought building an MJ truggy would be cool. Found this one for 500 bucks, yeah it was in darn near perfect shape, but it was a police impound and had a bad title so trying to resell or license wasnt really worth it. XJs are everywhere, and everyone builds them... i don't want to build just any old trail rig and wanted to utilize all the parts i had collected for the buggy. and the more i got into it the more i remembered why i sold my last jeep to build a buggy, and now I'm left with what i got. yeah at this point i may as well have but my unwillingness to sacrifice the capability i was trying to achieve turned into not much MJ left... whatever... oh well... with all the parts i got rid of i made money on the initial purchase. lesson learned, in order to build a jeep thats as capable as a buggy with all the same components means basically getting rid of the jeep... itll still be really cool when its done, itll do the things i want it to do and it will hold up to many years of wheeling."

Evidently so... Not the original plan but oh well

more...

Ill let the pictures speak for themselves...

got the bottom and inner frame plates welded out tonight. I'm going to go ahead and cut the frame off at the fire wall so i set the jeep back down and put it at ride height so i could make a straight cut and then build my last small inner stiffener piece. and since i was wrapping up for the night i figured id throw the tires up and see what it would look like. Pic is at 110" WB with 20" belly on 39.5 TSLs. Thinking maybe another 2 inches in the front would look about perfect. Thoughts?

More parts! got an MSD pro billet distributor and MSD-6 off off road ignition with a blaster high vibration coil from intensebik on pirate and got an MSD off road rev limiter from a guy here in dallas on CL. everything brand new in box!:smokin:

the ruff stuff parts were ~300 shipped but i bought them during the last 15% off sale. the artec parts were ~165 shipped but i bought them during the 15% off KOH sale so today it would be a little higher.

sooooo, as if i wasnt busy enough with work got some upgrades to do to another jeep has put the halt on the MJ... but that just means more money for the build right!? Doing a rear 4 link/ coil conversion with a mixture of ruff stuff and artec parts (normally i build my own brackets but in the interest of time we decided it was best to buy some) i will say I'm extremely impressed with the artec 4 link brackets we got, shipping was super fast too. and as always, you can't go wrong with ruff stuff. cutting off the frame behind the rear seat and redoing some of the cage work, also going to add a fuel cell. and stepping up to 36s Got some friends coming down on thursday for MO to help on the MJ so i sould have a decent update on it next week.

The camper stays on the trailer... its the dedicated toy hauler. i have another 20 ft goose and 16 ft bumper pull that i use to haul other stuff. getting it from one trailer to the other was a chore lemme tell ya... used a bunch of pipe and 2x4s to roll it from one to the other. ive got the jack poles for it but a couple of the corners were weakened from storm damage so i need to build new brackets that are wide enough to get around the fenders on the trailer and i could remove it pretty easily...

and back to the MJ Picked up some LED fog lights, 20 bucks, don't know where I'm gonna use em yet, but oh well... maxxima 6.5x4s got some more plate for the frame, 90 ft of DOM to start the cage, 2x6 box and 1.5 spare for the boatsides so the side stiffeners are a little more difficult to make templates for, obviously you can trace out the lines on cardboard, so i drew lines on the frame every two inches and measured the cross section then i transferred that to the cardboard cut it out and trimmed a couple small spots the best part is this template works for the inner and outer frame rails, so i traced it on the steel and cut it out, cleaned em up and tacked em on Got some friends from back home coming down at the end of the month to help rebuild the motor and get it set in place so should be quite a bit going on from now till then... as long as work cooperates...

Some wheelin pics Nick Matt Me and the GF in my buddies "Spareokee", XJ we built one weekend out of spare parts for an extra rig while he puts tons under his TJ

Another small update, i swear I'm gonna get some decent progress done one of these days, at least this post will have a little tech in it... but first, got the camper set up and took it to SMORR Froze Over. all i can say is WAY better than tent camping, especially in the bitter cold This is the trailer i started with Finished up about 2 am the morning i was supposed to leave. The outside is a little rough but the inside is in really good shape for 1971... Stove, over, fridge and heater all work! Just the right size for a jeep on the back (lilnickt's xj)

So, not much of an update, but its something for now. I figured Id be back at this by now, but the day i got home from the holidays we started a huge project at work and ive been working 10-12 hour days every day since the 9th. But here are a few more parts ive collected for the MJ 77 4 bolt main 350, itll be freshened up a little, new gaskets, ive got a set 64 CC heads that have been rebuilt to help the CR for the propane on stock pistons, dual plane aluminum intake manifold and lunati cam for it too wake it up a little. also have a serp belt set up for it and need to get a msd dist and ignition box. itll be a mild 350 by most standards, but itll get me on the trail while i build the 383 i want. Picked up a set of 12 bolt H1s with rubber inserts and a radiator for free! brand new, was for a gasser superduty a buddy used to have. should make a good candidate for a rear mounted rad. Got some dimple dies from TMR Cutting brake from off here And kind of related, picking this up on saturday, i have a 26 ft gooseneck that i bought in college for hauling two jeeps, its too long to justify hauling just the one jeep but i got a stupid awesome deal on it so would like to hold on to it. i couldnt buy a 16 ft bumper pull for what i paid for this gooseneck... gonna throw it on the front and help keep the lady happy when winter wheeling. project wraps up on the 28th, then ill be gone for a couple days wheelin with some friends. but when i get back ill pick up the rest of the material i need and should start coming together pretty quick.

Cut the rear frame off yesterday And before anyone throws a fit about this next picture, its only temporary, i can lift the jeep myself, the 4x4 is just a secondary support, its also safety chained to the ceiling rafters... i got the rest of the bottom plates cut out and the middle pieces tacked up

i was pleasantly surprised with its condition... i was finding alot here in texas in the 1000$ range with more rust that this one. i wasnt even mad about the little bit in the drivers floor when i peeled the carpet back. i could probably manage to keep em in useable shape when i cut em out if you are interested. cutting all the way up to the first body line so there will be a lot of useable sheetmetal left. prob won't be till after new years, gotta go to kc to see the family for christmas and such, i make regular trips up there so we could prob work out a way to not have to ship em

yeah, smorr is an awesome place to wheel. i knew i was gonna catch some flack on this board for cutting as much off as i have, but i swear I'm not just some hack and stab builder, everything that ive cut, has had a reason, and needed to be out of the way so i can turn this into what ive dreamed it to be.