DirtyComanche

8oz of BBs will balance up to about a 34" tire no problem... That's per tire. But I'd jsut phone summit racing. Or go to their online store. They sell the cheap ones and have free shipping in the states. At least, I think they do.

Hmm. I have the AR version on mine right now. Or maybe they're the crager version? Anywho, it's a soft 8 (circular holes) but they're chrome, black, rust and dents. If you're into asthetics I doubt it's what your looking for.

Customs probably thinks it's a bomb.

Hmm, email money transfer? The only reason I haven't hit you up for any is because I wasn't entirely sure the best way to pay you for them.

Sadly that doesn't work here. Unless you own a farm. The last time I checked I didn't.

Actually, lots of rock. Snow is just something to do in the winter, most guys are rebuilding at that time - the real snow guys have rigs built ONLY to run snow. But, now we've finially found good hardcore rock locally - so it'll be a lot more punishing than before. It used to just be limited body damage and anything on the underbelly would get hurt. Now it we should be putting dents in the roof without much trouble. And yeah, there's trees to. And they bite. And the guys who think exo's get bent or destoryed... Well, they can - if they're built wrong. An interior cage offers only a small protected area with minimal mounting points (okay, you can squeeze a few in there, but I don't have any space as it is). The Exo spreads the load over the entire body and can make the difference between being able to drive away after a roll or having to cut it into itty bitty peices and carry it out. Everyone who thinks I should X the roof is right, and I looked at it again and it won't be a bending nightmare - so I will. And about it being ugly. Well. I guess that's a matter of taste. Oh, and the other battery box will probably just be a place to store $#!&. Always need storage space. Lastly, here's Ern's rig a fair while before he got VI'd. He drove it in WORSE shape than this for maybe 4-6 months. He'd have been fine other than his poor run of luck. Image Not Found I should see if I've got pictures of any of the highly modified (other than body damage) guys that still street their stuff. Exo-toy. He's almsot back-halfed. But that's his DD. Image Not Found

It's a little more than an inch. If you use metric numbers you could be accurate, but, it's about 42" (MJ) vs 43.5" (XJ).

Well... I don't have a tow-rig. But, it'll still be plated until the big ol' popo and their evil VIs catch up to me. Then I'll get the tow rig and be done with that worry. As it is it is not 'street legal' and could not be certifited as such - unless I start forking out major cash to get somebody to 'approve' the modifications. As long as I keep the wheels covered I'd actually be no worse than I am right now, I'd just need some removable flares. There's some vehicles that I know that are still plated despite being back-halfed, tubed framed, exo'd, running 49s, etc. It's mostly about not getting caught, and partly about smooth talking when you are. It's amazing what they'll let slip as long as you don't do anything too stupid. If I can find a picture of Ern's toy you'll understand what I mean (he finially got VI'd when his passenger door fell off at a stop light in front of a cop). But, if I pass you on the highway I'll be sure to wave!

Thought about this more. Might as well do things in this order: -Build new intake manifold (from scratch) -Run propane crap, at least get it mocked up -Remove all unneeded wiring -Hack front sheetmetal -Bend up rock rails and front tubing. Route coolant through rock rails, rear mount that rad over top of the propane tank. -Bend up rest of tube. Then I get to narrow the front too.

The changes they made to the hood was to move the latches to the outside and use a dual latch setup. The header panel can be modified to work, IIRC, it's just the useless fiberglass mounts that are different I think. I'm not sure, I have 86 fenders and a 2.5L (of unknown year) header panel on mine and it all worked after I drilled a few holes.

Of the box! Of course not! Umm, yeah, it's checked. It works about 95% of the time, then I'll have a whole slew of having to log in before each post...

Which still beats towing it around all day because your starter fried with an auto. We had that problem with a GW. The starter smoked pretty good and refused to turn over, and it was an auto. I wound up having to play bumper cars with him to get him back to the road. His whole back end was smashed in by the time we had it loaded on the trailor. (It was a free beater - so it didn't matter)

My 86 had the same interior as that.

No-slip is a lunch box locker, not a full locker. I've always got my lockers from ebay. Really? Oh right. A detroit is a 'no-spin' in trachtech's books. Nobody sells it under that name anyways.

Yer could build something like this: Image Not Found Then cut the grille out and mount the winch back a bit, and bend up a hoop for it. Or by a pre-fabbed one. And maybe box in the ends of the bumper as you desire. I dunno about you but I can't justify $300 or w/e on a bumper.

Find an auto parts store that loans tools. They should have a hardcore filter wrench or two...

Welcome Country. The inner fenders are welded to both the uniframe and the firewall as they are a structeral assembly. With a whole lot of drilling you can remove the spot welds and actually make the front section of them bolt-in/out, but I really doubt it would help you much. However, the early inner fenders have no issues to clear a later 4.0. It is the firewall that they changed. How much? I don't know; ask Eagle. But I'm sure one can still make a AMC 6er fit. The earlier rad support also has to be changed.

I always think about narrowing it. But the stock rad is really not convenient to do that with - well, I think it's pretty near impossible with it where it is. It's too bad it's not like a wrangler hood with so much space under it - then I could put the rad on the bottom of the hood and not have to put it in the back of the truck. But I figure with this design I can easily enough remove the front portion later and narrow it up. Oh, Pat, how many of feet of tubing was in your's again? Nevermind, 200' = 20 sticks. I shouldn't need quite as much.

Well, a full carrier locker replaces the carrier (detroit locker/softlocker/no-slip and other similar items). But, 'lunch-box' lockers (lockrights, quik-locs, aussie lockes) don't replace the carrier, just the spyder gears. You can ask if a 'thick' gearset is avaliable for your application if you don't want to buy a new carrier or full locker. I'd buy a full locker and be done with it. Edit, you already bought the gears, so the thick option dun work.

So, as I see it you have two options (and something inbetween) which would be welding it entirely on the vehicle, or tacking in place and welding it off the vehicle. If you're to weld it off the vehicle I'd think that you would have to design it accordingly in that you'd have to actually be able to take it off - ie, all mount locations would essentially have to be outboard of the body's major dimensions. But if you're to weld it in place care would have to be taken so that the nodes could also be accessed for welding. Which poses more of a problem if one means to keep the cage tight to the body. Now, I'll go out on a limb and also say that most people would MIG weld their cages, with the exception of those who have the means and desire to TIG their cages. Am I correct in these assumptions? Anyways; I'm in need of an exo for my MJ and I'm still weighing my options on execution. I'm limited in space in that my garage only has a 8' ceiling, so if I'm to tack the cage in place and remove it for welding some major creativity would be needed. Hence I would like to weld it in place if at all possible. Which brings me to another limitation - I can't MIG weld. It will be sticked entirely. Which you can actually use to get access to tight places sometimes - but a lot of the time it seems to not help. Also, I do not want my exo to get in the way of my wheeling - ie, if it gets me hung up I'm going to be in a bad mood. Saving sheetmetal isn't really a huge deal at this point - it's really more my life and longevity of the body as a structure. I appologize for the pics being ugly, and that this is for a MJ but I used my XJ as I have more pictures of it for some reason (WTH?). My design idea is something like this: Rear, sides: (old pic, yeah, I fixed that @$$ end) Image Not Found The cage behind the cab will not be any wider than it is up into the area where the roof tapers in by the rain gutters. Which means it's not going to help the body much. I figure I'll go with the nice big full X as there's not as much that can be done for lateral stability up front. The bars extending back to the wheelwells might be unneeded - but I will use them as I think it'll look hokey otherwise and I'm going to throw a big 'pane tank there anyways. The sliders are also extended so I can try to squeeze my batteries into that space as a saddle - because that would be cool. Thankfully my XJ's front end is pretty much the same - other than it sorta has a bumper. Image Not Found I'm debating if the fender area should go inside the sheetmetal or not. It's not exactly a huge deal if the fenders get messed (wait, they already are) as they can be replaced or flattened if I get in the mood to do bodywork. If they go inside I'm unsure how much protection I will have for the lights at the front. But if I build it as drawn I might as well not have turn signals anyways. And yes, a windshield bar. Do I need it? I'm just thinking I'd better not break the glass if I do it... Okay, imagine this is a MJ roof: Image Not Found Obviously this isn't the best design. Another X or a single diagonal cross would be better. But I think it will cause major headaches with the bending and welding if I was to do that. Mostly this would be because the tubes along the sides and front are not above the roofline. Should it matter? This is how I think I will build it... Other than the front. Image Not Found The light blue (sliders, and upmounts to the bed) would be welded on first. They're obviously the usual starting point. Then the main structure would be built in place and tacked up. This includes the roof, windshield bars, and cowl cross bar. I'd then lift the front end of the cage up to tip it off the back of the truck. If this can't be done inside my garage I'll just have to face the cold. It would then be fully welded, then tipped back onto the truck - reverse of removal; and welded in place to the deck and sliders. The red braces on the rear would then be welded in. I'd then move to the nasty pickle of a front (light green). I'd be doing it in place. I'll have to decide what I'll be doing with it first though.

Anybody else find that this site won't save your password all the time? I've never had a problem with it anywhere else. Normally I'd assume it's because I'm using an ancient version of opera, but still, it's not a problem anywhere else... But, I know Pete can't fix it so I'm just soapboxing for something to do.

We've got that too - actually all vehicles are supposed to be kept indoors or as discreetly as possible. But, they screwed up the legal paperwork so they actualyl can't do anything. Hence, there was an 8.8 lying besides the garage for about a year, half a dozen assorted tires, a pile of misc garbage parts, a truck in the driveway on jackstands (no axles), and 4 or 5 other vehicles scattered around in the driveway. They can piss and moan but short of a lawsuit they can't do anything - and they won't go there. Whenever I move out (gah) I'll be finding some place without neighbours near by.

Looks like a 2.8 POS.

D44.... that'll work gooder.

One's small, one's big. Small blocks went to about 400ci stock, and big blocks started at 393 (I think) and went to 496 stock. Through GMPP you can get a 632 BBC, or perhaps larger now. There's also aftermarket SBCs that go up to a hair over 454ci. Very few things that fit a SBC fit a BBC. They're really totally different motors. But I'm not as brushed up on my GM stuff as I used to be.