ilovemybike

Lack of steering stabilizer was killing me, ended up conjuring this thing up. I don't like welding tabs to the tie rod tube, because it limits the toe adjustment, this lil guy allows adjustment and seems more rugged than off the shelf solutions.

The tires are TSL Q78's, which are supposed to measure 35.5x10.8".

Thanks man. I'm usually around on the weekends working on it, you should swing up. I wanted a bumper that would be really tight and hug the body lines, and it ended up covering the guns. I'm trying to figure out where I can put more. I would say around 7" of lift? Maybe less. I didn't measure in the beginning, the only parts on the jeep that are from a kit or are application specific is the long arm kit. I mounted the coilovers to give me maximum uptravel, because I want to be able to take big hits. With the V8 and the waggy axles I was limited, but at the current ride height I have 7" of uptravel. The coilovers are 16" travel, but I will be limit strapping them to around 13" of travel.

Clean and simple.

Beginning of my front bumper.

Thanks for the kind words guys!! Soooo, I have been driving the ol truck and it's going pretty well. I have so many little things to button up but overall it's going pretty good. I build an alloy tailpipe section for fun, made some dimple died door sill covers, bits and pieces along the way. It is stiffer than my XJ, which was to be expected, yet it leans quite a bit in the corners. I guess driving slammed cars has made me a bit sensitive to that sort of thing, I'll get re-accustomed to it. Took it down the highway at 70 and it handles well for unbalanced unround tires. More little details coming soon.

Thanks guys! Registered it today... Still a lot of little things to get done, but I want to do some driving and trouble shoot things.

Fixed my coolant problem, ran the lines where GM intended and did so with some sparkless metal. I need more hood time with alloys so I have a few projects that I added to this build. I made the lines and a surge tank, and I am doing an aluminum tail pipe. I also plan on doing the dash and door panels with aluminum, buddy of mine has some bead rolling skills. The glass is back in it. Yay for new windshield. I hate all the pitting that makes it impossible to drive into the sun. Tucked back out of the way. So glad I did hood struts forever ago on this.

Thanks!!

Of course I did! From the beginning I wanted hoops through the hood.

Removable cross bar. I love the way it looks here. Getting ready to spray this thing. Cannot wait to have it white.

That doesn't look half bad. :yay: Made some Royal Mounties.

I'm not sold on the flares, especially the front ones. Maybe I could go fiberglass front fenders, but they are easy to crack in the tight wooded trails near my home. I had an exo/tube fender setup on my XJ, but I didn't want to do that to this rig. What do you think would look good?

I haven't been slacking I swear. I put the tailgate on after I powdercoated it, it barely fit in the oven and it made the worst smelling smoke pour out of the oven but it's done now. Then with the help of some great friends I managed to stuff some coilover hoops in the b*@$£. I use that term based on my own faults, the truck has been great. So it's sitting on coilovers with tacks and temporary top mounts. It's a bit high, but I'm sure there are ways to remedy that without changing the mounting locations. I flexed it out and I don't have any clearance issues!! It's a miracle, it's so damn tight yet doesn't hit. I hastily shot photos, don't hate. I'm aware the windshield is broken, if I had a dime... What up node? Prerunner stance. Is stance a naughty word now? Rexy chillin in the shadows. I mocked up the TJ flares a bit more permanently. Not entirely sold on them but it's pretty legal. I wonder if I should paint dolphins on the hoops as if they were jumping out.... I am not building this thing for max flex but it has some. Halfass plastidip test. Do I go white or black on the flares?

I guess I take forever to build things. But here are some long overdue updated photos. Finishing up the cage and then on to the coilover mounting. Sorry for the photo quality, all I had was an etch-a-sketch.

Dimple plates are just sitting there, need to be fitted. Did some more tube work. Made the track bar brackets and threw it in.

Jason came up and helped out with more of them tubes.

My brother's Lincoln was having problems so I bought a blue welder. And I have to say, watercooled and powerful is pretty convenient. Welded on my bumper plates so I can remove the damn thing when I need to pull the radiator or whatnot. Plated the passenger side as well. I was very close to TIGing that on but ended up using the glue gun.

Haha, mega quote. I was able to get the radius pretty damn close. I put a piece of tube in my press brake and it came out pretty sweet.

Time for an update, sorry this is actual work. :( In order to keep the jeep as low as possible and still have uptravel I redesigned my track bar. It needed a bend to fit between the drag link, oil pan, diff and tie rod. Threw some 1.5" solid stock in toeachtheirown's tubing bender and ended up with a cute little axle centering piece. In preparation for the coilover hoops I plated the front unibody rails. Just cut some 14 gauge, threw some holes in it and welded her on. Oh then I started on the roll cage. Toeachtheirown lent me his notcher and I put the thing to use. I have never done tube work before, any tips, suggestions or downright hate is welcome.

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3656lbs and 62/38 bias. So after obtaining some info on weights I talked to some shock people. Because I live in the Northeast there aren't areas where I can cycle the suspension rapidly through its full travel so I opted to save some money for more dimple dies and ordered up some emulsion coilovers. From what I heard from Poly Performance and Dirt Fab Racing I shouldn't see any shock fade with the type of wheeling that I am doing. I wish I could say that I am going to be smashing through whoops at 60 MPH for 30 minutes but there just isn't that kind of terrain around here. They didn't have any 14" travel bodies in stock so after talking about it I went with a 16" Fox 2.0 coilover with some springs that were spec'd for my weight and intended purpose. I know I won't be able to use all of the shock, but this way I can have the coilover hoops pop out of the hood just a little bit, which is something that I have had in the back of my mind on this build. I will be limit strapping and using Fox 4" air bumps to limit up travel, thus using getting about 13" of useable travel. I'm running 12" Fox shocks in the rear as the leaf springs won't be providing much more travel than that. In comparison JEEPspeed rigs are limited to 12" front and 10" rear shocks and they jump awesome! I doubt I will be able to get my suspension dialed in that well, but it should be a huge improvement from my last setup. Can't wait until Friday when the big box comes!