neohic

Out of town right now... not sure if I've got the inside plastic dealy things for them, but I've got two white ones in nice shape. For the front of your XJ?

I'm waiting on shocks for the Eliminator so I figured it would be a good day for some mock up on the dune buggy. The old seats out of the truck worked out well for working out head room for the future cage (thus the sledge hammer and masking tape). I also put the tires and (6 lug) wheels in place to try and figure out backspacing. The wheels are 8" wide with 4" of backspacing and it'll work out that future wheels need to come out a half inch to comfortably clear in the front.

Got back to the truck after getting the dune buggy rolling on its own. Next on my list was the exhaust which started with going down to the local muffler shop and getting some supplies. I had the guy take a 10' piece of 2.5" tubing, cut it down to 7', and make a few 90 degree bends out of the remaining 3' for something to work with later then picked out a 2.5" in and outlet ICM muffler. Granted, they had the usual "bend and kink" type of bender so they weren't perfect, but I've got only $50 invested in the whole works. I made up the four bolt coupler for at the cross member and went from there. 3' to the muffler, 3.5' to the bends and out with a simple rolled lip stainless tip. After some zinc primer it went right in without any issues. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it, but if I were to do it again I would probably go with a nicer muffler. It sounds awesome and really highlights a strange clunking sound I never heard before... loose torque converter bolts. Now all that's left is to finish undercoating it and to figure out shocks. Out with the old: In with the new:

Alright... I was going to wait to really get into this thing after my Eliminator was done, but I didn't have the parts to finish the exhaust and I needed something to do today. Why not shorten a frame? Started with cutting the rusty old floors out and marking the tunnel for the cut: And the cut and squaring: Then some welding: This was a huge step but now comes all the rest of going through every little part and replacing, cleaning, modifying... should be fun anyway!

Looking around and calling over to the local Husky Spring, the Comanche and Waggy use the same hardware for mounting. The guy at Husky couldn't find an internal difference between bushings either. I'd say run without any drilling.

According to NapaOnline: Waggy: Dimension A I.D. : .568" Dimension B : 2.5" Dimension C : 2.94" Dimension D O.D. : 2.003" MJ: Dimension A I.D. : .56" Dimension B : 2.5" Dimension C : 2.74" Dimension D O.D. : 1.76" I would bet that you could go into Napa and ask to see the "big book of bushings" and find something that would work without any drilling. Or could you get a sleave made up that fits inside the bushing to clean up the sloppy hardware?

What if you don't like them? Are the bushing the same outside dimension that you could use MJ bushings in place of the Waggy? If it were me, and with my luck, I'd put the packs in, not like them, and end up wondering what to do with the bigger holes on the truck. :dunno:

The way that I'd do it is to add the carrier directly on the other side of the bumper bracket as it'll help with the bumper flexing around when you swing the tire away. Then, whatever type of plate you use for the outside with the swinging assembly, make up another one for the backside that "sandwiches" the bumper and run your bolts through the whole works. The pin is 7/16" round and keeps the carrier very sturdy when in place. The pictures that I put up were during the mock-up stange and I added a stop later on.

You could use your stock bumper (or make up a new one) that has a carrier. Either have it swing away or swing down and out of the way: If you were to use your stock bumper, you could just make up something simple and bolt it on the other side of the bumper bracket for support. If that be the case, you could probably use off the shelf trailer spare tire carriers and make them work too as a common trailer bolt pattern is 5"x4.5".

The body sold yesterday and next was to run over the whole works with a shop-vac. The findings?... rust, lots of it! Nothing structural though. The floors are in terrible shape, but they need to be shortened for the body to fit. Getting back the MJ to finish it up, I'm not sure when I'll start cutting this little thing up. Right now I'm just enjoying the little bit of progress and seeing the biggest skateboard ever!

Yup! This guy: http://www.100dollarman.com/

... or maybe just an experiment... I've got heavier packs that don't flex as much as their 2wd brothers, maybe the springs won't droop far enough to invert the shackle? Hu... maybe just mock it up and see... :dunno:

I've got an issue with getting rid of brand new springs as they have got maybe 8000 miles on them. I thought about lighter packs right away, but I'm trying to use what I've got. Right now, the truck has 4.10s and looking to go with 33s. There's my problem with 2wd packs... I use my truck as a truck more than I wheel it. Unfortuanately with the truck sitting for so long and with a ton of more important things happening over the last few years, I can't even say that I have ever taken my truck on the trails more than a handfull of times! All I can go off of right now is that I like to think that I'll find the time over the next few years to have more fun with my truck, but as of now I use it as a truck. If shackle travel or angle turns into the issue, can I redrill to increase the angle like this guy did? Image Not Found

One yes... one no... any tie breakers?

I'm looking to go up more with my truck: spacers and drop brackets for the front and SOA in the rear. The truck is already about 3.5" up in the front and 2.5" in the rear. With the spacers, it'll go to about 5.5" over stock but the problem is in the rear (a literal pain in the arse!) as it'll put it at 6.5-7" up over stock. I've got five leaf 1700 lb leaf spings that have two overload springs on the bottom so I figure I could lose one of them (making them standard MJ springs) but that'll only bring it down to a solid 6.5" up. On top of this, I've got longer shackles already that measure 6.5" eye to eye and the stock shackles are long gone. So, my question is, could I use XJ shackels to drop it another 3/4-1" making it around 5.5" up? Any other suggestions would be appreciated too, but I was hoping to use what I've got instead of going and buying different springs. Thanks!

^Thanks dude! Well... I got tired of trying to sell my 33s. The best offer I got was $300 for the four tires (two are brand new), 17" Ford wheels, and the spacers. So now the plan is to go up with it: got some spacers and drop brackets for up front (thanks Comanche Country!) along with the SOA/SUA spring perches I welded on right away before the 8.25 went in. I will have an issue as the spacers will put me up to about 5.5" up and I've already got 1700 lb springs and longer shackles in the rear... it would be around 6.5-7" up in the back. The springs have five leafs so I figure I might take one of the overload springs out (pretty much make them standard springs) and be more on the 6.5" side but I still think that'll be too high to match up with the front considering that the rears are higher already from the factory. Maybe a XJ shackles to drop it another 3/4-1"? Any issues with running XJ shackles? I've also been toying with aircraft stripper getting all the black paint, clear, and powdercoat off of the wheels and bring them back to bare aluminum. Been taking pitcures too so I'll put together a DIY if they turn out right. I'll get these done before any work goes into lifting it more... hey, they might not turn out!

Finally got the lights on the light bar and done. The four facing forward have a huge spread and the rear comes on with the reverse lights.

I can't believe this rig hasn't been COTM earlier! The truck is totally awesome and its owner always has the right answer... I can't think of anytime I posted a tech question without CW piping in with some kind of uncanny response. Thank you for all of your knowledge, write-ups, inspiration and congratulations on having COTM!

Good luck with the painting in your garage! I did the same thing on mine... it turned out okay. I was just getting done with the last coat and my dad came charging into my shop with a swift fling of the door waving all of the plastic I had hanging up dropping dust all over my truck. MAKE SURE YOU LOCK YOUR DOORS BEFORE THE FINAL COAT!!! Great job on the rest of the truck! I like the idea of bringing something back from the dead.

"autographixdesign" has an Ebay store. I bought a set from him years ago but are no longer there. I seem to remember talking to someone that said they can do anything that they've offered in the past regardless of what they have listed. The only problem with these stripes is that they stop at the lower body line. If you want the original full decal that wrapped down to the rocker, then you'd have to paint it. What I did was find a silver that was as close as I could find (happened to be the same color as my VW Jetta that I already had a pint on my shelf!), mask off the large silver stripe at the body line, and use the vinyl stripes above that. Since I was going for a little more function than was originally there, I went with bed liner instead of fading to black. Original: My version: I have agree with JACKED88... there isn't a whole lot better than those Eliminator stripes running all the way down the body!

Changed the grill to the way that I should have done it in the first place... red, not all black.

Thanks guys! Something had to change! The black front just wasn't doing it for me... looking back at old pictures and being on the fence about the black from the get go just got to me today. So, first thing this morning I mixed up a small cup in the paint gun and away it went.

Looks familiar... Awesome work on your truck!

Right on homies! Glad everyone's happy!

Welding instructor at the same college I went to five years ago.