Nate's 2002 TJ, Not so simple anymore by gst95dsm

11 minute(s) of a 391 minute read

Hi Jermey, Yeah I got a little bord and this happened.

Well i've got the frame extensions in the rear portion of the frame. Some advise for anyone else who does this..... ease up a little on the tolerances, I made the sleeves pretty exact and it turns out "my" frame has just ever so slight of a different shape, due to the proximity of the arch in the frame and the subsequent deformation of the frame rail. That was pretty annoying, they fit SNUG, haha. I've decided not to weld anything until the frame is completely set up. Overall a frustrating first couple hours today.

I also wasted an hour and half this morning driving to 3 different metal suppliers to find a remnant piece of 2 x 4 square tubing for a bumper....no luck. I didn't want to buy a 10'.... dammit! I did get the channel for crossmember and that's what I'm about to work on now. I had to buy 10', I hate that!

Reached my stopping point for the day. Quitting early to clean up the garage a little, it's INSANELY dirty, grinding dust and bondo dust, and tools... and just **** everywhere. I can't believe I'm even getting any work done! Oh well, over the years I've learned that when I'm doing something for the first time, that's not well documented by someone else I get a little anxious to get through the "major" assembly just to make sure my ideas are going to work...... then I can calm down and focus on the details. That's kind of where I'm at right now.

The crossmember is made, it's a little tricky to get it in the right spot not knowing exactly how much stretch your ending up with, And you will have to lose your body lift puck for that spot, and maybe even the stock rubber Isolator, I havn't determined yet if I'll be able to slip it in the there or if I'll have to use something a bit thinner. The crossmember ends up right on top of the coil buckets, and you're kind of stuck with it's height. Looking under the jeep now I got lucky and it looks like my holes I drilled for the body mount bolts are lining up with the body mount.



Weld porn....



So after the crossmember, and running to home depot yet again for more saw blades to cut the old crossmember out..... which is a *****. I drilled my plug weld holes in the front frame, did a super rough cut on the drivers side of the tub for the shock tower to not have interference......and then attempted to position the frame under the jeep. Well lets just say this is when the unknown become known..... every freaking thing imaginable was in the way. the shock towers were hitting everything, the body was in the way, the frame was in the way....... I got extremely lucky with the length I made my sleeves... because even a 1/2" longer and I would have had to trim them down. So after some time lowering the frame, raising the body, tilting, turning..... lifting..... cussing. The damn thing just kind of popped up a little and the sleeves were even with the frame. Hallelujah, praise the lord. Now to see if the sleeves want to slide into the frame or fight me like they did on the back side..... well to my surprise they started going in, with snug resistance just like i wanted. Both sides were able to be worked in the some ratchet straps, and a big hammer hitting from the end. It took some time to work them all way down but they got there, and then all the clearance issues were gone.... the towers clear everything fine, the rear of the frame is ready to be lopped off for a new bumper / crossmember and I was able to breath a huge sigh of relief. Now mind you......... this part could have been MUCH MUCH easier if I wasn't so dumb and waiting for a buddy to come over and help me. This is an awkward heavy piece of metal to be manipulating by yourself. Everyone else I've seen stretch like this has had the rear of the tub cut off so I didn't even think about how much harder it would be to position the frame with the tub there.......... oh well. It's ON!



At this point, I can slow down. Get the frame positioning as perfectly as I can and get her welded up..... work on the rear bumper that I'm really looking forward to, dial in that corner armor.... and keep saving my pennies for these expensive bolt on parts that I need.....

8-1-2013

As far as the tire talk goes...... my KM2's have been awesome, I'm a pretty die hard BFG fanboy though. I think the MTRK is actually the best M/T available right now, A lot of my buddies run them and they just seem to hook up well on dry rock, wear nicely without chunking and drive well on the street. I don't know about the wet, mud or snow. And I don't get the KM2 noise issues either.... Mine are perfectly acceptable, I'd even say quiet for an M/T. Oh well...... Toyo sucks.  

My stock frame mounts are long gone, sorry for all the confusion guys, I know I've been talking in circles. Specifically ill be using the combo bracket that UCF sells, that runs the links out to the factory axle side brackets.

Here's the install I did last year..... this time it will be the same... just 6" further back.

This photo signifies that the rear of the frame is able to come up to the proper height! This means that a lot of things have gone right, clearances are good but tight. A 5" stretch would have been much more convenient now being able to actually see every little thing that's in the way, but I'm glad I went 6". I also just sold my rear bumper, so $200 just went back into the build fund. That's a good thing.  

8-2-2013

Thanks man, should be a big day tomorrow getting everything welded up. I hope to be posting photos of a very clean, seamless frametomorrow along with a temp crossmember.... and a rough start on the new rear bumper/crossmember. Long day at actual work in store for me today!  

Having to buy these minimum amounts from the steel yard is getting bit annoying! I know in time I'll use the material, but it's blowing the budget having to over buy like this. I've bought 10' of 3" channel, 4'x4' of 3/16 plate, and now a 10' of 3/16 2x4 tubing..... that's $200 worth of metal that I'm using only about a quarter of, if that. Oh well I guess it'll be nice to have the materials "in stock" for future projects. I wish I could find a local place that sold just what you need or close.

8-3-2013

Well the sparks are flying.... getting the frame welded up. Everything is going OK so far.  

I find the vertical welding a bit tough, especially on something like this that I'm trying to burn in slow and heavy, dang gravity.



What frame extension????

Well I'm happy to say my frame is officially extended. I ground the outside welds nice and smooth for a nice appearance but just cleaned up the inside of the frame. No sense in spending the time grinding all that perfectly smooth. It looks pretty good. Attention to detail was about a medium +. I was having a porosity issue with my welder. I still don't know whats wrong but I had to turn up my shielding gas way higher than normal to cure it. That caused some issues, and some extra grinding to redo some welding, which in turn caused less time spent on the minor details. All in all, I think it came out pretty legit.

Wow, I just looked at the time........ this day FLEW by! I'm still going to get the temp. crossmember in today, and cut off the back of the frame. I can't wait to see it without that section hanging off the back.

Got the temp crossmember in, and cut off the rear. Looks so much better, lol. Got the tub aligned properly finally, damn that thing can move around a TON even with the body mounts snugged up. It was throwing me off. I'm trying to be accurate but the tolerances seem pretty forgiving a 1/4" here or there. I think this thing will probably be more square when I'm done than it was originally, haha---- probably not!  

Well I got a little tired of cutting metal so I decided to clean up, and throw the axle under the jeep, I put it up on jack stands as high as I could and lined it up with the bumps. I stuck the wheels on for a visual and some measuring. It was tripping me out how long the wheelbase looks. Looks awesome IMO. It looks like I'll be able to dial in exactly 100" when all is said and done. I needed that motivation of seeing the wheels under it!

Still lots to do, I got my Gen-right fuel bezel in. It's pretty much a piece of crap but will do it's job fine. Just not worth the $35! I've got some Besrk weld through clevis mounts coming on Monday, and I also order my UCF link mounts today when I found out they are having a 15% off sale! So in reality... I could have the axle under the jeep by next Saturday all hooked up. I've got a fair bit of finishing work to do on the corners still, and the rear bumper to make. I hope that by next Saturday I've got a roller. Then just waiting on the tank and driveshaftand we're back in business for a bit. Then the duroflex swap a little later this fall / winter.