The "Get Me By" MJ Truggy by cgmrdc

10 minute(s) of a 99 minute read

Thanks! It's coming together just like I want it too!

Spending the few minutes and extra tube to calibrate your bender to bend tech is well worth it. Saves having to go back and rebend pieces bc it calculated the angle a little wrong. Are you using a horizontal or vertical bender?

Pulling the engine is going to be close. My tranny and tcase will be remove able from the interior, which is awesome! Swapped trannys the other night and it was the easiest job I've ever done. The biggest question will be if I can pull the motor with accessories and manifolds. It will def come out if I pull the intake but I'll find out when I pull it apart for final welding.

BLING!!!

Did some measuring and with the aw4/231/300 my front and rear drive shafts were 55" in the front and only 25" in the rear. With the ax15/atlas I'm at 40 in the front and 35" in the rear. Should make the rear drive shaft a lot happier with the 20" of rear travel I'm shooting for. And went from 1310s to 1410s.

8-15-2014

Got the front bumper started and winch mount. The two tubes are going to get Clevis mounts welded in. 

Finished framing in the grill so it's mostly protected, will go thru and cut, trim and cap all of the front tubes. Just found as much drop as I could. 

So when I cut out the rest of the floor/frame I actually lowered the rest of the chassis 2". So originally the frame was set up with a 20" belly and 74" at the roof. Now with the new subframe I'm still at 20" belly but 72" roof. That did a couple things for me, I narrowed the subframe so my boat side runners are flatter so even tho I lowered my rocker height I gained a ton of clearance. Annnnnd made it easier for my 5' tall girlfriend to get in and out. So the challenge has been I've basically raised my floor height a good 6+" which left very little room under the cowl for my size 13 shoe and hardly enough room for all 3 pedals. And my seat was offset towards the center bc of the inner structure of the cab and in order to get my leg over to where the clutch would be I had to twist my leg which was very uncomfortable. 

So out came the plasma. I decided that cowl had to go. The only reason it stayed as long as it has was bc I wanted to keep that plastic cowl cover. I can build something similar pretty easily and it opens up so much space for mounting steering, master cylinders and clutch. Just not worth keeping. 

Then I also removed the inner cab structure so I can move my seat out. 

Didn't get a pic but the ax15 and atlas are also installed

That's where I'm at now, got some more PVC to start mocking up the rear end and get started on the tube work and build the final subframe. Ready to get this beast a roller!

8-17-2014

So my shops been slowly accumulating crap, all my work benches were unworkable, couldn't roll the welder around the jeep, blah blah... Spent the day reorganizing, cleaning etc. finally got my first unobstructed view of the chassis. Nice to be able to step back and actually see all the lines. 

Before:

After:

A little more motivating knowing I won't be tripping over crap trying to get something accomplished and spend half my time looking for tools.

10-13-2014

Not bad visibility I'd say. 

Picked up a CJ tailgate

Still trying to get rid of this Dana 300...

And ordered some more stuff from TMR. 

Now onto the real update:

I got the subframe designed and built, took a little from ultra4 cars and sleeved the lower tubes for extra strength.

Couple of the welds

These were a nightmare.

Got a little distracted this week with 5 semi loads of broken concrete to build a rock course on our property.

So nick came into town Friday night and after a couple beers and staring at it for a while we started with the rear crossmember.

Rear susp mocked up and flexed out. Still have a couple inches of droop left.

Filled the rear up with stuff.

Corner notches

Bed corners, rear bumper, sway bar and rear frame all in place. The inner tubes on the back get taken out, and the tailgate fits inside. Still need to tie the sway bar and back bumper together and add the Clevis mounts.

Had to take nick back to the airport so that's where it sits today! I'm Really excited about the progress we made this weekend.