From RockMe 2 RockRod by MarsFab

MarsFab

MarsFab

Will work for money
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Location
Harrisburg, NC
Some of you guys already know Ed and his very nicely built yellow TJ. He's been wheeling with the same setup he has for a couple years now and decided it was time for a complete re-do of the chassis, suspension, sheetmetal and tubework. Over the last couple months he and I have completely changed up everything. Here's a few pictures I've taken from along the way. Ed came by every week to check on the progress and take more pictures so I'm sure he'll be able to post some better ones showing all the work that has gone into this thing.

When it came to me it already had a very well built set of integrated boatsides/sliders. But the cage and rear frame section were a but heavy and didn't flow well with the style Ed was now looking for. To start I cut the entire cage out as well as remove the rear rectangle tube frame section. Just the rear frame weighed at least 250 pounds easy! It was very solid but just too heavy and gaudy.

Then came the new tube......

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As the cage started to come together we were planning to move forward with the front suspension. The plan was to lower the ride height down 3 or 4 inches overall and to stretch the front axle out 10 inches or so to improve approach angle and to end up with a more desirable wheelbase.

In order to get a lower ride height the frame rails from the motor mounts forward needed to be cut off and leveled forward. They we're replaced with 2x4 rectangle tube and the new winch plate tied the two sides together.
Another thing Ed really wanted to do was lay the front grill back a few degrees. I see a lot of guys do it too slanted or not enough so we played around with different looks till we came up with what I think looks awesome. Once the angle was right Ed proceeded to notch and reshape the grill shell to fit the profile of his winch that was gonna be sticking out of it.
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So many little details went into this thing it's crazy. Since Ed planned to use the factory tub, hood and windshield to pretty much build a buggy lots more consideration went into strength and cleanliness than a normal TJ build.
We managed to squeak the roll cage height down as low as we could to help keep the jeep looking long and low. Once it was done we ended up with a factory windshield frame that was too tall. Ed being the paint and body guy took it to work and chopped 1.5" out to bring it back down to look right next to the new cage. He also cut off all the pinch seams and filled all the holes in on it so it's now just nice a smooth piece.

Next came the roof. Ed specifically wanted the roof to have a certain look. It had to be individual panels. This was probably one of the most time consuming parts of the build. Getting all the panels to fit right and welding on something like 56 trick tabs total to mount each panel was fun ;)

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Since the stock fenders and factory inner fenders were now gone we had to build a set of aluminum ones to keep the mud out of the engine compartment.

I really hope I can get him on here to post the pictures he has. He'll have some of It before I started so you can compare the before and after shots. Plus he has a lot more of all the little detail work that I didn't have time to take pictures of.
when I finished all the fab work, Ed came and picked it up to take home and finish the body work and paint... here it is the day it left my shop.

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Now fast forward to last week and a lot more has been done by Ed. Long story short we converted the rear suspension over to use his old front air shocks, then bought new coil overs for the front. We had a little wait to get springs in for them so when they finally did come in I drove up to Cornelius to deliver them and check out the progress.
Let's just say I really hate to see him scratch this paint. It is beautiful in person and he's almost got it all back together
Check out the hood he's using. That's a Tacoma hood scoop grafted Into a tj hood.

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Outstanding! Can wait to see Ed on the trails.
 
Sorry if I missed it, who did the paint?

Great work, fun to watch these top level builds/transformations.
 
Ed is a body man for a toyota dealership so he did the body work and paint at the shop where he works.
 
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That's awesome! Even though I am not a 'Yota fan, I have always liked that hood scoop they put on the Tacomas and 4Runners. That hood looks fantastic.
 
Looks great chris. Stoked to see a lot of your projects come together in a short time frame.
 
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