Red YJ Build

Hardly any pictures taken yesterday since we spent the day enjoying the company of all these web wheelers.

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Well, this project came to a stop these past two weeks. I ended up coming in contact with someone who had COVID and had the unfortunate pleasure of testing positive myself. I spent the past two weeks battling that and am now over it. But, having COVID only meant I was stuck at home with nothing to do other than look up and order parts, so that’s what I did. I’ve got the following parts here and ready to be installed.

fenders
Led turn signals
Hood latches
Mirror (driver side for inspection purposes)
Axle brackets for strapping to a trailer
MISC cage pieces
DOM for the cage
Rocker armor will be here Wednesday

hopefully this coming week I can start to knock out some of these items as the Jeep sits at RLF for the cage work.
 
Had a couple hours today so I got started on the cage. I’m keeping it simple for now. Got the B to windshield, A pillars, and front spreader bar done. Tomorrow after work I’ll work on getting the B to C spreader, C to C spreader, and A to B floor bars in. The goal is to have the cage done and painted in time for the CTB Fun Caravan this coming weekend.

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Was able to make some more progress last night. Cage is done "for now". It'll get a harness bar, floor bars, and tied into the frame at a later date but I want to be able to make it to the CTB event this weekend so it's going to stay like this for now. The rockers showed up yesterday so I went ahead and started test fitting for these. The rear corners are stretch corners so the wheel well doesn't line up with the factory lines on the tub. I was able to shift the rockers back 2-7/8" and they lined up perfectly with the rear corners. I still need to make the rub rails/steps that will go on the sides but that shouldn't be too difficult to knock out tomorrow or Thursday after work.

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Not really a lot of progress since I’ve been pretty unmotivated lately. I did get the driver seat mount cut down and dropped it about an inch. I got the corners pulled off and painted. The previous owner of the corners took a flap disk to them to get surface rust off. The marks from this are very present in the paint. I’m leaving it as-is for a couple reasons: 1) it’ll get scratched and banged up anyways 2) I had working with body filler and have no desire to do it 3) you can only see all of the imperfections if less than 10 feet away. And lastly, I knocked out the horn/wiring and the tag light/wiring. Now I just need to make a driver side mirror mount and it’s off for inspection and registration

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What’s left to really do other than inspection? More body armor?


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NickMaul said:
What’s left to really do other than inspection? More body armor?


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Click to expand...

There’s some things I want to change. The grill sits too high causing the hood to angle upwards. To drop the grill and keep my up travel, I’ll have to go to a different radiator. Also want to finish out the fenders but the aforementioned has to happen first. Then it’s just little things. Mount winch, mount arb compressor, etc
 
adamk said:
There’s some things I want to change. The grill sits too high causing the hood to angle upwards. To drop the grill and keep my up travel, I’ll have to go to a different radiator. Also want to finish out the fenders but the aforementioned has to happen first. Then it’s just little things. Mount winch, mount arb compressor, etc
Click to expand...

I’m sure after you roll it once the hood will line up better :flipoff2:


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adamk said:
at least it’ll get to the trail with a chance to roll :flipoff2:

when you gonna finish yours? The offer to come up and help it along still stands.
Click to expand...

Mounting the rear coilovers now. I’ll let you know when I need to mount hydro assist.


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Knocked out a couple little things I’ve put off for a while. The first was the spreader bar between the coilover mounts. Then I jumped on some changes to the rear. Previously the rear was very stiff and when driving down the road it was violent when hitting bumps. When I made the rear leaf pack, I used a second XJ main leaf to create a military wrap on the front. The springs I used were bent and caused the rear to sit high and the shackle angle was terrible. I disassembled the leafs and took the bent leaf to the press and straightened it out. I also removed the smallest leaf from the pack. This helped tremendously and the rear settled down just under 1.5”. It’s still stiff but much improved. I believe the leaf perches are hindering the springs flexing because it’s so long. Next steps are to cut some of the rear of the perch away and see how it acts.

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I just swapped a 14 bolt in the back of my cj. Used xj springs and the short factory 14 bolt perches. The rear was very soft until I put in the anti wrap bar. I can easily spin the bolts in the bar so I know it's not bound up, the bar extends about 10" forward of the front spring hanger and all the shackle geometry is good.

I'm going to unbolt the bar and see if the softness comes back. Looking at the geometry I have it seems the bar will inhibit the axle from vertical movement but not inhibit it's articulation. After all - these antiwrap bars are used to reduce squat on drag cars and such. I just checked my brain at the shop door that day and duplicated the hundreds of wrap bar pics I've seen done before, but I think there's more to the anti wrap bar's influence on the suspension movement than just savings xj springs. The free body diagram in my head tends to agree... It's a statics problem and I want a dynamics problem...
 
adamk said:
Knocked out a couple little things I’ve put off for a while. The first was the spreader bar between the coilover mounts. Then I jumped on some changes to the rear. Previously the rear was very stiff and when driving down the road it was violent when hitting bumps. When I made the rear leaf pack, I used a second XJ main leaf to create a military wrap on the front. The springs I used were bent and caused the rear to sit high and the shackle angle was terrible. I disassembled the leafs and took the bent leaf to the press and straightened it out. I also removed the smallest leaf from the pack. This helped tremendously and the rear settled down just under 1.5”. It’s still stiff but much improved. I believe the leaf perches are hindering the springs flexing because it’s so long. Next steps are to cut some of the rear of the perch away and see how it acts.

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Click to expand...

A triangulated 4 link would help soften the rear suspension :flipoff2:


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