FJ4overland

[SuperBuickGuy]

Time to make more holes


hole made


welded




time to figure out how much of a divot I need in the cross member...


not much, actually



then I spent some quality time stabbing myself with stainless straps... err... wrapping headers

​

 

[MTUH3]

Good choice on the Kings

 

[ABNTROOP]

Hot dang! That's coming along nicely!!:thumbs:

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

time to put it together











and start on the rear


and there's the thought process... center a receiver, to the right one of two tow clevises, then the tail light then reverse lights


I'm going to put hidden structure around the tail gate so that I can hang a 42" tire, a cooler, and a couple 5 gallon gas cans... I should probably put a reverse camera rather then a rear view mirror because seeing around the tire will be problematic. Anyway, more on that another day.

and weld a bit then let it cool

 

[JPaul]

Are the clearances on that one cat as tight as they look? Just seems like it'll end up making quit the racket...

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

optical illusion, the hole is big enough for the cat to slip through it - and it's back about an inch on the passenger side and a bit more on the driver's side.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

finished welding the fenders






and with only maybe one wave.... I can fix that pretty easily

metaltech points to an article on Pirate (which does a nice job of laying out how these go together) but, given Pirate's penchant for pretty welds - it's a bit ironic that those fenders had so many waves that it was either in a parade or would make a sailor seasick... lol

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Grinding.. I hate grinding.

and it shows





and it's a bit straighter

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

one more bite at the elephant
the rear gate is a rattle trap, and the fix is to make it one gate that folds down rather then both folding out








lots of other stuff going on, so this has slowed a little bit.... but an hour at a time and it'll be done soon enough

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

fender liners


I don't feel too bad hacking these up because they're really in sorry shape








then time to work on the tailgate

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

so I'm back... I spent the weekend out hiding from kids, dogs and cops (successfully, I might add); and was eventually discovered, dead. The H3 is cleaned back up and I got a bit to get another bite of the elephant done.


yeah, I'm welding and finishing something that doesn't matter and isn't seen... but I know it's there and that's enough

some trimming done


I think I'm going to put a rubber edging there to keep down the dust, mud and (most importantly) squeeks.


verse 2


​

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

a bit of rust repair tonight








I also spent some quality time removing the failed seam sealant...

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

more bodywork
time to weld up holes... granted, most of these are covered by the corner plates; but I don't want water to get behind it so.... away I go


hole needs filling


this bolt has served this purpose before




and cover the shocks




and that's it for tonight


​

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

back to this one







all for access to a bolt


ground pretty


the problem with tacking with a mig, no penetration


anyway, that is now fixed and onto the next bit


nice how they put that slot on this safe... pop the electric panel off, slide your screwdriver back... and voila, broken into safe...


anyway with the electronics gone, it's simply a keyed safe that isn't waterproof but a good seat base and place to store my emergency gear (gloves, blanket, fire extinguisher, etc)

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

as many know, I'm doing an on-board air compressor system. I've had every other system there is and I really like the York system because, where the ARB/Viair systems are in the 2-4 cfm output range, a York system starts at 9 cfm and can get as large as 12 cfm.... for those counting, that's about the same as your 5' tank system in your shop... yeah, you could go to the wilderness and paint your vehicle (oh how I'm sure that would go over well).

so... these two links are about the best instructions on both finding and modifying the York system... so why reinvent the wheel when these guys did such a good job?

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/york_compressor.shtml

to modify

http://www.rockcrawler.com/techreports/york_mod/index.asp

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

back to the back
originally, I thought I'd move the lights to the ends - but the more I thought about it the more that seemed kind of silly. Not only would they be more exposed from collisions but they'd build up dirt and mud behind them....
so this is what I decided


I'll still have my jacking points and protection on the corners - but without fear of crushing the lights


like so


and yes, that's 5 potential tow-points on the rear.... though really it's two anchor points and 3 tow points with 2 places to attach tow chains though I seriously doubt this is ever going to tow a trailer with it, I am planning on building an overland trailer that's either a RTT or super-sized tear drop....

​

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

mount the lights




bedline the bottom of the fenders


good lord, there are some who think I can't weld... I wish any one of them had been here to try to get these pads off


new pads


​

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

time to coat fenders... which I got to do twice because the "new" duplicolor bedliner is crap...


notice the nice "wet" look? it was wet, 4 hours later


anyway, wiped off and recoated with the old duplicolor - which works pretty well.... good thing they improved it

back to the rear sway bar (read, only sway bar)



didn't like the lower bolt hanging down so did a bit of mod


now it'll just knock the bolt head off rather then hanging it up on the spacer

 

[Cyouincourt007]

Coming along nicely sir :woot:

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

some ink
http://bangshift.com/bangshiftxl/ba...x4-build-in-the-history-of-bs/#comment-125940

 

[scoreh3]

Very nice write up over on Bangshift ...

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

so the original plan was to reinstall the rear differential permanently tonight... yeah, right


first issue was I painted most of it, so I got to paint the rest of it tonight - and since my day job kind of requires not having paint adhered to me, that meant I had to do other stuff
so painted hubs and installed new seals


the way I move 700# axles by myself


the the issue... I never finished mocking up the shocks and found I have one major issue and one minor one - the driver's side shock hits on the frame... so first, make sure the axle is centered


it wasn't, but centering it helped the issue but didn't fix it.
and put the driveshaft back in (mostly to get it off my bench) and I found a minor problem... the nut I was wondering why it was on the floor... is one for the U-straps... dagnabit


So I fixed the hitting issue by offsetting the shocks with new spacers, but it brings up another issue that I'm still not sure how I'm going to mitigate.... I should have bought remote reservoirs for the rear and non-remote for the front - instead of the opposite. The reservoir can twist and hit the frame.... so I dunno how I'm going to solve that issue... oh well, if it were easy, then the Jeep guys would do it.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Well there it is, a fairly complete rear suspension... Just need to do some heat-work on the sway bar to make it work (and add a cross bar)



and forward, cross member/transfer case clearance needed... sad part is I have to mostly remove the transfer case to get a good weld on this - oh well



so I cheated, I cut the cross member out then welded in the drop.... what I don't like and probably won't fix is that I'm sure it'll be a snow-scoop




and painted the inner fenders....

 

[High Five H2]

hey, it's starting to look like a something you could drive instead of a bunch of parts!

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

so I have to put it back together to get a measurement for the springs - these are 3" too tall.... interestingly, I now know the front weight (it's pretty good)




nittro stickers




so all in the stacks have to be installed






maths
200# spring 12/8 (12 being unloaded length)
300# spring 14/11.75
4*200 = 800
2.25*300 = 675
total 1475 per wheel front so a cheeseburger under 5000 lbs...

​