Family Wagon 1996 ZJ BUILD Cantilever Rear Suspension

[Yjsaabman717]

Truly an inspiration and an incredible benchmark to the rest of us! ZJ dreams being built and chronicled for us all to drool over and learn from. I can't wait to see the finished product.

[Ted_Z]

Its hard to tell, but can you pull the carrier without hitting the ram bracket/guard?

[Kraqa]

Its hard to tell, but can you pull the carrier without hitting the ram bracket/guard?

ya you can pull it. it is VERY tight but you can get it in and out.

[Kraqa]

i got the front end in after paint.


the ram mount pulled when i welded it and wasn't able to tell until I put the knuckles on. now its painted and installed. it wont get changed. it sucks but i have bigger fish to fry at this point


here is it at full bump









4" of up travel. I will probably raise it up a bit

[killallblue]

damn looking good

[dubj]

That is seriously sexy, outstanding work.

[Kraqa]

i started on the exhaust.


304 stainless.














i used a bump stop can as a clamp to make sure i zip cut the tubing square.

[egg]

That's some beautiful exhaust.

[Kraqa]

the cooler is behind the grill on the driver side. tough to see in this pic.





i got 55watt 6000k HID all wired up and 2 6" rigid LED bars wired into the factory fog light wiring. This way it uses the factory dash switch. I will use a diode to make the fog lights still work with the high beams.





lows





highs





some under shots

[Kraqa]

we made some copper gaskets for the exhaust flange points

[Kraqa]

i decided to make a custom rubber boot to go from my throttle body to my intake tube.


started with a mandrel with a few large O-Rings



wrapped it in 1 layer of EPDM (1/16" thick)



used some rubber impregnated cloth to define the ribs and the collars



wrapped it in another layer of rubber and some nylon webbing



then some clear wrap,





waiting for the current cook in the autoclave to be done. should have results tomorrow.

[Ken L]

Awesome! Cool to see the fab on the intake boot.

[BigDaveZJ]

Kris's first . . . . . ?? Similar item to what you shipped to Chad that one time? Lol

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

Kris's first . . . . . ?? Similar item to what you shipped to Chad that one time? Lol

A whole box of 'em!

[Kraqa]

that was soooo funny for everybody other than Chad.

hahahahahahahahaha

[Kraqa]

MOAR


intake tube. 3" 304L Stainless.











the rubber boot i made didn't turn out. i went waaay to thin on the corrugations and it tore when i was demolding it off the mandrel. I decided to just buy a boot.


the rear dif is in. I just need to rebuild the ebrake system then it will be on its own weight.

[Kraqa]

FINALLY


its on its own weight. i need to play around with the springs. the rear is WAY to firm and the front is way to soft. these were just coils i had in the shop.





this is with 3`of up travel.





i am 5`11`it is 71`to the roof. with a 17`belly. it will be raised up 2`to have a decent amount of up travel.








the wheels dont stick out that much either.

[scott]

Nice, I bet it felt awesome to set it down on its own weight!

[Ken L]

Looks great! Besides the springs, how much do you have left to do before the first test drive?

[BigDaveZJ]

Looks great! Besides the springs, how much do you have left to do before bringing it to GSW?

Fixered.

[JohnBoulderCO]

Yes!

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

You should register now so when it's ready BAM! GSW time!



Because Jeep.

[Kraqa]

no GSW for me this year.

too much going on.

i wish though. its been a while since i have been to MOAB.

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

Thing looks amazing.

I'll make a deal with you, if you come to GSW next year, I'll bring the dub out and we can go find another cockrock.

[Kraqa]

i will take that deal!!!! see you next year.

i drove it around the block.


a few random pics outside the garage