Lady Liberty Project: KJ

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

So I have ventured into uncharted junk yards once again and rescued a kJ from Jeep hell
She’s got a new engine and a bunch of other done to the powertrain so for a few hundred bucks I wrapped myself in another money pit.

As I got her

Although some of the body panels are a bit rough the ifs suspension was wasted (of which would be torn out anyway).

c

And the build began



A wee cutting and stitching

Plated and boxed the front “frame ears”

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

Time for a big boy axle

And some sexy


And built a front crossmember using the current one and adding to it so I can mount lca in a double triangulation 4-link

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

And some uca brackets trying to keep them in a good path



Could almost set it on the axle and it all still clears


Nice flexibility with the links

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

I decided to build in the bumper and tie the cage in to reinforce the unibody



I’ll have to pull the grill to install or remove the winch but hopefully I’m not doing that to often...!


Rusty rockers get cut and raised with 1.5”x3” .250 wall box tube




Added a bit more to the cage

Tied the coilover towers to the fender rails

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

More cage stuff


Tying in the roof

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

Time for the rear axle
Pulled out the 8.25 and cleared all the old brackets



Rear sterling 10.5 got trussed and brackets

I used some channel to build an inner frame




And time to build a rear crossmember

Test fit

Added the upper brackets and welded her in

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

Rear links again double triangulation


Painted





Using my old 37s to get an idea for clearance

Then a belly skid is happening

Rails on the bottom as slide points between uca brackets

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

Now I have a new problem...

the rear coilover won’t fit between the frame rail and the tire... so to cut out a notch and box it or mount it another way?

[fluxcap]

John Boulder
Ted Z

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[JohnBoulderCO]

If you go inboard the tank looks to be in the way. Cut and make a new sub frame to mount to.

You have been busy! Looks nice!

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

So this is what’s happening... to late to change now lol



Inside for tying cage to shock mount

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

[QUOTE=Ted Z;356845]

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

This is ridiculous and unnecessary. Which is why I love it.

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

This is ridiculous and unnecessary. Which is why I love it.

Precisely... and yet some say that about grands...

[Ken L]

Very cool build! Although those axles doubled the weight of the KJ.....

Looks great!

[Yjsaabman717]

Solid KJ build. They have just overall underwhelmed me in encounters with them at work. But, like was said above, some said that about the ZJ and WJ.

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[Ted_Z]

Sorry I'm late to the party. All I can say is wow! Keep it up.

With regards to the rear coil over mounts... you need to come up with a way to plate/box the inside of the unibody frame rail to replace the material you removed. Something like the rear TJ coil over mounts that notches the frame.

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

I’m in process of moving shops right now but still sneaking in some time on this thing
I have this back piece so far and plan to box it in a bit inside the frame and above
While thinking I need an opening to remove the shock

And this on the outside in the fender well

And

[Kraqa]

Whoa. Rad. This is awesome.

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

Got a bit more done on the B-section but of course progress is slow mainly because I’m moving to a new shop and I’m helping to close out a business

[Stealth Crawler ZJ]

With regards to the rear coil over mounts... you need to come up with a way to plate/box the inside of the unibody frame rail to replace the material you removed. Something like the rear TJ coil over mounts that notches the frame

Any thoughts on my “box” idea? And tying the cut out area to the cross bar section of the cage?
I would like to close it off to the outside for family reasons like water, dirt, fumes and not dropping stuff trough there while driving