Project Red Roof Inn

[fsjtrash]

That's it. I'm cutting the back off. Have you ever thought of doing something like all the older bronco's and blazers have? With the snap-on kevlar or whatever cover? Excuse me if you don't understand what the fuck I mean... They're kinda like a box cover....for an SUV?

[BigDaveZJ]

Honestly, hacking off the back (for now) is one of the dumbest things I've done to my ZJ. Lost a bunch of cargo capacity, lost any hope of security in my Jeep, and it sucks balls when it's cold out. Now once I bob or dove the backend and put a cage on it, yes it will be worth it, but until I get to that point it's pretty much a dumb idea.

[fsjtrash]

I suppose. It just looks so sweet? And I mean security isn't a big thing, its always in the garage or I'm in it. I see your point on the cargo though.. Why do you make me rethink things my friend?

[BigDaveZJ]

Got 4.56 Yukon's on the way from Crazy Ed's Performance. Gotta get me an HP30 too. They're gonna reside under my Jeep for a while, then when I can get real axles we'll put them under Pam's. The 3.73's with 35's are just not cutting it.

Looks like I got some work to do with the pictures at the beginning of the thread, fawkin Imagestation going away.

[BigDaveZJ]

Got the HP30 torn down today, ready for it's new gears. Changed the oil too. It was an exciting day.

[SuicideTireZJ]

Changed the oil too. It was an exciting day.

I'm surprised you didn't do another full write-up on it

[BigDaveZJ]

Old LP30 is out, HP30 is sitting on the bench ready for its gears. The spiders on my LP30 were getting kinda chewed up too, probably was pretty good timing to get this yanked out of there. Also yanking the PSC box and going with a Waggy box. Crunch time before GSW!

[SirFuego]

I think I missed it earlier, but what's the HP30 going to be geared at? Beefed up axle shafts, too?

EDIT: Yeah, umm, I just saw the 4.56s a few posts prior. Disregard the first question then.

[BigDaveZJ]

4.56 gears, stock shafts. I figure I can change a busted shaft quick enough where uber bling alloys just don't make sense. And I usually have two sets of spare shafts with me anyways.

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

Why downgrade the steering box?

[DansZJ]

Old LP30 is out, HP30 is sitting on the bench ready for its gears. The spiders on my LP30 were getting kinda chewed up too, probably was pretty good timing to get this yanked out of there. Also yanking the PSC box and going with a Waggy box. Crunch time before GSW!

Damn Dave, you're going to think I'm stocking you. Not only am I installing a waggy box too, but I also picked up an HP30 last Thursday dirt cheap. Both axles (HP30 and 8.8) are at the gear shop getting 4.56's installed. I hope to have them both back this week so I can install them this weekend. Then hit the trail and do a nice gentle break-in. Yeah right! Absolutely crunch time!!!

[BigDaveZJ]

Why downgrade the steering box?

Cuz the PSC box has already worn out in 2 years of moderate use. The sector shaft has developed significant play, and adjusting the box doesn't tighten it up at all. PSC has even admitted they don't have the equipment to properly test that kind of stuff in their boxes. For twice the cost of a stock reman Waggy box I expected a lot more out of it.

[BigDaveZJ]

PSC box is out, just waiting on NAPA to get me my Waggy box. Was going to tear apart the 8.8 today too to get it ready for the new gears, but the garage door's gotta be open for that and it's WAAAAY too fawkin windy out there today for that. Should have the box in by tonight, rip the 8.8 open some night this week, and then get the gears in Sunday. There's a chance the Jeep could be mobile by Monday, but I think that's pushing it. My goal is to have it rolling again by 5/5 so I can cruise with the homies for Cinco de Mayo. And I don't have any pictures cuz none of this shit is really all that groundbreaking.

[BigDaveZJ]

Waggy box is in and the dead spot seems to be gone, won't know 100% until the road test. Started to rip apart the 8.8, definitely a good thing I did that. I must've submerged the diff at some point and the seal didn't hold up. Gear oil was an awesome goopy green color. Nice and thick too, took forever for that shit to get out of there. The mini-spool looks like it's seen better days too, not sure what I'm gonna do with that yet.

[BigDaveZJ]

Gear swap went good, Jeep does MUCH better now with the 4.56's, and the Waggy box is doing a lot better too.

Thinking about going down a slightly different road now with the ZJ. I'm going to try and make it a bit more versatile, and something that can actually see some street time. Still going to tow it to most trails, but I want to get into more of the expedition style wheeling, and some of my past decisions have made that a very hard thing to do in my ZJ. The trailer I'm going to build to pull behind the ZJ will solve the storage space problems, but not the streetability problem. Will probably remove the rear spool in favor of an Aussie, put some light swaybars on, and come up with a "skin" for the front doors. Not super concerned with enclosing the rear right now since that'll really have to wait until a cage is done. Also need to address some areas I've neglected, like my windshield wipers that levitate off the glass at anything over 40mph making them pretty much useless, and some other little things. Hopefully going to get some new shoes over the winter too.

[ajmorell]

Gear swap went good, Jeep does MUCH better now with the 4.56's, and the Waggy box is doing a lot better too.

Thinking about going down a slightly different road now with the ZJ. I'm going to try and make it a bit more versatile, and something that can actually see some street time. Still going to tow it to most trails, but I want to get into more of the expedition style wheeling, and some of my past decisions have made that a very hard thing to do in my ZJ. The trailer I'm going to build to pull behind the ZJ will solve the storage space problems, but not the streetability problem. Will probably remove the rear spool in favor of an Aussie, put some light swaybars on, and come up with a "skin" for the front doors. Not super concerned with enclosing the rear right now since that'll really have to wait until a cage is done. Also need to address some areas I've neglected, like my windshield wipers that levitate off the glass at anything over 40mph making them pretty much useless, and some other little things. Hopefully going to get some new shoes over the winter too.

Dave let me know what you end up doing about the windshield wipers. Mine don't completely levitate but they are pretty much useless over 55mph.

[BigDaveZJ]

Got the wipers fixed, just in time too with all the rain we had in Moab. Got some cheepies from Vato Zone since they won't see all that much use on my rig. Held up fine being on quite a bit over the weekend.

The Jeep's done for the year now too. Got a few things planned for the winter, but nothing major.

- New Tires. My $100 35's are pretty much done. I can't air down as much as I'd like because of the dry rot in the shoulders of the tires, they mostly hold at higher pressures, but at < 15 psi they lose a lot of air. Leaning towards BFG KM2 now that they make them for a 15" wheel in 35's. Always open to other ideas too, but the KM2's are definitely my top choice right now. Also will probably need to trim some more as brand new 35's are gonna be a bit bigger than worn out 35's.

- 8.8 repairs. My 8.8 is in need of some attention. Probably going to ditch the spool for an Aussie as mentioned in a previous post. Both wheel seals need to be replaced in a major way, and I'm probabloy going to swap out the Crane diff cover I've had for 4+ years for a Ruff Stuff Specialties unit. The Crane has served me well, but with the 8.8 I really like the option for the drain and fill plug in the cover that RSS offers.

- This is lowest on the priority list, but I'd really like to start the cage and do some work on the unibody. The floorboards are tearing apart underneath in a couple spots, and there's some other issues too that I need to address. For the time being I'll probably just do a hoop at the c-pillar with some runners to the back. Tie it in to the unibody in a few spots, add some gussets/triangulation, and call it good. It'll also require that I re-work my spare tire mount and CO2, but I've been wanting to do that anyways. I also kinda want to put the "tailgate" back on, so we'll see how that goes.

[downtowncb]

Do you have some closer pictures of your tube doors?

[Derek33]

I remember you saying you wanted to start directing your zj to be a DD. Are you still going in this direction?

I too am looking into the ruffstuff 8.8 cover, but Ill wait 'till i have a locker to put in at the same time.

[piku303]

Honestly, hacking off the back (for now) is one of the dumbest things I've done to my ZJ. Lost a bunch of cargo capacity, lost any hope of security in my Jeep, and it sucks balls when it's cold out. Now once I bob or dove the backend and put a cage on it, yes it will be worth it, but until I get to that point it's pretty much a dumb idea.

you should go to a junk yard and chop the rear of a zj like you did to yours and bring it home, paint it black or something and build some latches to where you can snap it on and off, kinda like the chevy blazer trucks that you can pull the back off of. just an idea..

[nierace]

What evers you do dont gets KM2's !

Mine are skinny little bastads.

[Jeeperoni91]

mine are correct width, 35x12.5 on 15x10s.

love mine, shits is mad nice yo

[BigDaveZJ]

I think I got the ass end figured out finally. I've got a couple different ideas on how to exactly do it, one being WAAAAY over the top but super kickass, the other much more realistic. Basically tube will run along the roof line, c-pillar, and then on top of the quarter panels and across the back so I can put the tailgate back on. It will be done in two sections, one piece being the "hoop" so to speak along the roof and c-pillar and then horizontal section that runs around the back. They will join at the bottom front corner of where the rear windows would be. A piece of tube will run straight across connecting the two joints to each other. Then the horizontal section will be skinned with some sheet metal, and some tube run across to reinforce the spots where the spare tire and hi lift jack will be mounted. I'll hinge the tailgate somehow so it either folds down like a normal tailgate or swings up like a ZJ liftgage to access the cargo storage area.

Now there's a much smaller section to actually enclose, and this is where the two different methods come in. The super bling idea was to graft a 4-Runner liftgate into the opening with the power window, but I really doubt I could make that look good, and with the window going down, it would intrude on the cargo area, but it'd be kickass at least. So there'd be a vinyl window with canvas trim (think TJ soft windows) that would attach to the horizontal tube piece, and then zipper onto the hoop across the top. When not in use, it would just be rolled up against the crossbeam, and would be super fast to zip up if needed.

It still will not be a cage, but will still allow me to do a real cage in the future without any major mods to what I'm gonna do. It won't be hard at all to add some legs to the unibody rails from the c-hoop and crossbeam and tie in a minimal exo cage.

[BigDaveZJ]

Here's a quick n' dirty MSPaint of the basic tube work.

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

Reminds me of Trey's rig. See if you bug him for some detailed photos.

Let me know when you start on it and I'll swing by and lend a hand (or possibly just beer )