buggy frame buildup

[Cue-Ball]

Yea I know what you mean. I've been building the Buick for 4 1/2 years now. At least its almost done. But if I had the time and money I prolly could have finished it in like 3 months at the same level of quality.

Kinda makes me wish I was born rich instead of good lookin.

I hear ya there, lack of time and money makes for a VERY VERY slow build project.

[Jeeptech01]

lol I forgot I posted that. Yea and a new and cheaper project is waiting in the wings.

[paulkeith]

just got a UPS ship notification for my ballistic order. 2 days from order placement to shipped. not as good as McMaster's 25 minutes, but nothing to get stirred up over by any means.

My head is going a mile a minute over this upcoming week. Very excited.

[Jeeptech01]

Better take pics!

[ATL ZJ]

My head is going a mile a minute over this upcoming week. Very excited.

at least you have some recent practice at building under deadlines

[paulkeith]

Better take pics!

i'll see if i can remember my memory card this time.

[Jeeptech01]

Cool. Have you made a to do list?

[paulkeith]

I have.

-adjust some tubework to facilitate skinning of wheelwells/firewall
-finish base where b pillar X will land
-tack in all new already prepared tubing
-mount seats
-clock 205
-rebuild crossmember
-build floor frame + floor skins
-frame/prepare for skid
-close rocker tubes to frame
-skin 'boat sides'
-mount pedals + orbital
-firewall
-tranny tunnel
-dash
-floor out rear chassis under fuel cell and storage area

as far as i make it on the list will be good enough for me. gotta remember to have fun.

I'm planning on bringing the axles with me back to ATL to strip/teardown/rebuild/reassemble/prime/paint, etc.

Should get another 7 days or so around Jul 4 to knock out some more work.

[ATL ZJ]

Wow, that's pretty ambitious for a single week.

Here is some free advice you did not ask for and might not want. Bring everything you possibly can back to ATL to work on, once it's laid out, sized, or ready for detail work. Doing that in the past has really has helped me separate myself from the urgency of the stale build environment and take my time on stuff. And for your situation it means you could get more work done in your "off time" and be in a better frame of mind at the beginning of your next fab trip, feeling like you've already accomplished something.

you might have told me, but are the axles already geared and locked? Hope you have a nice 1950s craft shed outbuilding to work on your axles in, I hear that's ideal.

[paulkeith]

It is ambitious, but there are a few items on the list that might sound deceptively time consuming. The first 3 items I can probably knock out before lunch on day 1. The 2 tubes that need to be moved aren't even tacked in, so it'll take some flap work, the X pillar base is all cut and bent, just needs to be welded in (actually already has 1 weld on it, which is right when the welder broke on the trip back in feb), and tacking the rest of the tubing is just a matter of holding it up and tacking it in. i'm planning that a lion's share of the time will be spend in framing and skinning the floor, pedals, and firewall, 3-4 days. If I come away with the tubes in that pile higher up in the thread tacked in, the seats mounted, a floor, and the pedals hung, I will be happy.

I've tossed the idea of also maybe maybe bringing the whole motor/tranny/tcase to do once overs, check them out, rebuild/replace as necessary, strip and paint. TBD on if i feel like kicking the zj out of the garage until july.

The axles are 4.10s, open front, govlock rear. 4.10s really won't be adequate with 6.55:1/1.96:1, so I think I might just leave them alone until I can afford to regear them to 5.38 and toss in some real traction aids. Won't be hitting the dirt til at least early/mid '11 so maybe by then I'll have some mo dolla dolla billlzzz....?

[Jeeptech01]

Sweet. Hit it hard early and then relax toward the end of the week. One thing I have been doing recently with success is if something is pissing me off or just not going the way I want I just start on something else and go back to it. Sounds simple I know but it really hard to do well... if you are ocd like me.

[ATL ZJ]

Sweet. Hit it hard early and then relax toward the end of the week. One thing I have been doing recently with success is if something is pissing me off or just not going the way I want I just start on something else and go back to it. Sounds simple I know but it really hard to do well... if you are ocd like me.

that is great advice... Even knocking out some small meaningless tasks will restore your calmness enough to go back to it level-headed. If I hadn't learned this strategy a while ago, I would have kept messing with my nonfunctional clutch instead of moving on, and would not have made GSSE-W. but I knew I needed to give it a rest and finish something else first.

[paulkeith]

-adjust some tubework to facilitate skinning of wheelwells/firewall - DONE
-finish base where b pillar X will land - DONE
-tack in all new already prepared tubing - DONE
-mount seats
-clock 205 - DONE
-rebuild crossmember - DONE
-build floor frame + floor skins
-frame/prepare for skid
-close rocker tubes to frame
-skin 'boat sides'
-mount pedals + orbital
-firewall
-tranny tunnel
-dash
-floor out rear chassis under fuel cell and storage area

So, in true me fashion, got very little done, but I'm pretty happy with the work I did this week so I guess its not all lost. As usual, burned a lot of time grinding off old mistakes, etc.

Had to fix my welder cart, it folded:



All my purchases laid out:



Sure doesn't look like $550:





Clocking the 205:

Ring:



Work area:





Trim template:





Cut and test fit:



Buttoned up, gotta come apart again to RTV and upgrade the studs/nuts:



Nosed the heap into the door to pull the old mill:





New(old) meets old (older):



New braced and gusseted motor mount/crossmember thing:



Goin in:




New engine mount in action, you can see the gussets I put in on the frame side of the mounts as well:



Now, on to the crossmember. This thing took literally 3 days to build and pretty much soaked up the whole week. Maybe I work slow, but easily the most complex thing I’ve ever built. Whatever. On to the pics:

Start with two 0.250” plates, 11”x4”:


Drilled, mocked in place with 1.750” tube sleeves


Skip a bit, bolted up and one leg done:

[paulkeith]

My nighttime working conditions:



Bit of detail on the next leg…pipemaster used to mock fitup:



Plasma:



+Flap:



Bushing assembly:



In:



Next two legs mocked up and tacked in. 110* bends. Tighter radius would have worked wonders, but I’ll make due:



I dub thee ‘Crossmemberus Maximus’:



Welded, in patterns to avoid warping. Warped anyway, huge bitch to re-install….:



Painted:



In for good:







Waste for the week, not bad:



At this point I stopped taking pics, and tacked a lot of the already prepared tubing in place. Cleaned up most of Friday night and snapped these this morning before the tarp went on. Not really much in the way of notable visible progress, but like I said, I’m pretty happy with the quality of work I did this week.

I also bent new tubes for the front, slightly shallower angle. I like it better.








The 60 and 14 are in the bed of my truck in the parking lot. I'm fawking spent from working on it this week and haven't unloaded them yet, but should trickle some progress from polishing those up over the next few weeks.

Cheers.

Paul

[Jeeptech01]

Good work. I see what you mean about the tighter radius. But hell its a buggy. Oh yea, if I had a dollar for everything that was "in for good" that wasnt I'd be a rich sombitch. Instead Im just a sombitch LOL.

[ATL ZJ]

Looks good man... that new camera works a lot better with a memory card. That's some decent progress. That crossmember is nuts... you sure the 205 shifters are going to clear it?

Having the axles in ATL to work on should ease any concern of not getting as much done as you might have wanted. But if you still need further motivation, I think I have a seat open again in a couple weeks

[paulkeith]

Stupid memory card. Camera did work OK, but still disappointed in its low-light performance. The old p&s wasn't any better, so maybe I'm just spoiled by my dslr. Daytime it works great though.

I'm going to have to get creative with the shifters. I'm going to twin stick it and run cable shifters which will help a little, but I figured I could work something out. I'm also going to tie the 205 side mount into the crossmember somehow as well. As it sits its just two bolts 7" apart, which isn't much fighting what will be a pretty decent amount of torque after the reduction(s).

Yeah, the axles are still in the truck. Not looking forward to digging them out. Gotta straighten up the garage to make some room too. Meh.

[ATL ZJ]

cool. you are welcome to borrow my cherry picker if it would make moving the axles easier.

[Jeeptech01]

Why'd you ditch the tune port motor?

[paulkeith]

its a 305, and on megasquirt. I suppose I could swap the intake over to the 350 and get a correct ecu, but I have everything to make the TBI turnkey so I went with it.

[slim616]

i give it to you, "slow in steady won the race" most people would of ditched it and went to something else (me included)

glad to see your pushing through and looking forward to seeing your finished rig.

[Jeeptech01]

its a 305, and on megasquirt. I suppose I could swap the intake over to the 350 and get a correct ecu, but I have everything to make the TBI turnkey so I went with it.

Makes sense.

[paulkeith]

unloaded the axles tonight. took me like an hour, surprisingly easy going at it solo.

as it came:



60:



14:



stacked up, ready to take a grinder beating:



some of those handy caster-bottom jackstand things they built on trucks! would sure come in handy right about now. maybe I should buy a basic 110 fluxcore so i can stick pieces of metal together for stuff like that.

clearance with the 5.9 just inside the door:



and, man...look at all these scratches on my shiny street queen ARB.......almost like someone leaned something against my bullbar at windrock or something..........

[ATL ZJ]

and, man...look at all these scratches on my shiny street queen ARB.......almost like someone leaned something against my bullbar at windrock or something..........

now what kind of asshole would abuse your mall bling with his hilift? while you were feeding him beer no less?

tell you what, to make it right i'll arrange for you to use his welder to pimp your jackstands

[paulkeith]

ahh its all good. had to happen sometime. at least it was a hi-lift, and not a parking barrier at the mall

might take you up on that welder offer. i *can* move it as it is, but it is not what i'd call easy. would be nice to have to have it on wheels to position it with room to work when the jeep is out.