Chopped, Hot rodded, and Slammed Postal Jeep

[Blind Studios]

Moving on to the floors....


Since the body was already off, I figured couldn't hurt to look and see just how bad it was.

So, with some help I managed to stand it up in the carport and took a look....




Well, it was pretty bad, even more so with a chunk of the rear floor cut out.



I figured the best place to start was the weakest area at the moment, the rear floor.

I added a peice of 1"x3" .095 wall tube across at the back of the new opening, and a peice of 1.5"x1.5" .095 at the front of the opening.



It took a little rachet strapping and a few clamps to get it back to square.

Next, I went to renforcing the sides of the wheel wells and making a structure for the C notch cover to fasten to.

Out of some 1"x2" .095 tube I fabbed 2 peices with the shape of the cover and stich welded them to the insides of teh wheel wells. These peices also butted up against the other 2 cross tubes I had just added.




Next up repairing the rocker/door sills and rust repair.......


-Jeff

[Blind Studios]

I started with the rockers/door sills as they were the most obviously deformed sections.

Ended up fitting in some 1"x3" .095 tube. A pics to give an idea of how out of wack it was....




With every clamp that I owned on each side I managed to get the sills back into shape.




And then welded the new tubes into place.



You can also see in the pic above that I cut the factory floor bracing to butt up against the new tube. That worked fine on the drivers (left) side, but not so good on the right.

It seemed rust had removed a bit of the supporting brace....




That was ok, nothing that couldn't be rebuilt....



From there I had a section of floor right at the bottom of the toe board that had ripped from stress, so I made a template to cover the area...





Here's a little better overview of the main floor section, I also added some backing plates where the factory floor reenforment meets the new sill tubes.



In addition to the tubes I added, I went along the factory seems and stitch welded all of the areas that had obviously been deformed over the years.

All told I spent a solid 3 days beating and welding on the floor.


More later....



-Jeff

[Blind Studios]

So, after sticking the body back on I bent up a tunnel cover and dropped it in place for the time being....




I also mocked the drivers seat into place to check clearance and leg room....




a better view....




At the time there really wasn't any other interior sheet metal, the seat was just set above the openings on 2x4s.


I also started in on some of the other sheet metal, although it was slow, not to much motivation to figure out the patterns...

One of the peices in place though.....



I was more interested in the new stance out back.







The white walls were pretty tight to the ext. sheet metal though...




I had a pair of YJ flares sitting around from a previous project and they seem to fit the PJ good.




Unfortunately, the WW and wheels were a bit on the narrow side.





I mocked up a old tire to get an idea of what I'd like it to look like.....




More on wheels and tire coming soon....


-Jeff

[Blind Studios]

I did some surfing on the local CL and came across some 5x5.5" wheels off of an old Ford 15x 10, even better...... the price......



$25!!!!!!!!!!


I dragged my slightly surface rusted prize home, and slapped one in place on the back...




I didn't like it.....


I LOVED IT!!!!!!


Despite it's looks the old CJ/DJ wheel wells are huge by road car standards. The wheel well swallowed up a 10in wide rim like there was nothing there. Thoughts of 15x12s started swimming around in my head, until I started looking at tire diameters. Unfortunatley, the PJs limiting factor is driver leg room.

The radius of the tire is VERY close to the int. sheet metal/seats. It will clear, but it made the possibility of going to larger tires nill.....

As for tires I hit up the local used tire shop. I snagged a single and did my mock up with a 235/60/15, what I ended up with on the rear though was a 245/50/15 again off of CL.







It doesn't quite make it out to the edge of the flare, but that leaves the possiblity of going with a wider axle in the future.


I'll have a little tiny post about the fronts later, and then back to the fab...


-Jeff

[Blind Studios]

Ok, so I'm also running 15x10s up front (for now). Time will tell how well that will work with the manual steering.

Tried to get the front as low as possible had the tire shop mount a 205/60R15


Didn't work too well, too much stretch....





In the end, I went with a 225/60R15. I don't currently have a good pic of the fronts, and while they do have a bit of roundness to them, they are not bad.

I got the tires on about 2 months ago and that was the first time the PJ had been on it's own weight in about 6 months.


Ok, enough about tires, more building to come......


-Jeff

[KEGGER1454]

holy crap you work fast....inspiring!

[Blind Studios]

I wish it had all been done this fast.....


I've been work and taking pics for almost 4 years.

This is still working on catching up to where the PJ is today, which unfortunately I haven't touched for the last week....


Work's always getting in the way....LOL.....


4 or 5 more posts and I should be caught up to the PJs current state.

-Jeff

[Blind Studios]

Back to some fab...


I started on the inside sheet metal and figuring out roughly how I was going to mount seats and belts...

Started by dropping in couple peices of 1.5"x .095 square tube where the factory floor met the riser to the rear cargo area...




These peices were stitched to the factory sheet metal, and serve as the rear seat mounts and a mount location for the seat belt tabs.

From there I started with the biggest peices, the transition from the floor to cargo area...



You can also see the out tab for the seat belt mount.

Next were the panels to fill the inside of the wheel wells...



A few pics of it all mocked/clamped into place, including the inner seat belt tab.







Sorry, I didn't take any pics of just the sheet metal done, I was in too much of a hurry to get to the seats.

As for the inner seat belt mounts. They were drilled through 2 middle support tubes and then sleeved with tubing to keep them from crushing, and then received double shear tabs to the outside of that.

I'm definatley no pro at sheet metal. I used flanges where I could and even just welded in some thin angle in places to provide a strong joint.

I'll have to work on sheet metal, more on the next PJ hot rod.....

Up next, seat mounting.....


-Jeff

[Domino2205]

this is a very cool build, nice work

Dave

[Blind Studios]

Thanks for the compliment, Dave.


Next up was the seat mounting.

I knew that I didn't want to just punch some hole through the sheet metal and slap in some bolts.

So, I started off of the newly installed tube at the back of the floor....




Nothing too crazy here. Ended up making a plate with a lip that fit over the tube, which is now covered with sheet metal, and from there made a base that fit the seats that I choose.

The bases were then simply notched at an angle to meet the base plate and welded up.

The tube was sleeved (again to prevent crushing) and welded and smoothed to provide a solid mounting point for the rear bolts.


More on the seats.....

I went with Jaz Turbo Pro seats. They are a fairly cheap molded plastic seat, but they are a bit taller, have shoulder bolsters, and pass throughs for shoulder harnesses.



All for a measly $80, not too bad.

Ok, back to the mounts.

With the rear of the bases mounted securely to the cross tube, I knew I couldn't just slap some front legs on them and be done.

I was also trying to think forward to possible future cage work.

Who knew.... an almost 40 yr old Jeep body isn't that rigid.....

So here's what I came up with.....




The step in the body btw the floor/cargo area/front of the rear fenders was one of the main structural areas of the PJ originally.

So starting there I made base plates that butted up against that with a lip to hang over the top and bolted them into place. The bolts through these plates sandwiched the body and pass through another bracket which is welded to the cross tube. (That would be the one serving as the rear seat mount and stitch welded to the floor all the the way across)

All of this, I think ties my new door bars to the rest of the new tube that's been added to the rear of the body.

From those plates I ran 1.5" DOM (.120 wall) forward to the toe boards. Where they are fully welded to base plates, which sandwich the toe board and are backed by larger backing plates.



From there it was a fairly simple task of notching another piece of DOM, same wall, to cross from side to side btw the new door bars.

Which can be seen in the second pic.

The placement of the side to side tube, so determined with some pre-made tabs from the local sand rail shop. The tabs simple met up with the sides of the seat bases and with a few new holes firmly supported the front of the base.




And a couple more pics.....








And a completed shot of the seats....





They came out fairly close together, but working off of the steering wheel as center for the drivers seat, that's where they ended up....



A few more in a second.....



-Jeff

[Blind Studios]

Sorry last post was getting kinda long, so thought I'd break it up a bit.....


Continuing on....


At this point the PJ had just gotten back down on the ground, and now had 2 seats!!!!

Everyone had to give it a try....



Me in the drivers seat (that would the right side) and brother in law in the pass seat....




Brother in law in the drivers seat and me in the pass....



And brother in law and wife trying it out.....


And that's it for this post.....



-Jeff

[Blind Studios]

Anyone with questions or concerns, please let me know. I've been just figuring this out as I go.

Kinda mixing hot rodding with Jeeps with performance stuff which kinda throws some people.

Most of the time when I mention my Jeep project I get asked if it's going to be a "rock crawler".....

There is some serious talent on this forum and it helps to hear other points of view....


-Jeff

[$CEEP]

very cool. why didnt you just weld the tabs to the front of the seat bracket rather than bolting them?

[Blind Studios]

My thinking behind bolting the front of the seat bracket was to make replacement of seats/brackets easier in the future.

I would love to come across a set of good suspension seats (beards/corbeaus/PRPs).

I've had a set of PRPs in a previous Jeep and they were really nice, but also like 3 times what the Jaz seats cost, for the pair.

-Jeff

[$CEEP]

Originally Posted by Blind Studios

My thinking behind bolting the front of the seat bracket was to make replacement of seats/brackets easier in the future.

I would love to come across a set of good suspension seats (beards/corbeaus/PRPs).

I've had a set of PRPs in a previous Jeep and they were really nice, but also like 3 times what the Jaz seats cost, for the pair.

-Jeff

watch your local craigslist. i picked up a set for under $200

[dedmetal]

Originally Posted by $CEEP

this build, along with the pics of Cappa's, have inspired me.

Both of you and Cappa are killing me as I have always wanted to do a rat rod also.
So with a renewed vision I aquired this cj 2A and a dj front end and will be finally making this happen.(after my crawler is done)
Blind Studios this a great build you have going keep me inspired and $ceep cant wait to see what you come up withto you both

[KEGGER1454]

here is my inspiration...DARN you Cappa!!!!!!!!! wow...why do we all want to lower jeeps???? doesn't this seem like like something we should punish ourselves for even thinking about?

[Blind Studios]

NICE!!!

The seventh pic down is all PJ. The grill and the front of the tub are def. from a postal Jeep.

But that OD green one is WILD. 1/4 elliptical front springs, 3rd seat for the gunner, the lake pipes, and the shell on the other side crazy......

Any more info on it???

I need to get back to work on mine. Thanks for the inspiration.


-Jeff

[KEGGER1454]

figured you'd like it not really any info on it just internet browsing but they all make me drool... can't wait to start a project like this

btw...anyone know how that front end would handle??? never seen a quarter eliptical front ??

Originally Posted by Blind Studios

NICE!!!

The seventh pic down is all PJ. The grill and the front of the tub are def. from a postal Jeep.

But that OD green one is WILD. 1/4 elliptical front springs, 3rd seat for the gunner, the lake pipes, and the shell on the other side crazy......

Any more info on it???

I need to get back to work on mine. Thanks for the inspiration.


-Jeff

[dedmetal]

Kegger that is awesome really love that drop closed knuckle front diff