Chopped, Hot rodded, and Slammed Postal Jeep

[Blind Studios]

Quick little update on the little stuff....


So, the bracket I made to hang the e fan previously did not agree with the front notches.

I fact it just kinda of ran into it.

Before.....



Just some 1" square, straight down, drilled and welded.

....and in the way.


After.....



Pretty simply brackets, just angle over to miss the notches.

But they're faster then the previous ones. (note the "speed" holes)


Over all pic....



The other minor job I got done was a sleeve for the grill shell mounts.

A little old/new pic....



And a pic of where they go....



I was trying to just order these, until I looked a little closer and realized all the stuff to build them was within a 2 foot radius.

Finally an over all, with the grill in place.




So, I've got a question for everyone.

Is there too much of this detail crap in the thread??? Should I limit updates to more major stuff???

All of this little stuff is progress, just not sure if it's post worthy.


More later,

Jeff

[entropy]

Jeff.

This is a great thread. Any Jjeep as a Rod is just so wrong!
On the other hand I am completely digging this, I'll never do it but this build is just flat cool!
Keep going!

E

[J10-jackson]

I enjoy reading it all, I say post everything

Keep up the good work.

What's your plan for the steering, looks like it'll be tough with the notch

[Blind Studios]

Thanks for the encouragement.

I'll continue on then, post all of it.

E, to be honest, I don't think that this is a project I would have went out and bought to build. But who can say no to a free Jeep??

J10, I'm not a 100% sure on the steering, but because of the "universal" left or right side steering the steering arms have 2 set of holes in both of them.

Currently my thinking is to chop off the front hole of the arms. Then drill the taper out of the arms, so that they will accept a heim joints. On the PS (left) the heims will be stacked, input on top of the arm, with the drag link on the bottom.

I'm also planning on replacing the steel with aluminum links.

These,

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/6061-A...read,2131.html

In the measuring I've done so far, it looks like, even with the stretch, the tie rod will come parallel with the drag link.

I'm not sure quite how this will affect the steering, but my back up plan is to switch to a shorter pittman arm as the stock one is fairly lone, almost 8" if I remember correctly.

More later,

Jeff

[Blind Studios]

Found 1 more pic of the grill and radiator in place.

Shows the room in the "engine bay" a little better.



-Jeff

[lowdown]

There's no such thing as posting too much detail..you know the old saying - "the devil's in the details." I think everyone on this board is here because we appreciate how much work it takes, details included, to turn out a quality product. The frame notches and the radiator mount turned out very nice. Keep up the good work.

[CAPTAIN CNC]

Flippin awesome build man. I've been watching (and learning) and i gotta tell ya... MY BACK HURTS JUST WATCHING YOU WORK! Ugh... Do you ever sleep or watch TV, eat, drink, have sex... anything other than bust ass workin? When i get going on something i usually work at a blistering pace but not more than a weekend tops. My back gives out after a full day and night of workin at break neck speed and its up to the darvasets to get me through any more work the next day. I don't know how you keep motivated. My body just gets run down eventually. And i'm still young. My hat is off to ya man. For your craftmanship AND your stamina. Nice work all around dude. Keep on keepin on.

Ow and why is that bicycle chain blue with a big red trailer wheel block in the front spokes. He he.

[Blind Studios]

Thanks for the encouragement!!


Truth is I work 4 10s so with every Friday off and some rainy weather here recently. I can either sit in the house all day watch the tube, or hang out in the shop and build stuff.

Plus, I've been putting off the mowing and what not, to get more time to build.

Besides, I have the brother in laws over any time there's heavy lifting, LOL

I get burnt out on it every so often, but I've had it for like 6 years now, so I'm really just looking for the motivation to push and get it driving.

Again thanks for the compliments. It really means alot to hear that stuff.

Compared to ALOT of the other guys on OFN, I'm just learning.


....but I'll keep at it.

And don't worry Capt. the wife puts her foot down when it's time to do.... whatever......



More building to come, I'm still working on the U-bolt plates and main eye frame leaf mounts.

-Jeff

[Blind Studios]

So, it was a long weekend.


Unfortunatley ended up mostly doing house stuff and eating, but I did squeeze in a bit of work.

First up, was the new U-bolt plates.



Not too exciting. I laid out the new pattern and started drilling.

I ended up using 3/8" plate. Most def. overkill.

I'm thinking I may do something to lighten them up a bit, or possible remake them later out of something a little lighter.

I'd been eyeballing the Blue Torch Fab gussets for a while. I wanted to add a little something out of the ordinary to look at......

So I decided I liked the brass knuckle gussets BTF had. I found a pattern online and went to work.

Mine's not a direct copy of the BTF ones, but the same idea.

Started with a paper template.



Did all of the easy stuff first.



And then broke out the files and jig saw and made 'em all "fancy, and what not"



These gussets will go into the tubing that makes up the seat mounts.

I also thought about adding a set to use as "oh S" handles, but not sure about that yet. I don't want to build some theme car.

Just add a little awsome.....


Last thing I got done this weekend was laying out and fabbing the main leaf to frame mounts.

Drew it all out on some .125 wall 3.5" square tube.



Went to work and got them cut out.



I've got some tabs to make still to slot up on either side of the frame rails, then it will be time for some measuring and upside down welding agian.

Fortunatley, I wrapped up a major project around the house this weekend, a paver patio.

So, the fab time should increase again.

More later,

Jeff

[KEGGER1454]

wow those look better than store bought...great work!!!!

[Blind Studios]

Thanks Kegger,

Yah, I was pretty happy with how the mounts turned out.

It amazes me how much different tools can help out so much.

I bought a 4" bench top belt sander a while ago, and it makes things like this look SO much better.

More to come soon.

-Jeff

[KEGGER1454]

what kind of sander is it? i'm looking for something to smooth out my edges a little better! thanks

Originally Posted by Blind Studios

Thanks Kegger,

Yah, I was pretty happy with how the mounts turned out.

It amazes me how much different tools can help out so much.

I bought a 4" bench top belt sander a while ago, and it makes things like this look SO much better.

More to come soon.

-Jeff

[Blind Studios]

Kegger,

It's just a 4" HF belt sander.

I don't have much in the way of electric in my shop, so the small size is about all I could run. Plus it was on sale, with one of those 20% off coupons.

Think it was like, $50

Made a little more progress on the main leaf mounts.

I needed a way to get a 3 1/4" wide mount to fit on a 2" wide frame.

So I busted out a little ghetto machining.



In addition to getting the mount to fit the frame, I also needed to take 1/4" total out of the inside dimension of the mounts.

So what I did was set up a fence, and run the grinder up against it to create a slot on each side of the mounts.



This allows another peice to pass through, reenforcing the mount and giving it ears to go up on either side of the frame rails.

This is a rough idea of what's gonna happen.



Up next is fabbing the tabs that pass through the mounts and onto the sides of the frame rail.

More to come soon.....


-Jeff

[Blind Studios]

Found one more of the inside of the main leaf mount.



Sorry for the little bit of blurry.

But this gives a better idea of the inside.

More tomorrow....


-Jeff

[CAPTAIN CNC]

Brilliant trick! Never thought about that to get a slot in such a place. Cool beans.

[Blind Studios]

Originally Posted by CAPTAIN CNC

Brilliant trick! Never thought about that to get a slot in such a place. Cool beans.

Thanks Capt,

I really don't have alot of tools at my disposal so I've been just making it up as I go.

I work as a machinist, and I've seen a similar type slot on a piece before, but it was done with a mill.

And the shop that I'm at now doesn't allow personal use of the machines, so I find my self trying to figure out how to do without.

Thanks for the encouragement.


Didn't get anything done on the PJ this weekend, was too busy working on house stuff.

On the upside I finish finished the back patio and the wifey's got a full 3 day conference next weekend, so........


-Jeff

[ANTI BLING]

just a lil comic injection to your thread..... please post up your detail progress.... i will "adapt" your radiator mount idea to one of my projects for sure....
i am still having a problem with how the front axle will fit .... maybe it is just the way the pictures were taken but it looks like it will be hitting the front pulley/harmonic balancer on the motor.... am i just not seeing this right?

[Blind Studios]

No Anti,

You're pretty much dead on.

Unfortunately I've know that the combination of low engine, low ride height, and solid axel was going to be complicated.

The axel tube is going to have to be "modified" to clear the front pulley/balancer.

What I've got in mind for the axel is a drop section in the middle. Kind of like building a drop crossmember into the middle.

More updates are coming, who knew that "job" would take up some much time.... LOL


-Jeff

[Blind Studios]

Thought I'd drop a quick line, not dead, just working on the worlds most complicated leaf spring brackets.

Should have a rather significant update in the next 3-4 days.


-Jeff

[AgitatedPancake]

I wanna see! Haha man this is a hell of a creation, I can't wait to see more.