Chopped, Hot rodded, and Slammed Postal Jeep

Blind Studios · #1 04-08-2010, 11:55 AM

Hello,

So after looking at all of the amazing builds here on OFN for the last year or so I decided that it was time for me to get off my butt and get a build thread up for my Postal Jeep project (PJ for short)

I'll start with some stats,

1971 Jeep DJ-5b Postal
- right hand drive
- 2wd with Dana 44 rear with factory limited slip
- '80s Ford 302
- 2wd T-18 four speed

The 302 was free with the PJ and I traded for the T-18, they were not original to the Jeep.

I've been working on this project for about the last 4 years. It's always been the free time, fall back project. It has picked up speed in the last year or so...

But I'm hoping that if I get a build thread going it will help motivate me to finish this thing.

Ok, enough typing, on to the pics......

Unfortunately, I don't have any pics from when I first got the PJ back, so in this pic I had already chopped the top by 5", mated the 302 to the T-18 and slapped the drive train in the PJ.

More to come, I have 4 years worth of building to get posted....

-Jeff

Blind Studios · #2 04-08-2010, 12:01 PM

I'll give a bit of the history of this Jeep.....

It was actually my first car at 15, when I got my license.

At the time it was un-chopped, with an enamel orange and white latex paint job....

Guy in the pic is my best friend who ended up with the PJ after too many tickets on my part.

And a pic of it in action....

ok, enough history on to some building pics.....

-jeff

Blind Studios · #3 04-08-2010, 12:12 PM

Surprisingly, there is a LOT of room in the engine bay of a PJ....

I mounted the 302 as far back and down as I could get it, in an attempt to keep the weight distribution fairly even....

I planned on running fenderless in front, due to one of the stockers being crushed, so I found a junk yard electric fan for the PJ...

Shortly after getting the chop done and the motor/trans in, the friend who I got the Jeep back from. got me a set of Sears wide white walls off of his dads old T-bird for the PJ....

The PJ was feeling pretty HOT ROD about that time.......

...but the body (aside from the chopped top) and frame were still very stock.....

....more to come....

-Jeff

Blind Studios · #4 04-08-2010, 12:19 PM

I was working on making/fixing some old body mods....

The PJ originally had stacks of three lights per side on the back, that was changed to a single on each side with some blue dot lenses.....

The roof vent was moved to the cowl, since the heater blower/core was removed. The wipers were also shaved from below the windshield and moved to the top....

...more later....

-Jeff

joescj5 · #5 04-08-2010, 12:54 PM

Looks like fun. My first jeep was a PJ. Caught some serious air in that thing a time or two

smackdaddy · #6 04-08-2010, 03:20 PM

looks like ya need to build a set of headers and run em off to the side

Wheels4 · #7 04-08-2010, 04:42 PM

never thought i'd see a hot rodded jeep... but, i really like it. it almost resembles a shortened 3 window coupe.

what's next on the agenda?

Blind Studios · #8 04-09-2010, 12:46 PM

Thanks for the interest.

Now continuing on....

Originally the PJ had 4 wheel drum brakes, which as some of you may know can be SCARY as hell to stop with. So I decide that I should start rebuilding the brake system.

I started with the pivot for the pedal it's self. 30 years of use and NO maintenance makes for a little bit of slop. I fabbed up a new pivot out of steel, with some naval bronze for the bearing.....

This is old and new side by side, not even comparable.

I ended up reworking the cross shaft as well adding a thrust bearing, in between the pedal and the mount....

also ended up threading the old push rod into the master cylinder and adding a heim on the end.

From there it was onto the front brakes. I knew that I wanted BIG discs, but was not too sure how to go about it. I did some research, came across a couple of people making bolt on kits, but they were wanting $100 bucks or more for the caliper brackets.

After some measuring, I thought, "this can't be too hard...." I bought some 3/4" plate and did some after hours work, at the machine shop that I was working at, at the time.

So this is what the brackets looked like after a couple of hour of work.

As for rotors, I ended up using '87 CJ-7 rotors, with the thru hole opened up by about .150", and the front hub being turned down by about .200".

Once this thing is drivable, I would like to go back and make rotor hats, so that I can use rotor blanks, instead of custom machining rotors every time I wear a set out.

I ended up going with '69-'77 GM calipers, as they were inexpensive and there are a few bolt upgraded versions for future improvements.

Also added a .250" wheel spacer to all four corners, thinking that any additional width would help.....

Ended up finishing off the front with AN adapters and braided kevlar lines from Speedway.....

The rears are staying stock drums for now, but may get a disc upgrade once the PJs drivable.

I ended up going back just recently and replacing the VERY worn factory hard lines with kevlar AN lines through out and adding residual pressure valves to both the front and rear.

More to come, thanks for looking.....

-Jeff

Blind Studios · #9 04-09-2010, 12:59 PM

Thought, I'd throw out a couple of pics of other Jeep Hot Rods, I came across while searching in vane on the internets, for info about hot rodding postal jeeps....

Enjoy,

First up is one that came up as a random link.....

It was in an Off Topic forum on an S10 site. Kinda interesting, looks like they were going for a low rider/roadster PJ.

Next one isn't a PJ but it is a hot rodded Jeep.....

It was built by John Cappa, the editor of JP magazine, out of spares and freebies.

His build he did for the magazine,

Part I

http://www.jpmagazine.com/projectbui...one/index.html

Part II

http://www.jpmagazine.com/projectbui...ain/index.html

Part III

http://www.jpmagazine.com/projectbui...t_3/index.html

More of a Rat Jeep, nutty though......

Ok, back to the PJ....

-Jeff

FrogDog · #10 04-09-2010, 03:01 PM

Interesting build thread... the guy across from my shop has 2 DJ's, I've been trying to score ... but he is a major Hoarder ... took some pixs but hard to see with all the junk around them.... (I'm still trying LOL)

Anyway.. I'm watchin your build.. nicw work and where you from ... ??

Cheer'z Bro

Dog......

Blind Studios · #11 04-09-2010, 05:08 PM

Thanks, Frog Dog

I'm from Hillsboro, Or

Just outside of Portland. Guess I missed that in the profile setup.....

The DJs are a pretty decent starting platform. Lots of room, usually really cheap, and some pretty beefy factory stuff.

Hell the front axle is essentially 4wd knuckles with no through hole for the axle and no pumpkin.

Try explaining to the parts guys that you need 4wd bearings and seals for a 2wd.... good times.....

More building to come soon...

-Jeff

nwmod39 · #12 04-09-2010, 06:34 PM

Jealousy here!

Blind Studios · #13 04-09-2010, 11:22 PM

Movin' on....

The PJ was a spring over configuration from the factory, which meant too much height for a hot rodded Jeep.

I got a new pair of perches for the rear axle and swapped it to spring under, and ended up with this......

AWSOME!!!!!!!

....except for the 3/4" between the axel and frame..... no good.

About this time I had been checking out TwistedMini's builds here on OFN, and decided that I would take a shot at C notching the frame to get enough room for the new lower stance.

So, since I could actually get the white walls back off without either switching the axle back or pulling the body........

......I pulled the body and started building.

Got the body pulled off.

Grabbed some cardboard, and figured out the shape.

From there, I got some 2x4 1/4" wall tube and cut and formed the C notches, and then mocked them up against the outside of the frame.

Having them mocked up I braced across the frame, with an old YJ bumper, and cut out the existing factory cross members, and also the original upper shock mounts.

Once all of that was out of the way, I notched the upper part of the frame rail and fit the notches in place.

More frame work in abit.....

-Jeff

Blind Studios · #14 04-10-2010, 12:45 AM

Back to work....

So this is with both notches fit and clamped into place.

From there I was able to roll the frame next door to my neighbors and borrow his 220v mig to weld the notches to the frame.

While I was there I also cut out the middle sections of frame, finally giving the axle some room to move.

Also I had cut plates to finish boxing the little bit of frame that wasn't already boxed, and started welding them in place.

And more frame boxing.

Next up was fish plates for all of the joints.

These are the plates I made for the notches themselves.

And a couple pics of them welded in place....

Up next, the new rear cross members.

-Jeff

Blind Studios · #15 04-10-2010, 01:12 AM

Continuing on.....

I started with a pair of cross members at the top.

From there I ended up adding one more at the bottom rear of the notches, both for support and as a place to hang a rear sway bar from.

The sway bar, is off of a 1985 Toyota Celica. I have both of the stock bars, front and rear, and came to the conclusion that they would be perfect for the PJ as it should weight, hopefully half what the Celica does.

After that I worked on the placement of a track bar for the rear axle

And the frame side mount....

I know that a track bar is overkill for a leaf spring rear end, but with wider rubber and some possible auto crossing in the PJs future I decided that it wouldn't hurt.

The track bar has a heim on one end and poly bushing on the other.

From there I pulled the shackles and made some room to paint. I use POR-15 on the frame.

And then dropped it back down to assemble with some temporary shocks.

I also added a couple of details to the rear frame boxing a welded in ground lug, for the relocated battery, and a water jetted reaper logo I designed a while back.

Kinda hard to see black on black.....

Up next body repair and getting it to fit over an 8" C notch.....

-Jeff

KEGGER1454 · #16 04-10-2010, 09:22 AM

i'm stoked to see this unfold!!! great work so far

Blind Studios · #17 04-10-2010, 11:54 AM

Thanks Kegger,

Movin' on....

The body was crooked as could be, so to figure out where and how much to cut out of the floor, I got some help and we simply set the body over the frame up on blocks.

And made an initial cut....

The missing section of floor in front of the cargo area is where I had already started removing sheet metal to try and get the seats down and back as far as possible.

I'm 6'3" and leg room was not really there with the stock seating, more on the seats later.....

So after removing about 16" of floor, the body was down on the mounts.....

Over all view, with the rear door off....

At this point it finally had room for the rear axle to travel and enough room to get the tires off. It was still sitting on the white walls, which are about 30" tall.

Still, it was heading in the right direction.

Up next, repairing and reinforcing the body....

-Jeff

russellmn · #18 04-10-2010, 06:23 PM

Nice! I've been thinking about doing a CJ5 hot rod with leftover parts from my junk. I've got a good chunk of the parts needed, I think I'm gonna sit back and see what you do on this one and kinda copy you.

$CEEP · #19 04-12-2010, 09:17 AM

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

I picked up a 43 willys tub/tailgate/hood for free this weekend. gonna use the frame and axles out of my '59 wagon that is in the yard..

looking GREAT and i will definitely be following along as i've never dropped anything in my life. this is gonna be a sweet project.

Blind Studios · #20 04-12-2010, 10:12 AM

Hell YAH $CEEP,

That was pretty much how I looked at building this. The PJ was free, and I traded for other parts.

There are quite a few first time doings on this Jeep for me as well.

I had never chopped a top, done C notches, or even done a motor swap before starting on this.

I'd done a bunch of the usual Jeep stuff, installed a couple three lifts, changed clutches and u-joints, and even fabbed 4 or 5 bumpers. But the PJ turned into more a blank canvis kinda thing.....

There have been times I've had to think on good solution for a while, but mostly I'm just going for it.

Thanks for checking it out!!

More to come soon.....

-Jeff