Cripple-Six: 1967 cj6 build

Scottie · Mar 25, 2023

Greetings, figured i would post my build. Last rig I built was a stretched Suzuki lj20 that was documented on p4x4. So this is something a bit different for me.

Started with an abandoned cj6 project out of Oregon. Had a 4.3l/th350 and some baby **** jeep axles when I picked it up. Non running and in pieces, I only wanted the tub.

The build specs:

Custom chassis with Goatbuilt subframe. 3link/4link aluminum links
Radflo 2.5 coilovers/2.0 bumps from shock Jesus
40” pro comps 17” method beads

Drivetrain-
Gen V 6.2 with DOD delete
Crank driven air pump
8l90/circle D converter to np205
Kp60/sterling 10.25 with 4:88 and arbs

Misc-
Speartech engine harness, switch pros 12 will handle the rest of wiring.
Jk swap radiator with camaro SS fan
Remote mount trans cooler on thermostat
Soulless innovations 29gal fuel tank and zl1 pump
AIM digital gauge cluster
Radesigns shifter
Heated corbeaus
Hand controls

Overall a fairly basic build, but for a grunt like me it’s more like building the space station.

This is what it started as.

Scottie · Mar 25, 2023

Built a table to work off of. Yes those are 1x6 adjustable slats.

Drivetrain showed up, 2016 escaliente for those wondering.

Goatbuilt subframe coming together. Really great fit up and all domex steel.

Goatbuilt rear truss, lowest link pockets I have seen.

Goatbuilt universal front truss as well.

Scottie · Mar 25, 2023

Working on mocking up the shaved ford np205. At the time there was no adapter available to mate to the 8l90.

All bolts lined up except 2. Welded up and redrilled them. Mig’d with the fancy wire from Royal. Pre/post heat and burritoed for a slow cool.

All mated up. Needed small notch for 1 shift rail, and some clearance on bearing retainer. Also switched to gm input shaft when rebuilding.

Tub back from blasting, moving the table under tub.

A tire mock-up for some motavation

Rotten or unneeded tin being removed.

Keeping the floor storage but bigger!

Starting on some front frame. Frame will be a mix of .188 2x3 box and 1.5/1.75 .120 DOM.

fl0w3n · Mar 25, 2023

Sorry I missed it, where’s the overall basic build part? :flipoff2:

Willysracer · Mar 25, 2023

Damn, I thought I had a unique build idea of doing a CJ6 LS tons and 40+ tires… I have a tub and hardtop patiently waiting in my shipping container for basically the exact build you are doing.

Scottie · Mar 25, 2023

Working on some motor mounts which tie into the goatbuilt oil pan skid.

Upper link clearance in the front. Building as low as I possibly can.

Frame slowly moving along

Tummy tucking in the rear to see what we got

Coilovers will be coming through tub, I could have kept them underneath by leaning them back but lower mount would have been lower than I liked.

Outer rails taking shape, these are 1.75 .188 wall. Was going to slug them but decided on a lower .188 cap plug welded on.

Rear bumps taking shape.

Working on fitting the grill radiator and fan. The jk radiator is large for a cj grill and only fits with a solid rake to it. I chose the Jk radiator because there are a ton of aftermarket versions and they are an easy fit up to the camaro SS fan which is a beast (made by spal).

Trans mount taking shape. There will also be tail support on np205

Scottie · Mar 25, 2023

Front bumps being mounted. Decided to go with Reid outers and double shear arms from sky mfg

Front clearances are tight and I did the best I could to mcstuffins everything for maximum uptravel. The nice thing is there is a ton of room to get to the front of the engine the way I have set it up.

Bump stop mounting detail

Working on steering box mounting. Played with front swing box but in the end rear swing packaged better. This will be hydro assist steering. Setting it up for max steering angle, the lower links are the limiter, not sure on exact angle.

track bar mount and steering box with mock-up pitman arm to dial in the length.

Starting to play with coilover mounts.

Front winch mount almost finished minus a boner bar.

The whole process of dialing in the front end took forever, and I’m sure others can relate. 4link and full hydro would have been much easier. But I plan to freeway drive so this is the way.

Scottie · Mar 25, 2023

I built around 14” shocks utilizing full travel. 12” shocks would have made life easier in both the front and rear. Getting closer to final postion.

Quickly found out there was no getting around notching frame. I could have designed the front frame horns around them from the beginning. But I think this was faster for how I work.

Finished pocket. Was worried about pump clearance at this point. U can see the ICT bracket without the pump installed.

Working on more structure for the front end

Starting to mind **** the shock hoop crossover tube and firewall tie back. With the radiator rake, the intake clearance is very tight. I set it up with the hood sniffing the top of the shock hoops. So there isn’t much room for activities.

ended up moving shock mount to crossover tube pushed back as far as possible. It worked out well.

Shock pocket with passenger side at full droop.

Front of the chassis mostly laid out.

Hood line with finished fender tube, nothing past that.

Scottie · Mar 25, 2023

Rear of chassis, axle tucks right up to floor. This is why I wanted lowest profile truss possible

In order to get max steering angle I went with a modified front cover to clear the tie rod. It is 1/8” domex in the clearanced section. I did not want to run offset heims. Will see how it holds up.

I think this is sitting around 5” up travel.

Starting on floor structure, mostly 1” box tube. U can see how how the Motobuilt coilovers towers ended up.

Tunnel coming together, I wanted to keep the tin as far off the trans as possible for heat transfer.

Floors mostly finished. Removable panel above midship shaft and on tunnel. U can see the heater pocket for Mojave large heater. Drivers firewall section was replaced as well, easier than patching all the holes.

Coilover tinwork getting started

Pickuptrucker · Mar 25, 2023

Looking good

Scottie · Mar 25, 2023

Rear coilover pockets finished

And sitting in position. 16ga for these.

Rear floor going in. 16ga here as well. Structure is 12” OC no bead rolls and nice and sturdy.

Fuel pump access plate. Want to be able to service pump easily.

Rear sway bar only on this setup. 1.25” bar that is coped into the rear frame rails. Ended up having to run 1.5” wheel spacers to get the clearance I needed. With 12” coilovers I could have gotten away without, or a wider wms.

Starting on rear bumper, it’s 1.75 .188 wall.

Finished bumper and starting to look at cage chassis tie in.

Mocking up ididit tilt column and windshield frame, in preparation of cage design/seat placement.

Was some good motavation to finally get the top on and see what it’s gonna look like. I have not mentioned but the wb is 113”.

BustedCrank · Mar 25, 2023

Awesome

TRINDU · Mar 25, 2023

The YJ is cooler :flipoff2:

white-rhino · Mar 26, 2023

People like you amaze me. I've done special machine design for years and have a few patents but I can't wrap my head around the vision and confidence it takes to do a build like this. Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

1Sinner · Mar 26, 2023

Bud, you're doing a killer job. Our builds are so similar it's eerie.

rattle_snake · Mar 27, 2023

Wow bad ass all around. Making it look easy when it is not.

Winchested · Mar 27, 2023

Absolutely amazing build. I couldnt imagine a rig so low, how much droop vrs up travel do you plan on running?

Wicked build!

Scottie · Mar 28, 2023

I appreciate all the kind words. It isn’t perfect but I’m always looking to do better.

The pedal setup went pretty smooth. I used a Welder series bracket kit to give me the mount for hydro booster, and built my pedal off that. Utilizing the dbw gas pedal from doner vehicle.

Decided to go with an a-c hoop style, and the coilover towers gave me a good opportunity to run a double b pillar.

Went with corbeau reclining seats because they were a good deal. Driver seat is on slider, passenger seat is fixed but folds up to access under under seat storage bin.

Firewall tie in, it removes via tube connectors making it easier to get cage in and out as well as tight fit to tub.

Setting this up with a 36” bench in back, as well as a fridge behind seat. Most of the time won’t have the seat but wanted the option. Did everything I could for backseat leg room.

Added in console storage bin which is removable. Radesigns trans shifter and Jb fab cable shifters for the np205. Still some room for cup holders.

Scottie · Mar 28, 2023

Winchested said:
Absolutely amazing build. I couldnt imagine a rig so low, how much droop vrs up travel do you plan on running?

Wicked build!

thanks! And I’m not totally sure but probably around 5” up travel on 14” shock

Scottie · Mar 28, 2023

This is what I came up with for rear cage tie in to chassis. There is a removable section in the fender that ties the 2 together.

Dropped the middle section of dash down to meet the tunnel. Added vent holes with defrost on top as well. Dash is mounted on cage tubes at bottom of slots to pickup rigidity.

Mock-up tank. It’s a work of art!

Built a shroud to cover radiator to grill gap. Thinking it will help catch air as well at speed.

3/16” aluminum skins are on, no one sold these for a cj6 so I had some blanks bent locally.

I ditched the l86 manifolds in favor of the factory lt1 manifolds. They are factory tri-y and stainless. Driver side is modified to crossover under oil pan.

All vband except the 4bolt collectors at manifolds. Running a vibrant resonator and then through two 4” magnaflow mufflers.

Starting on some aluminum paneling in the front

Tank is about 29gal. Built by soulless innovations and a work of art. Running two walbro corner pickups to a factory zl1 pump. I modified the pump for the deeper tank. Cradle is all 3/16 domex.

1Sinner · Mar 28, 2023

Awesome work. You may have issues with head clearance on that flat top cage. I did.

jhama78 · Mar 28, 2023

Killer build, looking forward to more updates. :beer:

Scottie · Mar 28, 2023

1Sinner said:
Awesome work. You may have issues with head clearance on that flat top cage. I did.

I have the seats sitting down as low as possible. The driver seat rear bolts have to be accessed through the bottom of the tub. My brother who is 5’10” had about a fist clearance if I remember right.

Penetrode Offroad · Mar 29, 2023

Dang man, this is gonna be beautiful!

X however many on I wish I had these skills.

Scottie · Apr 4, 2023

After finishing up a few more odds and ends it was time to tear it apart for final weld out and coatings.

Last few things I did before pulling the tub was intake and air tank placement. Wasn’t able to fit a big enough air filter up front so had to do some routing and found it a home against the fire wall. 3 gallon air tank lives under passenger feet.

Dropping chassis off for powder. Called around and got a quote i just couldn’t pass up.

Gave me some time to get the engine work done. Nothing crazy just swapped out the dod lifters and installed an lt5 cam. If I’m not happy with the power I have an lt4 blower and will build a forged short block down the road.

Putting things back together. Went with a 2800 stall converter from circle D. They assured this is the stall for what I want. Time will tell.

Got some plumbing done. No return/reg makes things fast on the fuel side of things.

Didn’t catch it on mock up but the l86 starter doesn’t play well with the lt1 manifolds. So I had to pickup the lt1 starter and heat shielding. All the oem heat shields are pretty sweet.

Got the drive belts all figured out. Built a custom bracket for the extreme outback air compressor. Sanden sd7 I believe. It runs on separate 4 groove belt behind serpentine. Setup the bracket with adjustment bolt for dialing tension.

white-rhino · Apr 4, 2023

jps4jeep · Apr 4, 2023

Dang, very impressive fab.

SoylentGreen · Apr 7, 2023

jps4jeep said:
Dang, very impressive fab.

Absolutely.

This is incredible work.

Scottie · Jul 4, 2023

Figured I better give an update. Been chewing away at this thing. Next step was getting the body ready for coatings. Glad that’s over with!

Was planning on flipping to weld out the bottom, but ended up doing it overhead because it was easier for me to get everything in one shot. All the panels are plugged from the top and stitched underneath.

Next was cage weld out, and finalizing the harness bar. Had to go a little out the box to still have pass through when the rear seats are in.

Did one final cage to chassis test fit after weld out. Next time I would do a temp spreader at bottom of A pillar, had some slight warpage.

Added a 1/8” roof, turned out pretty good.

Seats are in. since they are reclining and driver is on slider, I went with some retractable harnesses, they seem like they will work but need some seat time with them. The harness bar can be removed when rear seat is installed. The belts stay as they are.

Had a guy do the coatings for me, blasted again, epoxy prime, raptor interior and hytek metal shield underneath. Crappy job on the paint but all in all good enough for a trail beater.

Working on the 4,420 details now. Thankfully I like the details.

Hooligan · Jul 4, 2023

Dang!

Cripple-Six: 1967 cj6 build

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