Build CJ5 wild stretch and full build (Judy)

WaterH said:
Very nice ornament. I like the straight door bars, but I understand you reason to change. I’m torn on your “dress up” covers on the cage gussets. These look so good, but the covers look good to.
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I ended up covering them because I could end up seeing them collecting trash or rocks. Or a kid getting a hand stuck in there. The straight bars were definitely more race car ish. But since I built it outside of race specs (to keep me from destroying it) I figured I'd make it easier to use it.

Besides. I may end up taking either my old highboy and building it to class specs, or the little S10 Blazer I have. I wanna take a green flag at least a few times in my life, even if I don't make the podium.
 
The sticker panels def look better IMO. the dimple holes somehow just didnt flow for me.
 
Decided to swap up the steering wheel after adding a D&D quick release. Decided to pick it up after seeing that it also supports the use of a horn. Integrated contacts, all wiring is high quality , came with several sets of screws. Machining is really nice. Pretty rad setup.
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A little progress today. Correct Saginaw 800 seal kit came in. So I spent some time in the shop and rebuilt the box. Realized I hadn't updated my list in a bit.

Steering box rebuilt and crossed off.

Turned and rehardened the pitman arm, crossed off

Drive shafts dropped off and crossed off the list.

Remaining mechanicals/fabrication:

Add hydro assist to the front steering

Build a new charcoal canister out of a leftover shock reservoir.

Make some hoops to keep the belts where I want them on the harness bar.

Stretch the top and doors.

Go through engine and trans.

Paint.
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Back in for now.
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definitely much cleaner. Went back together quick with the right kit
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Twisted pitman arm to keep it out of bind during droop conditions.
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1Sinner said:
Not much exciting stuff to report. Started on the steering box rebuild (they sent the wrong rebuild kit. For and 808 instead of an 800 kit)
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And dropped the drive lines off with the driveshaft shop. Too much going on at work lately to get anything else done.
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I'm sure its in here but what shafts are those?
 
Finally started on stretching the top and doors. Tried to lay it out to pick up half the flanges for the support hat channel.
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turns out the third rib back isn't quite square. So I lost the flange about halfway across the cut towards the passenger side. Took 9.375" out, adding 15.4375 in to make up for the cut kerf and the 6 inches I added to the doors.
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made rollover corners first , added the drip rail and bead rolled a flange towards the center of the roof, so I can just add a flat, square section and have a flange to weld to.
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first section trimmed to fill the cutout
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second rollover prepped. That's enough for today.
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Even when this is all welded up and smoothed, there are a ton of internal supports and tie ins to make to mate the doors and seal well. Going to try to add provisions for bulb type weather stripping. I know I said I wanted to make the top out of aluminum, but that may be sometime in the future, because I'll have to build some fairly complicated bucks and up my aluminum panel skills before I attempt it.
 
Started welding in the corners tonight after getting everything fit prepped and clamped
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flange looks like it will work well to support the center sheet.
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I'm not much of a body man, but I do ok.
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gratuitous side shot.
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center sheet prepped and ready for install. Some say curves are hard to duplicate and make look good. I feel like keeping large things flat is just as hard.
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tacked in. That's where I quit tonight. Going to flip it over and build some supporting hat channels to help keep it flat. But it's officially grown six inches.
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I agree with you. Keeping flat things flat is much harder than keeping curves curved. Curved stuff naturally wants to stay that way because of the stress that's been put in it. A flat piece of material is just looking for an excuse to move around.

Looks like you had zero gaps to deal with................that ain't easy to pull off. Well done Sir.
 
Making duplicates of the factory hat channel for the roof support through the extended section
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used a brake for the correct width
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then hand folded the flange because it wouldn't fit in the press brake.
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matches pretty close. Left the flange wide for more support
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tacked the inner flange to the outer roof sheet.
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then trimmed to fit, overlapped and tied into the other ribs to hopefully keep this thing from buckling when I weld it up.
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long way left to go, but getting there.
 
Great work. It actually looks better that the original stuff....................................which obviously means you need to redo it all. :flipoff2:

What are you using to cut the strips? Looks like little wheel marks next to the cuts.
 
If I wanted to run to the school shop, I could use the hydro shear, but since I was home, I just used a 4 1/2" grinder and a cut off wheel. I really need a stomp shear.
 
Derailing my own thread. Here's a few throwbacks to 2006. My old 04 TJ. Thought that thing was the cats ass when I had it. Bought it stock. ****ty rough country lift that I upgraded several times, made adjustable control arms, built the bumpers and swingout. Bought some corners and sliders from a new company that was trying to take a swing at poison spyder. Shrockworks had just released those sliders and I had one of the first sets. Super short slip yoke eliminator, Tom woods shafts, 4.10s front and rear on 33s. B&m shifter for the 5 speed behind the 4.0. bike cable cruise control/rock throttle. 10k havok fraught winch.

Had a lot of fun in that thing. Still miss it. Those were some of the first real jeep parts I ever made. Fresh out of the Navy after 6 years. Should have kept the jeep and gotten rid of the ex then. Lol

Some of the pics are from freeway ridge in the canyon heading to Isabella. Still a fun and challenging trail. Though I haven't run it in a few years. Excited to take Judy on it. Probably won't be the same amount of challenge. It was a beautiful morning about this time of year, and it was dumping snow on top by the time we got there and a mud fest on the way to the valley floor....

The run was made with the guys from infectious off-road when they were first forming. I was active on wrangler forum, and a lurking member on pirate while stealing ideas from the board that was all about building cooler stuff than you could buy.

Other pics from Tehachapi and jawbone canyon. Doesn't feel so long ago.
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What a difference 20 years makes. Still working on cjs. That 5 was someone else's that a mechanic had "fixed" and left the guy utterly stranded by not prelubing the new engine before startup, and leaving out the pilot bearing for the trans during the swap. Made some good money throwing another reman in it and fixing all the problems the other guy left.

T shirt is ironic, as no one is really getting anywhere fast in one of these old heaps.
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the ex was miserable every time we went out. I remember a few guys from infectious Gj Lusich and another dude named Brian that was always around in that red yj.
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Crazy how time flies. These were all 35mm transferred to cd years ago. Brought back a few memories. Figured I'd share.
 
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