Build Family Size Rat crawler

DesertCJ said:
What material are those seats? I assume it's vinyl but I can't tell what specific option it would be on the website....

Side note.....damn, PRPs have gotten expensive since I bought my last set! Yeah it's been a very long time but they seem about double what I recall paying.
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Yeah the price has gone way up even from when I started this build and was putting prices together. These are the Whiskey color vinyl. It looks like Orange on the website but it is called Whiskey.
 
April was a rough month so progress was slow. But I finally got to drive this out of the shop!!
Here is the video.


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I am going to try to catch this thread up. Life has been busy for the past few months so progress has been slow. And I forget to take pictures while things are happening.
First thing I did was strip down the front axle. I found out that I have a chipped tooth on a 5.13 reverse rotation “thin” gear. Front west coast to the east coast I couldn’t find someone who still supply’s them. 🤦‍♂️. Crap. So I cleaned them up a bit and rebuilt the whole axle with new bearings and shims. At least it’s only a front axle. I finally got some American Iron BJE’s. They were easy to install and will give me some peace of mind. I bought a throttle cable off of Amazon and hated it so I made my own. Yay. I didn’t some other stuff in between and then I started trying to make the old beat up bed whole again. It is very rusty, abused and slightly twisted.
 
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I had to reframe the bed. I cut the bed I half and took the “horns” off the bad half and welded them onto my new shortened bed. I still don’t know what I am going to do with the fuel filling set up. I had a plan but now things are weird. I also raised the bed about 3” ~ over the factory position. I was making good progress… then I stuck my finger into the cut off wheel. Off to get a tetanus shot. 👎

I need ideas for rear fenders. I am considering buying a square tube bending die and building them from 1.25” square tube. But I have some 1.25” round already that I could use. But I also like the character in the factory front and rear fenders and have some of those laying around that I could probably use. Or somehow mix tube work with factory skins… I haven’t seen anything that I love yet.
 
Ouch--

I built myrear fenders out of some 1/4" metal, some round rod and what a hassle and I would've been way ahead in the looks dept and time spend if I'd used 1.75" tube and welded 1/4" plate the tube. Way to much cutting, welding and grinding. I was trying to keep them stock looking, kind of. They still need some attention to purdi them up and I haven't decided on the back on what to do, because I keep toying with the idea of shortening the bed and I'd probably cut up a lot of it if I do shorten the bed.
 
I liked your idea of putting battery boxes in front of the fenders, utilizing that dead space and keeping an original look.
csutton7 said:
Ouch--

I built myrear fenders out of some 1/4" metal, some round rod and what a hassle and I would've been way ahead in the looks dept and time spend if I'd used 1.75" tube and welded 1/4" plate the tube. Way too much cutting, welding and grinding. I was trying to keep them stock looking, kind of. They still need some attention to purdi them up and I haven't decided on the back on what to do, because I keep toying with the idea of shortening the bed and I'd probably cut up a lot of it if I do shorten the bed.
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I worked on some tail lights. And dimple died the bed rails just for fun. I don’t know if I am sold on the tail lights yet, but they will do for now. I also patched a nasty rust hole with the license plate off of our last family wheeler.
 
 
 
JohnnyJ said:
If I change the tail lights on my buggy again, I think I'm doing FJ40 LED tail lights.

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Those are clean and simple! I have always like that style tail light on buggies. If I did redo the Willys tail lights I think I would use round LEDs that match the factory style but set them up higher. Like these.
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Rustyfabshack said:
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I have had this idea for the coil tower to cage tie-in for a long time but wasn’t sure I was going to do it. But I did. I also finally have 2 latching doors. I still have to build some linkage and handles.
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Square tube on the diamond and a M series Warn, bringing back all the memories, please continue.
I know you already did the rectangle tail lights, but throw those in the scrap bin and do the round trailer lights up high possibly off the end of the bed rails.
 



csutton7 I like how yours are recessed. I used a leather strap for the outside handle because it is easily replaceable, flexible and low profile. It was a PITA to build though. For the inside I cut out my adjustable wrench RFS logo on the CNC at work. And an Amazon bear claw latch.
 
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