1500 dollar CJ7 “Uncle Joe”

Anything new?

damn time really flys by the older I get, not a lot of progress made in the last year hoping this year will be different. Around July we started working 6 days a week and haven't stopped since, any time off I've had has been spent with family and starting my business SteelRoots Fabrication. I've also been working on my truck giving it some much needed love after 4 years of abuse, don't be surprised if you see a chase truck/ Welding rig build thread pop up soon. This project I'm on is coming to an end in the next few months which will require another cross country move to a different job which will inevitably slow progress on the jeep. That being said I'm far from giving up on this project, if anything I'm more excited about the future of the project. I did buy some PRP seats for it and I finally gave up on the FOA shocks after rebuilding 4 of them. I still have the bypasses that need to be sold but I am already buying up king shocks for this thing. The goal is to get shocks mounted in the car so I can finish the tube work before I leave but I'm not holding my breath good things come to those wait. No pictures this time ill see if I can get some added this week!

bump

I'll jump in with an update as best I can: CJKnoll96 is doing what young men should be doing; stacking dimes on the Micron semi conductor plant in Boise. Uncle Joe was transferred to Montana in December and sits in waiting for it's final surgery in a storage unit about 2 miles from my shop. As soon as CJ sells his 2002 7.3 he'll have enough cash to make a decent run at getting this project to the finish and thankfully I'll get to lend a hand.

I think CJ's plan is to take an extended break when this job ends and work full time on making this a driver. However, I'm no confident he is settled on his axle choice and I suspect he is gonna make a couple steps backward before this thing drives.

The good news is at the speed in which this project is progressing, I have plenty of time to play catch up and find something I can use to join my son out on the trail.

I know I haven’t made any updates recently i apologize for the delay. Work and life got kinda crazy then I plowed into a couple of cows with the truck. Last spring, I made the decision to put some money into the old ford the same truck that kinda set this whole ball into motion. After finally getting all the bugs worked out I hit a few cows on the way home from working nights. So I did the logical thing and payed out of pocket to fix the truck instead of letting insurance take it which basically blew my budget for jeep parts last year.
17k later including the money spent before the accident
She was probably better than it’s been since I bought the truck. However I still was left feeling as though the truck wasn’t done taking time, energy and money out of me. After driving it up to Idaho towing the jeep I concluded that it was time to recover some of those losses and buy a newer truck.
Now with that large hiccup out of the way it’s back to jeep stuff over the past few months I’ve been collecting parts. I figure I’m at the point in this build where (and I’ve been here for a while just didn’t want to admit it) that I can’t continue fabricating without having actual parts to fill in all the spaces in between. so shocks have been ordered along with many other things! Big shout out to out to the team at Total Racing Solutions for helping me get everything ordered. If you’re unfamiliar with them they helped Justin Hall with wiring and tuning his new 4800 rock it ship. I have also started working on my own business venture since I’ve been gone. So although I haven’t been here working on the jeep it doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy!

Also on a side bar I'm considering moving this thread to General 4X4 when building continues. It seems as though that might have been a more appropriate place for this build but I'm not sure how to make that change this far along.

Did the fog lights push back into the cooler stack?

Levigarrett76 said:

Did the fog lights push back into the cooler stack?

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Nope! Damage report one popped radiator, AC condenser, grill, bumper, plastic core support (just holds the grill and lights), headlight which was already broken (hated those lights since the day I installed them anyway) passenger fender, hood, and a cow head sized dent in the passenger door. Since it was already in the body shop I had the roof re painted and we couldn’t find any headlights I thought looked right so it got upgraded to 2005 head lights and let me tell you best choice I could have made. Overall I’m going to miss that truck after it got done it was the best it has ever looked probably one of the cleanest looking 7.3’s on the road.

CJKnoll96 said:

Nope! Damage report one popped radiator, AC condenser, grill, bumper, plastic core support (just holds the grill and lights), headlight which was already broken (hated those lights since the day I installed them anyway) passenger fender, hood, and a cow head sized dent in the passenger door. Since it was already in the body shop I had the roof re painted and we couldn’t find any headlights I thought looked right so it got upgraded to 2005 head lights and let me tell you best choice I could have made. Overall I’m going to miss that truck after it got done it was the best it has ever looked probably one of the cleanest looking 7.3’s on the road.

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not bad

mine pushed back into tranny cooler and ac condenser. Broke mounts on the cooler, ac condesne it busted open.