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1500 dollar CJ7 “Uncle Joe”

Forgot to take photos of it in the air but got it done enough to get it off the lift and out the door so I can get back to work!
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Can't wait to see how this one turns out!! Great work and thanks for posting.
 
Thanks for the words of encouragement guys! No updates for this weekend had a high speed come apart this past week and seriously considered just selling out. Might be a bit over worked at the moment so going to take the weekend and handle some other things. I’m also a welding instructor part time and when I’m not working for Trent fab I travel for work doing big construction projects. I’ve been itching to get back to that so the pressure is on to make it a roller so I can transport the thing.
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a 3 week break was nice but I can’t stay away had to tinker a bit this weekend mostly a lot of planning today. Figuring out what links I need to find what size radiator. Where tubes are gunna land. Need to find some cash to buy tubing and a few more parts so I can actually make it a roller with a cage and shock mounts. I’ve thought about making a YouTube channel what do you guys think? Think I have a solid game plan for tube placement but I need to pull the body one last time and finish the upper link mounts and button up alot of stuff. After this point the body won’t be removable much longer. Going to cut a hole in the floor to access the back of the motor, top of the trans and the atlas.
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Lots of hacking out sheet metal today and planning out tube location. A custom fuel cell would be epic and really suit my needs but an off the shelf fuel sell is more likely. Also ordered the material I need to finish the body today so maybe next weekend I’ll be able to do that job.
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Not a whole lot going on waiting for a replacement panel to finish the body. In the meantime I've gotten my hands on 3 out 7 of my links the front upper will be a 250 wall chromoly link that I shortened down and the rear uppers will be some well used aluminum links I bought. Also decided to weld up the trans mount and bought the output shaft I need for my atlas set up.
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STFU attention whore.
Suck start a shotgun old man.

It looks like the chassis is gonna be pretty rigid with all that tube work.

Rigid enough to run a 4pt mount and not break anything? ....IDK but I wouldn't risk it.
 
Lol, you wouldn’t risk it on what? One of your imaginary rigs.
Wouldn't risk it on literally anything that gets rowdy in low range. There's a reason the OEMs dropped that shit in the 70s.
 
Designs worked well enough for a 2023 4800 KOH win and 4 National championships in ultra4 including a second place national championship in 4400🤷🏻‍♂️
In a tube chassis that's rigid in every direction....

Which this isn't based on my skimming of the last few pages.
 
In a tube chassis that's rigid in every direction....

Which this isn't based on my skimming of the last few pages.
Boxed frame rails with a tube back half and cage that will likely be tied into the frame seems rigid.
 
Boxed frame rails with a tube back half and cage that will likely be tied into the frame seems rigid.
I didn't realize this was getting a full cage.

Hopefully the cage goes as far forward as the shock hoops.
 
I didn't realize this was getting a full cage.

Hopefully the cage goes as far forward as the shock hoops.
The sliders which the subframe ties into are tied into the motor mounts. That area is going to get plated as well once I figure exactly what I’m doing with the frame in front of the motor mounts. it is going to get a full cage everything behind the seats is going to be basically a buggy. Then I’ll tie the A pillar into the front shock mounts. I wanted to keep a frame in the rig just to follow my own personal view of how the 4500 class rule book should be written. In class 8 desert trucks you have to keep the whole frame and can only notch the rear 2 inches for up travel so the hot ticket is to basically put the frame higher up in the chassis so that you can maximize up travel. The frame doesn’t really do anything it’s just there because the rules say it has to be there. That’s kinda where I’m drawing my inspiration from. I’m also not keeping the whole frame just about 51% of it. Here’s a few photos of a class 8 truck for reference
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First time I’ve pulled the body off in a while definitely changes the perspective a little. Might be the last time it comes off ever.
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Don’t really have a plan to make the cage removable from the C pillar back so why try if I wreak the thing that hard I’ll likely be cutting tubes out anyway.
 
Finished up the transition into tube part of the frame today. Just don’t look underneath 😂 the rest of it I’m pretty proud of but I didn’t have time to cover up my mistakes on the bottom.
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Might keep working tonight and try to finish up the link mounts on the axle side but tomorrow the plan is to finish all of the upper link mounts and any welding I can’t do with the body on.
 
Still at the shop probably gonna do some trimming to the body so it goes back together and call it a night so I can pull this thing out of the shop tomorrow and get back to work. Didn't quite get everything done..
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This is my favorite build now. I love the spirit of the class 8 trucks as well. Allowing 2x3 “frame rails” is really just a tube buggy, which is great but having some factory frame left over is rad. Your work looks really good too
 
First off, killer build, I really dig it. Just went through the whole thread.

That said, I noticed on page one you knocked out all the body work and painted it. Came out looking sweet.

Where did all the pretty painted parts go?:flipoff2: I think we have the same thought process................keep that snowball rolling.:beer:


Keep up the good work.
 
First off, killer build, I really dig it. Just went through the whole thread.

That said, I noticed on page one you knocked out all the body work and painted it. Came out looking sweet.

Where did all the pretty painted parts go?:flipoff2: I think we have the same thought process................keep that snowball rolling.:beer:


Keep up the good work.
Snowball might have been a better name for the project but I think it’s what I always wanted anyway😂 didn’t really plan to cut it in half until I decided to use a Th400 and 40’s but let’s be honest I couldn’t work on it with the nasty paint it had before so I just see it as good practice to do an even better job once it’s actually finished. Going to change the colors up and go with a Pearl white with more blue graphics.

Thanks for the encouragement guys glad y’all are digging it! It was a long weekend turning 27 today and I sacrificed going out and partying to try and crank out as much progress as possible. Goal is to get a cage in it before I have to go back to my traveling welder job in the middle of July. Hopefully y’all will be seeing updates from Arizona soon.
 
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