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The Jeepy Jeep

mastadon

mastadon

Cunning Linguist
Joined
Oct 22, 2020
Member Number
2971
Messages
57
Loc
Tucson, AZ
Hey all, I am newish here so I figured I would start my thread as a way of introducing myself and starting my build thread at the same time. I am planning to do a lot of fabrication work myself and I am sure to have questions as I go, so I hope this is a good place to document things and ask for help.

I originally bought this 2005 LJ in 2009 with about 30K on it. owned it for a couple years. Did some minor upgrades, 33's, etc. Ended up getting laid off and had to sell it to a guy I knew. Afterward I bought a 2008 JK rubicon. That wheeled great, but I did not like driving it. Felt way too big compared to what I was used to. Long story short, years later (beginning of 2016 i think), the guy who bought the LJ from me was getting divorced and wanted to know if I knew anyone who was interested. I always regretted selling it, so I bought it back from him for only 10k. He had added ARBs front and rear, regeared it to 4.56 added a cheap winch, and rear tire carrier bumper, but he had neglected it badly. I cleaned it up and decided I would try to keep it forever so I started to make it the LJ I have always envisioned.
The day I originally sold it after build 1.0:
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This is what it looked like when I first got it back. It was pretty rough:
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After cleaning it up and adding a new top, new wheels, new tires and new aluminum genright fenders and a few other things. I’ll call this look 2.0:
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So here is the current build plan:

2005 LJ Sport
-2005 superduty axles (purchased)
-Stretch rear (unsure of how much anywhere from 4-8" planned)
-Small front stretch (2-3")
-Three link front (genright brackets purchased)
-4 link rear (genright brackets purchased)
-Barnes 4WD hi steer (Purchased- have not decided on which hydro assist parts I will use yet)
- sticking with the 37s until they wear out and then going to 40s
-Raceline RT260M 17" beadlocks (purchased)
-motobilt blank corner armor (purchased). I know aluminum is trendy now, but I dont care too much about the weight difference and I plan on painting so I would rather have the strength of steel.
-Custom built control arms (may go with aluminum links for the lowers)
-Coilovers. Still need to purchase. Need to wait until the mock up stage to see if I am comfortable squeezing 16s in there or if I will go 14". Opinions welcome here.

Still undecided on what to do with the transfer case. I really want an atlas 4 speed but not sure its worth the expense over the 2 speed. The 2.72 gearing in the np231 is trash though. Not nearly low enough for serious wheeling.

I will add pics as I go. I welcome your feedback and criticism.

Also, if you want more pics and info, feel free to follow me on instagram too. @thejeepyjeep
 
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Other smaller projects I hope to get knocked out over the next few months include some maintenance as well as painting and restoring a crappy pair of half doors I have as well as making a custom rear bumper so I can sell my shittybuilt one that is on there now. I will post a decent amount of progress pics in here as things move along.
 
Very cool that you got it back! I look forward to seeing your progress.
 
Small update. Finally got the axles original brackets shaved off and trimmed the casting on the front. Next step will be welding on the trusses after a little more cleanup and disassembly. Not pictured is the rear, but it’s done as well. Hope I never have to do this part again. Might be worth paying 10k for aftermarket axles after this experience.
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So, I just realized that my Barnes rear truss gets in the way of the weird axle tube mounted vent/brakeline junction. I am considering a different truss, but hoping to find out if anyone here used one that did not require them to relocate that item on the sterling rear. Anyone?
 
mastadon said:
So, I just realized that my Barnes rear truss gets in the way of the weird axle tube mounted vent/brakeline junction. I am considering a different truss, but hoping to find out if anyone here used one that did not require them to relocate that item on the sterling rear. Anyone?
Click to expand...
Why not cut it off, weld it up and drill a new hole in a better location?
 
I just wanted to avoid doing all that, but I was actually meaning to amend my previous message. I made an error when initially fitting the truss and it turns out I will be able to use the factory location for the breather with some minor modifications. I am getting excited to move forward with this. I test fitted all the parts I need to weld up and it should be pretty straightforward from here. I drove the jeep last week for the first time in a while and I had terrible death wobble even after rebalancing my tires. I have no intention of doing much to fix that, so it think I will be moving up my time table on getting started on the swap instead. Should be ordering coilovers in the next couple weeks. Was going to wait to see what I could fix, but I think I will just order 14" travel units and do what I need to do to make them fit from there. I have seen enough people running that size and some even 16" (which I do not want) that I know I can make it work.
 
Got the rear truss welded together and I mocked it up to show where I have clearanced it for the breather on the left hand side. Needs a little more grinding before it’s flush.
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Btw, it looks like Barnes no longer sells this version of the truss so I doubt this will be helpful for anyone else. Not sure if the new one addresses this in any way
 
Got most of the front axle work done. Waiting until it’s under the jeep to finish the upper link and track bar bracket location as well as the shock mounts. Want to park the jeep and start tearing it apart now, but I might be selling my truck so I could need to use the jeep for a temporary daily. Ugh. First world problems.
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W
 
Nice work. I'm collecting parts and info on tons and 40s for my LJ I picked up last month too.

How much rear stretch is doable without getting into the gas tank?
 
I hear 4-5” is what most people can get away with using the factory gas tank. I haven’t started that part yet, but I’ll document it when I get there. That’s about all I want to stretch most likely, but if I want more I will buy the motobilt tank or make my own.
 
Thanks for checking it out. Open to suggestions from the peanut gallery as I go along. This is going to be a fairly slow process.
 
Well I haven’t updated this in a couple years but there really hadn’t been much progress. Just kept buying parts while I went back to school in addition to work and husband/dad life. I made it a point to not use a credit card for anything on this build. Only paid cash, so it’s taking a while. I did manage to get some work started though and the build is officially underway.

I ended up getting a 4.3:1 atlas 2 speed and installed that along with a 2” extra clearance skid plate from UCF. It was a pain in the ass to install these together for a variety of reasons but the atlas is in. Also added the boatside body mounts from artec. Moved the fuel tank back by removing the LJ crossmember and added a new rokmen gas tank skid.
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I’ve put the jeep up on jackstands and pulled the axles out and sold them to a kid from instagram. All the old brackets are cut off and ground flush. I need to take some recent pics of the work I’ve done so far. I have everything I need to finish the rear axle swap and stretch.
I’m two months away from being done with school so I hope to get some momentum going to finish this thing by the spring, or earlier if I am lucky.
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Forgot to mention that I also swapped out the steering box and pump for PSC parts with a reservoir, so it’s ready for hydro assist when I finish up the front. I ended up getting 14” fox 2.5 reservoir coilover shocks front and rear. Just going to make them work regardless of what I need to do to get it done, but it should be pretty straightforward.
 
Nice little update. I haven't started mine yet but the parts pile is growing.

Was the tank relocation as straight forward as some make it out to be?
Just remove one crossmember and slide it back? I'm thinking I'm going to try to move and redo the factory location of the coil and shock mounts while I'm in there.
 
It really wasn’t quite as straightforward as it seems but it’s not a problem. You have to drill some new holes for the forward mounting points on the remaining crossmember and the fuel lines barely reach so they should be extended and have to be slightly modified even if you keep them. Otherwise it’s pretty simple. I would suggest using a sawzall to remove the rear crossmember. I started using a grinder because I was not thinking and it was taking forever.
 
You literally started my tear down... I've had my LJ for 1.5 yrs now and only half assed getting the AC working and some interior crap put in that was missing....

I tore out my wrecked rubi axles and tcase last night. Shopping brackets now since the fronts are bent I may as well go full truss and small stretch right... !?

Front TNT all in one and rear Artec single triangulated with 4.5 RE LA
 
NDCjeepsmith hell yeah, glad to hear I might have inspired you to take action! I will look for your thread.

Been a while since the last update, but I finished my (late in life) bachelors degree and got some time back in my life to work on this thing. I have made some decent progress recently that I will post shortly. Now that the holidays are over I am hoping to increase the rate of progress I make and hope to actually be able to drive the jeep again before it gets too hot this summer if I am lucky.
 
One of the things I think I forgot to mention was the artec body mount replacements. I welded those on recently. I did some pretty shitty welding on them, so I probably wont show them off too much. I think I will be doing the rear frame mod to get rid of the body lift butt crack and gain a slight bit of departure angle, but it would definitely be easier to just buy a bumper that hides that area instead like the one from legendary. I am more inclined to just make my own though.

So I got the frame side brackets welded in and also finished welding in the lower control arm brackets (both on the rear). I originally mounted the upper links on top of the axle but did not like how much that limited uptravel and decided to french them in to the truss a bit. Happier now, but wish there was more clearance still.
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Also built the rear links. I may replace the lowers with aluminum, but happy with how they turned out for now.
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I am waiting for longer shock towers in the rear (accidentally ordered the shorter ones from barnes somehow and the long ones are out of stock) so I have to wait for any more progress in the rear. I just started getting the front end going now that I am waiting on parts for the rear.
 
Good progress. I'm guessing you're going coilovers. I'm not yet and was going to French the coil mount into frame to both deal with 4" stretch and level up to deal with the bow... but I'm kinda concerned that will also raise the rear end up. I'll be outboarding the shock mounts but don't really want to run 2.5" coils rear and 4.5" front but I guess we'll see once I get to it.
 
Yes, I have Fox 2.5 14” coilovers for the front and rear. I considered doing what you are, but the spring length was a concern for me too. Seen rigs do it that way that work really well though.
 
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Looks great!

What other issues if any did you run into deleting the dummy rear gas tank cross member and moving the tank back?

Most high clearance tank skids are limited by the rear shock cross member. There is more room to be had for raising the tank and that's not including the added room from a 1.25" body lift.

With so many running the same body lift it seems a raised tank skid, outboard shock and coil relocation kit that takes full advantage of the available space should be explored.

Funny you mention the gap left by the body lift, I made my rear bumper to deal with this issue specifically. I am working on a more simple version that does the same thing.
 
I was wondering this same deal about more room available than what was thought to be with a shock and coil relocation. I will be building my own tank skid based mainly off of the motobilt one so hopefully I can get something with a tad more clearance.
 
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