BJ42 Winter Fix Up

[Deny]

Hi all,
I know I might just be rambling to myself most of the time, but this thread will help keep me motivated as I struggle to finish my cruiser before this years wheeling season, which hopefully will start may long for me. Anyway this year I decided to do a few things to my truck, a couple (like adding the turbo) will have to wait till next year. I was slowed down by having to raise the roof in my shop, and add a wood stove and insulation, but got that done at the end of 06 and then built a winch bumper on my Dodge work truck for a month, so my winter project has now become a 3 month project, any way here are the update pictures I have taken so far:
ps: thanks to lowenbrau and ratpuke for the star.

[Deny]

Well, I got rid of my 3in lift, and intalled my old leafs.

[Deny]

Here I fixed my rusty fenders, which every couple years would have to wire brush and rebondo, so hopefully this will be the last bondo job until I have the money to buy new fenders.

[Deny]

Chopped my snorkle by around 4in, because I was tired of grabbing branches with it, I know it won't completely eliminate the problem, but will help a lot.

[Deny]

Got tired of my bent up bumper, so cut it, bent it some more (made it a straiter bend too), and did the same to the other side so it would match. Tube/bush bumber will have to wait till next year!

[Deny]

This is why this soa job is not a quick one, I had to take my springs apart, clean them, paint them.... damn it I never take the easy way.

[Deny]

Here is how my rear suspension sat. I will take a picture after I am done to see the clearence I gained, but measureing the spring thickness, spring pads, and ubolt plate is about 4inches, so with the same tires, it will go from 10 to 14 inches of clearence and no ubolts to catch on.

The main reason I went soa was because I wanted to do a ubolt flip, then in the last year, I had inverted my shackles both front and rear, and tweaked the springs requiring me to do something about it, I decided to go this route. Will probably use the 3in springs, once I fix them up(get the kink out) on my other BJ42, but that is a whole nother story.

[Deny]

This is where I sit now,
I am springing over the rear, made some homebrew spring pads. They sit a bit high, but I would like to see my back end a bit higher, especially once I load it up with stuff.

[lowenbrau]

Looking good, Deny:

The pictures don't show how frigging cold it is in that garage though.

[Deny]

I know, even now when it's 11 deg outside, it's still cold in the garage, I don't want to start a fire in the stove, so while outside in the sun it's T-shirt weather, inside I wear a jacket and gloves.

[Deny]

Decided to take a pic of the whole truck to show how high I had to jack up the rear end in order to roll the rear axle back so I could weld up the perches. All I can say is that there is a lot of droop, and am glad I lifted the ceiling in my shop, or I might have had problems.

[Deny]

Last night didn't get a lot done, because I had to go watch the stupid Canucks lose, but I want to get atleast a little done every day. Sort of buckerouso dedication, not skill!
So I welded up the perches, and bought the farm equipment to do the antwrap bar. Looks a little too beefy, but I guess you can never be too cautious.

[lshobie]

Jeesus, I hope you can get it out of the garage! Looks pretty high now, maybe air the tires down eh

[Derek A]

Yeah buddy.. looking good! That thing is huge, hopefully it will settle down a bit eh.

[Deny]

Don't worry guys,
That is where it is sitting at now with the springs drooping, and I had to pull the rear axle out with the tires on, when the truck is sitting on the axles in the rear, it will drop a foot or two. And it will be tight getting out of the shop, since I only had an inch to spare before, so I will have to either air down the tires or swap my 31's off of rusty.

Derek, nice to see your still alive and kicking! I will be heading down south to pick up my truck in early June, will let you know exact dates when I find out.

Cheers,
Deny

[Deny]

Didn't do much this weekend, but still messed around with it for quite a bit. Thought I ran out of gas, but today when I went to take the bottle to get refilled, it seemed heavy, so I opened it and tons of gass streamed out, checked everything, and looks like the gauge does not work, damn it what a waste, could have had the rear brackets all welded up and painted.

altleast I have everything fabbed up, just got to finish welding, and finish building the antiwrap bar. Sucks though, I killed my drill, couldn't find the reciept, so looks like I got to buy another.

These pics show the shock mounts, which are done, and the start of the antiwrapbar mount for the axle. The rest of the time I cleaned the shop a bit, measured for the AWB, and helped Kim put the engine into Jodi's oldschool Bronco.

[Deny]

Yesturday, got back to welding, finished the mount, and added some braces, then gave it a quick spray. I heard from a Jeep guy that some antiwrap bars can rip the housing apart, so I spent some time adding lots of welds. Don't know if it's just a Jeep thing, but didn't want to take any chances.

[Ratpuke]

You sure do nice work.

[Deny]

I try, I still am Micky Mousing a bit, but not too much.

[Deny]

Well I got a bit done this weekend, Ball tournament did not help at all, but the list to do is sure getting shorter. Doesn't look too promising for the long weekend, but it will be close.

Most of the rear end is put together, ready for the rear diff (with locker) and axles. You can see some of the Mickey Mouseness here where I just used an extra flexy brake line, to extend it (Thought I had enough slack, but the soa has a LOT of droop). Also I made new solid brake lines on the driver side, but on the pass. side I carfully bent up the old lines to get it over the springs and out of the way.

[Deny]

Started on the Antiwrap bar and on the mount to the cross member. I might do a little reinforcing there too, so I don't rip the mount off the cross member. I also started on the shackle, should get that done today hopefully.

[Deny]

Well, it's May 18, 2007, and this is what I wake up to this morning. Shot of my back yard before I left for work. I think I might be hiding in the shop instead of camping this weekend.

[Deny]

This is the update on my work I wanted to get on here before the weekend (don't have internet at home), cause I know I would get grief from my brother, saying I was slacking. Finished the antiwrap bar, just needs paint.

[jfc]

Originally Posted by Deny

Chopped my snorkle by around 4in, because I was tired of grabbing branches with it, I know it won't completely eliminate the problem, but will help a lot.

I been ban from posting on this sit for a while,

[Deny]

Well this weekend went pretty good, except for the getting kicked out of the bar on Friday night, and cops being called to my back yard fire because a Suburban on 38's tried a tug of war against a Dodge duelly. I actually finished my cruiser (sort of)

Here is my locker, then me installing my locker, and as usual leaving some DNA in my truck, and finally installed and tested (works good)

[Deny]

Here is my antiwrap bar painted up