Seabee M38A1 Build

So decided to start a thread to document the work that my wife and I have been doing on our 1954 M38a1. I think its a 54 model anyways. It has an early model grill and chassis, with a later model tub. Its was kinda bubbafied when we bought it... Anyways, it had all the original running gear and some street tires at first. We put some 2.5in lift springs and 31in Maxxis Bighorns on it and had lots of fun. I actually stumbled across it while looking for parts for another jeep project. I played in some mud and went on some mild trails.






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Its hard to tell in the pictures, but it had a huge PTO winch. A few days after the little mud bath, I was driving home and it started making a horrible racket and screeching sound under the hood. I shut the motor off at the first stop light I came to. When the light turned green, I restarted the motor. It was quiet, but sounded like an air compressor and had no power. When I got home it was blowing oil out of the valve cover. The F-Head was done. I parked the Jeep and came up with a plan.

So in a move of complete genius, I pulled the old PTO winch off and traded it and the old original running gear for a 400sbc, T18, Dana 20, Dana 30, Dana 44. The engine was a semi fresh rebuild from a Blazer that I got to hear run. All the rest was pulled from a 74 or so CJ5. I adapted the engine and tranny using a Novak adapter

After that I swung the motor in to build some mounts


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I had wanted to put a 4-speed in the jeep anyway and 1 piece axles, so this killed all the birds with a couple stones. The T-18 is the 6.32 1st gear and the Dana 20 is from a Scout. The Dana 44 is the centered diff with one piece axles.
So since we got all,this new found power and gearing I figgered I had better box the frame.

I bought some 2.5in lift YJ springs and a bunch of heavy duty parts from Ruffstuff Specialties.


Thats a full size soda can too... I had a set of 37in Coopers from my M1008, so we ordered some wheels and started measuring. We pulled the front axle forward and built a new bumper with spring hangers on it.

We pushed the rear axle back and frenched the hangers into the frame about an inch.




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We also plated the front frame horns on both sides.


Mrs Bom did some grinding and welding as well. We're using an Astro Van steering box. The pitman arm comes out the front, so it mounts under the radiator.
After we got everything all mocked up, we rolled the Jeep over onto the rollcage to finish all the welding. I was having a heck of a time welding upside down.

We also bored some holes for the upper bushings for the shackles.

In hindsight, it would have easier to just pull the body, since it was just a couple bolts. I just didn't wanna freak out my wife. Her Bronco is waiting in the background...


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Neat build. Looking great!

 

And that brings us up to date... Last weekend we painted the underside of the tub and frame then put it back on its axles.


So the plan is to keep it low, stretched out to about 85in. We're gonna build some fenders similar to these.


You can see they actually mount to the hood with a filler panel on the side. We're going to paint it with the correct Olive Drab and markings for the US Navy Seabees, since my father was one in Vietnam.

I know the Dana 30 is gonna be at its limit. But I have a plan...
Muhahahaha...
My wife wants full width one ton axles under her Bronco. So I'm planning to use the 9in rear and build a matching 9in front with Dana 44 outers. But the other axles will do. I know 37s are big. I was actually wanted 35s, but I have these sitting in the shop. For what we will use this Jeep for they will work good. Here in Northern California the wheeling is mostly snow, mild trails and the Oregon Dunes up the road. Someday we'll do the Rubicon and Moab so we'll need the better axles for that. This weekend we're gonna start installing a set of XJ hanging pedals. Any good advice? I've pulled out the glove box and made room so we'll see. Thanks for checking it out

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Here is a picture of what it looked like when we rolled it out after mocking the suspension.



We cut a larger radius for the rear tires to stuff. The hood mounted fenders will allow the fronts move around. I've been kicking around the idea of making some aluminum corner panels for armor, along with some steel rocker guards.

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Not much to report lately. I've keeping busy doing some little jobs. We changed out some rubber bushings for some polyurethane greasable stuff.
Big ol 9/16ths greadable bolts... I built a lower column mount today. Not much picture worthy. Speaking of pics... I was using tapatalk to load pictures, any suggestion now that tapatalk is dead? Laters

 

Great looking jeep, keep it up.

 

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Lets see if this works... Should be a picture of the new bushings compared to the stock size

 

Love the build pic's and the Siskiyou Cty. mud pic's. Reminded me of home so I went looking for an old pic of my Tux resting on top of Mount Ashland. Not real sure but I think where I was setting I was over the Calif line? This was taken about 1972. The Tux is a 66. Did a lot of wheeling back in the day in the Siskiyou Mountain range.

 

Hey Looks great........Nice to have the Mrs. out there grinding........mine would not know which end of the grinder had the wheel on it! (LOL) Keep sending pictures.

 

Nice work, looking forward to more progress pics. :lurk:

 

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We got our recovery shackle mounts from the machine shop. They're cut out of 1 inch plate and have a 1 inch hole. I figger that should be strong enough to pull with.

 

After I got those dudes welded on, I had a couple other holes to fill, then we sprayed some primer.
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Then came the final color.

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Now I need to stab the motor, tranny and transfer case back in so I can finalize where the brake pedals are gonna end up. I have a rough idea that they're in the right spot. I just wanna make sure with the booster mounted as well. I would feel pretty dumb if it hit the valve covers. Then I've got to pull it back out and clean up the firewall. Thanks for looking. Laters

 

You should work for army manufacturers, you, you and your wife, made a war machine! What an energy! You turn the Jeep up down, like a toy!
Keep a day for some rest anyway!

 

Thanks for the compliments guys, we appreciate them. We have a lot of fun working in the shop on our projects. Here is a neat picture she took while I was welding the shackle mounts on.


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Great work, keep it up.

 

Sweet build you have going here! And what an awesome wife that she is out there enjoying the build as much as you are!

 

Great build, your welds look great. What type of primer is that? Got to get some more primer for my shop and I like that color for some of my MV projects.

Thanks,

Dave