Building My Future Daily Driver

Thought I would share my efforts to replace my current daily driver (95 Wrongler) w/ my latest project, 1971 cj-6 :v6: t-14, single stick 18, 27/44 4:88 gears, trac loc






The frame was cracked at all 4 corners

Driver side rear, right under the factory brace for the spring hanger, most of the way thru the frame here, picture makes PO's weld look better than it was

Passenger side rear, half way up the wheel arch, crack runs from top half way down frame
The PO's repair left a little to be desired, a piece of 1/4" scabbed on the outside,of both sides, some 7018 sort of melted around the edges
and a half dozen 5/16" x 1"1/2 bolts all double nutted for strength? security? and how about those fender washers to spread the load?
any way they were all loose and wallowing out the holes, it was really a work of art!
The rear bumper was in place, but, for some reason it had a frame width piece of 2x2x1/4 tube welded to it.
I started with 3x3x3/16 tube for a rear bumper and started boxing the frame from there.





Boxed with 3/16x4" strap, as I came to each cross member I cut it off boxed thru, then welded x-member back in place









Wrangler spring hangers and out side fish plating to strengthen the areas that were cracked








Front shackle hanger 1.5"/ .120 wall tube thru frame

Motor mounts are (2) old spring hangers cut in half, w/ 1.75"x.120 wall tube and some spring bushings off a blazer inserted













Ending with 3x3x3/16 tube front bumper with M.O.R.E spring hangers



and the frame is done!

I hope this wasn't too long a post, but I have a lot of pictures and 0 :JEEP: building friends to share them with.

 

Share them HERE!!!! More pics the better. Well done thus far, the frame looks really good and beefy to say the least. Are you using a Clarke 180EN?

 

Good looking fab work. Good old american ingenuity - -Love it.

 

Sweet. I don't think it's possible to post too many pics. Keep'em coming

 

Nice work. I don't know if it was a typo, but I love "wrongler."

Sent from my LS670

 

nice work. there is no such thing as too many pics here.

 

Thank you all.
The Clarke welder in the photos is a 130EN that I keep .23 wire in almost always. I do sheet metal and light work with it bought it cheap when Country General went out of business.
My big welder is a 200ST Pow-Con that I got from my dad, It is a great machine that even makes most of my welds look good.

'74 Renegade: rectangle headlights are just wrong R)

I have a few more that I took while I was on my back doing the frame.(the body is unbolted, hovering above the frame and propped on 4x4's)
There was no rot on the hat channels, and factory body mounts, but they were all crushed.They did however have nearly new poly mounts that contributed to the crushing.
The floor was cracked thru the back of the toolbox and about 6" toward the rear, the mid body cross member and the rear body cross member were broken clean thru.
I think the body w/ the crushed mounts and broken cross members was actually going to split lengthwise down the middle.

This is the mid body x-member/ backside of the tool box after I pulled it together and welded it up.




Rear body x-member after the same treatment.




This shows how I repaired the hat channels. I cut 3\32 steel the width of the channel and double the length of the crushed area and welded it in.
It looks pretty butch and this is the ugliest one but they should be plenty strong. The factory sheet metal lasted 40 years these ought to do the same.





The forward braces were both crushed, cracked and twisted. The hat channel extension was torn completely off the driver side.



The passenger side was just as bad, but the floor wasn't bent out of shape like the other side.



I made templates from my other 71 and cut some more of the same sheet steel to fit just inside the braces and welded it in.
Here's the driver side, the floor was bent, but I didn't notice how badly until I tried to fit the repair panel in. It took a lot of
heat, hammers, jacks, pry bars and cursing to get the floor evened out.



The passenger side went much better, they are much stronger and the floor is almost smooth.



I also finished the front body mount(under grill)\ cross member\winch plate.
The x-member is a 4" wide piece of 1/4 wall 4x4 tube on each side of the frame, the steering shaft passes thru one and the other has the plug for the winch mounted inside it.
In between is a cut down section of the long extension rod from a 10 ton port a power i found.




Two pieces of 1.75x.120 tube for spreaders and 1/2 inch plate for the winch mount and a scrap of 3" angle for the body mount.



Here's the winch mounted and wires running toward the future battery. The control box\solenoid is mounted under the winch behind the bumper.



The Jeep had a brand new tank when I got it, but you should have seen how it was mounted, one 1/4" machine screw thru each rear corner of the
tank where the two halves are crimped together, and a 5/16 bolt on the front, clamping two pieces of angle between the tank and the x-member.
The filler neck was mounted just above the bumper, and the fill hose was crushed by the body. It would have taken an hour to fill.
but w\ the yj springs and heavy shackles it wouldn't fit of course, so here's a gas tank that I built some years ago, now altered to fit this frame.







Here's a rear view of the tank, I think about 13.5 gallons




front mounts of tank



Bottom of filler tube and body mount on rear bumper




Filler tube




Filler neck and cap



That's it for this installment,I'll get some more next week hope you enjoy.

 

I thought I would share the past few days progress, the body mounts are all done and the body is now sitting back on top of them.
I welded 1" x 2" rectangle tube inside the the body cross member, between the original mount location and the underside of the floor.
Then the mounts are 2" square tube cut at a 45 with 3/8 bolts



Here I used 1/4" plate inside the body x-member.



Then, since the it was kind of close to the upper shock mount. I moved the body mount to the backside and welded it in.



For the rear mounts, I used 1" square tube because there wasn't room for the 2". I welded it in the same, floor to lip along the seam of the corner panel
and the filler panel under the tailgate.



The other two at the mid body x-member I used 2" pieces of 1/4 " angle.



Here you can see the repair on the hat channel in the back ground 1/8 " up the sides and 1/4" on the top finish it.



Next I turned my attention to the roll cage, 1.75 x .120 wall DOM tube. Bent in my driveway on my Pro-Tools 105 hd bender.









I ran all the down tubes through the floor and put sections of the DOM tube on the ends, with some more spring bushings and sleeves I had laying around.
On the front I used 2 x 3 x 1/4 wall tube welded directly to the frame with 1/4 " plate and 1/2" bolts to tie it together.



Just past where the mount is welded on, I notched the rectangle tube and bent it up to just below the body, then re-welded it to match the rear for
the guard-rail sliders.







The rear hoop comes through the floor right in front of the body x-member, if you look you can see where the outer body support/brace was torn away
from the body and folded back on itself, ( the diagonal line in the green paint) this was really fun to pound back into place. The bondo on the body was
about 1/2" thick here!
The rear tie in is 2 1/2" x 1/4 wall square tube.










These tubes go through the floor right on the rear cross member.





Here's how they're tied to the frame, 3" pieces of 3" 1/4 wall square tube with the top cut off.





and finally here's the guardrail (rock) sliders.





One of the joint.




Finally 1 more of the cage w/ slider.




That's all I've got for now, sorry it's so long I'll try to shorten it up a little next time.

 

Time for another update.
Installed the heater, patched the driver side floor, finished the dash and started the wiring harness.
The D.S.P.O. started installing a heater from an intermediate, he cut a hole in the cowl for fresh air and bolted the heater unit to the dash (sort of).

I spent 3 days last fall building a cable operated flapper to control fresh air intake, and altered the diversion box off the 71' to get air to the defroster,
also cable controlled. When I installed it this spring with the new plastic defroster duct it wouldn't fit. So, I started to lower the whole unit 4" for
clearance, cut new holes (second pair) in the dash for water to the heater core , when I cleaned up the holes and started to test the fit, I caught the
wires on the edge of the doorway, dropped the unit on the concrete and shattered the housing around the heater core!
So I scrapped the entire mess welded up the cowl and studied this very web sight for low cost heater suggestions.
I settled on the Summit after finding several very nice examples of installed units here and this is my attempt.





One bracket is welded to the joint where the cowl and the windshield perch meet. The other is bolted to the firewall.




Installed with defroster duct and hose.




Now I can finish the dash. I found two stainless shelves someone was throwing away.



I cut the bottom lip off along the bend, trimmed the top edge and hammered the two sides flat and drilled it.
To strengthen and stabilize it, I bolted 1" angle to the bottom and welded mounting tabs to each side just
inside the door openings.







Here the opening is cut for the gauge panel



Steering column mounted.





Now its time to mount the gauges, and of coarse they wont fit with the defroster duct mounted!

Sooooo I came up with a new mount for the duct. I used tek screws to bolt the duct to the backside of the joint right behind the factory
openings for defrost air and drilled some holes to allow more air flow.



Then I welded scrap sheet metal on each side to close the channel behind the dash





Then welded this piece of floor from another Jeep and sealed the whole mess with some silicone and it is done.



Here's whats left of the dash that was in it when I bought it, under the brush painted white, It is 73-74 Renegade yellow,
so if you have an intermediate Renegade with no dash, I know where it is.



Here's the driver side floor, you can see how far I moved the dimmer switch to clear the swinging pedals and the hole that I cut for the new column.





Test fit and welded up.





Here's the mount for the fuse box, cut out of the same sheet I've used for everything else. I drilled and notched it for the Painful wiring harness
that came with the Jeep when I bought it, then welded nuts on the backside.





Then I welded it on the inside wall on the joints for the cowl and side panel.



Here's the fuse box mounted, the wires for the dash and column run behind the box and up the wall
The front harness runs thru the floor and comes out in the pocket behind the inner fender.



These are the switch panels, L. to R. Ignition, headlight, heater, wiper, starter and washer, fed by low side of wiper switch.







Switch panel's mounted on 1" angle support along bottom of dash.



The three wires next to the headlight switch are for the wipers, they run up the roll cage to the wiper motor,
I just have to bundle and wire tie this mess and it should be done.
I'm putting an under seat tank in so I did that real quick,











This shows the rear harness beside the driver seat with a switch for the 2 fuel tank sending units and a one for the rear spot/back-up light.



and 1 shot of how close the gauges and cobbled up defrost duct are. The gauges, lights and signal indicators are grounded separately to the welded in panel.



I hope this wasn't to long to hold your interest, back in a week or so.

 

Any updates?

 

Yes I do have an update, sorry It's been so long for anyone following along.

Next I bent up a tire/jack rack.

I started with a couple weld on shackle mounts flat on the rear bumper then built the rack around them.




The ears on the tube ends are a couple old shackles cut in half and welded to the end of 1.75 DOM tube.






I've got it removed right now to work on other things but I will get better pics of each piece later.

I welded 7/16" nuts inside each end of a piece of 2" pipe for the upper mount. It fits between the chain tabs on the tailgate.
then 7/16" bolts run through the body tabs and gate tabs into the upper mount.
Then I welded 1/2" bolts to a couple tabs that I then welded to each end of the pipe facing up to mount the jack.








Under the jack is a piece of tube running to the rear that is also welded to the pipe. It fits inside the short piece of tube behind
the tire mount and a pin goes through both and holds the tire mount up in the closed position.

 

Next I turned my attention to the bumper to try to make it a little more presentable.
I cut a 1" by 6" angle out of the tops of both ends and the entire bottom as shown.
Sorry for the picture the one of the other side was much better but it is lost in
computer land somewhere, oh well you get the idea.




Bottom cut off.






Passenger side angle cut out.





Driver side cut and cleaned up.




Then I hammered the remaining piece of bumper against itself and welded it in place, along with a new bottom and small end piece.



Then cleaned each end up.





And voila the bumper is done!

 

I like, I like!

I don't quite understand how your tire will stay secured, but I'll just wait till I see pics of the finished product.

 

wow lots work nice,

lets see some pics also of that nice looking ...(((...green renegade I ,or II...)) ... in the back ground

dont be stingy with that eye candy

 

68BuickV6
I didn't explain very well that the tire mount is not quite done, I just threw an old Jeep wheel
on it painted the stud locations and now I'll simply weld wheel studs in the correct location.

 

And especially for you tomatolane, Is this a picture of you trying to sneak a peek at my treasures?


























Here's another to help you nail down the year and model.







Yes it is one of the original wheels that are still on it.


Thanks for the interest in the thread and I will post some more pics of the green Jeep.

 

wow pretty young buck, still has the fuzz on its antlers. I am surprised the cat wasnt more interested in the deer LOL

 

Yeah she doesn't pay much attention to the deer, I give her bowls and bowls of food to keep an eye on my junk
and she seems to just want to lay in the sun.

Here's a couple pictures of my next project as promised, I've owned it I think 5 years. 1971 Renegade I 47,000 miles, I think I'm the third owner, it came from the springs area.
It had a pretty healthy 231 that I drove for a couple years on and off, but now it has a rod knock so the deuce and a quarter out of the current project is going to get freshened up
and put in it. It has a Rancho 2.5" lift so it rides like a brick on roller skates, but the original springs off the 6 are military wrap 11 and 12 leaf packs that I will freshen up and put
on this Jeep.

 

^^^ that looks like a nice k5 bblazer. The renegade looks good. Nice collection.