Carwash Crawler - Build Thread... again.

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I think this is the 4th time i have had to rehash this thread here, maybe that is some sort of sign or something... anyway, here goes, lets take a walk back in history, to a time when i had such unrealistic goals for completion time on this rig...

I have started this new thread and have forgotten the old one, as i need a clean slate to start with.

So, some details...

Chassis - 3 seat tube chassis, mix of .109, .120 and .134 wall 1.75 OD DOM. Front clip from a YJ (thanks Kargomaster). Other than that, no Jeep parts, sorry. Side panels from .125 aluminum or thicker lexan or hdpe (undecided still).

Axles - 2.5 ton Rockwell toploaders. Stock shafts for now, 2" shafts soon from OEM. Detroit lockers in both. Pinion brakes. Full hydraulic steering.

Wheel / Tires - Custom double beadlocks. 44 x 19.5 x 16.5 Boggers. Big meats.

Suspension - 18" Travel 2.5 Fox Air Shocks. Triangulated 4 link front and rear. Upper arms 1.75x.375 wall DOM. Lower arms 2.0x.500 wall DOM. Johnny joints at all ends, no threaded shank, no adjustment, no weak links.

Driveline - SBC 350, .030 over, 4 bolt mains, Corvette Speed Density TPI. TH400 built to the max by John Carr. STAK 3 speed t-case.

That about covers it for now i guess. On to the pics. You have already seen a lot of these, so just shut up. I will do my best to update this with every bit of progress i make. Be sure to offer any feedback or input you may have.

The base chassis build:

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And now back at my shop finally:

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Axle tear down and rebuild (well soon to be rebuilt)











Jury is still out on whether I will be running this twisted shaft of not, need to find someone to float me a stock replacement. I don't want to buy one as I will be doing the 2" soon.

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Gotta show off the STAK, it is such a work of art.

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And a pile of other miscellaneous build parts, shocks, joints, trans, unbuilt motor, etc...

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Pics of the BTF parts that arrived today...

Tube chassis winch plate, orbital mount, Rockwell 4 link mounts, and a pair of DIY diff cover kits.

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Fabricators mounts from DIY4x. Stout SBC block mounts and poly filled fabrication sets. Crazy stout and cheap as hell. check this guy's stuff out at www.diy4x.com .





I just gotta get out there and start putting this stuff together.

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Ok, made some progress this weekend. A lot of time was spent initially getting the chassis level. You don't realize how unlevel your shop floor is until you put a level across it. Had my buddy Bobb helping me on Saturday. It's amazing how nice it is having someone to help, it makes things go more than twice as fast. Some things one person just can't do.

Man, I really need to buy a notcher. It really sucked making all of these...


Made a nice little grill mount off the backside of the winch plate, utilizing the stock YJ body mount location.


Got the winch plate on, top tube of the double tube frame front, and the top inner fender tube with support. Sux, seemed like i got so much more done than i did...









The two tubes sticking out the front top will tie into a grill hoop. the bottom tubes sticking out, i'm still undecided on. Any suggestions? Im thinking of splicing and grafting a mini stinger onto it. It needs to be terminated somehow. It was designed originally to use a different winch plate that tied both bars into it. So, i gotta figure something out.

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Need suggestions on how to terminate this bottom tube. Originally planned to have it terminate into a winch plate, but not using that winch plate now, as you can see. so, i gotta come up with a way to terminate the bottom tubes.... what do i do?



Do i just cut it short up by the short vertical support and put a nice cap on it? Like this one...



Any other ideas? Make a stinger off of it. would have to be grafted... so not the strongest, etc.

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Well, a little late, but better late than never. I borrowed a Lowbuck Tools notcher from my buddy Travis. Got it home tonight and mounted it up.





Talk about some fast notching. CHOMP CHOMP and i get this...



and it fits perfect... a perfect notch.



Just wanted to share my excitement and time savings from here out...


(edit: I hated this notcher, and wouldn't recommend buying one. angled notches are near impossible, and found myself needing to grind every notch, even the 90 degree ones to get them to work well)

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Well, not a ton of updates, but here are a few pics...

Received my POB bracket from captainFab on OFN. Pretty sweet bracket, and necessary when doing multiple bends... I have already used it enough to make it worth twice what i spent on it.





Got the tubes bent for the fenders.







Finally got my shop PC going to run the bend-tech software... nice to have it close to operations now.



Put in a few more supports here and there, side and bottom of front fender...



Then, as I am bending the grill hoop, this happens "CHINK!!!"



I was so pissed. A blessing in disguise i guess, as it was 3:00 a.m. and i had already drank too much beer. So today i called JD2, and they told me they had fixxed that problem, and that it was happening quite a bit. My die is at least 2 years old, so it wasn't covered under warranty, but they did sell me a new full block for below their cost (he says). They made the holder wider to distribute the load better. Should arrive next week. So, only straight tubes being put in this weekend, oh well.

Really good customer service tho on JD2's part.

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OK!!! today was motor day. Bought my motor from a friend, a pull out from his jeep. Was a decent runner when he pulled it, but smoked a little at start up, so we decided it was the valve seals in need of some love. No big deal.

Well yesterday my buddy Bobb prepped and cleaned the motor and stripped it of all accessories, etc. And this morning, Brandon and I tore into it. Well we pop off the first valve, and there was no valve seal... we pop the other 7 off the one head, and not a valve seal on any valve. so, the valves were all disgusting and upon pulling them, none of them would seat and were all hung open... so off with the heads for a valve job. did it ourselves on the bench in about 2 hours. Ground them, reinstalled, light resurface, and slapped them back on. Cross your fingers.

Built up the tpi and stuck it on (no gaskets or anything, just stuck it all together with a few bolts), just to feel like i accomplished something the past 2 days. Got a few bars in the rear of the chassis as well... where is that new die, dammit. Here is a little picture recap of the weekend as well...

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new die follower came... they did a big change in design...

OLD


NEW


that's beefy.

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I've been a busy bee this weekend, damn near have the chassis done minus the belly. Did a little redesign on the front a-pillar connector... When you are on a strict deadline, redesigning things is a definite step backwards, but i think it was worth it, as the windshield area looks much better (meaner) than before.









Also did a bunch of work to the cowl, well Brad (KargoMaster on here) did a bunch of work to the cowl. He was nice enough to spend the whole day working with me. Again proving that things go way more than twice as fast with two people. Had to cut the stock windshield area off of it. Then had to notch out the cowl where two of the front end supports go from the front end to the upper dash bar. Had to cut completely through it so i will cover those holes with some nothced tubing. I'm also going to have another buddy TIG the whole seem from the upright to the curved area, after i get rid of all the assembly putty in there. It will look alot better and be much stronger.

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He then DA's and grinded the whole thing to make it pretty and smoothe. He now has the red boogers.

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And here are some shots of how the chassis sits now... tons of new tubes in. Gussets, Gussets, Gussets, supports, etc... Only a few more tubes and i will have the upper chassis done. Then it's time to drop motor, trans, and tcase in for belly mockup.

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ok, updates updates updates...

Damn cold here now, got heaters pulling double duty. My bigger one keeps taking a crap on me, and the little one has a hell of a time trying to keep up witn the drafts coming in some of my huge gaps... but anyway...



My slide in clevis mounts are done, and installed. Makes a darn nice termination for that tubing. I love them. Utilitarian and takes care of my dead tubing issues...

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Put the dash bar in as well... where i put it will make an 8" dash. 9 seemed like too much and 7 seems like way too skinny







Had to figure out a way to locate the grill at the top as well so i busted out these little tabs and utilized a couple of the stock mounting holes in the grill. Pretty cool, I like them, and the grill is SOLID, it isn't moving.

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Then turned the chassis 90 degrees in the shop so i could get to all sides better. Kargomaster came over and helped me to day with all of this stuff. Also, Jeffhpk5 or whatever his gay screen name is stopped by as well and brought my fender tops and we talked shop and swapped steel all afternoon.

We managed to get the drivetrain in today, motor, trans, and tcase. Got them located in their final positions. This took a while and we are happy with their location. It's tough figuring out where to put all of it. How high? how far back? etc.









That STAK sure is a big pig, but i will gladly make room for it.

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Here is the line of how it all sits in the chassis...







The stak sits very close to passenger side frame rail. About a 1/2 to 3/4. Had to clock it to get it that far away. Also had to clock it so that the driveshaft would clear the trans pan, etc, and alleviate the need for a 2-piece shaft.

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Here are some wide shots of the drivetrain in the chassis. Next step is to make the belly around all of this.

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Got a little bit done tonight... working on the belly.

It's so nice when you bend up two pieces that are supposed to be identical, and they actually are... it's so rare for me it seems...



Got the sides of the belly on, and supports between them for the center link mounts... damn these things are beefy.













Mock fitted my BTF towers to get some rough measurements to put in the 4-link calculator.



This weekend the motor, trans and tcase should be final mounted, and i can raise the thing up to approximate ride height to finish up all the suspension...

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ok, this was my last weekend to work on the rig until after the first of the year. Next weekend is christmas and then we are heading to florida for week right after, and won't be back til Jan. 4th or so. So i did my best to get as much done as i possibly could this weekend.

My buddy Kargomaster came down to help both days, and Bobb came down today to help finish some things up. The whole day saturday was spent getting the crossmember/trans tcase mount together and mounted it. Got it pretty close to done by Sat night and finished it on sunday. Then got the motor mounts put in today as well.

The complete drivetrain is now sitting in the buggy without jackstands or any outside help.

The crossmember has four removal mounting points made with poly fabsets from DIY4X. This guy's stuff rules, and he charges way too little for this stuff.

How about some pics...

Making the center crossmember t-case mount. this was a *****, as the adapter/mount doesnt sit straight up and down, it has a slight rear pitch to it at the top, making guessing this angle difficult.







Kargomaster got a booboo. He uses a ***** guard on his grinder, and when he picked mine up and used it (no ***** guard), it bit him. He whined for an hour. jk.



Finished and installed mount. A work of art. I dont think this t-case is going anywhere. Braced everywhere... it will be the last thing to give.

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After getting the tcase solid, then moved to the motor mounts. Standard tube mounts, with a nice 1/4 inch gusset on the top. Should hold up just fine.









Some shots as it sits now, with the drivetrain held completely by the chassis.