- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Hit me that this might be fun, a little "bench building" exercise
Background:
I have resolved that my postal needs to get blown apart after the SOA National Scramble/SandBlast next year to fix lingering issues, some of which have been there since the purchase in Anchorage in 2002. I covered a lot of ills with my body armor along the wheel wells and the rockers and I've only replaced the completely missing driver's floor (when I had the cage put in at JCR Offroad). Miraculously, I have never dropped the gas tank in this thing and my fuel gauge has been non functional for over a year. Last Sandblast, the front right body mount at the driver's "toe box" punched through the sheet metal and we did a solid fix that I feel fine about, but it's not right and I need to address a couple other bad no-longer-captured nuts. I've made so many additions and changes to the wiring that it's time it was completely redone too.
Question:
What would you do if it was yours?
Things that definitely stay:
Axles (D44/HD20 with 4.88 gears and ARB lockers): the brakes have always been great and I love this pair for what I do.
Dual diaphragm MC: Vanco unit that's been awesome
Frame: I do have front reinforcement plates from chiefwaho that I want to get on and I want to do the rear ones as well as fixing any other issues I find
Wheels/tires: no reason to change, no intention of ever going beyond 35s
Interior: Outside of the rear seat mentioned below, there's nothing really wrong with the interior.
Cage: I've been thrilled with the cage and aside from making the feet in the front floorboards work for whatever new floor ends up in there, it should be fine with a coat of paint.
Things that could go:
Motor: I have abused the CRAP out of this poor 4.0. I did the swap to this motor so that I could drop in a stroker in a weekend. The recent turbo developments for the 4.0 had me wondering about that route too. I wonder if @MrBeep if going to let me have my stroker motor and exhaust finally
Body: This is the BIG one. Fiberglass is out. It is MANDATORY that whatever I do work with the World Cab (that needs restoration of its own). That means that the top lip has to be right and able to accept the World Cab flange. With what I've seen of the Phillipine units, I don't think they'll work. I spoke with the owner of Aqualu for over an hour standing in front of the Postal at EJS and he is 100% confident that they can make a body that will work exactly right as everything they do is CAD driven. A few measurements and we could confirm it for certain and if adjustments were needed, they'd make them. I can't get over the idea of scrapping the original tub and it's not THAT far gone. Sadly, I have zero experience with sheet metal work and I'm worried that what I do won't look good or last if I go the repair route. It's also going to slow everything down enormously...
Suspension: I have the rear BDS leaves where I'm happy but need to play with the front. I've always said I'd like to get corner weights and go with a custom set of Alcan/Deaver/etc. springs to finally get things exactly right. I will get these weights before this project starts just in case.
Tcase: I dream of a 3/4-speed Atlas/STAK/etc. unit but the price will likely kill this. (Not into the idea of doublers.)
Crossmember: I have an XJ trans mount under the AW4 with holes drilled for it in the CJ crossmember, it's way taller than I need it to be. I'd like to suck up the crossmember and go with some other, shorter trans mount to take up the difference.
Things that have to be done:
Rear seat: need one with head rests and want to move it back. Matt Trout's recent third row seat install looks pretty killer.
Fuel system: Need more gas for my road trips and fuel lines should be replaced. I'd like to clean up the regulator/pump mounting while I'm in there and add a spare pump in parallel for easy fixes when one dies. Need a proper skid plate. I've destroyed one side of the stock unit.
Body replacement or fixes (see above):
I could take in/down the wheel wells with my lift and wider axles while doing the rust repair. New body mounts all around while I'm at it.
Outboard rear shocks/u-bolt flip:
I finally had to weld the lower shock mounts into the Rubicon Express U-bolt skid plates I have. They're total rock anchors and I bend/break one per wheeling trip on average. This would allow me to make/install a u-bolt flip so I can finally ditch the stupid skids that further kill ground clearance.
CB delete: get rid of this entirely, it's GMRS or nothing from now on, I haven't used it in years.
Steering box placement/pitman change: I have slight interference between the end of the pitman TRE and the tie rod at full, even compression. This needs to be addressed once and for all
Wiring: time to start over and rethink things now that I pretty much have added every possible 12V thing that this Jeep will ever see. I'd like to get rid of the XJ PDC I mounted under the hood on my driver's fender. Maybe a painless large harness and Trail Rocker or similar. Oops, one final addition, I need a 12V outlet in the bed for my fridge. I don't know how I haven't done this yet.
OBA system: Replace the tubing for everything and clean up/refine. May go electric rather than the converted Sanden setup I have in my LJ now for simplicity. Other than occasional leaks and holes in the air line I used, I've been happy with this otherwise.
I'm sure I'm missing some things, I'll add them as they come to me.
Current picture from Sandblast 13 (guess I didn't take a single one from the front )
Background:
I have resolved that my postal needs to get blown apart after the SOA National Scramble/SandBlast next year to fix lingering issues, some of which have been there since the purchase in Anchorage in 2002. I covered a lot of ills with my body armor along the wheel wells and the rockers and I've only replaced the completely missing driver's floor (when I had the cage put in at JCR Offroad). Miraculously, I have never dropped the gas tank in this thing and my fuel gauge has been non functional for over a year. Last Sandblast, the front right body mount at the driver's "toe box" punched through the sheet metal and we did a solid fix that I feel fine about, but it's not right and I need to address a couple other bad no-longer-captured nuts. I've made so many additions and changes to the wiring that it's time it was completely redone too.
Question:
What would you do if it was yours?
Things that definitely stay:
Axles (D44/HD20 with 4.88 gears and ARB lockers): the brakes have always been great and I love this pair for what I do.
Dual diaphragm MC: Vanco unit that's been awesome
Frame: I do have front reinforcement plates from chiefwaho that I want to get on and I want to do the rear ones as well as fixing any other issues I find
Wheels/tires: no reason to change, no intention of ever going beyond 35s
Interior: Outside of the rear seat mentioned below, there's nothing really wrong with the interior.
Cage: I've been thrilled with the cage and aside from making the feet in the front floorboards work for whatever new floor ends up in there, it should be fine with a coat of paint.
Things that could go:
Motor: I have abused the CRAP out of this poor 4.0. I did the swap to this motor so that I could drop in a stroker in a weekend. The recent turbo developments for the 4.0 had me wondering about that route too. I wonder if @MrBeep if going to let me have my stroker motor and exhaust finally
Body: This is the BIG one. Fiberglass is out. It is MANDATORY that whatever I do work with the World Cab (that needs restoration of its own). That means that the top lip has to be right and able to accept the World Cab flange. With what I've seen of the Phillipine units, I don't think they'll work. I spoke with the owner of Aqualu for over an hour standing in front of the Postal at EJS and he is 100% confident that they can make a body that will work exactly right as everything they do is CAD driven. A few measurements and we could confirm it for certain and if adjustments were needed, they'd make them. I can't get over the idea of scrapping the original tub and it's not THAT far gone. Sadly, I have zero experience with sheet metal work and I'm worried that what I do won't look good or last if I go the repair route. It's also going to slow everything down enormously...
Suspension: I have the rear BDS leaves where I'm happy but need to play with the front. I've always said I'd like to get corner weights and go with a custom set of Alcan/Deaver/etc. springs to finally get things exactly right. I will get these weights before this project starts just in case.
Tcase: I dream of a 3/4-speed Atlas/STAK/etc. unit but the price will likely kill this. (Not into the idea of doublers.)
Crossmember: I have an XJ trans mount under the AW4 with holes drilled for it in the CJ crossmember, it's way taller than I need it to be. I'd like to suck up the crossmember and go with some other, shorter trans mount to take up the difference.
Things that have to be done:
Rear seat: need one with head rests and want to move it back. Matt Trout's recent third row seat install looks pretty killer.
Fuel system: Need more gas for my road trips and fuel lines should be replaced. I'd like to clean up the regulator/pump mounting while I'm in there and add a spare pump in parallel for easy fixes when one dies. Need a proper skid plate. I've destroyed one side of the stock unit.
Body replacement or fixes (see above):
I could take in/down the wheel wells with my lift and wider axles while doing the rust repair. New body mounts all around while I'm at it.
Outboard rear shocks/u-bolt flip:
I finally had to weld the lower shock mounts into the Rubicon Express U-bolt skid plates I have. They're total rock anchors and I bend/break one per wheeling trip on average. This would allow me to make/install a u-bolt flip so I can finally ditch the stupid skids that further kill ground clearance.
CB delete: get rid of this entirely, it's GMRS or nothing from now on, I haven't used it in years.
Steering box placement/pitman change: I have slight interference between the end of the pitman TRE and the tie rod at full, even compression. This needs to be addressed once and for all
Wiring: time to start over and rethink things now that I pretty much have added every possible 12V thing that this Jeep will ever see. I'd like to get rid of the XJ PDC I mounted under the hood on my driver's fender. Maybe a painless large harness and Trail Rocker or similar. Oops, one final addition, I need a 12V outlet in the bed for my fridge. I don't know how I haven't done this yet.
OBA system: Replace the tubing for everything and clean up/refine. May go electric rather than the converted Sanden setup I have in my LJ now for simplicity. Other than occasional leaks and holes in the air line I used, I've been happy with this otherwise.
I'm sure I'm missing some things, I'll add them as they come to me.
Current picture from Sandblast 13 (guess I didn't take a single one from the front )
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