Eric's Postal Build Thread (was: Postal rebuild thread)

[Marine-OpLaw]

Catching up on reading past posts to thread...

Hey Eric,

When did you win the lottery? I didn't realize - 'cuz of being behind in reading/following your thread - you were going all-out in your Postal build-up.

Lessee... new LJ, lotsa new big buck addys to Postal,..... when did you strike gold bro?

Maybe I SHOULD go in biz w/ ya... looks like 'we ' got some capital now!

 

[bigwalton]

Hey Eric,

When did you win the lottery? I didn't realize - 'cuz of being behind in reading/following your thread - you were going all-out in your Postal build-up.

Lessee... new LJ, lotsa new big buck addys to Postal,..... when did you strike gold bro?

Maybe I SHOULD go in biz w/ ya... looks like 'we ' got some capital now!

Did you see that I hit a woman in the postal and she was at fault? Dealership labor rates are your friend when getting insurance quotes I also made money parting out Kate's CJ-5 and some more with parts off that XJ, oh and I sold my old axles to a lucky soul on here! This build also happened to start right around my birthday and all I asked anyone for was Jeep money

The LJ just replaced the payment on the Exploder and we wouldn't have done that except that we got such a great deal on the trade-in. Only having one car, oops Jeep payment is nice

Sorry, no capital for the new business, but I have a lot of ideas and a strong back! Is that good enough?

 

[Marine-OpLaw]

Welllll.... I s'pose it's enough if we're gonna steal an ATM!

Sorry, no capital for the new business, but I have a lot of ideas and a strong back! Is that good enough?

Any ideas where there is one not too well bolted down?

JUST KIDDING FOLKS! Don't need no dang FBI or Secret Service bubbas showing up on my door step!

 

[bigwalton]

Some good progress

I finally got some time today to get out and work on her after replacing the alternator on Kate's friend's Land Rover, just stopped to have a bite.

Got the spring hangers off both sides in the front. Not fun, took some interesting grinder positions, a couple of cutting wheels and some serious BFH action on the last one. The small welds on the backside/inside of the framerail were a PITA. I eventually just pounded the bracket back and forth til it broke the weld and cleaned it up with the grinder.

About to head out and hack the spring perches off the rear axle, then I might start trying to cut some metal I found to make up the outboarding brackets. Free scrap and nearly enough to do all of them!

I also managed to easily bust loose two of the three body mount bolts on the left side so I'm close to being able to fit up at least one rocker guard!

Going to start on the other side and try to soak the one bolt in PB while I'm working...

Pics to come tonight when I'm done with as much as I can do today.

 

[bigwalton]

Crusher Corners

Been a loooong time since I got any good work done on the Postal, so this weekend I attacked it again. Realizing that I might have some issues with fitment given the condition of my tub and the fact that I was going to have to cut a notch out of the edge of the left corner near the tailgate so that I can put the rear door to the hardtop back on, I figured I ought to get these things on once before painting them so I wouldn't have to screw with them once they were painted.

I also thought that on the Jeep was a good place to store them Very out of the way.

Here's some pics of the corners mounted. In the one you can see where I used the very last bit of my last cut-off wheel to start cutting out the notch for the rear door hinge.

Now that I see how much of the rusty crap that this is going to cover up (especially once the rockers are mounted), I'm kinda tempted to go with white for the final color on these things... Jury's still out though.

I tried to get the last two body mount bolts on the left side out so I could fit the rocker too, but after the first one came out easy, the last one in the very back proved hard enough that I wanted to give it a while to soak in PB, so I sprayed the back side (threads) of it through the hole I had to drill/tear into the body as an access for the lower rear bolt on the corners. I'll keep at it.... I can't wait to see it with the rockers too and finally have that ugly rust hole covered up under the passenger door!

Now to pick up more cut off disks and get the outboarding bracket pieces all cut... Wish me luck on the last body mount bolt on this side... I broke the third one back off already. It was rusted down in the middle to less than half of it's original diameter. I'm REALLY not looking forward to getting that fixed.

 

[ncmallard78]

hey buddy, i have not talked to you in a while. what are you doing to the sides of your jeep? are you replacing the sheetmetal? we need to get together soon and go wheeling! jeep looks great...

 

[WildTurkeycj8]

Hey Eric - how heavy are those crusher corners?

I didn't realize that you had that much rust on your Jeep tub....I think you said the same about mine a while ago!

Looking good!

-Mike W

 

[bigwalton]

what are you doing to the sides of your jeep? are you replacing the sheetmetal?

I'm installing Poison Spyder Customs Crusher Corners and Rocker Knockers, they just go over and bolt to your existing body.

linky 1

linky 2

My Jeep's a LONG way from wheeling shape... I'm shooting for it being done by the end of Sept.

 

[bigwalton]

Hey Eric - how heavy are those crusher corners?

I didn't realize that you had that much rust on your Jeep tub....I think you said the same about mine a while ago!

Looking good!

-Mike W

Thanks. It's no V-8 powered nuts frame off like some people, but I'm really happy to see this starting to happen finally...

I'd say the corners are around 30-40 lb. a pop, total guesstimate there though. Tough to tell because they're so darn awkward to lift by yourself due to the odd shape.

 

[bigwalton]

Tonight's progress...

Tonight I got the new Vanco brake booster installed tonight. I just need an extension because this one has the F/R resevoirs swapped, so the rear line is too short now.

I had to bend the bejeezus out of the grille support rod to fit it around the new monster booster. I can't wait to try this thing out. The one thing that needed big improvement was the brakes.

I also managed to break off the last body bolt on the passenger side (that makes two on that side that broke off, at least I got three out fine) so that I could fit up the rocker by slipping it into the body mounts. Here's how she looks with the rocker and corner on that side:

ME LIKEY!!!

 

[Stouttrout]

Thanks. It's no V-8 powered nuts frame off like some people.

HEY!!!! Who is that directed at . Looking good. I like the look of those crusher panels. So, what color did you decide to paint them?

 

[WildTurkeycj8]

Eric that is looking great! (deja vu! )

Linky2 above took me to the PS tube fender flares...are you going to be putting those on?

Too bad you're so far away..would like to give you a hand with some of that stuff!

Later
-Mike W

 

[bigwalton]

HEY!!!! Who is that directed at . Looking good. I like the look of those crusher panels. So, what color did you decide to paint them?

Mike W. actually... guess I forget how many of those are out there

Now that I see the corners and rockers together, It makes me kinda want to go with white, since they cover everything that was bad and the fenders/hood are really in pretty decent shape. I'm totally up in the air right now, I keep poking my head into the garage anytime I'm in that part of the house to see what I think at that particular moment.

The only thing keeping me from only wanting white is the fact that any scratch in the paint (I'm leaning toward pure rattlecan for my ride's armor due to $$$, BTW) will show up like neon... I reassure myslf that I can just ride around with a spraybomb and hit any scratches when they happen.

I'm so

 

[bigwalton]

Linky2 above took me to the PS tube fender flares...are you going to be putting those on?

Sorry, that was an error, PSC site is hard to link to inside pages. I didn't want to spend the extra $$$ on them, but now that I have these on, I've got to try to come up with something to do in the way of flares...

The hack way that I remounted my stock flares probably would work fine, just need to try it.

 

[jpdeuce]

Can't believe I missed this thread. That's awesome. Feels good to get stuff done huh? Especially after so many purchases

Can you get some pics of the bottom of those crusher corners and the rocker knockers? I'm curious to how much protection they provide there and how they mount.

Nice work man...keep at it!

 

[bigwalton]

i know that I'll catch all kinds of crap for not having pictures, but I'm now under a time crunch because I found out that I have to get this thing inspected (at least to fail) before the end of the month or I have to turn in my tags (and I may still be fined for not turning them in sooner). I should have moved out into the freaking country! UGH!

Anyway, after some adoption stuff totally consumed my time for the last week and a half, I have managed some progress and made some of the final purchases I needed to get to get her on the road.

Ordered: front lockouts, body lift (to replace shot mounts), rear axle perches, new spring hangers, rear axle outer seals.

I still need new rotors/calipers in the front to go with the lockouts, but I'm just going to get those locally.

In the past couple days I managed to cut/beat the hell out of the rear corner sheet metal (when I got into the crusher corners, I found out there was a good coat of bondo covering a hammered out dent, so I didn't feel so bad) so that the LED taillights fit in. I did it so I didn't have to cut a giant hole and chop out any of the reinforcing rib in the back corners of the tub. I just bent the hell out of them with a BFH A bodyman I ain't!!

I also managed to get the body bolts out with only two breaking off on me. Haven't managed to get the broken bits out yet, but I may just leave them until after the inspection to keep moving on other things (it will only move from my place to the shop and back after all).

I got the front shafts ready to reinstall with new seals, one u-joint needed replaced.

Got the body mounts cut down for the rockers (you have to cut 3/16ths off of the ones that the rockers go into, hacksaw worked great...) and got one side's worth of them installed.

I also finished the pattern for the rear outboarding brackets and got in touch with the guy that's going to burn them out of 1/4" plate for me.

Next week I hope to have those and get them buzzed together if my welding buddy is available one night. In between that I'll get the rest of the body lift in and get the other rocker mounted up and bolt on the one that's up on the left side...

I'll just pull the front driveshaft out for the time being to get the inspection, the rear one shouldn't be any problem.

Fun stuff... there's hope but I also have the steering setup hanging over my head. But since I can't really do anything until the axle is hung, I'm trying not to worry too much about it.

Man I can't wait to drive her again...

 

[Scott Mine]

Project

Man you are coming along nicely on that thing. I just did not go that far in depth this time with mine is why i already have stuff bolted up. I told Pitbull to make sure that i bring my resto album that i made when i done this.

Looks good and keep working on it.

 

[donaghy]

Well, let me be the first to say it..

 

[bigwalton]

Thanks Scott.

Matt, that's just what I was expecting... can't you do any better than that?

 

[2K1TJ]

Glad to see you're makin' progress!

I do have a question about this though.

I also finished the pattern for the rear outboarding brackets and got in touch with the guy that's going to burn them out of 1/4" plate for me.

I thought most people just move the perches on the rear axle, rather than outboarding . Or did I miss something or misunderstand you?