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OT: Retro Wrangler/Willys Pickup (long)

jeff,

intrigued by your jump seat ingenuity, i checked out your other posts and...here i am. i just got done reading this entire thread! :eek: yea, its long! anyway, i know a bunch of other guys have said so, but i'm really impressed with your planning and ingenuity. also, during the execution of your well laid plans, your attention to detail and patience has certainly paid off and you've got (half of) a work of art! i'm excited to see more, keep it coming. :thumbsup:

dan
 
Dan_Smoot said:
jeff,

intrigued by your jump seat ingenuity, i checked out your other posts and...here i am. i just got done reading this entire thread! :eek: yea, its long! anyway, i know a bunch of other guys have said so, but i'm really impressed with your planning and ingenuity. also, during the execution of your well laid plans, your attention to detail and patience has certainly paid off and you've got (half of) a work of art! i'm excited to see more, keep it coming. :thumbsup:

dan
Click to expand...

Thanks!!! :o :o

For me, design is everything, and sometimes I do think of this as my expression of art and design, I guess that sounds goofy, but when I'm shaping sheet metal to make fenders for example, I often think of it as my way of artistic expression, maybe that inspires me to do higher quality work.

Anyways, thanks for the nice words. Everything should be coming together in August, I've already started moving stuff to the new house even though we haven't closed yet. As soon as the old house garage doesn't have cars in it anymore, I've got the space to begin cutting the LJ in half. Should be very soon now. And I do believe it will be driveable as a pickup about 30 days after I start cutting because I've got pretty much everything fabricated up in kit form now. We'll see :-)

Jeff
 
Got my bed box yesterday at Tractor Supply. Over the next couple of days I'll be installing the tie-downs to the bed floor and adapting the bed box to be secured to the bed using the front pair of tie downs and some threaded knobs going through the bottom of the box.

Emblem on the box is a b&w printout of what I'll be putting over the Tractor Supply emblem; it will be white lettering on a red background. Color decal will be done early next week. Artwork is a reproduction of a 1948 Willys pickup emblem.

Jeff

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Bed box is ready to roll.... here's after and before.

May be moving into the new house late next week. Disassembly of LJ to follow shortly thereafter.

Jeff

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Just read all 9 pages so far. Not sure you need another "this is friggin awesome" post but...this is friggin awesome. I wish I had half the skills you have with metal and welding, then my Jeep might have more than a 2x4 flatbed when Dan bought it.

Anyway, looking forward to the rest of this project.

JP
 
jpdeuce said:
Just read all 9 pages so far. Not sure you need another "this is friggin awesome" post but...this is friggin awesome. I wish I had half the skills you have with metal and welding, then my Jeep might have more than a 2x4 flatbed when Dan bought it.

Anyway, looking forward to the rest of this project.

JP
Click to expand...

JP,
Thanks for the kind words... this is actually my first real sheet metal, fabrication and welding project, before this I'd tinkered around making a few small things for my Scrambler project but nothing serious and no sheet metal work before this - hey, you never know what you can do until you dream it and try it. Get started! :-)
Jeff
 
saw a truck

Hey,

been lurking around and following this thread. I think it is awesome and can't wait to see the finished project. I look forward to every update.

Anyway, I was down at the beach on Monday night and passed a black Jeep truck. Looked like the front of a jeep with a truck bed, but I couldn't get turned around fast enough to get a up close look at it. If you like, if I see it again I will try to get a picture or something so you can see it. I have never seen it around here before, I think onesourcemike lives here too so maybe he has seen it.

take care.
 
SurfnCJ8 said:
Hey,

been lurking around and following this thread. I think it is awesome and can't wait to see the finished project. I look forward to every update.

Anyway, I was down at the beach on Monday night and passed a black Jeep truck. Looked like the front of a jeep with a truck bed, but I couldn't get turned around fast enough to get a up close look at it. If you like, if I see it again I will try to get a picture or something so you can see it. I have never seen it around here before, I think onesourcemike lives here too so maybe he has seen it.

take care.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'd love to see a picture of anything that might give me more ideas :-)

Jeff
 
Moving into the new place yet??? :D :D :D

We need a countdown timer....
 
bigwalton said:
Moving into the new place yet??? :D :D :D

We need a countdown timer....
Click to expand...

Good timing Eric, we moved today. I'm writing to you from the new place. Tomorrow (Saturday) I will ceremoniously drive the LJ into the center bay of the now unoccupied 3-car garage at the old house, not to be driven out of the garage again until it is transformed into the Retro Wrangler.

Maybe I'll even disassemble something tomorrow, but for the next few days I expect to be bogged down by move-in details. Got to go to Lowes now for a few fittings to hook up the dryer.

Jeff
 
AWESOME!!! Of course we want pictures of it on the way in :D

The countdown timer is still needed for the time to the frame cut. :evil:
 
bigwalton said:
AWESOME!!! Of course we want pictures of it on the way in :D

The countdown timer is still needed for the time to the frame cut. :evil:
Click to expand...

Actually the part of the job I am LEAST looking forward to is cutting the tub. Since I'm using the Brute cab closeout sheet metal I'll be following their instructions for that phase and it is a painful list of steps drilling out bazillions of spot welds, scraping seam sealer and structural adhesive out of factory joints.. ugh. Once that's done the frame cutting will be fun.

It goes something like this:

A few days disassembling the interior, roll bar, tailgate, seats, carpet, wiring etc.

A few days fighting with the aforementioned tub sectioning.

A few days disassembling the rear suspension, remaining wiring, brake and fuel lines, etc., culminating in cutting the frame.

Maybe a week aligning the new rear frame half, welding that together, fabbing up a new center crossmember to strengthen the now-longer frame, lengthening brake lines, fuel lines, emergency brake cables, wiring.

Then a few days fitting the Brute cab closeout sheet metal to the back of the cut-off tub, welding that all together.

Then on to the bed mounting, maybe the better part of a week getting that all aligned properly, supports welded to the frame, etc. And maybe a few days reengineering the soft top bows and mechanism to become a pickup-length soft top.

Then off to the paint shop and the hot rod upholstery shop to get the soft top "canvas" (it isn't canvas I guess) remodeled to fit my modified soft-top frame.

AEV claims the average Brute conversion time is 60 hours. I expect to take a bit longer because I do have a bit of fabrication left to do, and I'm working alone, which is a pain for moving big things like rear frame halves and large bed components. Some things will go quicker than the Brute - my frame lengthening is much simpler than the Brute, there's one less joint to worry about (2 instead of three).

Well that's my plan, we'll see how much time I get to spend on it each day, I'm sure new-house issues, family stuff, etc., will slow me down a bit, but I'm still hoping to have it driveable no more than 5-6 weeks. When I say that, I mean driveable in primer without the soft top, I don't know how slow those guys will be.

Wish me luck!!! Please. :)
Jeff
 
WHAT??? I thought you had this kitted out so it was a weekend project now!!!!

:rotfl:

I'm absolutely drooling at the idea of watching this happen now... greatest project build I've seen, seriously, and now we're getting to the GOOD STUFF!

I only wish that I could make it to help some in person... :banghead:
 
I wish you could come help too, believe me!

OK, here it is for the record - the LJ is parked in the center bay of the now unoccupied three-car garage (well, unoccupied except for crap we haven't moved or thrown out yet).

I hope to do at least a little disassembly today. Photos will be posted regularly.

Jeff

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In spite of all the moving and other house work I had to do today, I managed to sneak in about 2 hours of disassembly time.

Got the interior out of the rear; the roll bar stripped; doors and top off; bumper off; a few other misc items.

More disassembly tomorrow.

Sure is nice taking apart a 2 year old vehicle - all of the bolts come out easily, even the torx ones :)

Jeff

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Got about three more hours in today, I've now disassembled everything I can without cutting. Got a huge pile of eBay fodder on the garage floor now.

Tomorrow is probably the point of no return, I plan to begin cutting...

Jeff

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Apart

Why is it that projects come apart so fast and take so long to complete?:evil:
 
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