Project "AZZ DRAGGER"

[Bad Karma]

Figure its about time I start a build thread. First a little history lesson..
I've been into Jeeps since before I can remember (and I remember stuff from when I was 4 or 5 years old.)
Got my first Jeep (which was my first "car") when I was 16. 1980 CJ-7 on 35" swampers. Not bad for a high school kid. Sold it after having it for 6 months, horrible on gas (even for a Jeep). I think is used more gas per mile than a 747.
then I got an 82 Camaro. No I didnt have a mullet. (most of the time) Had that for a couple years, then sold it and got the 83 CJ-7 that I have now. That was 11 years ago. (holy crap) Had lots of other Jeeps (about 9 others )along the way but thats not really important.
I built my 83 CJ-7 up from stock. eventually ending up with a pretty good rock crawler, HPD60s front and rear, detroit fron, welded rear, 4.2L/4.0L MPFI, T-18 with 6.35:1 1st, full roll cage/air tank, real fire truck air horn... and a ton of other stuff.
Then I had a kid. My little guy is going to be 3 in a couple days. What a life changer... He loves Jeep as much as me, in fact one of his first words was Jeep. I've created a monster, I know.. Anyways, as soon as I had the little guy, I knew my 2 seater CJ-7 (gas tank raised, no room for back seat) was no longer good enough for me and the little guy. I immediately started hunting for a Scrambler.
First I got a Scrambler tub from a guy a couple hours away from me... $300. needed ALOT of work. but it was a start. I started making my own replacement panels. They were no where near stock looking but they were heavier gauge steal and I tried to give them the stock lines.
Second, I got a TDK frame. I had the suspension mounts made to match my HPD60s and a couple other things done to it.
Then life threw me another curve ball. Long story short, I was single again.
Moved in with my buddy and his wife. The scrambler was at their shop, so in my free time (which I had alot) I worked on the tub.
Then another curve ball.... Long story short, met my beautiful unofficial wife, bought a house together, started renovating, yada yada yada... Scrambler is now in our own garage.
Story is almost over bare with me...
Then one day, I was surfing on here when the add for a California Scrambler came up for sale. Showed my wife and said, "look a this, this is awesome!! Too bad its in Cali." Her reply, "is it a good deal and will it speed up the original Scrambler build?" my reply, "yes and yes"
So next thing I know we're flying to San Fransisco to buy a Scrambler and drive it across the country....
Fast forward to today.. heres the project so far.

added a receiver hitch and tow points to the rear bumper of the frame. (tow points go right through bumper and are welded on the back side as well) You can see my little guy in the pic...

Front bumper built. used a TMR Customs 8274 winch mount

Got frame and front bumper galvanized!!!

Frame painted semi-gloss black. HPD60s bolted in.

disassembled the Scrambler... Tub in the garage, rolling chassis in the driveway. You can see the CJ-7 sitting there too.

Its a good thing my neighbors like me. (or at least i think they do)

 

[Bad Karma]

as of right now, I've been swapping the drivetrain out of the CJ-8 into my CJ-7 so I can sell it and recoup some of the CJ-8 purchase price. So I havent got much done on the CJ-8. But I've tinkered on it when the weather is bad outside.

Installed the sleeve for the Comp4x4 heavy duty tire carrier hinge into the bumper. Did this after I got the frame galvanized because the spindle that goes into the sleeve is a "machined" fit. the galvanizing would have screwed that up... then i threw a coat of paint on the bumper, sleeve doesnt fit now will sand the paint out eventually...

what I was tinkering on Today... test fit the Kilby gas tank skid. The AMC 20 rear rubbed the skid, just enough to rub the paint off. But with the Dana 60 and the diff cover I have (Great Lake Off Road 3/8" cover with 1/2" ring gear protector) I knew It wasnt going to "slightly rub"
did some searching and found some people have sucessfully heated up the poly gas tank with a heat gun and re molded it to clear a modified skid plate. (i know about heat and gas, so dont bother saying anything about it, i get it... ) Anyways, today I measured up what clearance I needed to do to clear the D60. here are the cuts I did...

It looks off, but i wasnt standing over it perfectly straight.

Next thing I will do is fill in the hole with 3/16" Plate... (didnt get that far yet.. )

But I did put a little something on the back bumper.

I will post more and the build progresses. But its going to be slowish..

 

[bigwalton]

 

[7jeeps7kings]

x2!

 

[Sheepdog]

WOW that is gonna be bad A*%.

 

[Randyzzz]

Nice....love that bumper sticker.

 

[spankrjs]

Nice....love that bumper sticker.

Not so sure about the sticker, I have a Rubicon and I can build my own

Great build and I love how you flew to CA and drove the Scrambler back.

 

[Polarfire]

Awesome.

 

[bigwalton]

Not so sure about the sticker, I have a Rubicon and I can build my own

x2

Still made me laugh though

 

[Bad Karma]

time for a small update. Been busy putting the CJ-7 back together so the Scrambler has been put on the back burner for a bit. Well the past little bit I've been plugging away at little things on the Scrambler.

I've never been happy with how stock brake lines or the mounting clamps look. always look half a$$ed to me. so heres is my solution. Ultra High Molecular Weight (UHMW) plastic, drilled out to hold multiple lines (fuel, brake and air). Got the lines run for the rear of the Jeep.
-fuel feed
-fuel return
-brake left rear (planning on running cutting brakes)
-brake right rear
-ARB air line

 

[rustycrawler]

That's looking great! I'm thinking it would look really good with an aluminum tub. Aluminum tub. No rust Aluminum tub. Need Aluminum tub...sell rustycrawler old steel tub...need new light weight non rusting strong aluminum tub....sell rustycrawler old steel tub....

 

[TXtrailbuggy]

Nice tubing work, where did you get it?

Thanks, Bo

 

[Bad Karma]

tubs not for sale... nice try

tubing is from Autozone. 25' rolls of coated line. bent by me.

 

[Bad Karma]

Been busy on the Jeep lately. ordered a bunch of brake stuff and started fabbing the t-case cross member / skid plate mount.

heres the brake stuff I did. got "thru-bolts" for the brake lines. looks better and provides a hard mounting point for the lines on both sides of the frame. easier to plumb too. Got new brake lines to, but not going to install them till I'm ready. (after body is on)

made a new lower profile t-case mount. the factory style one hangs down WAY too much and allowed the drivetrain to flop around more than I liked (even with the poly mount)

Here is the start of my t-case cross member. I'm going to a completely modular setup. I want to be able to remove the skid plate and most cross members so I can safely work on the drivetrain without the need for jack stands.

bending tubing in a 2 car garage with 1.5 Jeeps in it is fun... have to be a little creative. especially when its mid 20s outside and I want to be able to keep the door closed so the heat stays inside.

 

[bigwalton]

those through bolts are trick! Where'd you get them? Never seen anything like that before.

I want to do something just like that for the tranny skid/crossmember, can't wait to see how it comes out

 

[Bad Karma]

ordered all my brake stuff from www.speedwaymotors.com

as it sits right now, the skid will only hang about 2.5" below the frame at its lowest point. My skid is going to be interesting to fab up. its going to be a puzzle to put together. gonna be tons or welding in it too... oh well it will be stupid strong.

 

[zero2wow]

Beautiful work Mike.... like the attention to detail
Do you have idea how much body lift you will need?
I hope your Christmas treats ya'll great !!

thx for sharing your journey with us all...

z

 

[Bad Karma]

Thanks!!!

I am planning on no body lift. The frame apparently has about 1" body lift in the mounts (TDK frame). If I need more room for the drivetrain, I wont go more than 1". The way its setup I should need more than 1" if any. The way it sat in my CJ-7, the drivetrain sat at a 7 degree angle (trans pointed down). I pushed the drive train angle to 4 degrees. Gave me a bit more ground clearance and should really interfere with the bottom of the tub.

should be plenty busy on this over xmas time.

 

[Bad Karma]

been busy over the holidays...

after bending up all kinds of tube. here is the completed (minus paint) engine and transmission skid plate. notice there is not even an inch of tubing on it? I didnt like my first design so I scraped it, 3 days work and almost 15' of tube (lots of trial and error, more error than anything).

overall i'm happy with the outcome. should be stupid strong. Its WAY beefier than the Warn engine skid that I bent to sh!t on my old TJ.

I havent fabbed up the t-case skid, but its sorta fabbed in card board.

I spent alot of time fabbing up this cross member. made it a little bling by adding speed holes!!! should add a few HP...

 

[Bad Karma]

a bit of oil pan protection... could have put a square, but I'm hoping the shape should improve aerodynamic efficiency ALOT!!

next finish fabbing t-case skid. then gas tank, then exhaust, then torque arm, then, then.... once thats all done, i think the body will be ready to be put on!