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scrambler build

notquitemusashi

notquitemusashi

I'm not fat, I'm American
City
Littleton
State
CO
As many of you know, I am building a Scrambler from the ground up. literally from the ground up. not a frame off resto, but a frame up and down build. My “8” started out life as the frame from an '83. I got it in the spring of 07. I spent the last 2 years gathering parts and formulating a plan for the jeep.

My plan seemed simple: do what should jeep have done when they originally built this jeep.

On Saturday the 28th of Feb, jeepxlc and I started the assembly. There were a few issues with the frame. On the CJ’s, jeep bolted on the shackle mounts and they became a place for moisture and corrosion to to do nasty things to the frame. After repairing the damage, we welded in shackle mounts similar to a YJ. I think it will work out brilliantly. Future frame plans include galvanizing to prevent future corrosion.

I sat the frame on YJ springs front and rear. It is SOA config w a Chevy ¾ ton d44 in front and a waggy AMC 20 in the rear. i have flat-tops on the front and will be installing a crossover setup in the near future. I am not sure about the 20. I think I might do a 44 or a narrow D60 back there.

For a power plant, I am stuffing in an AMC 360 with a TF727 followed by a Dana 300.

I will be using a Willys-Overland repli-tub. The rest of the sheet metal will be original CJ.

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that thing looks big in the frame.
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lets not forget the donor vehicle.
 
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stumbled across a ZJ front CV DS. it fits perfect as a rear DS when using the 727 and an M20 rear.
 
well i think i have decided to follow jscherbs lead and build a goucho. he was kind enough to offer some concept drawings for me.

i still pland on using the 360/727/d300 combo. the axles are a cut down chevy d44 front and a FSJ M20. this puts the axle widths @ 59".

i am going to cut down a cj7 tub and try to use a m416 tub for the bed.
 
notquitemusashi said:
well i think i have decided to follow jscherbs lead and build a goucho. he was kind enough to offer some concept drawings for me.

i still pland on using the 360/727/d300 combo. the axles are a cut down chevy d44 front and a FSJ M20. this puts the axle widths @ 59".

i am going to cut down a cj7 tub and try to use a m416 tub for the bed.
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I've done a concept drawing of notquitemusashi's M416 idea; I'll post it in a few hours when I have a minute to write a description to go with it, go to run to an appointment now. An M416 can work as a CJ pickup bed, but there are a few complications. Stay tuned, will get it posted within a few hours. Until then, here's the M416...

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Here's a first draft concept drawing, showing the bed fitment issues. I've left the bed a different color from the CJ body to make it easy to see how the bed might fit.

First, due to the rise in the frame rails, an unmodified M416 bed would sit too high. I think Craig's CJ10a/M416 used flatter rear frame rails so his bed didn't sit too high. You could either do that or clearance the bed floor to allow the bed to slip down over the frame rails; then you could build some "wheelwells" to cover the frames inside the bed.

The bed is 72" long, and on the stock trailer, the axle is off-center. If you leave the fender where it is on the trailer you would end up with a 121.5" wheelbase (18" longer than a Scrambler). However you could put the bed on "backwards" (since there's no tailgate anyway), and that reduces the wheelbase to 117.5, or 14" more than a Scrambler).

The bed is 40" at the narrow part between the tires; this would fit between NT Scrambler axles as well as WT axles. MY Gaucho be is 44" wide to fit between WT axles. Given your choice of axles (59" width), the bed may be much too narrow to look right. In any case you'd have to replace the fenders, you can see how much the tires would stick out from them.

As for the tailgate, a 36" wide CJ tailgate would fit between the bed sides in the narrow part of the bed, but the M416 bed is 18" high and the CJ tailgate is about 15" high, so you would have to decide how to deal with the extra 3" somehow.

That's what I've done so far, I'll adjust the concept drawing after getting input from everyone on the issues above.

Jeff

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notquitemusashi said:
if i dont stretch the wheelbase, what kind of lengths am i dealing with?
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Looks like a bed length around 4' 10", pretty much the same as the Scrambler (no surprise there). I moved the fender forward from its original M416 position to match the Scrambler wheelbase.

I haven't fixed the bed height in this drawing, I can lower it over the rise in the frame rails if you like.

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This is looking pretty intriguing, I can't wait for the progrss, it's so much more fun than flailing with my own junk
 
Here's a version with a 113.5 wb (10" longer than a Scrambler and same as the Gaucho I'm building now), the bed has been lowered to a decent height (will need "wheelwells" to cover the frame humps which are inside the bed now, and I've added skirts to the bottom of the bed sides. The M416 bed has been shortened from 72" to 67".

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EDIT: Changed this drawing, inadvertently had the caption saying "Stock Scrambler wheelbase" when in fact this one is 10" longer".
 
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now this is interesting to me.......

so i need to stretch my frame 10" to make this work?
 
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notquitemusashi said:
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now this is interesting to me.......

so i need to stretch my frame 10" to make this work?
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No, you could do any length you want. IMO, these pickups need a longer wheelbase to be proportioned right, but here is it with the stock 103.5 wheelbase.

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Scott, the availability of good tubs, the cost of a new one and the desire to do something different are all factors in this.
 
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