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1987 Sammi

Little more work tonight

rocker delete started
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yes there was a glove in there and it was rock hard
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thats a lot of dirt and hay in there
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I know i am going to trim the fenders but i dont know how drastically yet, rolled the new tire up to get a better idea
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I still need to clean up my cuts, trim the rest of the rocker box hanging below the tubing, drill holes in the rocker box to plug weld the back of the tube.
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trying to decide if i want to add a piece of 1" tube to the back to push the box tube out further, bend a tube kickoff, or just leave it
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Are you going to tie those into the frame? I did tube rockers like that on a Jeep comanche and within a year of wheeling I couldn't open the doors because the hits had pushed them upward.
 
Chickntrk said:
Are you going to tie those into the frame? I did tube rockers like that on a Jeep comanche and within a year of wheeling I couldn't open the doors because the hits had pushed them upward.
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I hadn't planned on it at first just because it's such a short wheelbase but now I will so I can tie my cage into them.
 
It has been sub zero temps this weekend and my work space neither insulated or sealed to the elements lol so I ordered more parts. I found a smoking deal on some brand new Rubicon express 2" YJ leaf springs for $60 each. Then ordered a Dr Z YJ swap kit.

I am gonna have to modify my modified front frame rails and/or the shackle bump stop brackets that come in the kit since my winch bumper is squeezed in between the rails.
 
last week My son was voted by his peers to ask General James Mattis a question on behalf of the troop at a Q&A

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Then also last week he was in a youth production of Matilda, where he had been rehearsing for the last 10 weeks.

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shoved cake in his mouth 3 times this last weekend... its a hard gig

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Sunday i decided to get back to work on this. went to install the DR Z kit and the rubicon express leafs have a military wrap on them and it was hitting the front spring mount. had to chop it out. got the passenger side frame rail cleaned up and the frame reinforcement plate welded in.

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I only had an hour to work on it last night, got the Dr Z kit installed on the passenger side, hung the spring, and got the axle slid under it and started bolting it up.

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Little work on this thing tonight, I had to modify the front ... not sure what you call them but they're brackets the double shackle ride on. Since I had not planned on using a Dr Z kit from the beginning, I had welded spacers in side the frame where the bumper bolts are and capped the frame off. The Dr Z brackets are supposed to slide into the frame and your bumper bolts go through them.

You can see the brackets here
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here is what was cut off
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I drilled 3 holes in the front of the brackets and plug welded them, welded the top and bottom, and what I could of the side (not much)
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I dont have brakes or steering on yet but had to jack it up to ride height and roll the tires up. this thing is a monster truck lol
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front fender lip with a 33" tire (would be a little lower if the rear was level)
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compared to the rear with a 30" tire
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pretty good approach angle
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but i did find out the wheel studs are not long enough, i figured they wouldnt be so I had gotten longer ones but theyre still not long enough. ordered longer ones tonight and some black lug nuts
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I got to thinking about it this weekend and I didn't check the turn radius with the tires, ran out there Saturday and at lock to lock the tire hits the leaf springs. The axles i bought came with wheel spacers that I did not plan on running but apparently will be now, so the wheel studs are long enough for the spacers and the spacers have long enough wheel studs for the tires so I cancelled the order for the new wheels studs and lug nuts.
 
spent a few minutes here and there last week and tonight, got the steering arms, calipers, (Not extended enough) extended brake lines on and now it is sitting on all 4 again for the first time in like 2 years.

(im probably gonna need a lower pitman arm even with crossover)
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The reamer on the left is what came with the steering kit... and it sucks. It kept binding up and getting stuck, chipped sections of the cutting surfaces and I think its also bent after binding up several times. The one on the right cut through like it was butter.

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this thing is tall, granted the rear is still sitting at the old height

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used a spot weld cutter and removed the front flare mount, Sheetmetal behind it wasnt as bad as i had expected. not sure what I am doing with the fenders yet, once I get the rear suspension on I will have to flex it out and check clearances and figure out shocks.

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since it is on all four again and i need to clean the shop and i have a few sets of axles i need to build (60/14, 44/12, and the rear sami axle) and could really use the space to build them in. I rolled this thing outside and parked it for the time being.

a side shot of how tall the front is compared to the rear, I dont think 33's are big enough lol (my kid is 5'10 for comparison)

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well... I was hoping to go through the spare rear axle and build it then just a simple swap of the one in the chassis and be done with that part.

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apparently it had other plans. It took 3 days of pounding, heating, lubing to get the driver side shaft out, I was about to chain it to the stepside and use the winch on the suburban lol.

now I have to push this axle to the background while I build the suburban and possibly stepside axles so i can roll the sami back into the shop. I may end up pulling the body off the sami before i roll it back in just to make working on the chassis easier. finish the suspension changes, weld bracing for the transfercase, cut the "rock slider" off the passenger side and finish cleaning up the driver side slider that i couldnt get cut off with the body there.
 
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