Family Jeepster Build

#41
If you need a ladder to hang lights in a shop your one man.
Haha. When I helped Evan at his shop I was walking through the downstairs of the apartment drilling holes in the ceiling joists for electrical. It was much faster than him moving the ladder around. I forgot about that at your shop though.

I need to update this thread. I have actually been out there working on it.
 
#42
So I really need to get better about taking pictures. I have been working on plugging all the little holes while I waited on more steel. There are a ton of little bolt holes from misc. crap that was one day attached to this thing. I have already burned through an entire 96"x120" sheet of 20 gauge on patch panels. I just picked up two more so I can wrap up the patches, break new rockers, and a new rear roll pan. This should also be new floors up front.

I will spare everyone the pictures of me plugging all of the holes, but yesterday I got started on the front tube fenders. These are going to be more work than I thought. Typically tube fenders just go up and turn into the grill. I wanted to keep the look of the factory fender, but with a tube fender. These flare out the same as the rears so I have great tire coverage.

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There is still some shaping work to fill that last little bit. I just ran out of time and had to get back to my honey do list. These fenders flare out 4.5" past stock to cover all but a little of the tire. They also got flared forward a little to help with a big tire and turning clearance when flexed.

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I also finished up one of the corners to the rear fender. This will get cleaned up a little more once I rivet the rear flares on.

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I then found that the previous owner got a bulk discount on bondo. This is going to take me a while to figure out what steps to take to fix it. Both rear corners look like this, but this is the worst of the two if you can call it that.

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Needless to say I have plenty of work to do and I really wish I would have started with a better tub. I also picked up a new hardtop that is in way better shape than the one I had. Oddly enough it is rusted in places that my original top is solid. Hopefully between the two I will end up with one top. I can't even think about fitting it to the body until I fix those rear corners. I am worried the whole body will warp with that much weight on top of the unsupported sides.
 
#43
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The fender is filled in and had been hammered as smooth as I can get without a slapper. Guess I need to buy one.

I also got to work dealing with the rot in the rear passenger side corner.

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It turned out a lot better than I thought it would. I still need to finish up the rear corner but at least it is all braced back up.

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#45
Thanks Jimbo. This is definitely a learning experience. Suspension, frames, engine swap. That was all easy. Sheetmetal repair is an art. In my case the art is trying to figure out when to stop cutting! The rest I am hacking together like I am working with finger paint, but I am trying to cut my teeth on the inside panels before the ones that matter aesthetically come up. The inside will be spray lined so it is going to hide a lot of my sins. The outside I want pretty and not full of bondo. That is going to be the trick.
 
#47
I don't know about that. It is hard work.

I feel like the rust is getting the better of me. The passenger side rear is almost all done. Just some little detail work left before I can check it off the list.

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I got the rear side patched where it had rotted out. I raised it up a little to keep it out of the rocks.

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I also filled in the tail light hole to make a flat space for the led lights.
 
#48
I have had a couple of slow weeks. Lots of family birthdays and work has been crazy. I am actually still at work, but I have a few minutes before I have to get back to it.

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I got the bulk of the passenger front fender roughed in. I still need to grind the spot welds down and smooth things out with a hammer and dolly. Then weld it up. This brings me to about 60% of the sheet metal work.

I am a big guy. 6'6", 250lbs, and size 14 shoes. Because of this and some more rot I found in the driver's floor I am thinking I might drop the floors in front of the seats. I think I could easily get 1.5 to 2" of space dropping them down. It is going to be easier to chop them out than to patch all the small spots. I am also planning on a bigger trans tunnel so I can lift the transmission and motor up. This will get it to a flat belly, oil pan up away from the rocks, and get my alternator off the frame rail. It sounds like a ton of sheet metal work, but at this point those are big panels. I will take those over all of these little panels and hole patches I have been doing. I might go get something a little thicker for the floors and tunnel. I have used 20 gauge so far because it is crazy easy to work with, cheap, and my little break will go a full 30" with it. If I step up to 18 or so my break won't cut it and I will have to go up the street to have things bent. I am not sure it is worth it since I can bead everything and build hat channels, but I am stuck testing a new vehicle all week so I have time to figure it out. It is amazing what goes through your mind as you loop around a track for 8 hours or so.
 
#50
That thing is nasty. I wish that was my inspiration, not to mention my budget. I also wish that I started with something that solid.

I got a solid 8 hours on it this weekend. There is nothing like making the same body panel 4 times incorrectly. Well except for thinking the fourth is right, fully welding it in, and then bolting it in to find out that you were wrong. Luckily I got back over there today and sorted it out. I still have a good bit of sheetmetal work to go but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have now built all four fenders. They need some cleanup and detail work, but the bulk of the fabrication is done. The entire back half of the vehicle is finished as far as rust goes. I need to attack the door openings, trans tunnel/floors, and then the windshield frame. That should wrap up the sheetmetal and let me jump back over to the actual drivetrain.
 
#52
Thanks, Hopefully it will roll out for pictures soon. I need it out of the shop so that I can get the bridgeport and plasma table moved in and setup. To do that I have to remove the chassis table that sits behind the jeepster. It is just a big storage table now so I would rather have working equipment in that space. I did mount a set of 36" Iroks on it and it looks much better than my bald rollers. I want to swap rims because I love the vintage jeep aluminum wheels on my rollers. Hopefully in the next week or two I will get it outside for pictures and to move my equipment in.
 
#53
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I got the passenger for dropped this weekend. The floor was easy, keeping the body decent and the door opening the right shape was tough. I got this one all welded in and was about to start on the drivers side when I got suckered into some lathe work. Hopefully I can get the drivers side knocked out so I can move on to the tunnel soon. I also have the new motor mounts finally. Now I can get the motor into it's final position and get everything all welded up solid.
 
#54
I also rolled it out of the shop to clean up a little. Luckily I didn't have to get it all the way out. Getting it back in would have really sucked if I had to come off the concrete.

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I like the look of it with the tires on it. I think the 35's will look better but these 36's aren't bad.
 
#56
I'm beyond ready to get that thing to the mtns and do some camping.
Me too. I just need to find more hours in the week to work on it. Hopefully I am not far from the majority of the sheetmetal work being complete so I can move forward with mechanical and tube work. Those should go much faster as I know what I am doing.
 
#58
I also rolled it out of the shop to clean up a little. Luckily I didn't have to get it all the way out. Getting it back in would have really sucked if I had to come off the concrete.

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I like the look of it with the tires on it. I think the 35's will look better but these 36's aren't bad.
That is going to be awesome


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#60
Thanks guys. I am ready to wrap up this sheet metal work and move on to fun things like cages, and shock mounts. That picture actually kills me. I was going to put a warn 9000 on the front but that picture is just screaming for an 8274 in the front bumper.

I got the rest of the tunnel and drivers floor cut out. I even built the new drivers floor, but I ran out of install time. To drop the floor I have to lift the body. I had some 1.75" 6061 aluminum bar so I spent some time cutting it and boring the center to make 1" lift pucks. I hate to do it, but it gives me room for my feet, helps my steering shaft clearance, and makes extra room for the transmission. Hopefully this weekend I can get the floors and tunnel in. Then I move on to the motor and transmission final mounting. I should have made the frame wider to make more room for all that stuff. Well that and bought a 4.8l or 5.3l to put in there.
 
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