My P38 Transformation

[jmason]

This will be the thread I use to post pictures and progress on my transformation from my P38 daily driver to the proper wheeling machine it ought to be.

PLEASE Give me your input and ideas! I want this to be a discussion as much as a showcase.

**Note: This has been ongoing for some time, but I only just started this thread here. I will condense all the posts into this one post, dated accordingly. Hope you enjoy!



07/11/12

My first step was to remove the running boards, which got pretty bunged up on a wheeling weekend at the end of the summer. Promptly after that I decided that I didn't want the rear silencers on, so I chopped 'em off and stuck some piping on. Took a couple pics, and a video. Hope you enjoy.

Pics:

Video:

It sounds great IMO. I was looking for something deep and rumbly, rather than something loud with too much 'bark'. This worked out great actually. When just cruising around with the windows down, it sounds much better than before, but not too obnoxious. When highway driving, there is no difference, and with the windows up, there is also no difference.

The next step for my project was to get some proper shoes. I looked around, and concluded that a set of 265/75/16's would work well. I picked up a set of five 16" Land Rover rims last summer for $125, and they've been waiting for rubber since then. Earlier this summer, I got my hands on a set of BFG All Terrains. I would have picked something a bit more aggressive, but this is still my daily driver, with which I drive about 100-120km a day. As such, the All Terrains made more sense for now. Once those were fit to the vehicle, it became quite clear that a lift was needed in the near future. They did the trick, but there was some noticeable rubbing from the front tires when cornering, especially if I was turning up into a driveway or onto a curb.

With a lift on my mind, I started looking around for some options. Quite soon afterwards, I was in discussion with Scotty over a set of springs he had from his P38 from when it was on coils. After various e-mail exchanges, I ended up getting Scotty's springs. He was very helpful and a pleasure to deal with. Thanks Scotty!

The springs in question are OME 779 for the front, and OME 751 for the rear. They were supposed to give approximately a 2" lift as far as I'm aware. Once installed, it became evident that I would need just a little bit more height in order to get to the position I wanted. As such, I had a set of spacers rigged up to give an extra 1.25" of lift. Once those were in the rig, everything looked just right.

Along with the new springs, I purchased myself a set of Terrafirma TF125 and TF126 shocks for the front and rear of the vehicle, respectively. These units were somewhat hard to come by, as apparently Terrafirma are on backorder worldwide. I sourced a pair down in Texas, but the shipping costs were near the same price as the units themselves and I would have ended up paying upwards of $450 for the set. As such, I kept looking, and luckily I found a set at Lucky8 in NY. They were also very helpful, particularly Justin. I ended up driving down on a Saturday morning to pick them up, and had them back at shop by Saturday evening. They went in smoothly with the springs. However, when I went to remove them in order to install my spacers, the rear-left shock broke. I can only attribute the failure to a bad spot weld. I immediately got in contact with Justin at Lucky8, and within hours he had contacted Terrafirma and arranged for a replacement unit. In the interim, I threw back in my old shock as a quick-fix.

The broken shock:

Lastly, I needed a set of sliders made up for the vehicle so that I could properly participate in a local wheeling event on the August long weekend up in Bobcaygeon, ON. The event is called Trailfest, and is run by the London Area Jeep Owners Club if any locals are interested. It's a very well run event, with wonderful people and a large range of trails ranging in difficulty.

I ended up googling something like "metal fabrication toronto", and luckily stumbled across a shop that does custom Jeep work only 30 minutes from my house. Their name is Staang's Fab for anybody in the Southern Ontario area. They do fantastic work, and have amazing customer service. I couldn't recommend them higher!

I drove out to their shop to meet them and discuss my ideas. They had made many rock-sliders for Jeeps in the past, along with bumpers, roll-cages, roof racks, and various other mechanical modifications. As such, they knew almost exactly what to do. I showed them a couple of sketches, and left the vehicle with them. The next day, they had a unit roughly mocked up for my approval. The following day, the unit was finished and ready for painting. After day 3, I came to pick up the finished, installed product. I was very pleased.

I also installed a set of Carroll Rovers sway-bar disconnects. They proved very handy on the trail and were very simple to install and use!

In the drive, with the new shoes, sliders, springs and spacers:

The spacers (design):

The sliders (in shop):

The sliders (final):

Here are a couple pics (before and after) of a Jeep event my Dad and I attended last year with all of the above modifications. We kept pace with some heavily modified Jeeps, no problems. The only issues we had were the deep sloppy mud, as we didn't have proper tires, nor a winch. One overly confident Jeep proudly stated he would winch us out of a mudpit. I told him he'd have to anchor to something, because I'm a heavy unit. He said his 4-door Jeep and 9,000lb winch would have no issues pulling out the "struggling Land Rover". After everything was hooked up, he started winching. We didn't move one inch, and he dragged himself towards us about 6 feet (full locked wheels) before he was convinced that indeed he wasn't up to the task!

Before:

After:

Currently in the works is the undercarriage armor. I decided first to start with a T-Case skid plate. It's fairly large, and attaches in four (4) places. Two brackets are made to attach directly to the frame rails, while two other brackets bolt on to the existing holes in the cross member. The brackets have been made, and the plate itself should be done within a day or two. All material is 1/4" steel.

Additionally, I decided to fast-track the diffs and whatnot. I ordered two 3rd members from Bill at GBR. When installed, I will have 4.10 gears front and rear, along with Detroit True Trac's front and rear. I also ordered a Heavy Duty double cardan driveshaft from Bill to cure the vibration my driveshaft is producing at idle throttle.

I'm really excited that things are coming together, much faster than I had initially anticipated!

Here are the four (4) brackets that will hold the T-case skid plate in place:

The skid plate itself will mate to the larger portion of the 'flatter' brackets. They will be bolted into the cross member. The others will grasp the frame, and be drilled and bolted into the two frame rails.

I'll get some more pics with the plate in place.

 

[jmason]

08/13/12

Hi everybody!

Things have come along nicely so far. The T-case skid plate is completed and mounted. The brackets all went in easily. The brackets are all bolted to the frame. The skid plate is then held in place to the brackets with stainless steel hex-screws/bolts. They are counter-sunk into the plate itself so as not to allow for getting hung up/sheared off.

Here's a picture of the bracket grasping the frame rails:

Here's a shot of the other brackets further forward. These were mounted into existing holes in the frame cross member on the vehicle.

And here are a couple shots of the full skid plate itself:

Sorry for the crappy photo quality, my cellphone was all I had at my disposal.

Up next was the fuel tank skid. The plan was to mount the plate with two fastening points. The first was up behind the fuel tank, using two existing holes. From there, the guard would come down and under the fuel tank, and fasten to my already installed T-case guard.

The mount behind the fuel tank went smoothly, and that piece was fastened securely. The mount to the T-case skid was fairly smooth, however due to a slight mis-measurement only two of the three positions for screws/bolts were able to be used. As such, I will be adding a small tab to the T-case skid in a little while to allow for the addition and use of the third fastening screw/bolt.

Here are some pictures:

A shot of the bracket going up and behind the fuel tank.

A shot of said bracket, looking at it from the back of the vehicle.

A shot of the bottom of the fuel-tank skid, fastened to the existing T-case skid as well.

An angle of both skids, looking towards the back of the vehicle. The quality of this photo isn't great, I apologize.

Diff guards are in the process of being made. Next it is time to start taking measurements for the bumper. I took the rear bumper off, and things are somewhat rusty, but not too bad. I will be taking the end caps off of the frame (the most corroded parts) to allow for mounting points for the new bumper. I plan on inserting mounting points into the frame rails, and bolting them in using the existing holes for the end caps. The bumper will be bolted and/or welded to the inserted mounting points.

A little corroded.

When the bumper was off, I noticed that a small piece of trim has come off of the bottom of my tailgate. It looks to be a welded seam for the bottom of the tailgate, that has corroded out of place. What is the best way of repairing this in your opinions? I'd like to seal it back up as soon as I can, so as to prevent more moisture from getting in there.

Here is a shot of me pushing the seam away from the tailgate. It all moves like one big band.

And another shot:

More to come in a bit!



08/20/12

Additionally, this just came in the mail!

Diffs are in transit as well!



08/21/12

Look what came in the mail yesterday!

08/31/12

Hello hello!

I installed the CB last night. Well, actually, everything except for the power. Otherwise, it's fully installed. I plan on hooking it to power tonight. I had planned on tapping into the terminals that power the BeCM as has been done by some of you before. My other alternative was to tap into the power from the cigarette lighter, but was advised that this would provide background noise/interference while running the unit.

I mounted the antenna on the rear of the vehicle. For lack of any other options that worked for me, I used a custom bracket to mount the antenna. The bracket uses the existing bolts that hold the lower tailgate latches in place. It then comes out and sits just above the rear tail light. I saw potential in sending the coaxial cable back into the vehicle by way of the tail light as well. I removed the tail light to see, and decided to go for it. I notched a small path for the coax cable to run through in the inner portion of the tail light as shown.

I took out the parcel tray, sat-nav and trim to run the cable behind it all. I wanted a seemingly unnoticeable installation, and this seemed like the best idea. I ran the coaxial cable back behind the trim and insulation, along side all the electrical wiring that runs front to back in the vehicle already. I ran it down the lower C-pillar trim and underneath the plastic rear door trim, along with the other existing wires as well.

The wire then comes up at the base of the B-pillar, and goes across and under the passenger seat. It then runs along the side of the center console, and attaches to the radio receiver which I mounted on the passenger side of the center console.

I mounted the mic bracket there for when the radio is not in use. It's out of the way, yet still accessible to the driver if need be. I am going to be mounting a second mic bracket to the right of the instrument cluster in the empty portion of dashboard between that and the center vents. This will be for when the CB is in use. The reason I wanted a separate bracket from this one, is I don't want the mic chord traversing across my center panel/radio/GPS all of the time, as it doesn't look as clean that way.

Here's a view of it from the driver's seat. Very discreet, yet totally accessible by both the driver and the passenger if need be.

All done on the outside as well. Here are some more pictures.

Here is the bracket I mentioned. It seems to work pretty well, although I may replace it with one a little bit thicker, as it does bend a bit with the whip swaying to and fro.

In this one, you can just see the coax cable running in and behind the tail light if you look closely enough.

Here's a view from the other side. Looks pretty clean in my opinion.

And here's a full view. I got myself a 5 1/2' whip, as I wanted to ensure good reception. However, I feel as though it might be a tad long, and maybe a 4' whip might do the trick. What are your thoughts? Either way, it won't be hard for me to return it. I may even keep it, and use a shorter one for city applications, and swap out the longer one for other uses. Would that be beneficial or just overkill?

 

[jmason]

10/08/12

So I got the rear-bumper ready and mocked-up on the vehicle. It still doesn't have the spare tire carrier, but it's nearly complete. The bumper is not yet mounted to the vehicle, but I hope to get it fairly snug to the original fit of the stock bumper. I'm thinking of leaving a little bit of room between the bumper and the bodywork just in case I come down hard on it and something gives/bends - that way I don't necessarily damage the body as well. However I also like the idea of a nice tight fit. We'll soon see how it all works when things are fit and finished.

Here's a view of the bumper. It's not mounted fully, just resting in place for a general idea of the look.

A side view:

Here's a view of where the tire carrier will swing from:

And here you can see one of the Hi-Lift jacking points. The rear bumper has one on each side (you can see the other one in the previous picture). As will the front bumper, and so do my sliders. These just allow for a stable place to jack the vehicle from if needed. I like it!

I'll post more pictures once it's all said and done with.

Soon to have pictures of the diff guards as well!

After that I'll post progress of the front bumper. It's just in auto-cad at the moment, but will soon become a reality!!!



11/06/12

Here's a little teaser for everybody.

More info to come!

11/20/12

This was from last week. It'll all be done soon!

 

[jmason]

12/07/12

Hi all,

Good news! Bumpers are finished! Well, actually they're not. They're finished for now, but I still have to add things to them, like a brush guard come the spring. However, they're done for now!

I was pressed for time today, so I just popped out a couple of quick pictures. I will hopefully try to get some better pictures down the line, but for now these will have to do. You'll have to excuse the dirt, I haven't had time to clean it for a bit.


Here you can see a front view of the bumper, similar to the shot I posted of when the bumper was just mocked up on the vehicle.

I have yet to get a winch, but will do so at some point in the next little while. In the mean time, my baby's getting plenty of fresh air up front!

Here is a view from the side/underside of the front bumper. You can see how the skid plate comes down from the front, and bolts into the lower portion of the rad.

Here's another front angle of the ol' girl.

This is a shot of the back bumper. The bumper itself has a more secure mount for my CB, however I have to get a couple longer cables to hook that up. Additionally, the rear tire has a little red LED in the middle of the rim, that makes the center of the rim glow as a 3rd brake light when lit. It will also have to be wired in, along with my license plate light. Until then, they will remain unlit.

Here's a closeup of the clasp. Double latch, to add a bit of redundancy. It's very secure!

Another shot of the rear.

Here you can see that brake light I was talking about.

This is a corner shot of the back bumper. You can see the hinge, as well as one of the jacking points on the bumper.

Here you can see the tire rack opened up. I wish I had put in a drop pin or something to stop it from swinging all the way out, but I'll get used to it soon enough.

A little side view:

And a nice semi-imposing shot of the all glorious Rangie!

As I said, more things are to come. There are also diff guards, but they won't be finished until the spring, so those go on the back burner.

I hope you all enjoy. I will be getting myself a winch and some d-shackles soon enough, but until then I will just be mulling about. I bought myself some cleaner for the black surfaces, as well as a couple of those paint sticks from Atlantic British. Hopefully I get it looking like new again soon!

 

[Fivespddisco]

Welcome to Expo.

On a side note We are thinking of having a small winter run down here if we ever get any snow. Send me an Email so I can put you on out local Email list

 

[JeremyT101]

Funny to find this now. I just responded to you on Reddit. Great looking truck man!

 

[Howski]

Great looking P38