trek_diggity
New member
After owning a few different jeeps over the past several years, i decided to try something a little different; albeit a shameless ripoff of some of the other great builds documented here and elsewhere (metcalf's "Rango", namely.
There will be a several things I will be doing differently , but that is my main inspiration, along with John Cappa's "Garage Project GPW" in JP Magazine. My overall goal is to have a low flatfender jeep that can cruise back roads as well... I don't have any delusions of making this a comfortable long-distance cruiser, but it needs to be able to handle short road jaunts.
Luckily I have a handful of Jeeps from which to choose; a 1948 CJ-2A that I picked up from my neighbor, another early flatfender that had already been disassembled, and a CJ-3B frame with a 2A body sitting on top. I am also picking up a CJ-3A and an M38 on monday, one of which runs... which doesn't really do me a whole lot of good, considering I will be totally redoing everything anyways. It was nice to be able to actually drive it around though, my first experience actually in a flat fender.
So far here's what I've accomplished... Since I'm 6'6", the flat fender jeeps don't lend themselves to my frame, in stock form anyways. I've wrestled around with just how much stretch I want, and basically decided on going 12". I have a CJ-7 that we're building for my little brother, and used to have an '86 CJ-7 that was my first jeep, and i like the proportions of them and they are fairly comfortable.
After checking the frames that I had, I decided to use the CJ-3B frame because they are stronger, and don't have the two separate plies of metal to try and weld to. That, and the frame of the blue jeep appears to have about 9 or 10 separate HACKED frame repairs over the last 67 years... I started out by taking as many measurements that I could to ensure that the wheelbase was the same side-to-side, that the diagonal measurements were good, and closely inspecting every square inch of the frame for cracks, buckling, etc. I removed the welded on tow bar, a cool Koenig PTO winch and welded on mount, the motor mounts, batter tray, the mount on the bottom of the frame for the stock brake/clutch linkages, the nasty bellcrank mount and hacked in steering stabilizer mount. The rear bumper/pintle hitch mount setup in the rear will be getting fixed/reinforced, but i decided to leave that alone while i have the frame cut up... like I said, I really want this thing to be somewhat roadworthy, and I don't want to tweak/warp this frame while doing the stretch.
I figured it would be worth the $200 to have the frame sandblasted... that is, after i spent all week trying to rent one from the local rental yard, I explained to him what I was trying to do, and he casually mentioned that a guy that worked there blasted on the weekends... "well why didn't you say so in the first Place?!"
Upon picking it up, i was surprised just how good of shape the metal is in, considering its age. I know that the metal in these frames isn't the greatest, strengthwise, so I will be addressing these issues. I wrestled around with having a custom frame made, but I hope (maybe I'm dreaming) that with enough boxing, adding tube, etc. this frame will do just fine, especially once I build a cage and attach it to the frame.
A trip to the metal yard yielded some 4"x2" .188" wall tube, that, according to my preliminary measurements, should just "tap right in" to the frame rails, so i picked up 12' of it and started to prep the frame by creating several rosette weld holes. I also welded the spring and body mounts, whose rivets would interfere with the inside of the frame where the tubing will go, and then cut the rivets. I used my fancy new cold saw to cut the frame... WOW, I am amazed at just how well that thing works, compared to a regular old chop saw...
There will be a several things I will be doing differently , but that is my main inspiration, along with John Cappa's "Garage Project GPW" in JP Magazine. My overall goal is to have a low flatfender jeep that can cruise back roads as well... I don't have any delusions of making this a comfortable long-distance cruiser, but it needs to be able to handle short road jaunts.
Luckily I have a handful of Jeeps from which to choose; a 1948 CJ-2A that I picked up from my neighbor, another early flatfender that had already been disassembled, and a CJ-3B frame with a 2A body sitting on top. I am also picking up a CJ-3A and an M38 on monday, one of which runs... which doesn't really do me a whole lot of good, considering I will be totally redoing everything anyways. It was nice to be able to actually drive it around though, my first experience actually in a flat fender.
So far here's what I've accomplished... Since I'm 6'6", the flat fender jeeps don't lend themselves to my frame, in stock form anyways. I've wrestled around with just how much stretch I want, and basically decided on going 12". I have a CJ-7 that we're building for my little brother, and used to have an '86 CJ-7 that was my first jeep, and i like the proportions of them and they are fairly comfortable.
![](http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz95/z_lindig/20150629_170036.jpg)
After checking the frames that I had, I decided to use the CJ-3B frame because they are stronger, and don't have the two separate plies of metal to try and weld to. That, and the frame of the blue jeep appears to have about 9 or 10 separate HACKED frame repairs over the last 67 years... I started out by taking as many measurements that I could to ensure that the wheelbase was the same side-to-side, that the diagonal measurements were good, and closely inspecting every square inch of the frame for cracks, buckling, etc. I removed the welded on tow bar, a cool Koenig PTO winch and welded on mount, the motor mounts, batter tray, the mount on the bottom of the frame for the stock brake/clutch linkages, the nasty bellcrank mount and hacked in steering stabilizer mount. The rear bumper/pintle hitch mount setup in the rear will be getting fixed/reinforced, but i decided to leave that alone while i have the frame cut up... like I said, I really want this thing to be somewhat roadworthy, and I don't want to tweak/warp this frame while doing the stretch.
![](http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz95/z_lindig/20151005_150345.jpg)
![](http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz95/z_lindig/20151005_204024.jpg)
![](http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz95/z_lindig/20151005_204039.jpg)
I figured it would be worth the $200 to have the frame sandblasted... that is, after i spent all week trying to rent one from the local rental yard, I explained to him what I was trying to do, and he casually mentioned that a guy that worked there blasted on the weekends... "well why didn't you say so in the first Place?!"
Upon picking it up, i was surprised just how good of shape the metal is in, considering its age. I know that the metal in these frames isn't the greatest, strengthwise, so I will be addressing these issues. I wrestled around with having a custom frame made, but I hope (maybe I'm dreaming) that with enough boxing, adding tube, etc. this frame will do just fine, especially once I build a cage and attach it to the frame.
![](http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz95/z_lindig/20151013_202216.jpg)
A trip to the metal yard yielded some 4"x2" .188" wall tube, that, according to my preliminary measurements, should just "tap right in" to the frame rails, so i picked up 12' of it and started to prep the frame by creating several rosette weld holes. I also welded the spring and body mounts, whose rivets would interfere with the inside of the frame where the tubing will go, and then cut the rivets. I used my fancy new cold saw to cut the frame... WOW, I am amazed at just how well that thing works, compared to a regular old chop saw...
![](http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz95/z_lindig/20151013_202233.jpg)
![](http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz95/z_lindig/20151013_222843.jpg)
![](http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz95/z_lindig/20151013_222853.jpg)
![](http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz95/z_lindig/20151013_223428.jpg)