Heinz 57 build

[UABYJ94]

Got some more pregress done this weekend. Should have my Air shocks in tomorrrow and hoping to have the King 14" emulsion coilovers bought and shipped today from a guy in Cape Cod, as well as a Ballistic diff cover for the 44. Here are the pics of my progress..

Got the cross member welded up,,still need to cut it and weld in the flat bar to bolt it together for removal purposes..

Look ma, no sthands...lol

Test fitting the ram..

Pushed out of garage for cleanup for the first time in 5 months..

Swept up the floor and moved the CJ in..

What did I do?? Why am I being punished???

I'm hoping to go pick up a load of 2x4s and build shelves on the wall to the left of the pic where the jeep is pushed out to get alot of the stuff organized on them instead of the floor or wherever..


I called the wife out to see and she actually thought she was going to get to park her Altima in there...lmao NOT!!!

 

[UABYJ94]

Just purchased the King 14" Emulsion coilovers from Docsoffroad shop in Cape Cod...They should ship out tomorrow and be here, hopefully, next Tuesday. I'm getting my 75/25 gas refilled tomorrow seeing as I need to get alot of fabbing done over the holiday..
here are the coilovers that will be coming...oh, they were setup for a V8 TJ and will be really stiff for my set up until I can change it..

The 14's are the only thing out of that pile I am taking ownership of....


Here are the Fox shocks that came in yesterday...

 

[UABYJ94]

I had every plan to build some shelves and a work bench against the south wall in the garage then have the YJ back in there to weld in the rear 4 link over the Thanksgiving holiday off. I had 4 days off from work, plus figured on all afternoon yesterday since I had to be at the courthouse for jury selection.
I started on the shelves Wednesday evening and quit around 10pm. I woke up around 11:30 sick to my stomach which ended up lasting until Friday night when I fianlly went to the ER for treatment.
Anyways, here is the shelf i built to better organize the the stuff all over my floors.

Went by the local rubber and gasket specialty shop yesterday so I could get a hose made to run from the steering reservoir to the steering pump....$52 for 18" of SS braided hose and 2 fittings???? geesh

 

[UABYJ94]

While looking over the engine I realized the engine wasn't sitting as level as before. Crawled under the belly to realize there was about 6in of space between the top of the tranny and the tub. The more I thought about it the more I realized I had set the jack stand up against the tranny to hold it up to the height I wanted while the front tire was flat. Welded the cross member up while the tires were inflated.....I am making this build harder on myself than it should be. I'll get that corrected soon enough, but really hate to cut out complete welds..

Got my coilovers from UPS last evening while using my "new to me" drill press to start the holes in the link tabs for the axle end.

Here are the coilovers next to the air shocks..

Here is the drill press I picked up from a mech shop that is going out of business...

 

[UABYJ94]

Finally got the crossmember done properly on the tranny..

Now I can finally get started on the rear 4 link once I save up so I can order the spacers and bungs to build the links out of the DOM I ordered a while back

 

[UABYJ94]

The plate for the trusses....

The other plate being made into a ram mount.

A peek at the double ended ram for Poke.

 

[UABYJ94]

So I have been building the truss for the front axle most of the afternoon since getting home from church and this is where I am as of this evening.

As you can tell I realized I did not keep the flat surface across the top far enough to mount tabs. I'll have this welded up and smooth out to the point that you will never see the correction once the paint hits it.

If weather permits then this one should be welded in place and we should start on the ram mount off of it.

 

[UABYJ94]

Well my helper decided to play hookie today and I am a single fabimricator again. lol
Finished with the correction on the truss and started welding it to the frame when I ran out of .030 wire and only had .045, but no .045 tips... Finally found a friend who had some and got some more welding done before calling it quit til tomorrow evening or Wednesday.
Here are the pics of the finished truss,..

Let me know what you think?

 

[UABYJ94]

Got the truss welded down then started on the ram. I shortened both links and rewelded them to the correct length. Then built the mount for the ram and got it welded to the truss.
I'm going by the local PnP tomorrow and hopefully score a steering cooler so I can finish plumbing the steering system.

Here is the ram mount and I checked to make sure it was level as well as the truss. All is good.

Spent the early evening at the new house grilling out while the girls painted some more of the inside. Then shot off some big fireworks before returning back to this house and working on the YJ.

Finished making the link tabs..

Then tacked the links into place temporarily and will get started on the uppers today and hopefully get the coilovers installed so the front will be done enough for transportation,.

Here are the brackets I made for frame side out of 2x4x1/4 wall cut and drilled. Samke material will be used for the frame mounts on the upper links.

 

[UABYJ94]

Those frame mounts for the lower links will be rounded at some point...

I had mentioned that in my other build thread and thought I had on this one as well. sorry.
Got a lot accomplished today.
Built the brackets for the upper links at the frame.

Look close and you can see the brackets on the frame.

Before and after on the shock hoops..

Getting the coilovers installed... Man that is flexed out....lol...44" from bottom of frame at the bumper mount...

Sitting at 36" until I can get the correct coils and it should come down a couple more inches.

I'm so glad to see this thing resting on it's own without jack stands....Now I need to hook the fuel pump back up and bleed the steering system so I can steer it up on the trailer.

 

[UABYJ94]

Well, 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Turns out my orbital valve is a closed center unit causing back pressure on the steering pump. Now I have to attempt to drill out the spool to allow pass-by creating an open center unit. If this doesn"t work then I'll be looking to replace it. I did get to drive the jeep......about 20 feet....forward 5 feet then back 15' to it's new resting spot to be worked on.

Casualty of weld...

 

[UABYJ94]

This is about where I am at to date....

 

[yankster]

Thanks for posting. As much fun as the buggy builds are to follow, there are a lot more of these builds going on and there's never too much info or too many ideas out there. Looks like a tough ole girl right there!

 

[UABYJ94]

Thanks..I'm hoping to get a little more work done around the new place so I can hurry up and get back on it full time in the evenings. I want to enjoy it on a few trails before the heat of summer sets in...

 

[Draco]

Good looking build man....Nice work.

 

[Eddyj]

good Lookin build can't wait to see some action shots.

 

[hink311]

good looking rig , of course i like full body rigs. doing a great job

 

[KyTrash]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[UABYJ94]

Thanks for the kind words... Look forward to posting some updates soon....

 

[Lil ugly]

Looks like your build is coming along and the jeep looks stout.

Just my .02 though, I would plate the frame where you are mountin your coil over hoops. On my previous build I even went so far as to put the tube all they way thru the frame.