5.9 Andy's 1 Ton ZJ Build "American Standard"

[AgitatedPancake]

So I will start by saying it is called American Standard because of:


LOL. He said it's been called that before, and because I made this that's what I'm calling it!

So, as you might know Andy is in the marines and hasn't been home to do any wheelin or work on the jeep in a long while. What you DON'T know is he's been secretly stocking up for a BADASS build. Well, he's not going to have the time to build it for entirely too long, and just wants to wheel so after some long discussions in the past few weeks, he's given me the opportunity to tie all the components together into a SICK 1 ton ZJ build that's ready to wheel when he get's home.

The goods are:
T&T Longarms (Front and rear crossmembers, bellyskid)
T&T Frame Stiffeners
Megashaved 14 bolt w/ detroit and 5.38's
'78 Ford HP60 w/ eaton e-locker (i think? lol)
1.5" .250 wall 1 ton steering with hydro assist
Boatsides
Rubicon Rock-Trak transfer case
7" Coils...or other :teehee:

So! The other day we dropped off the first goods at my place to get started on them. The axles, and parts. Today I started stripping them, then andy stopped by and we both went to town on them. The 14b is 95% down to bare metal, the HP60 is bracketless but dirty.

The first of the goods next to the Blue Submarine


HP60 with T&T Truss


Cleaned up 14B


THE MAN.


We were talking about taking a little bit o metal off the bottom of the 14B for the shave, whaddya guys think?

[jborushko]

thats allot of metal to take off... i dont know if youll be able to swing that much

but if you can... SWEET!!!

2" is the usual i've seen taken off. 2.5" max either way the ring gear had to be cut down also

[ATL ZJ]

14b cut line looks a little wishful. If you're going to turn the 14b ring gear down that much, you might as well just swap in a 9". IIRC if you take more than an inch or so off the diameter, it begins to get weaker and could start affecting your ability to set a decent pattern...

[zjeepin]

14b cut line looks a little wishful. If you're going to turn the 14b ring gear down that much, you might as well just swap in a 9". IIRC if you take more than an inch or so off the diameter, it begins to get weaker and could start affecting your ability to set a decent pattern...

x2 you aren't going to be able to cut that much off the 14b, you'll be cutting into the carrier. i've cut down 2 14b ring gears and .250 is all you can really take off the ring gear without getting into the contact area.. if you cut the .250 off you can gain a full 2.5" clearance which equates to 5" of tire size in gained ground clearance.

looking forward to seeing the build guys, should be able to get it together fairly quickly with the parts you've already got.

[5.9 ANDY]

our plan is to only take off about 1/4"... the rest is going to get mowhawked.

[AgitatedPancake]

Yeah I should have clarified a little more on the shave pics lol! I've been doing all the research I can on 14B's lately, and feel confident in the shave. What I didn't tell you guys (as andy said above), it's getting a mohawk. We want to cut at this high line, and having it step around the carrier and ring gear I'm going to be using 1/2" plate for the new bottom, and plan on drilling and tapping a few holes into it to bring the cover back up to a 12 or 13 bolt. Should be pretty damn sick when it's done!

Also, this build won't be happing way too fast, Andy's packin up and headin out again here soon for another 7 or so months I believe, so the due date is when he gets back haha. This is pretty cool though because it's going to allow me a nice reasonable pace so I can think through everything in some serious depth so it all comes out wicked!

[zjeepin]

our plan is to only take off about 1/4"... the rest is going to get mowhawked.

Andy, thank you for serving our country.

im looking forward to seeing what you come up with on the shave. the shave is the easy part, fabbing a cover can be challenging.

my only words of caution: leave plently of room around the bottom of the ring gear for oil to flow, you don't want the bottom of the cover so close to the gear that oil can't flow easily around the gear..

[slim616]

looks like a good start. Just as a side note keep an eye out for clearance with your tnt truss and your track bar mount to the frame. I had to cut my HD RE track bar mount off in order to clear the top of the truss to get good up travel after i extended my front axle some.

[rstrucks]

So, as you might know Andy is in the marines and hasn't been home to do any wheelin or work on the jeep in a long while. What you DON'T know is he's been secretly stocking up for a BADASS build. Well, he's not going to have the time to build it for entirely too long, and just wants to wheel so after some long discussions in the past few weeks, he's given me the opportunity to tie all the components together into a SICK 1 ton ZJ build that's ready to wheel when he get's home.

That's really cool of you AP! It sounds like a badass build too.


Andy - thanks for doing what you're doing!

[Poser 5.9]

Hey guys, this build looks like a good one. I really want to see the boatsides happen. Andy, your service is very admirable, be carefull and come home safe.

[AgitatedPancake]

Slim, thanks for the heads up man! I'll tinker with/move/modify anything I have to for it all to clear.

Ryan, thanks man it's going to be a beast!

Poser, I'll be logging the entire build thread here so Andy can follow it whenever he has internet, so you will definately be seeing shots of everything being built, boatsides included hehe.

So my dad came home from a trip a day early, which means I had to clear out his parking spot ASAP, so I finished cleaning the 60 today and painted both axles to weatherproof them.

Dirty much? Heh goddamn!


It actually didn't take me very long...I love my wire wheels! Oh and I gotta say thanks to Andy for lending me his grinders, I killed my dewalt the other night =/


After wire wheeling, I scraped and scrubbed anywhere it couldn't get, wiped both axles down with brake clean and shot some $1 black spraypaint to keep them nice and neat while they wait for the next phase.


Heavy mohfuggas I must say! I dropped them onto this custom rack (lol) along with a milk crate of non-essential extra parts. I also sprayed any important non-painted surface with WD-40 to keep them from rusting. Oh and BTW Andy...did you know the 60 still has gear oil? Haha you can see a little drizzled out the long tube.



So! That's how the axles will sit for now, with some cover. The next stage will be me bringing Andy's jeep to my place to install the T&T frame stiffeners, and the front longarms!

[leeanderthal]

Looks like you got a good start, can't wait to see the progress!

[AgitatedPancake]

Oh snap! I got back from my gauntlet run and have a little free time finally so I swapped out the blue sub for Andys 5.9 so I could install the frame rail stiffeners and lift!

You usually see the blue sub sitting here..


What's that!? TNT Longarms, TNT Frame rail stiffeners and a Rubicon 241 tcase!?


And JCR 1-ton steering hiding in the background


Getting rid of the surface rust, one clean vs one dirty


This just looks wierd here haha


And i started grinding/cleaning for the frame stiffeners...damn sealant.




Tack welded up in its final position. That's all I had in me for the day!

[5.9 ANDY]

greg, looks like its going well.

dose the back of the jeep sit higher now without all that weight in the back?

not gons drill holes in it for more welding area? (i just thought about it)

and an fyi, i found a place that i will be able to get computer acess on a regular bassis.

[Jeeptech01]

Looks like it will be a killer build. Also thanks Andy!

[AgitatedPancake]

greg, looks like its going well.

dose the back of the jeep sit higher now without all that weight in the back?

not gons drill holes in it for more welding area? (i just thought about it)

and an fyi, i found a place that i will be able to get computer acess on a regular bassis.

I should be able to squeeze the angle grinder in there to get the tacks off, I'll put some holes in it for ya man!

And it's still sagged out pretty good, I think you were right about those springs haha.

Tech it's going to be pretty damn awesome!

[AgitatedPancake]

Alright I'm takin care of it right now andy . I'll have a post here in a few hours with some sweetness in it.

[AgitatedPancake]

Alright I'm taking a break to let myself and the plasma cutter cool down lol. Got holes for ya dude! I think it turned out pretty sick. It's going to give me a crapton of welding area so I can disperse the heat well.

Too bad my camera sucks today, you'd see the centerline of the stiffeners and the holes drawn out.


Couple holes here


Couple holes there


Holes?


Holes.

[zj95maxx]

You do know a clayton style subframe is actually stronger than the tnt frame stiffeners?

Looks good

[AgitatedPancake]

Thanks man, and I agree the claytons is damn strong, but when you couple these stiffeners with the TNT longarms (front AND rear crossmembers, along with a 1/4" plate belly skid) I think it should hold up hehe.

[it usually runs fine]

Holy Moly

[5.9 ANDY]

looks good greg.

[AgitatedPancake]

Thanks man, did more work today!
Took all the everything off the entire frame rail...that took a while lol


Oh snap, that looks good


Some welding done...


Here I was trying to show the stitch welding evenly spaced with the circles


Welding it all up. This setup is going to be damn solid with both crossmembers and future modifications

[Poser 5.9]

Nice job man, looks real good. Upsidedown welding is not my strong suit, but yours look pretty good. When I welded new spring hangers on my dad's trailer, I used the backhoe to turn it upsidedown so I would be welding in a more comfortable position. I guess thats not really practical with the Jeep.Lol..

[it usually runs fine]

it's not upside down if lay on your belly. The only problem i had with stitch welding was the coating kept catching on fire