NBM's family wheeler build

[naturalbornmudder]

Before I ever decided to have a 3rd child, my TJ had enough seating capacity to carry us and a little bit of gear to and from the trail. Once child #3 came along, it was time to sell of my TJ and build something with seating for 5.

What I sold:
97 TJ
4" lift, 35" MTR's
full custom cage
Dana 30/Dana 44a 4.56'ed with rear Aussie
SYE
custom front and rear bumpers
all custom armor and rear longarm setup



First things first. If I was going to sell the TJ I was only gonna give it up for something with more motor and more cargo room to go along with the extra seatbelt. I wanted a V-8 ZJ as a good starter and do my own thing there. The plan is to basically build a better grocery getter.

What I bought:
You've all seen a ZJ before, but this one looks particularly mall-worthy. 5.2L, 249 T case, 75K miles, leather

[naturalbornmudder]

I started by scrapping the fiberglass Lund step-sides, bug shield, rear spoiler, cell phone holder with box speaker, cheesy car alarm, all floor carpetting, stock internal spare tire and mount and fired up the sawzall for some trimming up front.

there. A little less yuppie, a little more NBM.

[naturalbornmudder]

Next thing up was scrapping out the 249 in favor of a 242. I initially ordered one from a junkyard and swapped inputs only to crack the taioshaft housing on final install. Out of time and patience, I decided on the quick and expensive fix of ordering a reman case from online.

[naturalbornmudder]

so with the 242 in place, next in the line-up is lift and tires.
I went with the 3.5" RE superflex/gen II discos etc.
For tires I went with 31" ProComp extrme mud terrains

[naturalbornmudder]

Next up was finding an axle to replace the rear disc equipped 35. I chose a Ford 9" out of a Lincoln Versailles to keep the rear discs


Thanks to a mallcrawlin member, I have a spare 35 housing to rob the brackets from. The VF-9 project is ongoing.

[naturalbornmudder]

added a roof rack, adjusted the arms for more flex.

[naturalbornmudder]

next on the list was debadging, taking off the plastic cladding, scrapping the OEM fog lights, and trimmed some more plastic. Also added some teraflex bar pin eliminators.

I have a brand new Dana 30 ARb sitting in my garage as well as a brand new Warn 8000 winch that need some attention very soon.

The ZJ is now no longer a daily driver so I will actually get more time to get things done on this.

[naturalbornmudder]

It was time to decide exactly where I was going with this. where do I want it to end up and what am I ging to do with it?

- 5.5" lift/33" tires
- spooled 9", ARB'ed D30
- front winch bumper/rear swing tire carrier
- rocker guards tied into the front bumper, rear bumper, and eventually tied into a mini-exo.
- long arms
- homebrew snorkel
- unibody bracing and skids

I fab so I will do my own rear tire carrier. I will either go with an MVC front winch bumper or fab my own. As for the rocker guards, and exo, that will be my design.

I want to build the tire carrier similar to the one on my TJ. Same basic design except the tire will be higher up and contoured to the angle of the hatch at the glass.

the spindle.


the tire mount portion


assembled.

[MotoX5874]

looks good. i like your taste in scrapping those sidesteps asap. ew.

[naturalbornmudder]

finally got around to taking a pic of it with the cladding gone. Still need touch up paint to cover where I cut the holding rivets off and ground them down.
Trimmed the rear fenders some but you cant even tell. I am probably going to go ahead and butch it.

It's about time to throw the pucks under there and up the height to 5.5" of lift. Oh Jeez, before someone has an ego pointy headed meltdown, I am referrign to the 2" spacers.

[CANADIAN ZJ!]

sounds like allot of thought going into this build.

I like it

[naturalbornmudder]

currently being used as a giant lawn ornament as I save more money for more goodies. I am still debating the wisdom of going 30/9 or selling it all and going full width chevy axles.

[nate]

Ha, I feel your pain. I have three of those lawn ornaments at the moment.

[naturalbornmudder]

decided to scrap the Versailles Ford 9 axle due to parts availability. I dug up a pick n pull XJ 44 for 68 dollars, scored a set of free 373's to match my ARBed Dana 30 and ordered up the Aussie today.
The Lil Chief is currently sitting on jackstands while I finish up the ARB install and lay out the plans for the winch bumper.

I packed up and moved back to Alaska last month so I am actually seeing a lot more wheeling time than I did in Cali. Ill probably patch it together and wheel the summer out and then continue the build in the fall/winter as time permits between hunting trips.

[naturalbornmudder]

Got the ARB install buttoned up. Set up my CB and temp mounted the antenna to the rear bumper until such time as I can make the rear bumper...
Decided to slowly plug away at the 44 build and install. Once hunting season is over, I will get into this more.

Chopped the front and rear bumpers to clear rubbing issues while summer wheeling. Also trimmed the rear fenders. Chopped actually, and I will go back later and clean it up some.





set up the gears and installed the Aussie in the 44. Now it's time to plaz off the old brackets and start settign up the ZJ bracketry. Big thanks to ZachJ for hooking me up with the spare 35 housing. It's much nicer to set up an axle on a bench than to have to worry about robbing parts from the rig at the time.


the red substance on the Aussie is the assembly lube. I shed some blood on the axle build and the fender trim but I won't post pics of those...
Before anyone says anything, this is before the final pattern. I know, the backlash...

[97 zj Steve]

nice build

[naturalbornmudder]

here's a run out to moose camp.


I was good until...



posing on the way back down...



after twisting off and spitting out 2 seperate XJ front drivelines, it was time to order up something custom to keep the power to the wheels.
I contacted Curtis Tatton at Tattons driveline and ordered up a 7" long spline travel .120 driveshaft for the front end. It was cheaper to go through him and have it shipped up from the lower 48 than it was to have one made in town!

As fir the heep, it is back under the knife, again. Got the stocker front bumper off and started laying out the steel for the winch bumper. Also ordered up the A/C bypass pulley, etc.
I ran into a deal on a 4.10 geared full width 44/60 combo, 5x5.5 bolt pattern with rims from a 73 J4000 Jeep truck for 50 bucks. I am debating whether or not to lock and plug them in or keep on with the rear 44, which I havent done much with lately.

[naturalbornmudder]

started the bumper project finally. Got the front bumper pulled off, the "framehorns" opened up, cut some 2x4 stock to slide into the framehorns, cut the winch plate to length and measure for the enclosures and such.

More to come.

[piku303]

started the bumper project finally. Got the front bumper pulled off, the "framehorns" opened up, cut some 2x4 stock to slide into the framehorns, cut the winch plate to length and measure for the enclosures and such.

More to come.

good luck with those 2x4s...notching them to fit past the obstructions in there is a total pain. i used plenty of wd-40 on the insides to make sliding the box in an out easier. your going to have to take them out several times until they are notched just right. in the end though its awsome to have everything bolt up just right and be solid as hell.

[naturalbornmudder]

good luck with those 2x4s...notching them to fit past the obstructions in there is a total pain. i used plenty of wd-40 on the insides to make sliding the box in an out easier. your going to have to take them out several times until they are notched just right. in the end though its awsome to have everything bolt up just right and be solid as hell.

How far did you go back into the rail?

I saw the difficulty as I was opening the slots up. Looks like a radiator support bolt and a factory drain hole punched into the framerail. The way the hole is punched in there, the surrounding material is bent in towards the inside, making the 2x4 not fit. Can't really get a sawzall blade in there, can't get the plasma cutter in there. Looks like I will be forced to use a BFH and make it a snug fit.

profile shot




For those who don't know what piku and I are talking about. not the best pic due to being out of focus but you can see the radiator support bolt and nut on the bottom and you can see the concave shapes on the side wall of the hole on each side.



the winch plate being laid out and cut to size.


I am thinking of either extending the front plate of the winch mount out to slide the actual 2x4 bumper steel to sleeve the outer lip of the plate or making a front upright vertical piece of plate to the 1/4" winch plate to have a good place to mount the fairlead to and also have a place to gusset the entire situation to prohibit any possible twisting or bowing of the plate.

[piku303]

i went in far enough to utilize all 4 holes. i think banging the 2x4 in to there would be a REALLY bad idea. what your going to have to do to clear that drain hole and the radiator bolts is to notch out the back of the 2x4 to slide around that drain hole and those bolts. other than that, if you dont want to deal with notching out the box for the drain hole, you could drill 2 new holes in front of the existing 4 and mount it further up so you dont have to contact that big ass hole in the back. what i did though was just take my time to notch the box. once you have one done and fitting just right, the other is really easy. this will be the single most time consuming thing you will ever do on your jeep...well maybe not but its going to be a pain. certainly the most time consuming part of the bumper. so take your time and do it right. get lots of grinding disks. in the end youll thank yourself that you made a mounting system for your winch that is more solid than any single production bumper for the ZJ.

[piku303]

also, while the "bumper" is off i would take the opportunity to cut off all the steel under the headlights and inside the front of the wheel well. i cut it all off except for the steel right snug under the headlights. its all really useless and does nothing except try to eat your tires. when you move up in tire size youll have to do it anyways... sadly though you wont be able to remount that awesome plasctic fascia anymore.

[naturalbornmudder]

this project is still alive. Barely, but still going. Got out this past week and wheeled it a bit. Ended up twisting off the exhaust and running it over while comign backwards down a steep climb. Snapped off the mall'ish power antenna as well. Rigt now it seems like things are flying apart faster than I can improve other parts of the rig.

[naturalbornmudder]

a quick IPhone pic as I was coming up the obstacle. I made it to the top and started to back down it when the tailpipe went under the tire, creased right above the axle, and got ran over out the other side.


the actual quote was somethign along the lines of
"what the fuck was that!?!?"
Jumped out, found the problem and pressed forward with the tow strap exhaust straightener and headed home for more time with the sawzall.

[nierace]

Nice build! I bet its a bit colder up by you thanit is here today