Project "Mud Bandit" dedicated mud bogger

Ran into some trouble with the stretch. Damn idiot that had the jeep before me cut the frame near the rear end. gonna have to stretch the frame and make some spring hangers. Fuel tank was removed. it was easy since he just used the Pallat banding straps to hold it in.

That's special...

Got to love people and the things they do.

So now the plan is to extend the frame through the body (it will be comp cut anyway) and go back about 4" past the tub, then fab a shorty rear bumper. This would leave enough room to move the rear shackle back the required 6" for the XJ springs. The XJ springs will get an add a leaf and will also have an extra main leaf without eyes on TOP of the leaf pack. it is supposed to help with axle wrap, we'll see. I will be fabricating an antiwrap bar but I'll build it different to the way it is usually done to fix the problem of the bar ripping off the axle. Spent some $ at the fab shop and bought some tubing and a plate for mounting the winch up front. got enough extra tubing to build a couple extra crossmembers and stiffen up the frame more. I hope to have that done this weekend. ALso have to replace a bad hub/bearing assembly in the Excursion, love those $500 suprises.

I hope to get out the sawzall this sunday to take care of the clearance issues.

bill check out the buggy on ebay.

link was dead. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.ebay.com%3A80%2Fitems%2F_W0QQ_dmptZRadioQ5fControlQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories%3F_nkw%3D190283448431%26_sacat%3D0%26_fromfsb%3D%26_trksid%3Dm270.l1313%26_odkw%3Drock%2Bcrawler%26_osacat%3D0%26_fvi%3D1&item=190283448431&viewitem=
I was able to find it. nice but not for me. likey 454/th400 but 203205 doubler? CHEVY axles. I like the flag and hood decal.

I worked on the rear today, extended the frame about 8" and made a bumper, took the YJ springs off and took them apart. destroyed one of the center pins/stripped nut. Took apart the XJ springs and got one assembled with a YJ add a leaf. made some shackle holders out of some DOM and bushings from a YJ I had laying around.
Next up is to make another center pin, assemble the other XJ leaf pack, fabricate some mounts depending on spring position. Coming along. Also started cutting the tub a little.

Looks good Bill

lookin good!

Got to love that fiberglass. When i did my CJ 5 I was itching for a week after the cutting was over . Looking at your pics makes me itch now .
Looking good cant wait to see it rip through the mud.

Looks good. I'm not happy I didn't get a call or text to come over and I was sitting on my ass all weekend wanting to do something. Still the work looks good.

well since you mentioned it I will be working on the CJ on Thursday all day as well as this next coming weekend sat and sun. I'd like to have this thing rolling under it's own power by the end of the weekend.
Not likely but worth a try.

I will try to head out to your place on thursday. I will bring my helmet gloves and tool bag.

sweet thanks Eric

Still to be done:
1. Obtain 1/2" center pin for xj springs and assemble new pack with add a leaf
2. install XJ springs and fabricate mounts for rear hangers
3.set pinion angles with rear stretched and weld perches on.
4 weld perches in front axle
5. notch housing for Ubolt
6. Attach drag link
7. Install headers
8. Measure for driveshafts
9. fabricate tranny linkage
10. Install brake lines to rear and install front calipers.
11. Install winch
12. Fuel tank, lines and pump installation(and purchase)
13. Fill all fluids
14. torque body mounts (missing one puck 1")

not worried about cage, fenders, hood, windshield yet but I do have them.

nice bill,you always do one heck of a job on everything you do.

vonsjeep wrote:

nice bill,you always do one heck of a job on everything you do.

Nah, I just hide the evidence.

OK so I wrestled those damn xj springs for a few hours today. I did have the perfect size grade 8 bolt to use as a center pin and that worked well. Spent time beating, burning, cutting those damn old rubber bushings out only to find the poly replacements didn't fit. Ended up punching out the sleeve and replacing it with 1.75 .120 DOM. the thicker tube made for a perfect fit for YJ poly bushings. Build new rear shackle hangers out of DOM tubing and YJ poly bushings. Then drilled out the shackle and installed an add a leaf to the pack. then found that the jeep sat too high to use the shackles and had to build my own. Found a perfect size piece of steel and cut 4 bars to use as shackles. drilled 1 and a half holes and lost power. actually the whole neighborhood lost power and didn't get it back until 8:30 tonight. I was pissed. So not much progress today and running out of time. Saturday I'll finish mounting the rear shackles, mount the tub back to the frame, create a means for steering and possible get the brakes hooked up so i can move this thing to it's new home.

Sorry I didn't make it today. Sounds like I would have not been much help without the power.

no problem, another day. sat i want to get brakes, steering and mount the springs. then focus on packing for the move.

Another day in the garage.

Brackets were cut using a 1.75 hole saw.

DOM tubing from roll cage stock 1.75 x .120 was used for the YJ bushings.

Shackels were cut and drilled.


FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!



In my drunkin stupor I welded the hangers in the wrong fuckin spot.
Cut them off again and started over.





Mounted in proper location.


Shackels mounted to near vertical to prevent too much suspension travel.

Also was able to get the pinion angles set in the rear and welded the perches in place, torqued the ubolts down. Front axle needed the webbed portion of the housing notched for a ubolt and I did that too. also mounted the front Ubolts but did not weld the perch in place yet.

Still no steering, no brakes.....running out of time.

Great progress - that sucks balls with that mistake...at least you didn't lose electricity today!

you don't need any steering or brakes when you can move it with a loader to the new garage