Just another mall crawler...

408TJ

Jeep Owner
I got a little down time right now so I guess I can start a build thread over here now. I bought this Jeep from my brother back in 2012 for the soul purpose of having a vehicle that would fit in the parking garage at my employer at the time. Here is a picture of when I first got the Jeep.

image sharing sites

I drove it around like this for about 2 years before I started building it. I don’t really have much for picture on the first build, it was just your average 8.8 and 5.9L Magnum with 46RE swap with a little lift and some tires.
image sharing sites

About 2 weeks after getting the tires on some lady decided the she just had to turn left right in front of me…

image sharing sites

image sharing sites
 

408TJ

Jeep Owner
It took 5 weeks for the insurance company and body shop to decide that it was a total loss but in that time frame I since I knew it was going to need a new engine and all they were going to do is give me a used one I decided I to have a 408 built for the Jeep. At this point I was fully committed to putting this Jeep back on the road. So the fun began, I found a new to me frame and went to town with it.

image sharing sites

I decided that I wanted a triangulated long arm TJ, so off came all the factory brackets for the suspension as well the factory motor mounts as the V8 uses different ones.
image sharing sites

image sharing sites

Next it was time to start welding in the new brackets.

image sharing sites

image sharing sites

image sharing sites

Then it was off to sand blasting.

image sharing sites

I then started figuring out what kind of flex this thing will have with the long arm and settled on some 16” travel Bilstein shocks, and with that came modifying the current shock mounts.

image sharing sites

image sharing sites

image sharing sites

image sharing sites

With the welding complete on the frame I moved onto painting the frame.

image sharing sites
 

408TJ

Jeep Owner

408TJ

Jeep Owner
After getting the exhaust done I was ready to move onto the dreaded body work. I’ve spent nearly a year on this portion of the project now and it’s almost ready for paint.

image sharing sites

image sharing sites

image sharing sites

image sharing sites

image sharing sites

image sharing sites

image sharing sites

image sharing sites

Somewhere in the midst of doing the body work and armor I worked on building the roll cage, I didn’t get any pictures of that project but will get some as soon as I get it back from the powder coater.
 

Pthorpe84

Moderator
Staff member
Outstanding build! You posses some incredible skills. The picture for the rear fender with only the skeleton makes me think that could be a "thing". It looked bad ass. Almost like rubrails as a fender. I know you ended up putting a skin on them but it has got me thinking.

Will you end up putting a larger tire on? Any issue with your rear upper arms hitting the exhaust at full droop? Hard to tell from the pics.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

408TJ

Jeep Owner
At full drop on the rear suspension there is still a 1/2" worth of clearance between the links and exhaust. I feel that should be more than enough for any situation that comes up. As for the tires, some day I would like to go to 37" but that will be down the road quite a ways. Lots of upgrades will have to happen for 37", for now the 35" will have to do.
 

Pthorpe84

Moderator
Staff member
Looks great man keep us posted on the build. [emoji1303]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
G

Gary

Guest
An amazing achievement and one to be proud of.
Look forward to seeing more.

I have to check the manual to remember how to change a flat :(

Well done.
 

timatoe

Jeep Fanatic
Looks good. I don't know where, but I could swear I've seen this before. Maybe it's a wrinkle in the matrix.
 

408TJ

Jeep Owner
You probably have, I posted it on another major jeep forum. But after their servers other hacked into could never get logged back in, so here I am lol.
 

408TJ

Jeep Owner
It's been a while since I last updated things here. I've been busy trying to get the Jeep done. I got a little video update for you guys and gals.
[video=youtube;0NeNXhp6ovo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NeNXhp6ovo&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 

Pthorpe84

Moderator
Staff member
It's been a while since I last updated things here. I've been busy trying to get the Jeep done. I got a little video update for you guys and gals.
[video=youtube;0NeNXhp6ovo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NeNXhp6ovo&feature=youtu.be[/video]
I can't wait to hear back from ya! Love this build


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Pthorpe84

Moderator
Staff member
Glad to see your making process I can faintly hear the exhaust when you were at the stop sign. Sounds bad ass


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Top