1963 Us Navy Dj-3a

Personally, if I was looking at a 4 speed swap that would be enough to steer me away from the 420. I'd much rather have the extra ground clearance vs the bragging rights of the 7:1 low gear.

 

This is a cool project. I like the direction its heading. Looks really good. Gonna be a very capable rig.
Lots of good engineering going into this project.
I learn a lot from these builds.

Going to be watching this build.

Dave

 

Started going after the floorboards with the Wagner Paint Eater. What a dirty job that is:


Gotta say the paint eater works pretty good:


The full face respirator is worth it's weight in gold. One of the best things I have ever bought:


The Paint Eater and some hand wire brushing got all the loose scale and paint off. Next, I'll wipe it down and probably brush it with rust convertor before applying some Rustoleum.

I did find 30 cents in the Jeep when cleaning things out. That will help for sure:


I was doing something under the hood and noticed the vent hole in the front axle is open to the elements. Not a good sign:


As expected, the Dana 30 blender is full of chocolate milkshake:


Some pitting on the teeth, but not enough to stop me from running it. Everything else looks good:


I'm letting it drip out overnight so there is less to clean out.

I ran a 1/8" NPT tap through the vent hole and found a fitting for it:


I've got a hose going up under the hood, but the vent cap for it is on order.

I also played around with paint tonight. There are several things at play here:

• This Jeep is meant to get beat up on the trail so the body is never going to be perfect. Existing Bondo cracks and rust holes stay for now.
  
• I'm not a fan of the white, so I want to paint it.
• I really, really liked the Patina on the Blue '68 I sold to Duffer.
• The interior of this Jeep is almost the same blue and has loads of patina already.

...So I'm playing with a fake patina light metallic blue paint job. For about 20 minutes of fooling around with a spare fender, I'm liking the results:


I need to tune my methods a little bit, but I think the whole Jeep would look great like this.

 

The blue '68 for reference:

 

Looks like the patina experiment is working well. Love the patina on the Blue 68 and the other Red Jeep you sold also.
This Jeep is shaping up to be a good off-roader. I want to run the extended diff breathers on my CJ and the old Toyota pickup that are simmering on the back burner. I get into these projects, work on them hard for a little bit, stand back, and say, "Man, I wish I would have taken some pics!" Thanks for documenting these projects. I feel like I learn a lot from reading them. That Jeep will be cool out on the trails.

Dave

 

How about gray like the Navy would have used? Get some wide steel wheels, painted the same color.
Sort of a USN/off road Jeep look

 

Fake patina is one of my pet peeves.

It'll get there naturally in about 10 years.
Just go light with the layers and use a rusty metal primer color.

Mine doesn't have much patina mine's a train wreck.

 

the trick with the sm420 to get better clearance would be to remove reverse gear and weld/braze a flat plate over the side of the case. just don't pull in anywhere that you can't pull through.

EDIT: you could build a unit to bolt to the d18 that had reverse...

 

Or a reverse box on the input.

 

I've though hard about that but just don't like the Navy gray,

It won't even take 10 years, and that's exactly my method. Red oxide primer, light coat of grey primer, very light coat of blue, and then some scrubbing with a scotch-brite pad.

 

You need a lunchbox with the milkshake if the crosspin is free and clear of the ring gear.

 

That is in the plan, but not for today. Just need to get the milkshake out so I can get it running and driving enough to shake down the drivetrain.

 

All the milkshake drained out overnight:


Now the front diff is back together with a reminder on the windshield to fill it with oil once the silicon dries.

I also started taking the parking brake off last night and found out at full plunge, you can't take the rear driveshaft off from the front end:


Even jacking the jeep up with the right rear tire didn't flatten the leaf enough to get it out. I had to undo the back end of the driveshaft to get it out.

Once I get the transfercase where I want it, I'll need to order a pair of driveshafts.

 

Some more updates.

First is the new radiator showed up. This one is for a small-block Chevy conversion in a Flatfender:


It's several inches shorter in height than the narrow V6 CJ-5 radiator that's in it right now. Hopefully it will let me get full suspension travel in the front. It's wider and thicker, so it should still cool well. Need to figure out the lower radiator hose in addition to the mounting and shroud.

I can't really work on the radiator placement and fan shroud until I finish the next project which is the tummy tuck.

The first step of that is removing the well lubricated parking brake:


Gone:


Transmission cover removed:


Because of the severe clocking of the D18 with a SM420, I need to really shove things up through the floorboards. Cutting required:


Time to start jacking. I forgot to loosen the exhaust first and broke the passenger side manifold that already had some JB-Weld repair on it. No big deal. It was already junk and I have a spare:


Transfercase jacked up 1 3/4":


The engine sits level, the air cleaner still clears the hood, and the fan is parallel to the radiator with more upper hose clearance:


The gives you an idea of how much transmission tunnel work I have ahead of me. Not my favorite thing. It's so hard to end up with something that looks decent:


The mount is 1 3/4" above the old mount location. I need to remove the 1" spacers that are currently on the cross frame and further sink it 3/4" up into the chassis:


Here's the improvement I'm getting out of this:

• Old ground clearance to parking brake drum: 11.25"
• New ground clearance to the lowest point on the transfercase (the drain plug): 15"
• New ground clearance after going from 31" tires to 33" tires: 16"
• Ground clearance gain: 4.75"
  
• Percent change: 42% !!!!

I'll lose a quarter inch or so when I make a skid plate, but I'm really happy with that.

But......

To put things into perspective, it's still 1.5" less than ITLKSEZ's Varg on 32s:


You just can't get that kind of clearance with a truck 4spd and related clocking of a D18. He has a car transmission and a dead flat clocked D300. I may have better gearing, but he has much better geometry.

 

How do the drive shaft angles look now?

 

Hold my beer (in 5-10 years)

 

Love the project. Question Fireball: So you’ve pushed the tranny and t-case into the floor to gain ground clearance. Awesome. How did this affect the engine / motor mounts? And necessary changes or modifications there?

 

The front one is so long it doesn't matter. I haven't put the rear one in, but it was dead flat before, so I'm guessing the new two inch offset will be fine. It's still better than a D20 Jeep. I will probably have to shim the rear axle to get rid vibration.

 

I can't even imagine what you're thinking.

 

So far it seems to be well within the flex of the motor mounts. The angle change is about 2.5 degrees. I do suspect it will be hard/impossible to get the motor mount bolts in/out without dropping the the transfercase a couple inches, but I can live with that.