Seabee M38A1 Build

Looking back, I probably should have made some diamond shaped or whatever, plates to weld to the frame before the tubing... Whoops... I guess I can either whack those off or wait and see...

 

Drug home some treasure the other day...



Just the two corners and the lid... Koenig Model 530...

All the pieces I have have been steeped on by cows, but the price was right... I'm not sure what I'm gonna do since it's all boogered up. I straightened the lid by laying it on the shop floor and stepping on it. I might see about making my own sides, back and doors to fit the lid.

 

In other news... I found a 9in axle at my friend's Used Parts Emporium that will suit my needs better than the Early Bronco one... The front axle that Currie built is 62 inches wide. The Early Bronco rear was 58 inches wide. Not too big of a deal, except in order to get the shocks mounted on the back, with the correct angles and travel, I needed more room under there. I had some 2 inch spacers on there, but I didn't like them. Sooooo I took a trip with the tape measure and found a 1964 F100 axle that is 61 inches wide. Perfect. It even has big bearings. I was hoping for 31 spline shafts, but it has 28. Oh well...

I got it all stripped down and ready to position the other day...

Hot tip: get some of those big 12 ton jack stands from Harbor Fright. Raise the axle up to a comfortable height and strap it down with a couple straps... It won't move...
Hopefully tomorrow I can sling it under the Jeep!! Thanks for checking it out. Laters.

 

I've been spending some time making my wife happy... We went to the Tom's Bronco Parts Show and Shine yesterday... Her Bronco is going to get a replacement wire harness and some other electrical stuff to clean up the engine compartment. In the meantime I've tinkered with the Jeep and got the other axle swapped in... That's number four... I have plenty to do with the Jeep that doesn't require tons of cash so the Bronco shouldn't slow me down other than time... Not that I'm working fast anyway. Laters

 

Not much has been going on around here... I've picked up a couple parts for the Jeep so maybe one of these days I can get the time to get some more done... Thanks for checking this out. Laters

 

Man I feel like a loser... All the usual excuses... Work, family, etc... Cold winter with lots of snow... Anyway I've gotten into the shop today and tinkered a little.

That's what 300 bux worth of steering stuff looks like... Happy Birthday to me...




And all mocked up. Nice easy angles... Nothing too severe. I ordered a 36in long double D shaft it it almost would have worked with just a straight shot, but the motor mount was just in the way...


And here it is all together. I might brace the tab to the side, but I think it might be okay. The angles on the steering shaft are pretty flat, so there isn't alot of side load.

It felt good to be out working on this again. For the first time since 2013 the steering wheel is connected to the wheels... Thanks for checking this out. Laters

 

Hey Jon , No excuses necessary.........I'm in the same club also..........did I miss something ? Is that an early Corvette Rams head exhaust manifold?

 

Maybe... I've got a pair that was sitting in a friend's shop... I wanted to use those instead of headers... Not a high horsepower rig.. the other one has the alternator mount on it...

 

That looks like a 2" exit so maybe not a Corvette since I think they went to 2.5" with the 300 Hp and up SBC cars...........right side alt mount maybe like a 57 on up..........just the same welcome to the V8 club...

 

I'm sure they're just some old truck manifolds...

 

I found some old pics on Facebook...

My wife is loving the Jeep. You can see the huge PTO winch and some of the bubba stuff... Turn signals, cow face paint job, passenger car tires.

The wrong gas tank... T-Bird leather seats

This was the first time we went wheeling in it... My wife and daughter enjoyed it. My daughter was just finishing pre School, now she is just getting done with 4th grade... Time flies

 

Awesome! Love to see the family involved!

 

Looks like photobucket got me too...

I've tried Imgur and Flickr, but it looks like I've figgered out Smugmug...

This pic is day one of owning my Jeep. If there's anything from the build so far that someone would like to see, let me know and I can post some pics

 

Need more pics please. Is that a Koenig King Winch? Did you get the tow bar too?

 

Here's a couple more from our first little trail ride... I wanna say the winch was a Ramsey. It was too big for the Jeep though. The mount pushed the front bumper ahead a couple inches and compressed the suspension all the way...






You can see the mid sixties Thunderbird leather seats...

 

You can see the winch and bumper sticking out... This is after some Superlift 2.5in lift springs, and 31in mudders on some old school steel wheels.

This is where I decided the PTO winch wasn't the greatest. We were actually climbing the hill behind the Jeep. We slid sideways into the ditch. I let out the cable and tried to restart the motor, but it wouldn't pick up fuel. I had to call a friend to go get my M1008 to pull us out.
After that caper I decided that a Warn 8274 was the best idea... I pulled the PTO winch off and put a different bumper on. It was at this point the F-Head broke a piston ring. That's what started me on the slippery slope to build my Jeep into exactly how I wanted my first Jeep that I had back in 1996. I wanted strong axles, granny low 4 speed, 8274, power steering and 4 wheel disc brakes. My first Jeep was a 1956 CJ-5 that was completely original. Too nice to build into a wheeling rig. This one was missing all of the military specific parts, so I didn't feel like restoring it either. Since then, I've become friends with a guy that restores military Jeep's and has given me some lights and stuff that he didn't need. So... Hopefully I can get some more stuff done on this thing and get it going soon

 

Another pic I found the other day...

 

I really like those T-bird seats!

 

They were super comfy, but the driver's side was thrashed... They didn't like the rain either...