• Registration trouble? Please use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom right corner of the page and your issue will be resolved.

Converting A Cj2a Into A Truck

givemethewillys said:
I love the look of those vw seats; they look like they were meant to go in there. What did they come out of? I think you'll end up liking them.
Click to expand...
The are seats out of a VW of some kind that I found on Craigslist during the initial truck build, so they have been in the 47 for a number of years and we love them. The center console was from a different vehicle, but I have no idea of the source vehicle, it just worked in the cab between the seats and was about the right color, so bought it for $50. The top section folds down for an arm rest when we don’t have a third person or the puppies, but both the top and bottom section has storage, so a bonus.

I have a set of PRP seats in the 2nd floor of the shop that are heated that I could also use, but I like the look of the VW seats better.
 
I AM READY FOR MOAB!!!!!

I didn’t take any pictures, because most of the work was all boring work. The key items:

1. I added two aluminum boxes to my rack to hold items like axles that will live on the jeep. Yes, I could have and should have taken pictures of these, so those will be forthcoming. The boxes are small 34.5x13x6.5, so they don’t hold much, just the essentials for normal wheeling…axles, tools to replace axles, hydraulic jack, impact, etc., so the boxes are mounted and loaded.
2. Added two LED lights facing rear to help see rearward at night
3. Painted the front bumper…took all of 10 minutes, but it was nasty.
4. One of the biggest changes was having the tires road force balanced, and now the 47 rides better than any of my former older jeeps. They moved my spare to the rear axle, as one tire/wheel combo was not as good as the other four.
5. I’ve been chasing a vibration in the rear, and I thought it might be the front pinion bearing, so I pulled the driveline and torqued the yoke to 90 pounds. I think I could have gone a little more, but that’s where I stopped.
6. After the tire balancing, I still had a noticeable vibration, so turned my attention to the transfer case side of the driveline. I found that the nylock on the Yoke was stripped and there was a lot of play on the rear yoke as it had lost torque. I found another nut in my parts pile, but it wasn’t an nylock, so added a liberal amount of blue locktite and torqued to 140 pounds. Took it for a drive and viola, vibration is almost completely gone. I still feel a slight vibration, but I’m probably being too sensitive, as my 47 will never be as smooth as my Gladiator.

There’s still plenty of work to do, namely the skid plates for the engine, transfer case, transmission and front/rear differentials, cut off the last 4 leaf spring mounts, install recovery points, etc., but all of those are going to have to wait until I return from Moab in the spring.

One of the traps with having a project jeep is that the project is never finished so you never get a chance to enjoy your jeep. For the next 2 months, I’m going to go have some fun in Moab with all the work I’ve put into my 47…I will be reporting on the adventures.
 
cj2atruck said:
One of the traps with having a project jeep is that the project is never finished so you never get a chance to enjoy your jeep. For the next 2 months, I’m going to go have some fun in Moab with all the work I’ve put into my 47…I will be reporting on the adventures.
Click to expand...
Always said I spent more time working on Jeeps than enjoying them. Trying to not do that with the 'burban.
 
As promised, below are a few pictures of the aluminum boxes I installed on the rack above the bed.

IMG_3141 by Rick, on Flickr

IMG_3142 by Rick , on Flickr

IMG_3143 by Rick , on Flickr

As you can see, the boxes are pretty small, so they don’t hold a lot. I don’t want to put too much weight on the rack, so the small boxes will keep me from loading them up with everything in the shop…which is my tendency. I would be surprised if I had much more than 100 pounds up top including the weight of the rack, and I tried to load the two boxes evenly for good weight distribution. A Few drives to town revealed that I didn’t really pick up any more side-to-side movement in the rear. I probably should build a rear sway bar, but this is not a rig for long drives, so the jury is still out on the rear sway bar. My biggest issue right now is that my steering box is too fast, 3 turns lock-to-lock, but will address that in the spring.

For installation of the boxes, I started by laying down strips of sound deadening mat on the rails to stop any squeaking, then attached the boxes on the front and back rails with stainless bolts. In the second picture, you are able to see that the latch and lock has easy access through a hole in the rack side frame, so I was able to put them pretty far out to the edge. I had to make a small modification to the drivers side rack for easy access the lock, but no one will ever notice or care. The location of the lock and latch should help keep the stuff in the boxes from getting stolen.

In addition, I should have enough space in the middle to carry our sleeping bag, tent and air mattress on the Rubicon, but no much more.

You can also see the LED light bar I added to the front of the rack. It’s been in my shop for a while from another project, so I figured I might as well use it to add light to any nighttime trail runs. With the LED headlights, the side rock lights, this light bar and the rear facing LED lights under the rack, there’s really not may places around the Jeep I don’t have adequate light.

One of the things I needed to address was a step for my tiny wife to get into the jeep, as she has difficulty getting into all of my jeeps past and present. I used a piece of 2”x1/4” flat stock and bent a step on my press brake that uses the rock sliders to hold her weight…essentially, about 100 pounds. I rounded the corners and painted the step after the pictures, and will add a small piece of nonskid tape to the step surface. The picture seems to show the step at a downward angle, but it’s really just flat, so an optical illusion.

IMG_3140 by Rick , on Flickr

IMG_3139 by Rick , on Flickr

I’ve built similar steps before and they work well for her to more easily get into the jeep.

Tomorrow I will test the front articulation on the back of the car trailer before I load the jeep. I tested articulation frequently during the build process, but I have not done a more real world test. My only concern is full stuff on each side under articulation, so if there are any issues, I can quickly make a new spacer above the bump stop inside the coil spring.
 
Well, first off-road drive is in the books for the 47 after the suspension modification to coil springs and long arms. As a reminder, I embarked on this suspension conversion journey as it was so uncomfortable as the speeds increased over rough terrain, especially for my wife. So, the real test was her first ride in the Jeep on normal off-road terrain.

Today, we went for a 4 hour drive in the southern Nevada desert on rocky, washboard dirt roads with lost of potholes, and 5 miles down a sand wash that had seen a lot of UTV traffic, so every corner had plenty of braking bumps. Her first comment was that she didn’t think it was possible to make an old jeep ride this well, and we have had a number of older jeeps, and she said this one is the best one we have ever had. In addition, she said it was like riding on a cloud. After disconnecting the sway bar and lowering the pressure to 15 pounds, the ride was even better.

IMG_3178 by Rick , on Flickr

It seems that I have been successful in creating a flat fender that is actually comfortable to drive.
 
Now that I’ve sorted out the ride quality on the 47 and my wife will be able to enjoy trips in the 47, it’s time for a different trailer. I’m looking at the Charmac Trisport so I can haul the 47, the Harley and the KTM 690 Adventure, and still have decent ground clearance to get offroad. No reason to focus on only one hobby while traveling, so need a trailer that will handle all the toys.

Anyone have any experience with the Charmac Trisport Trailers?
 
I am waiting on a 3/4-20 castle nut for the rear output on the transfer case that will go back into the jeep, as the lock nut that was on the shaft isn’t in very good shape and the transfer case from Herm has different threads. My shaft is drilled for a carter, so might as well switch to a castle nut.

So, while I wait, I decided to start cutting the 2x3 tubing that I will weld to the bottom of the frame between the lower control arm mounts. This will add strength to the frame and mounts, as well as give me a smooth transition in the rocks from the control arms in front all the way to the rear if I need to slide over a rock. In addition, except for the bump at the lowest point in the transfer case pan the belly skid will be completely flat between the frame rails.

The new yet-to-be-built cross member will give me one additional inch of clearance than the stock cross member.

Started with a cardboard template and used an angle grinder to notch for the control arm mounts. This was a pretty quick project, only about an hour to prep the tubing. All that remains is to clean all the welding surfaces, weld and paint. Ignore the dirt in the pictures, I still need to clean it off before welding.

IMG_3272 by Rick , on Flickr

IMG_3273 by Rick , on Flickr

IMG_3274 by Rick , on Flickr
 
After welding the 2x3 tubing to the bottom of the frame between the lower control arm frame mounts, today was spent designing the transmission cross member. For the cross member, I decided to use 1/2”x2” flat bar instead of tubing, as I think the thick flat bar will be much stronger than tubing. I can also bend the thick flat bar in my brake press, so the cross member will be one structural piece with no welds. First up was to take a lot of measurements and draw the design on a 2x6 since I didn’t have a piece of cardboard handy.

IMG_3283 by Rick , on Flickr

I am using DOM tubing with Poly bushings at the ends of the transmission cross member, the same bushings I used for the engine mounts. When contemplating the design, I decided that I wanted the cross member to be welded on top of the DOM tubing so the flat bar is taking the load instead of the welds if I just welded the flat bar to the bottom of the DOM tubing.

1/2”x2” steel is not cheap, so I wanted to maximize my opportunity for success by thinking through the design before bending any steel. After a little time with the press, I sat the finished product on top of my design board to measure my success.

IMG_3284 by Rick , on Flickr

I think I did a pretty good job staying with the design. Tomorrow, I will weld the DOM tubing to the cross member, the tabs to the frame and get everything painted.
 
cj2atruck said:
After welding the 2x3 tubing to the bottom of the frame between the lower control arm frame mounts, today was spent designing the transmission cross member. For the cross member, I decided to use 1/2”x2” flat bar instead of tubing, as I think the thick flat bar will be much stronger than tubing. I can also bend the thick flat bar in my brake press, so the cross member will be one structural piece with no welds. First up was to take a lot of measurements and draw the design on a 2x6 since I didn’t have a piece of cardboard handy.

IMG_3283 by Rick , on Flickr

I am using DOM tubing with Poly bushings at the ends of the transmission cross member, the same bushings I used for the engine mounts. When contemplating the design, I decided that I wanted the cross member to be welded on top of the DOM tubing so the flat bar is taking the load instead of the welds if I just welded the flat bar to the bottom of the DOM tubing.

1/2”x2” steel is not cheap, so I wanted to maximize my opportunity for success by thinking through the design before bending any steel. After a little time with the press, I sat the finished product on top of my design board to measure my success.

IMG_3284 by Rick , on Flickr

I think I did a pretty good job staying with the design. Tomorrow, I will weld the DOM tubing to the cross member, the tabs to the frame and get everything painted.
Click to expand...
Good job on the crossmember, What kinda brake do you have that will bend 1/2 metal?
 
I built my own brake about 20 years ago from scrap steel, and I’ve bent a lot of steel and aluminum over the years. Several other pictures in my build thread pending various thicknesses and widths of steel and aluminum. I use a 20 ton Harbor Freight press and a 20 ton air/hydraulic jack with a foot pedal. I don’t think this setup should work on thick bar stock, but it does.

IMG_2934 by Rick, on Flickr
 
The transfer case is installed and it passed the test drive, and this might be the quietest Dana 18 I’ve ever had. With the install complete, it was time to install the new cross member, so I grabbed some 2” painters tape.

IMG_3285 by Rick , on Flickr

The tape helped me determine the location of the tabs that would be welded to the inside of the 2x3 tubing that was welded to the bottom of the frame. The cross member was pretty easy to install, I just clamped a couple of small pieces of 2” angle to the tubing, placed the tabs with the new mounts on the angle iron, placed the cross member on top of the new mounts and tack welded everything in place. I had already attached a piece of 1 1/2 x 3/8 flat bar to the bottom of the transmission adapter, so I was ready to weld in a piece of 2x2x1/4 tubing between the transmission adapter and the new cross member.

IMG_3286 by Rick , on Flickr

I also made a piece that would support the passenger side of the transfer case, but I’ve read this might not be necessary…no harm in adding a bolt and spacer at this location.

I have also eliminated the stock rubber transmission mount, so the transmission and transfer case are solid mounted to the new cross member, and the poly bushings at each end of the new cross member are now used for the entire drivetrain.

Tomorrow I will start working on the belly skid plate…I am well behind the progress Fireball has made.

Speaking of Fireball, his carb work made me wonder if I was getting full throttle when the accelerator is on the floor, as I struggle to pull 3rd and 4th on a hill, so decided to check. Nope, only about 1/2 throttle when the pedal is on the floor. I must have messed this up years ago during the initial installation, but a quick modification and it is resolved.
 
cj2atruck said:
The transfer case is installed and it passed the test drive, and this might be the quietest Dana 18 I’ve ever had. With the install complete, it was time to install the new cross member, so I grabbed some 2” painters tape.

IMG_3285 by Rick , on Flickr

The tape helped me determine the location of the tabs that would be welded to the inside of the 2x3 tubing that was welded to the bottom of the frame. The cross member was pretty easy to install, I just clamped a couple of small pieces of 2” angle to the tubing, placed the tabs with the new mounts on the angle iron, placed the cross member on top of the new mounts and tack welded everything in place. I had already attached a piece of 1 1/2 x 3/8 flat bar to the bottom of the transmission adapter, so I was ready to weld in a piece of 2x2x1/4 tubing between the transmission adapter and the new cross member.

IMG_3286 by Rick , on Flickr

I also made a piece that would support the passenger side of the transfer case, but I’ve read this might not be necessary…no harm in adding a bolt and spacer at this location.

I have also eliminated the stock rubber transmission mount, so the transmission and transfer case are solid mounted to the new cross member, and the poly bushings at each end of the new cross member are now used for the entire drivetrain.

Tomorrow I will start working on the belly skid plate…I am well behind the progress Fireball has made.

Speaking of Fireball, his carb work made me wonder if I was getting full throttle when the accelerator is on the floor, as I struggle to pull 3rd and 4th on a hill, so decided to check. Nope, only about 1/2 throttle when the pedal is on the floor. I must have messed this up years ago during the initial installation, but a quick modification and it is resolved.
Click to expand...
Your fabrication skills astound me! One thing I love about this forum is that even guys like you, who are "mentors" in the forum, pick things up from other folks. That's cool you got your throttle cable working fully, I bet it made a big difference!
 
Work has begun on the flat skid plate. I started with a 24x48 sheet of 3/16” steel. After taking a lot of measurements, I started cutting.

IMG_3287 by Rick , on Flickr

Since the plate is 18”, I was able to use my brake to bend both sides. Quite frankly, I was pretty nervous on these bend, as my brake is far from a precision tool, so getting the bends to fit around the frame with little play…or no play meaning it wouldn’t slip over the frame…took some time. I figured if I messed up, I could always divert to mounting on the inside of the 2x3 tubing, but really wanted the skid plate to wrap around the outside edges of the frame so it’s easy to mount and very strong when I hit the rocks. Here is a picture of the first test fit.

IMG_3289 by Rick , on Flickr

You can see in the picture that I have already cut a box for the oil pan drain plug. You can also see that I was successful in bending the sides to it fits well over the edges of the tubing.

The next step was to measure and draw the bends and cuts. The bends on the front and back add strength and allow for smooth slides on rocks, while the cuts make for a better fit on the frame.

IMG_3291 by Rick , on Flickr

I used my angle grind for all of the cuts, and scored the lines to help with bending those sections, as I am unable to fit this piece in my brake on the front and rear edges. Once I scored the lines, I used a big crescent and a big hammer to make the bends. Time for another test fit.

IMG_3292 by Rick , on Flickr

IMG_3293 by Rick , on Flickr

You might notice that the hole has gotten much larger, as I decided I wanted to move the plate forward to allow more clearance on the rear driveline yoke. I will fill the front part of the hole…no one will ever notice…and build a small bulge under the pan that will allow easy sliding over rocks. I also need to do a lot of clean up work with a grinder, but I’m well on my way to having a flat belly skid with no exposed bolts on the bottom.

Next up, I will build the Engine skid, fix that hole, build the bulge and mount the belly pan to the frame.
 
Today was a fun day in the shop working on the skid plate. I started by using the brake press to bend the little bulge, as that was a pretty simple build. The first big project was to design and build of the mount for the motor at the front. After experimenting with several designs, I settled on a U-shaped mount that attaches to motor mount bolts and goes under the oil pan. This thing took me 3 hours to get right, as I needed to clear the front driveline u-joint on the passenger side, and have the correct spacing up top for the mounting bolts.

IMG_3297 by Rick , on Flickr

I like this design, but it makes the motor skid plate narrower at the front than at the back where it connects to the transmission/transfer case skid plate. To help in the shape of the motor skid plate, I broke out the painters tape once again.

IMG_3298 by Rick , on Flickr

I used a speed square to make the painters tape straight relative to the front of the transmission skid, which allowed me to determine the shape of the motor skid. I started with cardboard to cut the initial shape, and then added 1” to each side to bend the lip. Here again, I used an angle grinder to score the steel plate at the bend, and a 10 pound hammer (with the steel plate clamped to the edge of the lift) to bend the lip at and angle. I also had to install the motor skid a few times to determine additional cuts to make sure I cleared the front driveline. I think the finished skids (before paint) look pretty good.

IMG_3300 by Rick , on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2s416wP]IMG_3301 by Rick , on Flickr[/URL]

I decided to use bolts at the connection between the two skid plates, as I didn’t like anything I came up with that had hidden bolts. I’ll use some type of bolt head protector washer to protect the head of the bolts.

It’s now hanging in the shop so the paint will dry.
 
cj2atruck said:
Today was a fun day in the shop working on the skid plate. I started by using the brake press to bend the little bulge, as that was a pretty simple build. The first big project was to design and build of the mount for the motor at the front. After experimenting with several designs, I settled on a U-shaped mount that attaches to motor mount bolts and goes under the oil pan. This thing took me 3 hours to get right, as I needed to clear the front driveline u-joint on the passenger side, and have the correct spacing up top for the mounting bolts.

IMG_3297 by Rick , on Flickr

I like this design, but it makes the motor skid plate narrower at the front than at the back where it connects to the transmission/transfer case skid plate. To help in the shape of the motor skid plate, I broke out the painters tape once again.

IMG_3298 by Rick , on Flickr

I used a speed square to make the painters tape straight relative to the front of the transmission skid, which allowed me to determine the shape of the motor skid. I started with cardboard to cut the initial shape, and then added 1” to each side to bend the lip. Here again, I used an angle grinder to score the steel plate at the bend, and a 10 pound hammer (with the steel plate clamped to the edge of the lift) to bend the lip at and angle. I also had to install the motor skid a few times to determine additional cuts to make sure I cleared the front driveline. I think the finished skids (before paint) look pretty good.

IMG_3300 by Rick , on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2s416wP]IMG_3301 by Rick , on Flickr[/URL]

I’ll use some type of bolt head protector washer to protect the head of the bolts.
Click to expand...
Button head allen bolts. No protection required.
 
I thought I would post a final skid plate picture after it was finish welded and painted. It took me a while to weld the score I made with the angle grinder that allowed me to make the 45 degree bends, as they needed to be welded to add the strength back into the steel. You can also see the bulge has been finish welded, and the hole below the drain plug will not only allow for easy oil changes, but will also allow water to drain off the skid. While I don’t have picture, I place a 1/2”x2” vibration insulator between the skid plate and the front mount to ensure that I didn’t get any additional vibration noise from this mount.

IMG_3302 by Rick , on Flickr

The entire skid plate can be removed with 8 bolts that are all easy to access, so this project is now complete.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top