Dad's Flatfender

Actually, if you did it right, I think you can get rwd, 4wd, fulltime, fwd out of it. Front digs are cool! You would need 4 detents and more travel (which probably means a longer front housing or a spacer).

For each setup:

• 4wd: Front stub, front spider, and diff case all locked together
• Full time: Front stub, front spider locked together
• Rwd: Front spider, diff case locked together
• Fwd: Front stub, diff case locked together

I think it could be done with the right rings of splines and blank areas inside the shift collar. I'll have to fiddle with some drawings when I have time.

 

I have pics! I just haven't had time to post them. Having to work for a living really cuts into my free time.

 

Finally have some time to post. Took lots of pictures while I was visiting. Note, this Jeep isn't clean and tidy and my dad is the first to admit he does booger welds.

This first post will be more of the full time unit. Remember he built this taking community college machine shop classes.

Here's some better pictures of the outside of it under the Jeep.

As you can see, it's pretty compact:


Here you can see the overdrive with PTO at the top of the transfer case and the full-time unit at the bottom:


Here's some mock-up parts he made in the early stages to see if everything would actually fit. A wood carrier and a front ouput:




This is a tool he made to hold a cutter in the college's horizontal mill to cut splines. He ground the cutter itself to the required spline profile:




His 1975 Green River Community College parking pass is still in the window of his '65 Cadillac. That dates the build of the full time unit:

 

This is just a bunch of random pictures in no particular order. The Jeep was buried under a pile of stuff in the corner but my Dad was happy to uncover it for pictures.

Ramsey PTO winch *just* fits with the Saginaw steering:


A tight fit for everything under the hood:


Items of note:

• Battery in still in the original location.
• Buick 225 from wrecking yard 64 or 65 Buick Special.
• HEI ignition.
• Radiator from donor car.
• High mount power steering pump.
• Offenhauser valve covers.
• Original Buick air cleaner.
• Hydrovac brake booster on the passenger side cowl.

This area is pretty tight with front dump exhaust, fuel pump, incoming/outgoing fuel filters, home made heat shield, steering shaft, and PTO shaft:


Cruise control diaphragm, Vintage remote reservoir for the master cylinder (it leaks just like the modern Wilwood ones), Blue cables for the failed diff lock experiment, horn relay, and relay to switch the tail lights to the tow vehicle for flat towing.


PTO setup on the back of the Warn overdrive:


Dana 23 in the back. Rear driveshaft length isn't too bad in spite of the full-time unit. Parking brake cables to the 11 inch backing plates instead of a transfer case mounted brake. He said he never got the ratios right for the stock pull handle to actuate the parking brakes very well. You can also see the front of his home-made rear tank:


PTO shaft headed forward with a pillow block on the cross-frame:


The PTO shaft *just* fits between the bellhousing and master cylinder on the way to another pillow block under the motor mount:


When he put the V6 in, he went to the Jeep dealer and bought a skid plate oil pan (Renegade part?):


70s vintage electric wiper conversion:


You can see one of the GPW tool box lids in the back. Note the MB/GPW specific Smitty Bilt roll bar clears the boxes so they still work:


The 70's vintage tire/gas carrier:


Another pitcure under the hood showing HEI, valve cover, and cruise control diaphragm:


It's getting hard to read 40 years later, but the "Fireball V6" air cleaner on his Jeep is where my screen name comes from:


High mount power steering pump:


To snake the steering shaft around the front dump exhaust, he put a pillow block on top the motor mount and a compact u-joint next to the fuel pump:


He made a wood push-bar that hangs on the grill guard.. He has always worked on cars on the side and this allowed him to get dead ones up the driveway into the shop.


That's it for now.

 

one question, why are some parts covered in grim and others clean enough to eat off of?

 

Wow! Your Dad is incredible! I agree with the above statements, but I will boil it down to "Plant potatos you get potatos."

Also, why are some parts clean?

 

He rebuilt the motor about 12 years ago and the Jeep has probably moved less than 1000 miles since then. He changed he cross-frame at the same time but I don't remember why.

 

Fireball, wasn't the Fireball a 198?

 

This is the best. And what I call "fully accessorized".

 

Also the 225s until Buick stopped making them.

 

Here's a summary, if you have confidence in Wikipedia>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_V6_engine

 

Funny, that's where I read up on it. I had forgotten there was that few years of the Fireball 225. I had an uncle that had a '64-ish Buick Special convertible that probably had that motor.

 

Amazing! Dad did some cool stuff

 

This is awesome! Does your father keep a shoehorn in his toolbox? A lot of cool things in/under there!

 

This was an amazing read. I love that full time 4wd conversion, amazing stuff.