Building a new and improved Jalopy frame

Awesome. It is looking really good. I can't wait to see the finished product.

 

Nice Job Nate it looks great

 

Thanks guys! Still have a ton of work to do before it rolls.

Here's some pics for comparison:

This is at the same height (from the center of both frames):





And what it will be when I'm done with it. :twisted: Glad I put the chain steps on the side!





The wheel base is 80" right on the nose. It may not look like it form the side view, but the rear axle is directly below the rear crossmember (not rear bumper) and the front is half way between the joint and the crossmember.

 

:lurk:

 

Looking good! I'm surprised more people don't do this, its really not that hard. Well as long as you can do some fabrication.

Kevo

 

Thanks! Yeah, I was surprised at how easy it was to build. I was using your "just a small project" build thread as inspiration for my frame.

Now I have the hard part of figuring out my coil spring mounts...

 

I got some more work done. I haven't really done too much in the past 2 weeks due to school stuff and work. I got my front coil spring mounts pretty much finished up. That was a lot of work.

After making some measurements, I found out that the distance between the point where the axle tube is welded to the knuckle is 36" and my frame is 29" wide. The coil springs are 5" in diameter too. Dang it. I had to notch the frame quite a bit to get them to fit properly.



It ended up being 1/2" thick. So I made up this 3/8" plate to weld in there.







and I welded a support on the back.



And then I had to beef it back up some more, so I used some 6" pipe as my coil spring mounts.



and the axle mounts





and I mocked it up on a junk axle. The short axle tube is exactly 5" long and I hit it perfectly!

 

I like the way you folded the cut metal back into the frame for the coil cut out area. Looks good.

 

Thanks. I himmed and hawwed about how to do that for an hour.

 

looks great, cant wait to see the finished project.

 

Some more work done today now that the Alpha is up and running.

I put the rear coil spring mounts on and made up the rear axle mounts too.




Next step will be to yank the axles out of the Jalopy and figure my links.

 

A couple days ago, I was looking at my frame and decided I hated the way the front coil spring mounts looked. So I set up the plasma cutter and welder and did a little modifying. :twisted: I like them better now.





And then I had to weld some mounts on the inside to keep the springs stable.

 

Yesterday I started tearing into the Jalopy by taking the body off. That sure felt good! :twisted:





And today I took the axles out. The rear axle did have center pins, they just rotted away...

 

My large hole 18 is all set and ready to go. No more funky driveshaft angle the the D20 gave and I'll have a parking brake... somewhat. Those stupid small U-joint yokes are a pain to get off! I swapped that out with a bigger one. Hello 84:1 crawl ratio... :twisted:





And then I mocked up the rear end on the lift today. For reference, those tires are 31s. This thing is going to be pretty tall! The rear is at a 20° angle and I can drop the tranny down a little. The rear driveshaft wont be at too bad of an agle from the looks of it.

 

Following this tread closely I need to do this soon.

 

How come? Is your frame shot too?

 

Today, a buddy and I took the engine out of the old frame and put it in the new frame. I'm pumped to finish it now!





I only tacked in the motor mounts.



With the rear at 20° and the tranny crossmember 2" below the frame, the driveshaft angle is not all that bad. I like.

 

Yep, rear frame rails are real thin. I'm planing on only replacing from the firewall back.

On a side note did you see this months jp? Your a trend setter!

 

It's pretty easy to build the whole thing. Just getting the engine right and the suspension in my case are probably the hardest things to do.

I'm not subscribed to JP... What is it?

 

look great...an old cj with a modern suspension and a good frame!!!