Who Else Overthinks Their Build?

I feel like everything I do needs to be philosophically consistent or a package deal.

I appreciate the simplicity of a CJ, should I stay minimalist and have whatever gear I need (CB, farm jack, jerry cans, etc.) be removable? But I also appreciate mechanical and interactive things, the "machine" aspect, is that more important than simplicity to me? In that case lets add lockers! How about dual gas tanks and a winch at that point? Sway bars?

My friend manages to look at his project from a "just add what you'll use" perspective. If only it could be that simple for me

 

drive it add stuff as you want or find a need for it.

 

Oh yeah, I even overthink my overthinking.

 

I am a purist - all mods should reversible on my Jeeps.

But maybe you need one of each type.

 

stuff keeps me up at night....

 

I wanna return mine as near to stock as I can, nothing overtly 21st century, because there's a vast minority of 1968 cars on the road already.

It would be fun to take a newer square headlight YJ Jeep and outfit it with all the best trail worthy gear. It is after all a YJ, you wouldn't be ruining anything valuable right?

Plus, it's the last of the *real* Jeeps.

 

If the overthinking payed off and the plan worked, I'd say it was just the right amount of thought. If it didn't work out, that means it was under-thought.

 

I do spend a lot of time thinking about what I'm doing on my Jeep, I don't know how philosophical it is, mainly figuring out how I want to do the next thing and how it will interact with what is already there. I appreciate full restorations, but mine isn't going to be one of them. I'm making the changes I (think) I want while trying to keep as much of the original look as I can. Resto-mod is a term I think fits.

 

As we said in the Navy... "Plan early, plan twice." Of course that didn't stop us from planning constantly

 

Not so deep. I had to read it twice. Then I took a minute and thought about it for a couple of minutes.

 

wow that's heavy.....

 

So I don't need a 3d solidworks model with configurations of each mod and a bill of materials with labor hours to compare with buying the mod kit or a quote from 3 shops?

 

I think the issue is that i want to put it together, have it perfect, and be done with it. Surely I could think it through and not want to change anything down the road, but as they say the project is never truly finished!

 

Is there a jeep that you admire that does what you want to do?
The machine approach works when you need to get a lot packed into a package. Say I want an alternator, power steering, onboard air for lockers, hydraulic pump for a plow, onboard welder, and a PTO driven winch with a Buick v6.
You really need to sit down and float it all into place at once and see what just won't work. That is a lot of time up front if you don't have something to reference. If you piece together something over time you have your reward small and often and you aren't as likely to loose interest.

Now that said I have a constraint in the funding of my build but I have 50min each work day to plot my next move. So to me it makes sense to group items together at overhauls like disk brakes and kingpin bearings. I tallied up the bill to jump now or to change it later and it came to the fact that I needed to replace most of the items needed for disks due to a failed bearing. I would do power steering now but I can't justify the expense until: the Ross box is done and unsafe, I use the granny gear 4 speed off road, or I spend more time with the snow plow on the front.
Seriously I'm working with solidworks but my home PC is only good for 3-4 part assemblies like a throttle linkage bracket and arm. A disk brake assembly will lock it up.

 

Overthink, yes! Overbuilt, yes!
I don’t want to breakdown on the trail somewhere that the tow trucks don’t go.

 

Eh, don't think too hard.. Do or don't. Build or not. Even if its under thought, you can fix it later. Sometimes half the project is re doing what you didn't do right or for the needs expressed.

Still this quote is pretty good..

 

I've found if I can spend some time thinking things through, a good solution comes out. If I plow in too quickly, I sometimes end up re-working things. That's just the way my brain works. With that said, sometimes you just have to get started.....

 

I wasn't trying to make any type of great statement; I was just trying to justify my own overthinking.