Okay, so I go over to a friends yesterday to purchase a D30 he recently pulled out of his CJ3a. Well, naturally that doesn't happen. After about 3 hours of conversation and looking at his project in his shop I head home with a head full of ideas and an XJ filled with two full track D44's and another SM420 since another friend had asked me to keep an eye out for one. I also have to start planning a master cylinder swap since the old stock one will not quite cut it anymore, oh well I lose my heater at least for a while. Once I cut them down I'm going to weld 2" wide spring perches on the top of the axle to continue my SOA with YJ springs. Which, by the way, I saw in person yesterday. Very very soft spring rates, and very flexible so that's a definite go. The only difference between the one I saw and what I am going to do is I'm still planning on doing the 3/4 elliptical setup. The eventual goal is such. I'll have front and rear D44's with 4.88 gears. Detroit in the rear and a lockrite in the front.
| SOA'd and 3/4 elliptical on YJ springs should allow me to run 35" super swampers on her. My SM420 is on the workbench being rebuilt currently, once that's done it will go in between the buick 231 odd fire engine and the D18 transfer case. Then I'll be installing a Warn Over Drive to bring the highway RPM's down to a reasonable level. I started working on the body a little bit and I took the spare tire carrier off and noticed an unpleasant sight. The sheet metal was ripped apart and the whole corner was comprises of Bondo. I knew there was some Bondo on there, but I didn't know how much till I started chiselling (yes with a hammer and chisel) the bondo off the corner. At this point I came to the realization that this corner was going to be way too difficult to save, so I decided that I would include it in the sheet metal I was saying goodbye to when I did the fender trimming. That has been accomplished and I like the results and the look, there's still a layer or two of fiberglass to go on and smooth things out. But otherwise the cutting is pretty much finished. The cutting took about an hour to cut and bend on both sides. Basically all I did was line out where I wanted things in pencil on the surface using a straight edge and a level. Then I marked a cutting line 1/2" below the body line I wanted to have. I broke out the sawzall and made the cuts. When that was done I used a wide pair of pliers with a long handle to bend the sheet metal to the body contour line. This is a simple job, all you do is line one side of the pliers up on the line and bend it, once you're done you use a hammer to tap the line smooth and hit any spots that are still sharp with a grinder. |  |
This should give you an idea of the overall damage and the amount of bondo on this corner |
| Here we see the drivers side rear corner after the cut. |  |
With all this done my fender wells will definatley fit the new meats and with a few more modifications will be ready to run. The lower 4" of metal was cut off, this not only avoided some nasty body work it also will provide a bit more clearence for the rear corners. When I finish all the sheet metal work I'm going to have some rear corner guards custom cut for the new shape providing both protection and a measure of good looks. I will finish this off by trimming the rear crossmember to fit before I build a bumper to match. I'm hoping for a nice clean look from all of this, so far everythings gone according to plan. |  |
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Here's the passenger side, still not quite completed. I need to heat the corner up to rebend it. I also have to repair some nasty tears first. |  |
Here's the HEI fitted Buick 231 odd fire engine. Still mated to the 225's heavy flywheel. |
