Renegade CJ

matth_85 · May 18, 2020

VOLT said:

Thanks Nick. Hope that it turns out as nice as I want it to.

I loved the Anti-Rock on the buggy and BlewTJ. I'm hoping to put some street miles on this one and thought it would give it some added stability is my reasoning for going with one. The suspension on the orange buggy was so jacked up the anti-rock was basically a bandaid to make it act normal. It helped a ton.

Yours was in the front correct? I have only ever used them for the rear.

matth_85 · May 18, 2020

97TJGUZZY said:

I've been happy with them on everything i've used them on. I'm hoping for this CJ to have the same trail manners as BlewTJ had. Should be mildly more stable with full size axles. Same suspension setup and wheelbase and should be close to the same ride height. That was a good wheeling Jeep. If it was Ram-Rod stable i'd probably tear it up...

matth_85 · Jun 3, 2020

Took a couple of weeks off from the CJ to clear my head from work as well as the project. Work has been insane through this Coronavirus situation and the stress had started stacking up on me.

Dustin is bringing his bender over Thursday and we hope to get the remainder of the cage finished with seats mounted. I plan to get that complete and do the bedliner on the tub this weekend as long as the cage work goes as planned. Stay tuned...

matth_85 · Jun 4, 2020

Driver seat is in. Will do the passenger side tomorrow morning.

Twilliamson · Jun 5, 2020

That is some really nice seat mounting hardware.

matth_85 · Jun 5, 2020

Got all seats mounted. Going to build a stand to bolt to the floor for support on the inside of each seat. And will cap off the open tube.

matth_85 · Jun 5, 2020

Turns out what’s the most comfortable is factory front height and a touch lower in the back to recline a touch. Puts me right at center of the windshield. Visibility seemed the best at this height.

matth_85 · Jun 5, 2020

Now to bend a harness bar and cooler rack

matth_85 · Jun 7, 2020

Not as much progress as I’d hoped for this weekend. Stayed on the lake a little too late Friday night so didn’t get going real early... then spent most of yesterday buying and installing a new washing machine...

Today I got the winch re-assembled, lap belts in, and drive shafts measured. She’s getting there. One more big task is spraying the tub. Very ready to get that done. Hoping to do that this week/weekend.

97TJGUZZY · Jun 8, 2020

looks great matt!!

matth_85 · Jun 10, 2020

Got in the shop for a couple hours every night this week. Got the cage tie-in plates made up and bolted in. Got the B-pillar plates mocked up to the frame. Got one A-pillar mocked up and ran out of wire. It’s going to have to come off to fix the weld because it did some weird shit when the wire got to the end. Not sure how I want to tie the C-pillar in yet...

Also got the harness bar based out and the cooler rack bars figured out. Just have to take them to Dustins shop and bend them up. Looks like I’ll need about 5’ more DOM to finish🤦‍♂️

97TJGUZZY · Jun 11, 2020

any pics of the cooler rack? whatcha doing for the rack?

matth_85 · Jun 11, 2020

Going to utilize the harness bar provided by poison spyder and add a bar similar to what’s shown in red. This will give me a point to put the rear harness on as well. It will be just above the tank and I plan to dimple die a piece of 1/16 steel and weld it to the bottom side. With this plan it alleviate the need for a remote fuel filler. Probably will also kill any idea of a hard top but the most I’ll ever run is a soft top anyway I believe.

97TJGUZZY · Jun 11, 2020

matth_85 said:

that should work well! will the rear bar (old harness bar) sit outside the tub some? if not why would a hardtop not fit?

matth_85 · Jun 11, 2020

I can possibly make it get inside but to get it the width it needs to be I think it's going to push out really close to the lip of the tub.

matth_85 · Jun 13, 2020

Made some stuff happen today. Missed the mark on my harness bar so had to improvise. She’s tight meow though. Gonna try to recruit some help to disassemble this bitch tomorrow.

matth_85 · Jun 14, 2020

Ram-Rod Speed Shop is a full house

matth_85 · Jun 19, 2020

Fixed the last bit of rust in the tub, scuffed with a scotch brite on a die grinder, seam sealed everything, now To head to a wedding...

Plan to scuff everything by hand tomorrow, wipe down, and spray the bedliner.

Hoping to do a final nut and bolt, full fluids, and set the tub on Saturday/Sunday.

Cage goes to powered coat week after the 4th.

Boys, were about to have a CJ.

matth_85 · Jun 20, 2020

Bedliner sprayed. Will end up taking 1-1/2 kits. Got some touch ups to make when I flip it over. Got some light spots on the sides I was laying down doing.

ALTRDTJ · Jun 20, 2020

Your making me want to pull my tub....