In preparation for the Rubicon in a week, I worked on my belly protection. I put together a pretty nice skid plate yesterday, and it seems to be pretty beefy. Time will tell I guess. It is only out of 3/16" material, but I had some nice bends put on the sides to make it rigid.

I can still get to the oil pan drain plug.
Cut a couple holes out to let the heat from the exhaust dissipate.

Fixed up the tires today

Did a little touch up work to the tires. Not completely done, but you get the idea.

Belly UP please!

I was going to buy a clocking ring to rotate my tcase for some more ground clearance. Well, I thought a little outside the box and called teraflex to see if I could re-drill the 4:1 case for a different pattern. They said sure... so I did. This has been bothering me for a long time now and finally I can make a skid plate that I like and have a bunch more clearance. Check out the pics.
Before.....
Before.... driveline not in place, but it did hang about this low.....

After the case was re-drilled and studs in place....

New measurement. ....

New clearance and a driveline that isn't hanging as low....

Latest

Finally bumped a cover one too many times. So...... I built a new one. Just have to replace the front one (which is worse than the back one was) and I'll put a 1 year project to rest. I think that's how long I've had these rings around.

np231 upgrade

Finally solved my input gear issues with my 231. Granted it was a little overkill from what I was trying to accomplish, but I am very excited about it. Can you say 4:1 tera low? Talk about an upgrade.
Crawl ratio's
46rh tranny 1st gear = 2.45
Axle gears =4.88
stock 231 low =2.72
tera low =4.0

w/ stock 231 = 35.52
w/ tera low = 47.82

Got my new springs in!

I finished getting my new wagoneer springs in. I got about 1-1.5" of wheelbase out of it which I really needed for my driveline length. I did have to get these boomerang shackles made to clear the frame though. They look good and work great.

High clearance exhaust

I have had some temporary exhaust made up to be able to start it up in the shop for a while now, but I still wanted to build a complete high clearance setup to get rid of the factory manifold to O2 sensor piece. I started with a couple J bends from Summit and some extra tube as well as the mufler I bought a few months back that was on my temp exhaust.
Here is a picture of the stainless heat shield that I added to the muffler. After all, it is almost touching the floor.
Here you can see 2/3 of the exhaust after being fully welded. It looks really clean. I was able to add a flange on each side of the mufler to make it easily replaceable without having to redo the whole system.
I ended up using the stock collectors mostly because I had them, but I could've easily bought some at the muffler shop.
The tailpipe with a sweet turndown.
I routed the diver side pipe in front of the oil pan up out of the way. The passenger pipe joins in on the other side and increases to 2.5" pipe. You can see that the J bends make it very easy to route your pipes wherever you want and they make for a clean finished look. I may add some heat wrap or shielding around the oil pan if it ends up being a problem, but there is still a good ammount of space between the pipes and the pan. It will probably be fine as the factory exhaust was just as close (other than being below the pan instead of in front of it).
End result is an exhaust that sounds good, looks good, and is up and out of the way of rocks and stumps. I am very happy with how it turned out and will probably never have a custom exhaust done by a shop after experiencing how easy it is to put together and put exactly where you want it. Much cheaper too. I spent around $50 on 3 J bends, about $50 on the muffler, and another $50 or so on extra pipe and flanges. Totally custom, high clearance exhaust for $150. Hard to come anywhere close to that at a real shop.

Building my new dash

I went to the metal shop and got a piece of stainless to build my dash out of. I then decided to take it to the machine shop to have it cut on their shear. After talking to them I found out they had a break too, so I just had them throw a couple bends in it to contour my dash. Much easier than trying to bend it myself on the bench. It cost me $12.50 and around $20 for the metal.
I cut out the portions for the gauge panel and steering wheel and then could take off the plastic. Turned out pretty good over all.I made the panel out of alluminum because it was easier to cut the holes for the gauges. I was able to use a file to make everything fit nice.Here is a picture of the panel in place minus the CB, the water temp guage and some switches.Here you can see how the stainless fits up under the dash pad. I still need to make a cover for the fuse and relay area on the passenger side. It will hinge down similar to a glove box.I got the other guage just today and was able to put it into the panel to see a finished look. Still need to wire it up and put in the CB. I really like the dark gray on stainless look.

Tire Carrier Build

I've been working on my tire carrier for a while and now it is almost finished. I only have a few things left to do and then I can final weld it all up. It mounts in two places to the body and two to the the bumper. It is designed to hinge down on the lower bumper mounts to be able to access the rear hatch. I made a place to mount the jack and the tire iron. I may add a piece of tube to slide a shovel into, but haven't decided yet. I also need to clean up a few of my brackets and smooth some edges with the grinder.

This mount is where the point of the jack slides in. I still need to make some sort of latch system to keep this end of the jack from lifting out of its pocket. I may just add some tie downs and a piece of webbing.
Handy little tire iron holder. When the tire is on it pushes up against the iron.
With the jack mounted

Finally, a full sized spare (36x12.50 for me). This tire was free thanks to my good buddy Allan. He actually got me two and Mike two. They were a set, but had some bad cupping so we split them up and made them spares. And no nothing is broken on my rear axle.

Paint (why do I bother)

Yes, I decided to paint my jeep after finishing up the suspension and axle work. It looke really nice when it was finished, but after the first few scratches I didn't think of it as paint anymore. I liked the primer gray look a lot, but I guess once again I can't leave well enough alone. The paint turned out really great though and I enjoy practicing up on my painting skills for that time when it really matters. This was the 4th rig I have painted and the first time I used a clearcoat basecoat paint.

Cage build

I must say that I don't have many pictures of my cage while it was being built. I have these two from when it was just finished before paint, and I also have some of it out and about after it was finished. My cage was built with .120 1 3/4" tubing. I didn't use DOM as many do because it is very expensive these days. I haven't rolled it yet so I can't say as to whether or not it will hold up as well as DOM (although we know it won't) It will save my life in the event of a rollover and that is good enough for me as of now. I would venture to say that the design will hold up well to more than one role (or tip) and more than likely if I roll it that much it will be getting more than just a new cage. You can also see in these pictures the tube fenders that I built. They came out really good too. Hope the pictures give you some ideas


It is hard to see the cage in this picture, but if you look closely you can see that I made a V above the driver area and the two C pillars come to the middle of the cage and also form a V. It make for a pretty strong design. The more you read about cages the more you will see that triangulation is the key. More is usually better to a point. In this picture you can also see the rocker protection that I made after being T-boned on a snow run (note the dent in the door and rocker). I had plans to make the rocker "nerd bars" before, but I hurried up after really needing them. They would have helped since the trucks bumper was the height of my rockers.