Welcome to Project Phoenix.

As most of you know I went to CA to pick up a killer Jeep that needed a little work to get to the trail. The Jeep has some great stuff on it but also has some problems areas. After talking to Joe at Absolute Offroad and having a few things pointed out to me, we (Joe made the notes and came up with the ideas… I just looked good) came up with the plan and asked what I wanted. When the dust settled a new plan was hatched and Project Phoenix was started.
With most of my old Jeep striped out (eng fire) and sold off I was left with a frame. The new Jeep had been hacked up and stretched in the front and the frame was notched and narrowed in the back. Not necessarily a bad thing. The problem was that the body didn’t sit flat like it should. It had a bunch of spacers on one side but not the other.
The other problem was the lift. It was missing some arms and others looked like they had been lengthened. I could have had custom arms built but that starts getting expensive.
So with all that Joe suggested that we look at doing a fresh lift with all new parts. Im going to be doing the Rock Krawler stretch like Lance and Jack.
That brings me to my old rig and the frame… Since we have a good frame that is free of a body why not use it? Im working on cleaning up the frame and getting all the old mounts off so Joe can do the stretch. Once that is done I, with the help of Joe and some friends, will mount the transmission and then the t-case and then finally the eng. It will be a reverse build.
Once all the mechanical stuff is in we will be moving the body over to the frame for a nice clean build.
While very intensive with the labor side there are some great benefits to the build. The lift will be new and I will not be inheriting any problems of trying to make the old one work. I will also be able to make a clean run of all the wires and hoses. As anyone with a Jeep knows, the older the ride the more useless wires you have. Lastly it will be my build on my rig and I will end up knowing it from the frame up.


Day 1

I picked up some cutting wheels blades and grinding wheels and had at the frame.
Since we are going to be doing a long arm stretch I needed to get rid of the spring buckets and the arm mounts. The nice thing about having a frame out of the jeep is you can grind off all the old stuff for a nice clean look.
Frame with lots of room to work.


Spring bucket that needs to go away


Getting it all cleaned up


some of the stuff that got cut off today



me after all that nasty 12 years of dirt, paint, and all other forms of nasty


More to come

We want more pics NOW. :D

I like where this thread is going

what color are you going to paint the frame? Going to mess with coating it with por15?

offroadaz wrote:what color are you going to paint the frame? Going to mess with coating it with por15?

Going to do the por15 or something like that and as for the other paint... You will just need to watch..:)=)

Joe is going to do the install of the lift first then I will paint it that weekend that way its all one color and I don't need to touch up one side or the other.

The RK long arm stretch kit was ordered today. That put a dent in the jeep fund...8|
The kit should arive in a week or two. When the kit arives I will have Joe do the install and then the fun will start of getting the new jeep all taken apart.

I still need to order some comp corners. Its just money.:eyeroll:

fatbob309 wrote:The RK long arm stretch kit was ordered today. That put a dent in the jeep fund...8|
The kit should arive in a week or two. When the kit arives I will have Joe do the install and then the fun will start of getting the new jeep all taken apart.

I still need to order some comp corners. Its just money.:eyeroll:

did you do the 5.5 or 7.0 kit?

I'm available Saturday

Skatchkins wrote:I'm available Saturday

I'm available midweek :)=)

offroadaz wrote:did you do the 5.5 or 7.0 kit?

7.0... it wasn't any more money and Jack and Lance seem to be doing good with it.

Skatchkins wrote:I'm available Saturday

Let me see what I have done and what i need to do...

IM SO JEALOUS of the time you have to work on your rig!!!! Just wait will be taking time off at the end of Feb. and start mine. O I waitng for pics of everything set up!!!

fatbob309 wrote:7.0... it wasn't any more money and Jack and Lance seem to be doing good with it.

Yeah, with the stretch you really don't notice the height at all. I tried it with my 5.5 springs up front at first and my belly pan height just wasn't going to be any good.

...oops that was a special secret pic

Yep its true. We worked on the Jeep today! Got the lift welded to the frame. Pics to come

now THAT makes me happy in the pants.

Thank you for making my weekend (and the stuff with Bob and his jeep is pretty OK too... um, I mean, uuh)

Killer Bob. Really does make me very, very happy to see you working on it and stuff happening.

Drove down to joes shop early on Sat to weld up the lift. The frame took a ride in the bed of the truck and only stuck out a little...


As I opened boxes and did some reading on how to install the lift Mike ground down a few spots



Then Joe took over and did the welding.






The lift is never going to come off...

Mike took some pics


The bump stops... The springs well not need to be chased down on the trail now.


The main part of the lift done.


Now the frame will get paint this week and next sunday it will get sone tires under it

Congratulations glad you are moving forward. Can't wait to have you back on the trails. As the only wheeling TJ we are getting a little lonely :sad:

Silversides wrote:Congratulations glad you are moving forward. Can't wait to have you back on the trails. As the only wheeling TJ we are getting a little lonely :sad:

I can't help it that my CJ can't keep up with you guys:eyeroll:

Quadfire wrote:I can't help it that my CJ can't keep up with you guys:eyeroll:

that's why I specifically said TJ. You guys did good on the girls run and made a more than impressive attempt on DS. You are on the right track...you just need some better springs and lockers right?