sweathog wrote:looking good Alan. let me know if you need any help this week. I have some time off too.

Coolio. Are you good at electrical? :-)

Update: ladies and gentlemen, we have transmission!

Joe and I stabbed the tranny, bolted everything in, figured out where to mount the tranny cooler, installed the crank sensor, tightened the cross member, trimmed the gate on the shifter, tack welded my u-joint caps in place on my stretched out front inner and outer yokes, and got an accurate measurement for my drive shafts so I can go to Phoenix rack and axle to have them adjusted. (whew). Still to do is a locking dip stick and a bracket for the passing gear cable, then we can fill her with tranny fluid. I have to wait on the fuel system to be completed before I can fire her up, though. Big day today. Joe is coming by the house Friday morning to wrap up my rig.

In other news...

Geoff has fabbed up the fire extinguisher mounts, the light bracket mounts, and has most of the materials for the catch cans. We plan on progress Thursday night. We have a lot of install plus buttoning up to do. Details are killing me, but it will be worth it.

Matt came over and worked out an electrical plan yesterday for lights, horn , etc... The plan is to wrap up electrical Friday morning as well.

Mike measured for final graphics Tuesday night and production is underway for those elements. Chris was there and looked pretty. :-)

I built a switch panel for the dash to consolidate all switches and I am happy with it. I also wrapped up painting the entire cage and front half of the frame, shock hoops, mounts, etc... I have to wait on the back half until after final welding by LetzRoll. Tonight I painted the center dash and center console with the brush on hammered finish like the cage, frame, and mounts, as well as the light mounts Geoff created. It's sick.

I plan on pics by the end of the weekend. Thank you to everyone for their help. It's amazing and deeply appreciated.

This is a happy in the pants time if there ever was one.

Quite the undertaking for quite the experience/memory...... Crazy Alan..... thats what you are......

Sounds awesome Alan, if you need any other help let me know. Would definitely be up for stopping by to lend a hand!

Symon623 wrote:Quite the undertaking for quite the experience/memory...... Crazy Alan..... thats what you are......

I have to agree with you... Crazy indeed. With the opening of the Dirt Riot series and the mod/stock class at all Ultra 4 events, however, that makes the effort worth it since I'll be doing more than one race!

@Bill - thanks buddy. I'll hit you up if I need a pair of hands!

Why yes, Geoff Larson is a stud, why do you ask? He just pulled a 12 hour wrenching session on his buddy's TJ? That's a stud.

1. steering box removed
2. custom kill switch mount and panel fabbed and installed
3. safety light brackets fabbed and installed
4. custom center console deck with inset shifter and shifter rows cut from aluminum
5. corrected the sticks on the transfer case so I can reach them now :))
6. hi-lift mount installed
7. under frame painted
8. rear bumper removed
9. automatic transmission shifter installed (w/custom "strong like bull" brackets)
10. floor panel to cover the big hole around the tranny area fabbed and installed
11. windshield frame painted and installed
12. cut the center consult to fit the new seat mounts

There were a lot of little but important things knocked out too, but I'm too tired to remember them all so I'm sure I'm missing something, but THANK YOU SIR. I really appreciate it. I might even ask Mike to make a "Geoff" sticker in a fancy font to put on your side of the jeep... LOL

More pics!
You should just set your phone on to U-Stream for this stuff!

your shafts have been delivered and they will call you when or if they have questions or they are done. when i was there they were about 15 or so deep in shafts.
here are some pics so you can see things were really being done, sort of....

ccv shirts as shop rags??? oh i think some wants a reservation in hell to keep joe company.


imortant tools of the trade.

sneak peeks

now i know they say what happens in vegas stays in vegas but we are in phx, at alan's place and i guess matt was open game

http://www.higherground4x4.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4269&d=1325278162

Is this Geoff lovin'?

defibvt wrote:http://www.higherground4x4.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4269&d=1325278162

Is this Geoff lovin'?

nope joe, alan, and matt and i was not 100% sure but i could have sworn i heard a couple of old ladies gasp followed by thuds.

Just to wrap up the tire conversation....

Here is where they measure with 15lbs of pressure... 34"



I swear they say they are 37x13.5x17 tires!



If you air them up to 35lbs (LOL) they are 35" tall, though. :flipoff2:



moving on, as I mentioned before in the thread, the transmission is now complete! Joe Daro at Absolute Offroad built a 32RH for me with some strong stuff inside so I can't kill it. Joe had the shop closed this past week, but opened up on Wednesday for me so we could wrap it up. As they say... pics or didn't happen, so here are some pics!





We ran out of time to complete all the little things, so yesterday morning (in my driveway!!!), Joe came over to the house to wrap up this little jewel, as well as the dip stick and some of the last remaining cables. We filled her with fluid, and as soon as my drive shafts come back from Phoenix Rack and Axle, she'll be more than a roller again! This tranny cooler will mount on the back of the firewall, under the spare tire, behind the fuel cell, all nice and neat and protected.

for my reference:

relay block - remove old wires, prep for new leads - done
source power for switches constant hot - (available to use: fog lamps, air bag 1, forgetting 1) done. 3 leads ran, may need to upgrade inline fuse
source power for switches ignition hot - (available to use: radio, rear defrost, hvac, air bag 2) done
run jumper wire from secret switch for always on running lights for rear and safety ambers - done
wire red light bar lights into tail lights for running and brake - done
wire horn - need to find suitable mounting location
reconnect rock lights -
wire kill switch - use clamp style post end ran through hole on pass side firewall to switch leaving winches and starter by-passing switch. run cable with eyelets on both ends from switch through same firewall hole back to PDC.
clean-up wiring with zip ties and wire loom where possible -
label wires for pit crew -

still plenty to do.
Alan let me know if I'm forgetting anything. I think I'm going to need at least one more half day like we had yesterday to finish these up.

the old floor where the NV4500 came through was a cut up mess of nothingness, so Geoff Larson (of Larson Built Technologies) built a new floor around the opening that will go under the center console.




The new transmission is shorter than the NV4500 that was in it, so the sticks off the Atlas were too far forward. Geoff fabricated some new sticks for me that I can throw easily while fully strapped in, as well as a mount for the shifter for the 32RH. He did a fantastic job with individual shift gates (instead of the one big hole like the previous version) and flush mounted the stock shifter gate to give it a cool "modified stock" look.








Speaking of "modified stock", part of the fun of this build for me is keeping many things "sorta stock" as possible. I am keeping the windshield frame (for that flat black "Mad Max" look) and the stock dash / guage cluster, but I build my switch panel into the stock center piece to keep it, you know, "stock". The switches control the kill switch (obviously), as well as fans, lights, winches, etc... both my main winch and my suck down winch are wired into the switch panel. Mike is making labels so I don't get confused.








I ended up ordering the amber lights online and they came with one mount for 2 lights. I bought 2 more LED lights (red) and Larson Built Technologies fabbed up a second light mount. I painted the mounts the same brush on hammered finish as the cage and we have the lights mounted in place. Matt (sweathog) has choosen to accept the mission of wiring stuff on this beast and is almost complete with the wiring. A few more connections and relays, plus some more battery cable for the kill switch and electrical will be done.

Spare tire goes up over the rear bed and tool storage and hi-lift will mount back there (with some grip tape on the tube as well). Hi-lift is in place with a couple of welded on bolts and wingnuts with washers. Daniel Avis is building the tool storage "cage", which will basically house two tool bags on either side (bag placement below for reference) and an open spot in the middle for cooler, water, recovery gear, whatever... the rear of the tool storage cage will have a gate on the back that swings down, but will look like a tube tailgate when it's up. I'll mount my race numbers on the center of the tool storage cage for racing and switch out to my license plate for wheeling on state land (see the Table Mesa cops thread on the VJC for sarcastic reference...) The spare tire will be held in place with a "Y strap" designed for spare tires. I ordered it from Poly Performance this week. Should arrive middle of next.

Next week is a lot more craziness.... final welding on parts of the rear link system, plus roof, skins, coils for the coilovers, etc... I'm also waiting on my rebuilt steering box from PSC (mine was leaking at the front seal), safety nets from Mastercraft (template send), and adjusted drive shafts from Phoenix Rack and Axle (front was too long now with the shorter transmission and the rear was too short due to tranny and the stretch). Here are some general shots of the stages of completion:










This is pretty close to final ride height when it's all said and done. We still need to comp cut the rears a little more. You can see the tape lines in these shots.






Jimmy scored a SWEET onboard hard drive recording system with cameras. He and Daniel are working out how to mount the hard drive and recording equipment. Chris is working with camera placement. Once she runs, we'll be able to get great onboard video as well! Of course, if Chris is in charge of it, we'll never actually SEE this killer video, but it WILL exist. With all the different inputs, we can change out various cameras, but this will eleminate the need for extra batteries and memory cards. It's all on a 12 volt system.






I do need to be more specific with my race team, however. Mike is working on graphics and race numbers... I asked for my race number to be on the chest of a topless model. I REALLY should have been more specific. What has been seen cannot be unseen...



After all the work this week, it's time for my favorite Jeep accessory... Happy New Year everyone! (in my best Marlon Brando voice...) "Stella! Stella!"

sweathog wrote:for my reference:

wire horn - need to find suitable mounting location
reconnect rock lights -
wire kill switch - use clamp style post end ran through hole on pass side firewall to switch leaving winches and starter by-passing switch. run cable with eyelets on both ends from switch through same firewall hole back to PDC.
clean-up wiring with zip ties and wire loom where possible -
label wires for pit crew -

Thank you again for your work this week, Matt. I really apprciate it. The only thing I would add would be drilling the holes and running the wires up to the Amber/Red config and completing that element of install. I'm open sunday, monday, and tuesday... so just let me know brother man. My driveway is your driveway. :)

LOTS of progress, and it looks fantastic! Don't forget to get me those dimensions on the tool storage crate

Avis wrote:LOTS of progress, and it looks fantastic! Don't forget to get me those dimensions on the tool storage crate

yea he has to have a place to put his lipstick and eye liner