yup absolutely - driving to work, camping with the family, or rock crawling, it's being built do 'do it all'...but hopefully not too much bashing

 

...so I want to start running wires...but before I can do that I need a place for the battery to sit...and for that I need something for the battery to sit on. Being a right-hand-drive setup originally I had to alter things in the engine bay anyway, and I did find the correct left-hand-drive inner fenders, but when I started to ponder where the steering reservoir and battery and all the under hood stuff would go...well the OE inner fenders just weren't gonna cut it...SO...out with the cardboard, 14g steel sheet, and jigsaw, and I now have fresh inner fenders, and everything should 'fit' way more nicer'er 👍

Still a lot of finish work, but for now it's great for mockup. The d-side was the first to be cut/demo which is why it is less 'complete' than the p-side - it'll ultimately look just like the p-side. Both inner fenders are also going to be part of the lower extensions, which I'll complete later on. Forward progress

before -






...aaaaand after - nice clean slate -
before cutting and breaking -








my group 27 battery is almost exactly the same size as our 50-cal ammo can/1st aid kit - gonna fit perfect -


...going with an X2 Power dual purpose AGM battery

 

so I have a nutzert tool and a bunch of nutzerts...but they don't have a ton of 'capture' on the back side of a panel, and found these 'HD' rivet nuts to secure the tops of the inner fenders - these mushroom out in back a lot more than nutzerts and 'capture' much more of the backside of a panel, which in my case I think is a plus; had to modify the tool to get further into these than the nutzerts but seems to work fine -


they appear to be a lot more hooah than the smaller style nutzerts (I'll use these on the rear quarter panels for the corner armor too) -








Lots of 'fine tuning' going on with the inner fenders, including the brake flex lines from the master cylinder to the junction block on the frame. While I was working on that I copied an idea I used helping a friend work on his M37 project and made a small bracket to attach the pro valve - now everything is nice and tidy and easy to get to -




One minor correction to the rear flex hose and the brake systems will be ready to bolt in for good.

 

the inner fenders need some support along the inside edge, and I'll eventually have fender liners to protect the engine and such from splash and debris, so I made the center section of the fender liners which serve as support for the inner fenders - makes everything good n strong especially the p-side to support the 65lb battery - should work great. I'll complete the fender liners after it's running...


bolts to the shock tower -


and to the inner fenders -


and sitting on a megaware battery guard (gel mat) the battery mounts are essentially done - like everything else ready for final welding and paint -

 

...needed a decently big coolant overflow/recovery tank and wanted to reuse the one I had in the Dakota...which is from an XJ...but anyway made a small pocket in the inner fender to allow it to fit under the hood (where the square is) -
now you don't see it...


...now ya do -

 

Nice work, but I would think a drain notch might be a good idea. That pan is likely to collect water splashed up under the hood.

Keep the pictures coming!

 

yep, didn't mention it but already got one

 

Ahhh... Not sure how I missed that!

 

ok - 2.5" front frame chop done, trimmed the front bumper to get it and the winch as close to the grille as possible (without modifying the grille) -






chopped out the crash bar, and welded in a mount for the 20" 8an (1/2") dual-pass power steering cooler -




shouldn't put very much 'heat' into the radiator...which was my primary concern -




and finally got to pull the trigger on a fun mod - since I'm doing open cowl surgery anyway (to swap the RHD wipers and linkage to LHD)...well there's an excellent spot right there just beggin' to be used for better things, so I'm putting my air intake in there, way up high and as cool as reasonably possible - it'll have a short/stubby M-35 style snorkel built into the cover panel - should work great. The intake tube will be welded into the firewall, and with polyurethane engine mounts there shouldn't be much wiggle placed on it, and the silicone coupler will absorb any leftovers -








and with the power steering cooler in place I think I may actually have all of the critical systems mapped out...and after a very thorough (and long overdue) shop cleanup I'll pull the body back off for the firewall and other final mods, and...I think...I'll be ready to slap on some Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer and Air Force Blue on the engine pay panels...and then (gasp) be ready to assemble this thing for reals.

 

...it's been a year since I started wrenchin' on the Jeep...and I'm happy to say it's going great and I'm staying motivated. The first stage was 'figuring things out' and just mocking enough hardware in place (like figuring out how to make all the driveline fit, etc). Stage two was getting things to actually connect to each other (t-case linkage, pedals, reservoirs, panels/brackets, etc), and now the final stage is getting things wet, laying in the wiring, and getting it running/driving. As I'm getting ready to make the final push I first need to clean my room...and this morning I actually found the surface of my workbench!...