So regarding the thread name, Jeep Stuff is what the Jeep has become named. It was wrecked and totaled by insurance. I “bought it back” and began working on the upgrade rebuild, early in April. Working on it nearly all available hours, I would simply tell my 3 children that I had to do jeep stuff. They even began asking me if I had Jeep stuff to do. Thus it shall now be known as Jeep Stuff.
This is attempt 2 at this post. Hope it doesn't go wonky on me again!
Here are some pics of the damage. This is where I had Copart drop it off since its the flattest part of my property. Insurance was a battle after they deemed it a total loss. After 3 months, I was forced to invoke my "appraisal clause" since they refused to budge from their original offer. I paid a local licensed guy $300 for the appraisal. He went to the vehicle, photoed and documented everything about it then used that info to draft a report. He sends report to insurance and takes over the negotiations with their appraiser. They settled at $2,300 more than the original offer. Please remember that. NEVER TAKE THEIR FIRST OFFER!!! Also I never told them I wanted to keep my vehicle until after the negotiations were over. Then I sprung it on them!
Next was tear down.
Then reassemble. I sourced the hood, grille, and fender from a local jeeper a few minutes from home for just $300! Pulled radiator from that blown up yellow jeep.
Little hard to see in photos but the Dana 30 is toast! Broke the steering knuckle, crushed all four rusty control arms, bent steering assembly, and curved the passenger side of the front end, bent shock, slight bend on the sway bar, creased my rim.
Then it was on to the axle replacement. This is the part that starts becoming exciting and stressful. The yellow jeep Dana 30 is 4.11 gears. Red jeep is 3.73 so that easy swap wont fly. I'm not about to have a 2x4 jeep. Not this one. Not ever! Drop that bent front end and start to overhaul.
This is the new front end. Yes, you are indeed correct. The is in fact a YJ. Crazy, I know. The 3 months battling insurance crooks allowed my crazy ideas to take root and grow! I own most and have access to the few job specific tools to do a re-gear on that 4.11. Never done one though. priced a ring and pinion pair to match the red jeep. then thought if I did re-gear than I need to step up to right size for the 33" Patagonias I'm running. that quickly became more than I wanted to do when also considering the existence of this YJ.
A guy I worked with last year told me his father in law had a couple jeeps in his yard that he wanted rid of. The holey bucket of rust was a deal of a life time! The new front end is a high pinion Dana 30. Since I had to fab mounting brackets to convert it to the Tj, I figured I might as well do that with a truss kit. why not, I'm a welder by trade!
His son delivered it my paps House and onto that trailer. Paid $200 for the jeep and tipped truck driver $40. It's going to scrap very soon so some of that will be recovered. Yep, dumped it right onto the trailer from the flat bed. Cant roll it onto a trailer with out axles under it! Admittedly, this did make it slightly harder to get both axles off.
Don't worry, I wasn't just buying HP Dana 30. That rear end was the real purchase! Ford 8.8 Both geared in 4.56 But wait, there's more. That 8.8 is also carrying an ARB air locker. Right, why else would I dump the Dana 44 off my Rocky Mountain Edition. So now I've got a second Truss kit to sort out.
This is attempt 2 at this post. Hope it doesn't go wonky on me again!
Here are some pics of the damage. This is where I had Copart drop it off since its the flattest part of my property. Insurance was a battle after they deemed it a total loss. After 3 months, I was forced to invoke my "appraisal clause" since they refused to budge from their original offer. I paid a local licensed guy $300 for the appraisal. He went to the vehicle, photoed and documented everything about it then used that info to draft a report. He sends report to insurance and takes over the negotiations with their appraiser. They settled at $2,300 more than the original offer. Please remember that. NEVER TAKE THEIR FIRST OFFER!!! Also I never told them I wanted to keep my vehicle until after the negotiations were over. Then I sprung it on them!
Next was tear down.
Then reassemble. I sourced the hood, grille, and fender from a local jeeper a few minutes from home for just $300! Pulled radiator from that blown up yellow jeep.
Little hard to see in photos but the Dana 30 is toast! Broke the steering knuckle, crushed all four rusty control arms, bent steering assembly, and curved the passenger side of the front end, bent shock, slight bend on the sway bar, creased my rim.
Then it was on to the axle replacement. This is the part that starts becoming exciting and stressful. The yellow jeep Dana 30 is 4.11 gears. Red jeep is 3.73 so that easy swap wont fly. I'm not about to have a 2x4 jeep. Not this one. Not ever! Drop that bent front end and start to overhaul.
This is the new front end. Yes, you are indeed correct. The is in fact a YJ. Crazy, I know. The 3 months battling insurance crooks allowed my crazy ideas to take root and grow! I own most and have access to the few job specific tools to do a re-gear on that 4.11. Never done one though. priced a ring and pinion pair to match the red jeep. then thought if I did re-gear than I need to step up to right size for the 33" Patagonias I'm running. that quickly became more than I wanted to do when also considering the existence of this YJ.
A guy I worked with last year told me his father in law had a couple jeeps in his yard that he wanted rid of. The holey bucket of rust was a deal of a life time! The new front end is a high pinion Dana 30. Since I had to fab mounting brackets to convert it to the Tj, I figured I might as well do that with a truss kit. why not, I'm a welder by trade!
His son delivered it my paps House and onto that trailer. Paid $200 for the jeep and tipped truck driver $40. It's going to scrap very soon so some of that will be recovered. Yep, dumped it right onto the trailer from the flat bed. Cant roll it onto a trailer with out axles under it! Admittedly, this did make it slightly harder to get both axles off.
Don't worry, I wasn't just buying HP Dana 30. That rear end was the real purchase! Ford 8.8 Both geared in 4.56 But wait, there's more. That 8.8 is also carrying an ARB air locker. Right, why else would I dump the Dana 44 off my Rocky Mountain Edition. So now I've got a second Truss kit to sort out.
Last edited:
