Trail_Krawler & Trail_Willys

I've started the next step, aligning the corner armor and mini boat side rockers. I've read a lot of the forum posts and how to do this right.

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The areas I'm focused on are the sliders being parallel to the body, particularly along the door opening.

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And the seam where the rocker meets the corner armor... This one is critical

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And the the armor to the tub...

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And the tailgate opening reveal

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I haven't cut the corner armor yet, but I've got it drawn out. The genright stretch guards move the opening back 4" and are designed for 35's. Since I'm going back 7", I lined up the two guards back to back, and moved one 3", and used it as a template for the other one.

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I had really good luck with my carbide tip blade in a jigsaw when it came to cutting the curve in my flak jacket armor. It was slow but neat
 
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What about that wax lube I purchased for the rotobroach cutters?
 
Apparition said:
Someone should try this before I have to cut mine

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A-9 works really really well for tapping aluminum, all we used at my old shop after switching coolants in the Mills caused a lot of broken taps. I'd imagine it'd work well for pretty much any type of work cutting aluminum, I've been meaning to pick up a gallon for my home shop.

Just resist the temptation to drink it, it smells amazing lol
 
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I ended up using a jigsaw with a special aluminum cutting blade. Every few inches it would start to chatter and I would rub the wax lubrication stick from Blair. It was slow cutting, but left a very nice edge and was easy to control. So I cut the armor and fit.

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And then I cut the body.

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And I mounted 35's and I fit

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And I cut some more...
And I mounted up some 37's...

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The tape line is the next cut... Any further and I'll cut into the tub. I mocked up the poly performance coilover towers to be as close to 90 degrees to the arc of suspension travel at ride height and as high up as the inner fender will allow. The 14" coil-over puts these 37's right to the tape line at full flex. The rear tires will stick out slightly past the rear cross-member.

To make clearance for the upper control arms I gently "massaged" the rear passenger footwells for a few hours with a framing hammer. The links are now about an inch from the underside of the cargo floor at full bump. I've got a little more fine-tuning, but I think I'm getting it pretty zeroed in.

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The new rear axle has arrived. It's a Dana 44 from a 2018 JLUR. It's already got Chromoly axles, a Motobilt cover, and an Artec truss. I've ordered an Ultimate 44 from spicer for the front.

Although the 8.8 with c clip eliminator and Chromoly shafts is easily up to the task of 37's, its just was not wide enough. The M220 Dana 44 rear axle from current generation rubicons can handle 37's easily, and the Ultimate 44 front will have upgraded ball joints, Chromoly shafts, 3/8" tubes, upgraded c's, and no FAD. Not to mention HUGE fucking brakes.

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Looks like a kick ass build!

I have to ask the question of why Dana 44's instead of the typical Dana 60/14b combo for a built of this scale. I feel you'll be longing for 40's or larger after all this work
 
jesseshoots said:
Looks like a kick ass build!

I have to ask the question of why Dana 44's instead of the typical Dana 60/14b combo for a built of this scale. I feel you'll be longing for 40's or larger after all this work
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I'm building the rig for 37's, and my driving style. 40's would require a lot more modification. The current-gen dana 44's have 3/4 ton strength, with the ground clearance and weight of a dana 44. Dana 60/14 weigh in at around 700 lbs per axle, the 44s are closer to 350 lbs each. That is a huge difference in unsprung weight. Keep it light, keep it nimble. The current-gen dana 44's are also 68" wide, only 1/2" narrower than a 60.

The Ultimate 44 is commonly paired with a Currie Dana 60. If the rear 44 breaks, I'll upgrade to that.

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Yeah, all brackets on both axles gotta go. The front lowers may get to stay. Maybe.
 
kmas0n said:
I'm building the rig for 37's, and my driving style. 40's would require a lot more modification. The current-gen dana 44's have 3/4 ton strength, with the ground clearance and weight of a dana 44. Dana 60/14 weigh in at around 700 lbs per axle, the 44s are closer to 350 lbs each. That is a huge difference in unsprung weight. Keep it light, keep it nimble. The current-gen dana 44's are also 68" wide, only 1/2" narrower than a 60.

The Ultimate 44 is commonly paired with a Currie Dana 60. If the rear 44 breaks, I'll upgrade to that.

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Looks like nice bump from the JK44. The only downside ive seen is the pictures of both the balljoints ripping out.
 
This is exactly how I want mine to end up… whenever I come across a spare 20-25k. I didn’t read through the whole thread, what wheelbase are you shooting for?
 
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TRE3TOP said:
This is exactly how I want mine to end up… whenever I come across a spare 20-25k. I didn’t read through the whole thread, what wheelbase are you shooting for?
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As long as possible. Realistically it's looking like 102-103.
 
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