While the tub to the Jeepster was at the sand blasters getting the rust off, I started working on the rolling frame by grinding off the dirt, rust and undercoating. All of the cracks were welded, the frame boxed in the rear, bent sections removed and replaced. A bent rear spring hanger, which was causing the jeep to go down the road sideways, was torched off and a new one was fabbed up and welded on. Both hangers were then boxed to help strenghten the rock catchers, a major weak spot of Jeepsters. A good coating of paint was applied to keep this frame around another 30 years.
Gas Tank
Since the body was off, I thought, why not buy a new gas tank and have an easy time installing it, WRONG. The new Aero INC. 23 gallon gas tank was powdercoated wrinkled silver and installed with a new sending unit (it finally works!). A custom filler tube had to be bent up ($40) since the tank's tube was off by six inches due to poor design of the tank. Major pain in the ass! A custom skid plate was also bent up out of 1/8"-inch steel diamond plate to help protect the gas tank. This setup is so strong that I can now use a bottle jack under it to lift the whole rear end. Its also nice to be able to not have to worry about running out of gas when you wheel with "modern" rigs, of course it comes at a price. At this point, I think the gas tank cost me about $400 bucks!!
Shackle Reversal
With more than 5"inches of lift via the spring-over, 33" tires and puny 1 3/4" front springs, handling was a problem. I added a shackle-reversal in the front to help with the handling after the lift. No more wandering into the next lane when looking in the rear-view mirror! The front spring hangers were torched off and the kit was bolted and welded in the same location.
Here is a picture of the relocated rear shackle which uses the original spring mount, but is cut down to size about 2"inches. The kit is for a early CJ5 (1-3/4" inch springs) which has the same frame width as the Commando. Tim at 4Wheel Parts Wholesalers sold me on the concept of a shackle-reversal and it really works. This kit, made by Warrior, has the best design\components and best price of all the kits that I looked at. Of course, it doesn't drive like a BMW, but it is a big improvement for only $175. I wouldn't recommend you doing this yourself unless you or a friend is a very good welder. It's a pretty important component of your rig.
Tie Rods
This shot shows how it ties the front frame horns together. You can also see the rusted chrome-moly tie rods from Currie Enterprises. I was hoping these would tighten up the steering, but I didn't notice much. But, they are bullet proof and have been banged up quite a bit.
Dual Shocks
Dual shocks were added to the rear to help control the axle wrap. This helped a little bit, but installing the new springs pretty much solved the problem.
Rocker Panels
Since the rocker panels were cut off by a few inches, this made the lower edges of the rockers level with the frame. This gave me a height of 4 inches, from the bottom of the frame to the bottom of the body. I was lucky enough to get some free 1/8" steel diamond plate from Dan Duffy of Off-Your Rocker Panels.
Skid Plates\Storage Bins
We cut the steel to 41" by 22" inches and this was the start of my combination skid plates\storage units. After welding on the sides and front of the boxes, four door hinges were welded to each box. Next, several holes on both side of the frame were tapped to allow bolting the boxes to the frame using door hinges. Here the boxes are attached and are dropped down for easy access to the spare parts (like the proto-type axles mounted to the frame).
Pins are used to hold the boxes\skid plates in the up position and locks were added to keep the wrong people out. The skid plates look like those on the Hummers when they are in the up position. This really saved my underbody from boulder bashing on the 30th annual Sierra Trek.
Rear Nerf Bars
After reading the "Project Too Long"stories in lastest issues of 4WDSU magazine and all my friends telling me that I was going to trash my rear quarter panels, I decided to make up some protection - Rear quarter panel nerf bars. Project Too Long had some made up and when I saw him at Sierra Trek, I didn't see any dents on his panels.
Of course, I wasn't so lucky at Sierra Trek, even with the nerf bars, the typical Jeepster dent appeared. The dreaded rocker panel dent. The very end of the rocker panel got bent up, right where the nerf bar wasn't protecting it. You would think that after a spring-over and cutting the rocker panels several inches and putting in nerf bars, that you wouldn't smash your panels. Well, those rocks were BIG!
Front Dual Shocks
To better survive the drive to Moab (975 miles) for the 30th Easter Safari, I decided to fab up front dual shock towers to help with the freeway handling due to the spring over lift. The shock towers were made so they would fit over the frame and get welded on both sides of the frame. These mounts really helped on the Sierra Trek trail where I had to wrap a chain around the back of them and around the axle to limit travel. The front drive shaft popped out once because of too much travel and not enough drive shaft.
The Commando traveled over the "Golden Crack" and the "Wall" on the Golden spike trail, "Devil's Crack" on the Moab Rim trail and the "Launching Pad" on Hells Revenge all without instance. The Commando handled great. I went everywhere the CJ5 and CJ7s' went and more. Due to the longer wheelbase, the Commando had things a lot easier than the CJ5s'. I didn't break anything too bad, which was also a plus.
Frame Plating
After getting home and inspecting the Jeep, I found two huge frame cracks near the new steering box. The crack actually went through half the frame. This meant having to rip out the steering earlier than I wanted to. The solution was to make a template of the frame and have 3/16" plates made. Here you can see the frame rails before welding on the plates on both sides of the frame. As you can see, the frame comes stock with more holes than a slice of swiss cheese. The dual shock mounts are also visible. I had to cut off the bottoms of the shock mounts and then have them welded to the top of the plating after finishing the plating.
This damage was caused by a design flaw when we fabbed up the Saginaw steering. The crack was caused by the steering box not being braced and too many holes drilled into the frame in that area. A brace was purchased from Currie Ent. and a mounting bracket was welded onto the frame for mounting it. This brace is one smart investment. I haven't had one problem since installing it. Oh well, that is how we learn.
A new Wrangler 4" dropped pitman arm was also installed after moving the steering box forward. This replaces the pitman arm I had to cut and reweld because the steering box wasn't mounted far enough forward. It was pretty scary driving it with the welded arm anyway. All the magazines tell you never to do it, but the stock car racers say they used to do it all the time in the old days. On the first trail at Moab, the end of the arm would hit my tie-rod as the axle articulated, it never broke, but I sure didn't wait for it to before changing it out with a shorter spare.
Torque Bracket
A home-made transfer case torque bracket was on the Jeepster when I bought it and it kept coming loose and cracking at it's weld. My friend Andy Andrade helped me fab up a new and improved torque bracket which should never break. Angle iron was welded to the frame and the bracket attaches from the side of the transfer-case to the angle iron on the frame
This picture shows how the bracket was molded around some poly bushings to give some side to side movement, but a steel sleeve is inside which reduces the up and down motion of the transfer-case.
