The Flyin Filarski's TTB Jeep XJ

[FatCity]

This is cut and pasted and was not originaly going to be ttb, so some of the info may not add up at first....
Thanks,
Eric




Ryan and I finally started building his pre-runner. The plan is a family friendly 4 wheel drive built for the deserts of Baja but still capable of trail riding and daily driving when needed.

He bought this basically stock 98 Jeep XJ back in 2008 for $1300. The steering box portion of the frame was so badly cracked/shattered that the previous owners just wanted the un-drivable little Jeep out of their driveway.


Took a weekend to tear it down, plate it, weld it up and put it back together. Otherwise it was in perfect shape… for a Cherokee.
Ryan put a new set of 31’s on it, a Detroit locker in the Chrysler 8.25 and drove it daily for five years. Even doing some duty in Baja for the 09 Baja 1000 when he used it to pre-run his section of the course before the race.



For 5 years now Ryan patiently collected, bartered and bought all the parts needed. Now its time to put it all together…

We started by going through both axle housings. A Currie fabbed 9 housing with 35 spline Ten Factory shafts for the rear and a custom Ford 8” with 31 spline chromo shafts also built by Currie.
Both housings did some time under different race Jeeps so we wanted to clean, paint and replace all the bearings first off.



The rear housing came with a spool and a 620 gear ratio. After some discussion we decided to re-gear an Aluminum 3rd member that already had a Detroit in it that had been waiting to go in to my F150. Ryan’s project time table is ahead of my axle swap time frame so we agreed to use it and we’ll work something out down the road.
We picked up some 9” Motive Gear Performance 457’s from National Drivetrain to match the front.



Front Ford 8”


Next we parked it in Ryan’s garage and stripped the old suspension and axles out of it to bolt up the new stuff.


Deaver race packs slung under


We re-used the factory spring plate and just made shock tabs for it.







We got both axles hung and the brakes plumbed. Ryan yanked the T-case and installed a Rubicon Express slip yoke eliminator and had Coast Drive Line in Ventura make some 1350 drive shafts for it.





New tires on and rolling.
From here we drove it one whole mile over to my garage and started doing the fab work.

[FatCity]

Getting ready to do some work…
Once we got it over to my place, we gutted the interior along with all the doors to make it easier to work around. And had a glass guy come take the windshield out.







We’ve been about racing the 1000 with this car next year so we built the cage out of 1-3/4 .120 DOM so we can get it SCORE tagged.

We went about the cage a bit differently than we have in the past.
We decided to do the dash tube and stub out for the engine cage first, then build the rest from there.
Our thought was it would be easier, save time and allow us to pull the cage out for welding.
I cant say it was any easier or saved us any time, but it allowed us to keep the A pillars nice and tight and get a full weld around the tubes headed out to the engine compartment.

This stupid tube took two people all day to squeeze behind the dash…


It took a ton of cutting and fitting to get a tube behind the dash.
We had to lose air ducting to the side vents but once we plug the whole it should blow out the center vents like mother effer.







Got the main passenger section of the cage done. As planned it slid out pretty easily so we could weld the tops









Cage is back in and we’re off and running with the rest of it.






Made some decent progress this weekend.
One thing I skipped was the cage landing points and chassis stiffening.
We cut frame plates and some brackets that serve as the cage tie in, the nerf bar and allow us to mount a tube to help stiffen the chassis.









Ryan finished the triangulation in the cab and mounts for the PRP seats.

[FatCity]

We started working the rear shock mounts.
Started by cutting the plates that join the two tubes. Then made a rough template to get a visual of the mount and then drew the rest in up CAD.



Cut and broke the main mounts and then made templates for the caps.









Another thing we’ve been working on is the rear seat.
Ryan has a 7 and a 10 year old that need fit back there and your average racey bench/bucket seat just flat out doesn’t fit well in these things.
So in an effort to make the back as comfortable as possible (as possible, mind you) We decided to customize the factory bench by re-mounting it, shortening the back, moving the lumbar portion forward about 4 inches and adding padding on the sides and center to dish the seat.


This pic was taken before we added padding to the center, but I forgot to snap a pic before we sent it off to the upholster to have it covered and matched to the front PRP’s.

[FatCity]

Up-date:
Still smokin ass hot here...
Upholstry guy showed up with the back seat last night. Materials matched the front PRP's perfectly.




Progress has been a tad slow due to the weather being pretty gnar.
Ryan and I were bench racing about putting a TTB suspension under a Cherokee the other night and before we knew it the plan was changed. No more solid axle for this one..

We had a complete hub to hub Twin Traction Beam set up all lined up but it fell thru at the last minute, so at this point we're still trying to locate another complete set up.
We got the front axle and suspension pulled out (FYI, all front susp, Axle and shocks are for sale)
Ryan pulled all the front sheet metal parts off as well as the radiator and related cross members.



Since theres no need to stick to 1700 rules anymore, theres no need for inner wheel wells up front, so we got to cutting....





All cleaned up and waiting for parts now...




We were able to line up a hub to hub (and then some) TTB set up from a 91 Bronco.


We got everything disassembled and stuck all the parts we’ll be using in solvent washer. Solvent tank stripped them down to bare metal and readied for trussing later.

[FatCity]

Temporarily mocked up.
We ordered steel yesterday so we can build a temporary frame on the floor for cycling the suspension and help us get a vision of the new cross member.
Should have a plan together after the weekend.

[FatCity]

We made a mock chassis mount so we could position and cycle the beams and travel.

[FatCity]

Now that we had the travel worked out we got the frame plates tacked up and started bending tubes for the engine cage.






We’ll be designing and building the cross member this weekend which is going to take a fair amount of R&D.
Hopefully have some more updates after the weekend.

[FatCity]

We got a little bit done this weekend.
We’re mocking everything up with 14ga. first before making the final drawings and cuts out of thicker material.
CAD software is a bit Neanderthal, but it gets the job done.


Hard to see in the pic but the first 14ga. draft of the main cross member is tucked up there.
We have the suspension cycled 1” higher than it will be bumped to insure plenty of clearance between the beams and cross member in the end.








Even at 1” past full bump everything including the drive shaft seem to have plenty of room.
The X-mamber will get boxed and braced once the drawings are finalized and cut.

We’ll be working on the shock mounts next…

[tcm glx]

I like where this is going!! Glad you put the build thread on GFB!! Awesome for sure! Now where is the build to your F1 Fiddy, and when will that thing get a cage!

[robertcrav]

this thing looks like it's gonna be bad ace! I rikey

[Nick]

Wow! Really cool project!

[greaslife]

Told you guys I wasn't going into details when I was looking for beams. Way too much info I would never get right. The thing was bad ass way before the beams. Water till you all see it in person.

[FatCity]

Progress was slow this weekend.
We worked on finalizing the drawings for the main outside cross member plates.





The rear cross member bracket will unbolt from the center to allow the oil pan to drop out if it had to and also make engine removal without dropping the tranny possible.





we'll get everything welded and well tacked in to place. Bolt the beams up and start working on conecting the front and rear mounts and tieing everything together.

[greaslife]

SWEET is thats what you working on saterday. No wonder you were pissed

[philofab]

This thing is cool! I like it.

[SteveG]

This thing is cool! I like it.

The TTB adds major cool points to anything!

[FatCity]

Still not a ton of progress.
Ryan got the cross member welded and tacked in place and we spent the rest of Saturday getting my lathe wiring plumbed so we can machine the spherical bearing mis-alignments for the beams.

[Becks_Bronco]

Yes! Glad you guys brought this over here. I've been following the build on Naxja.

GFB is quickly becoming the go-to knowledge database for TTB.

One day I'd love to go TTB on my XJ.

[FatCity]

1-7-13
Now that Baja's past and the holidays are over, its time to jump back on the XJ.

We spent most of Saturday cleaning up the shop and dont have a lot to show yet, but were able to get some of the double sheer done.


This shows the bracket that picks up the inside of the passenger beam and completes the cross member if you need to un-bolt the removable portion.


There’s still a ton of plate work to be done, but we're holding off until we get the radius arms mocked up and can cycle everything together.

[robertcrav]

Please excuse the non-fab guy question, but I've wondered this looking at lots of different builds, it looks to me that the shock mount sealed up like that is just going to collect dirt/mud and has no where to drain out...isn't that asking for issues later?
I've had similar questions looking at rear links that are hollowed out for a coilover/shock combo with no drain...just looks like a bucket to me...but again I'm not a fab guy or a racer...just curious

I'd drive that daily ... perfect stance