67 Jeep J-2000

[bgott]

Being new to the forum I thought I would introduce the reason I'm here. My grandfather started work around 17 years ago working on this pickup truck in hopes to make it a sleeper truck pulling truck. It originally came with the 258 I6 motor and manual transmission with Dana 44s front and rear (I believe the Dana 20 transfer case currently on the truck is original as well). His plan was to build a Chevy 383 stroker and try to pass it off for the 327 motor that came in these trucks. Behing the 383 is a TH400 transmission, Dana 20 t-case, Ford 9" rear end, and the original closed knuckle Dana 44 front with 4.56 gears front and back and 35" tires. Anyway, after assembling the drivetrain to a point where he chained the frame to a stump and burned the tires off in his garage, he fell sick with lung cancer and unfortunately passed away before its completion. Soon after his death, my father inherited the project and it set dormant for many years (15 to be exact). Unfortunately, one of my uncles had left water in the block after running the motor and over the time it was dormant winter struck and the water cracked a hole about 6 inches down the side of the block. Around January 2012 my father, brother, and I started to rebuild the motor. It now has PBM Strike Force aluminum heads, 10:1 Compression, Edelbrock Performer EPS Intake, Edelbrock 2102 Performer Cam, and a 750 CFM Quadrajet. We recently had the transmission rebuilt and have acquired all new sheet metal for the bed and cab from Z & M Jeeps in Toledo. We also purchased the fiberclass front clip from Zach at Z & M. We are just now getting to body work and I will have pictures to post soon. The intent is no longer to be a truck puller but a daily driver. Soon to come is a twin stick shifter for the Dana 20, new floor pans in the cab. New bed sides and floor installed. Summit Racing 19 Gallon Fuel cell installed in bed (possibly tool box installation?). Planning on going with the original Spruce Tip Green Paint on the exterior and the Beige interior. Some things that still need to be addressed are the front driveshaft, steering drag link, braking system, and electrical installation (Using an EZ Wiring Harness). Also going to use bedliner in the floor of the cab and bed. Have a nice gauge cluster with Autometer gauges thanks to Z & M again. For now that's all that I have, looking forward to sharing pictures along the way!

[AwesomeJ10]

cool story and it sounds like a cool Jeep!

welcome!

[Stuka]

Welcome!

Quite the story, and sounds like its is going to be one incredible rig. Cool to see vehicles that have been in the family for so long.

BTW: The 327 that came in J-Trucks was actually an AMC 327, not a GM 327. They look nothing alike, not that it really matters.

[bgott]

Yeah I know about the 327. I think the idea was to try and throw some badging on the motor to make it look like the 327. That was the plan, unsure of what plan b was if it failed lol. But yes, for my own self it's kind of a souvenir of him and above that its an awesome opportunity to learn with my dad. Hopefully it turns out half as well as we both envision it but its a project just like any other project and will take forever and have tons of bumps until its finished. Will try to get some pictures of the cab/bed/engine this weekend and share them.

[twisted frame]

I love hearing about projects with a deep family history. Sounds like it's going to do your granddad proud.

[jaber]

Welcome to the Network...

Subscribed to see pics, it sounds awesome...

[bgott]

RCI 19 Gallon Fuel Cell. Trying to find a way we can hide this in something like a toolbox in the bed.

Fiberglass front valence from Z & M. Has the top lip in fiberglass too just didn't get it out. Much better than the original rusted out steel one we had!

Fiberglass fender from Z & M as well. Has a yellow steel fender from the donor truck we bought that has to have the mounts drilled out and transferred to the fiberglass. What you see beneath is the bed sides and the reddish metal to the left of the black fender is both rocker panels for the cab.

383 Stroker Chevy. Know were going to catch a lot of flack for all the Chevy badging on it , but all of us loved the look of the flat black dress up kit. All the accessories on the front of the motor are polished aluminum to match the Endurashine Intake. Largely Ebay pickups from a shop called Skip White Performance. Good buys for anyone out there looking for cheap hot rod parts. Also, my grandpa fabricated those beefy motor mounts himself, more than likely vast overkill for this current motor, but they look cool as hell.

Bed from the donor truck. Had a wooden board for a floor before. Body work guy is going to scab in the new bed sides and floors. No more side gas tank filler and the steel flares will be replaced with fiberglass flares from Z & M. Bed is probably what needs the most body work as it is rough all the way around and will have to be shortened as it is an 8ft bed and we have a shorter wheelbase J2000. Bed came off of a 79.

[bgott]

Twin stick shifter mocked up to check for clearance with the transmission shifter. Love the way the twin stick looks as opposed to the ugly bent stock shifter.

[44bz]

That motor looks sexy! I converted my D20 to twin sticks also. Is that a JBFab twin stick?


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[bgott]

That motor looks sexy! I converted my D20 to twin sticks also. Is that a JBFab twin stick?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Twin Stick is ordered through BJ's offroad. Unsure of whether or not they manufacture it but it came from somewhere in Oregon I believe. Other than the fact that it looks cool as hell the problem we were running into was that the old bent style stock shifter was hitting the Hurst transmission shifter which wouldn't allow us to engage the t-case.

In other news, body guy called dad today and the doors are finally getting worked on one piece at a time!



EDIT: Checked the packaging, it did indeed come from JB Fab. Quality product for anyone who's looking FYI.

[bgott]

Been on a bit of a hiatus. When the guy dug into working on the doors he found a lifetime supply of bondo and get this, riveted (not welded) sheet metal in the bottom of the door. Order the door skins from BJs in early july and they are MIA. Called the other day and they still don't have an ETA. (Any idea who else might be able to supply these? Don't want to spurn BJs but would like to get back to work before winter too!) Basically at a standstill until we get those.

On top of that dads air compressor went belly up so we've been reengineering that for the past couple weekends I've been able to get home.

Street Rod Nationals came into town last weekend and dad bought a vintage air kit that he got a deal on everything included. Planning on mounting it with an Alan Grove Components low passenger side mount that ought to work really well. It mounts in this position

http://www.alangrovecomponents.com/imag ... 07R%20.jpg

Going to hopefully mock that up either this weekend or next. It will be nice to make some progress again.

[bgott]

Update:
Mocked up the A/C Bracket and its going to have to be modified to move the compressor forward to the front pulley on the v belts. Minor Fix. Great build quality though, Alan Groves is quality stuff for anyone in the engine swap category. Doors are almost done with just bolt holes to fill in and one patch to smooth out. The biggest news today? Cab just went to the sandblaster!!! Pictures soon....

[bgott]

Inner fenders and the dash back from blasting.


A clean view of the firewall. Its in remarkably good shape.


My grandpa redid the floors in this cab before he passed away. Since it had been sitting so long we ordered new floor pans because we assumed they would've been rotted due to being bare metal. To our surprise they weren't.


Loving how well the cab has been preserved. Hard to believe its been sitting for the last 18 years.


Nice picture of how well my grandpa set up motor placement. Looks almost like a factory fit up.


Doors are on setting door jams

[bgott]

In love with these seats think they'll really pop against the paint.



Hard to tell but cab is basically done. Rockers are welded on and cab corners have been fiberglassed and sealed where they were rusted out. Lot of time has been spent fitting the fenders. As others have said they are a pain to work with and were warped when our body work guy was fitting them. He has to cut and reglass them to get them to fit up correctly with body lines. The bed is just sitting there. Its in bad shape and there's going to be a lot of panel replacement but its going to be a lot of work. Pushing ahead anyway. Never ceases to be fun watching this thing evolve.

[bgott]

This is current stage. Steering column is mounted. AC Brackets are finished. Pedals are installed although throttle pedal is going to need to be redone. Clearance between the twin stick and the AC is very small but it could be adjusted to have more if anyone is considering this for aftermarket AC. We had to make a custom frame for the seats as the stock mounts from the 78 donor did not fit with our floor well though I believe this is probably due to all the repairs my grandfather had to make. The steering wheel is very close to the seat but its a tilt column so should be no biggie. The guy who is doing the body work is going to jump back on the front end and finish out the cab starting this coming Monday. Starting to see the finish line and getting excited!

[Josh d]

Enjoying your build and story so far.

I would recommend replacing the weak closed knuckle D44 with one from a mid '80s Dodge D150 or Ramcharger. They are the correct width, correct diff location, open knuckle, disc brake, internal spline hub, and maintain the correct 5X5.5 bolt pattern. If your gearing is already matched, the internals of your existing D44 will swap over. It's a slick swap and would be a nice match to the rest of your drivetrain. With a re-taper of the steering arms, J10 or WT Chero tie rod and drag link bolt on too.

Let me know if you have any questions about this swap.

[bgott]

Might have to look into that at another time. This thing is never going to be wheeled very hard other than possibly some spirited driving during the winter. If the closed knuckle doesn't hold up than I'll probably try to convince dad to go to an open knuckle 44 as that gives us the option of high steering which I think would be better overall. Upon further inspection it looks like a tie rod flip will be sufficient for now anyway so were going to have a local 4x4 shop fab a drag link with that for us. We actually just started getting some Bondo scraped on the cab so were getting to the point of having the cab-forward part of the body work done. As silly as it sounds it's important sentimentally for me to keep as much of what my grandpa fabbed on this truck on it. He did a disk brake conversion on the closed knuckle from a Chevy 1500 truck and re-welded the perches for SOA. Its interesting because I've had to do research to figure out what he did to get part numbers for brake lines, pads, etc. Kind of like he's teaching me even though he's not with us.

Sorry to get heavy. Appreciate the tip! Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the body work up soon. I know the dash is going to have some work done soon and that's going to be a long process to get done smooth after a lot of the holes are welded up.

[Atla]

What color is the truck going to be? Those are good looking seats!

[bgott]

It'll be spruce tip green which was its factory color. I know the pictures make them look more blue but they will really pop against the paint when its finished.

[jake250k]

Those seats are awesome! Where did you get the logo'd fabric in the middle?