Bob Jr. A Diesel Wide Track Waggy

[Loren Jones]

I've puttered around here asking a few questions, but am actually starting to make a little progress so thought I"d start a build thread. I am unfortunately not doing a lot of the work myself but will try to keep everyone updated. It's called Bob Jr. because my '86 Grand Wagoneer rust bucket is named Bob (after the Grand Wagoneer in the movie What About Bob?) and since it was too rusty to use as the project I bought another one to use for the project and named it Bob Jr.

The basic plan is to take a fairly rust free '89 Grand Wagoneer, graft wide track Cherokee wheel tubs and fenders on and make it into a cool family camping, exploring and mild off roading vehicle. It will run a Cummins 4BT, NV4500 and a Humvee NP242 with wide track D44's using 3:54 gears and Detroit True Trac's front and rear. All the running gear is or will be fully rebuilt (transmission, transfer case and axles already built, engine in process). The transfer case is full time 4WD.

I did the disassembly of the Wagoneer and the Cummins and have shipped it off to various people to build it. Here are some pics.

Here is the partly disassembled GW in my garage. The Cummins and Transmission are hanging there obviously.

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Here is the engine and transmission on the palate they were shipped to me on.

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Here are pics of me tearing down the engine. You can see the cylinders still show the crosshatching from when Cummins reman'd the engine in 2004. You can also see the killer dowel pin is still in place. The pics of the fan hub are to show that I had a hard time figuring out how to get that off. Stumped me for a bit. You can see the transmission in the background.

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[Tatsadasayago]

Nice project! Keep us updated so we can live vicariously through you!

[Loren Jones]

More pics...I'm learning how best to post pics.

Aforementioned fan hub that stumped me

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Bottom end of the engine all torn down

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Killer Dowel Pin firmly in place

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Big gear drive system at the front of the Cummins

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Transmission and transfer case in background

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[Loren Jones]

More pics

Stripped down body loaded up and ready to go to the folks who are doing the bodywork (and as it turns out will do most of the mechanical assembly as well). The tow vehicle is Bob. The one on the trailer is the embryonic form of Bob Jr.

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Here is some idea of the color scheme I'm thinking of going with. I was debating between classic '70's jeep colors vs a desert sand bedliner look and think the desert sand bedliner thing is too much of a fad. Thoughts?

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Here are a few frame pics after sandblast and epoxy. There are a couple areas of cancer at the body mounts. Those have since been cut out, rebuilt and painted.

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[Loren Jones]

And now the more cool pics. The Wide Track flares and tubs grafted onto the Wagoneer body. As you can see, my daughter is excited for Bob Jr. to be done. She hates riding in rusty old Bob.

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[Loren Jones]

The turbo is a special one not available in the US. It has the same size housing and turbine on the exhaust side but the compressor wheel on the intake side is a bit bigger. It is a nice mix of some extra boost without the difficulty of compound turbos or the compromise of laggy initial response you get running a bigger single turbo.

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[Tatsadasayago]

The girl in photo #3 was waaaay too happy! LOL

Looking good Sir!

[Stuka]

If you put the attached image links inside image tags, they will show up without clicking on them.

Really cool project.

[Loren Jones]

OK, so I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself but I need to figure out wheels and tires for this machine. 4" spring lift. I could go more with shackles if needed but would rather not. I want the tires to fill the wheel-wells fairly nicely but I want it to be functional and be able to articulate fairly well without rubbing.

I've been thinking of 35's but dislike the idea of 35x12.5 and I'm not sure they will fit. I like a bit skinnier tire. If I could find a tire with a 10.5" or so section width and a 34.5' overall diameter spec (this is what "35's" usually spec at for overall diameter) I would love that. I plan to run something like Cooper Discovery AT3. The Cooper ST Maxx and Wrangler Duratrac are also options and possibly the BFG KO2.

Will 35x12.5 tires fit in a wide track with 4" lift?

If not, will a 34x10 tire fit?

Any suggestions for a good AT tire that will be decent off road and is near the height of a 35 but more like 10" wide? A 285/75-18 might work out fairly well.

I want to run a 17 or 18" wheel. I found some American Racing Ansen Sprint wheels in 17" that come in 6 lug pattern and have the slotted mag look but are polished. I want to keep a bit of that vintage look. Any other suggestions?

[Loren Jones]

If you put the attached image links inside image tags, they will show up without clicking on them.

Really cool project.

I'll go fix that

[Tatsadasayago]

Yeah Loren, what I do is place the image on my website,(Your host site is similar) open a browser to view it then copy the URL to the notepad (Ctrl-C) then click the [IMG] icon in the editor and paste (Ctrl-P) between the IMG and /IMG tags. Works great and assures your link url is correct.

BTW: If you have 8-8-1/2 wheels, a 35x12.50 will fit nicely with your add-on flares. They will be tall/skinny on the wheel but have a nice sidewall curve I think you will like. 10" wheels would be ideal I suspect.

[Loren Jones]

If you put the attached image links inside image tags, they will show up without clicking on them.

Really cool project.

Sorry to be thickheaded here but it appears I need help.

OK, I'm trying to put them in image tags and it's not working. When I click on the img icon above the editor window I just get image tags but no option to upload a photo....like this....

I'm putting the photos in using the attachments button at the bottom and also by dragging and dropping which gives the links to click. If I try to put img tags around that I get this [img]

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[/img]

What am I doing wrong?

[Loren Jones]

Yeah Loren, what I do is place the image on my website,(Your host site is similar) open a browser to view it then copy the URL to the notepad (Ctrl-C) then click the [IMG] icon in the editor and paste (Ctrl-P) between the IMG and /IMG tags. Works great and assures your link url is correct.

BTW: If you have 8-8-1/2 wheels, a 35x12.50 will fit nicely with your add-on flares. They will be tall/skinny on the wheel but have a nice sidewall curve I think you will like. 10" wheels would be ideal I suspect.

OK, I am just posting the images from my computer itself, not from an image hosting site. So if I want the pics to show directly on the posts I have to use a hosting site?

Thanks for the info on the tires and wheels. You are probably right that 35x12.5 is a nice proportional looking tire. Perhaps I'm thrown off by my buddy who has a Land Cruiser with 33x12.5 and they look a little too fat to me. Not that aesthetic is the main driver when deciding on tires but it does matter some.

[Tatsadasayago]

Loren, you have to have a hosting site in order to have images displayed to members without having them click on an image link..
Snapfish, Photobucket and others are the go-to if you don't have your own site.

If you can't get it sorted out, I would be happy to allow you to host images on my site for no charge.
PM me for details.

[Loren Jones]

Loren, you have to have a hosting site in order to have images displayed to members without having them click on an image link..
Snapfish, Photobucket and others are the go-to if you don't have your own site.

If you can't get it sorted out, I would be happy to allow you to host images on my site for no charge.
PM me for details.

Trying with photobucket...success. Thanks!!

[Tatsadasayago]

WOOT!
Nicely done Loren!

[rocklaurence]

Wow! That is a Dream Project of many FSJ owners. A 4dr Wide Trac Diesel--very cool!!

[Loren Jones]

Wow! That is a Dream Project of many FSJ owners. A 4dr Wide Trac Diesel--very cool!!

Hopefully I can execute it properly. I hope to have it for a long time.

[jpswapmohn]

Any progress on this build? Very interested!

I didn't think 35's would work on a 4" lift..I may need to rethink my tire selection for the J20 axles and WT flares going on my GW.
285/75-17 should be about 34", where 285/75-18 appears to be just under 35". I am planning on the 17's..