Full Size Jeep Network

Well, I ventured out into the great white north- AKA 9 Mile (not to be confused with Detroit's 8 Mile) to get some reclaimed cedar from a 1901 barn, and what do you know? It began snowing like mad.





Leroy (my 66's name), and I took a "1 hour trip under normal conditions" and stretched it out to about an hour and a half, one way, due to terrible roads and even worse drivers.



Since we love the snow and it's been awhile since the area has gotten this much of it, we stopped on the isolated country back road for some glamour shots. Leroy earned it as the guy's drove was 3/4 of a mile rutted patch of iced over mud with 4" of snow layered up over that. It was slick as snot.





Here's a parting shot of Leroy tucked away inside the shop.



Ahh, it's good to be home.





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cool.., thanks for sharing

Anytime; it was a great time!


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The OSB covered in outdoor carpet finally gave up and failed on me. Oh well, 5 years was a good run.

So I dug up a replacement bed floor from a town side I had squirreled away. Time to trim and clean.




Above is a shot of how I fab'd the bed supports, I went 16" on center, lol, a bit more stout than the factory support like what you see in the pics below.


The plan is to surgically remove the factory brackets and misc. support from the underside, wire bush it all, flip it over on it's back, reverse it so the old rear now lays at the front and, of course, narrow it accordingly. Simple, right? Lol.



Edit:

Went to work on it with the plasma cutter on 2/14 and took quite a bit of skin off.




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I took a road trip to and snagged a few parts.



Guess you could say I went through hail to get there?



This was the last spot I felt safe enough to snag pics. 1.9 miles up the "road". I did stop to verify the address as nothing was marked except no hunting, no trespassing signs, but soon after hitting this trail, I had no service on the cell phone. I did not need 4wd, but did feel lucky to have a locker in the rear axle.
I pressed on and came away with a Dana 20 transfer case that will let me run the super Wagoneer center console's 4wd 4 way indicator light set up.






And these emblems:



All in all, a good vacation day.


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What did the D20 come out of? I have not seen one with those indicator light hookups.

It's from a 1414D, or a 1414X.


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I snagged a camper/canopy shell off the local craigslist for the truck bed trailer.



It's off a 58 ford, so she's a bit too wide, but nothing a few days of cutting, splicing and welding can't remedy. All in all, I'll narrow it roughly 12", 6 from each side.



.

She'll get a roof rack to haul 4x8 sheets of whatever, then the whole set up will get new paint and a considerable amount of body work. I'll go white on the bed, possibly silver metallic on the canopy.

The seller threw in a trailer axle for a sweet price.



It'll get cleaned up and stuffed under the trailer.

Lol.

Well that didn't take long...


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Haha. No time to waste!

Very close to being done on this side:



A bit o' nip and tuckin' left. That angle iron frame is pretty industrial.

Thats a pretty cool top!

Thanks! I've been looking for an old canopy that would fit a stepside for awhile, but they're hard to find. So I figured I wait for a cheap topper that was 8' and see if I could narrow it down.

Here's a bit of local history on the company that made the topper:

http://www.dodgepowerwagon.com/sprouse/novelty.htm

Home De'Pot didn't have similar sized rivets, so I'll hit up a specialty shop on Monday, or use bolts in the same/similar style- meanwhile, phase 2 starts this AM.

Well, sheets of steel come in 4'x10', so mod number two for the trailer is in order.

Picked this heavy duty beast up tonight in Coeur d'Alene.



A giant lumber rack that will get whittled down and narrowed for the trailer, too. I'll slice and dice it to fit in-between the canopy.

Thanks for the manufacturer's plate photo. That's extra cool! The rolled roof edges along the sides of that cap are really neat, especially since it has no rain gutter. I like it a lot.

By the way - do you have Outlaw I rims on your J's rear axle? Those and the factory FSJ kidney bean/Ansen Sprint-style wheels are my favorite, as far as aluminum goes. I always have my eye out for those around here in the 5x5.5" bolt pattern.

Yeah, those plate tags are very cool indeed. I'll snip them off, polish them and reattached them once it's all painted white.

The roof line is curing, sealer on the seams, and I have the lumber rack cut up to reassemble the way I want.

Yeah, they're the outlaw aluminum rims, I bought them years ago from the neighbor who was getting a new set for his ford, sadly, though, they're 16.5" rims. So once the tires wear out, I'll be looking for a new set of rims and tires.



Time to get my grind on. The angle iron will be used to reinforce the bed rails and tie into the racking system, too.

She's narrowed and in her final resting position.



I've ground off all the unnecessary brackets from the lumber rack:



So now it becomes a quest to see if I can get this hodgepodge buffet of old stuff to line up reasonably well with the lumber rack- after I narrow the lumber rack, of course. Then the bodywork can officially begin.

It may be a bit too early, but I buttoned up the trailer axle- 5 on 5.5 bolt pattern, so I can keep the jeep wheels n caps.