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(Jeremy)>> You're watching Powernation!
[ engine revving ] [ Music ]
(Katie)>> Welcome to Powernation Builds. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night's gonna keep our guys from their special delivery. Here's Carcass!
(Jeremy)>> You guys are probably wondering why do we have three vehicles in the shop today. You're probably more curious why we have three retired US Postal Jeeps in the shop today? Well, there's a big story behind these trucks and that all started when Jimmy and I were looking for a right hand drive vehicle. We thought to ourselves what's the most readily available right hand drive vehicle in America? Well, that's the US Postal Jeep.
(Jimmy)>> The lady we bought these Jeeps from is a retired postal worker and she drove each of these things into the ground.
(Jeremy)>> But the only way we could get one Jeep was to buy all three. So we shook hands and started loading them up. The white one has seen better days but maybe we could scavenge a couple of parts off of it.
(Jimmy)>> The sea foam one is in pretty good shape, but it wouldn't run. So, we had to pull it to the trailer.
(Jeremy)>> The yellow one seemed to be our best candidate. It was in decent shape, and it fired right up. This thing runs really good, and it's the weirdest thing to be on this side.
(Jimmy)>> We managed to get all three of these Jeeps loaded up and back to the shop in one day, and now that they're all here we need to talk about what the end goal is with one of them.
(Jeremy)>> And that first starts with us trying to decide which one of these we're gonna build. My vote's on the yellow one because that one runs.
(Jimmy)>> See I think the sea foam green one because I think the chassis and body are a little better, and even though the four cylinder is in this one we should be able to put the six cylinder in it.
(Jeremy)>> That's a good point. Well that pretty much decides it then, but what are we gonna do to the green Jeep. We're dumping the wheels, the axles, and the leaf spring suspension. We'll be replacing that with a four link setup all the way around. We'll swap out the stock transmission for a setup out of a TJ, and when we're done with that we'll slap on a bigger set of wheels and tires, bringing Project Junk Mail to life. Now you've probably gathered by now that we're gonna be building a four wheel drive off road rig. Now Jeeps are known for their off road capabilities, and to keep with that Jeep tradition we're gonna be taking our two wheel drive Jeep and converting it to four wheel drive.
(Jimmy)>> And the sea foam green Jeep is going to be the Jeep of choice for this build because it has the least amount of rust, dents, and we're hoping it's gonna come apart the easiest, but we're gonna keep the yellow Jeep around just in case we need some extra parts, and the white Jeep is probably gonna end up going to the scrapyard because the body has a lot of rust holes in it, there aren't too many good panels on it, and we really just don't need any of that. [ drill humming ] [ Music ]
[ liquid sloshing ]
(Jeremy)>> A random thing when I take part cars and trucks I keep the hose clamps.
(Jimmy)>> Yeah, I do to. Unless you break them, they're not really going bad.
(Jeremy)>> Just stash them away for a rainy day. [ drill humming ]
(Jimmy)>> It's a good thing we're keeping those other Jeeps because this thing's kinda falling apart.
(Jeremy)>> Junk! [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Ooh, don't take the whole fender. [ drill humming ] [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> You all good?
(Jeremy)>> Yeah, I'm good. [ drill buzzing ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> This is hands down the easiest way to pull this. Just like that.
(Jimmy)>> That's state of the art.
(Jeremy)>> That's the easy way. [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> Now that we have the engine and transmission out of the way it's time to get rid of the old suspension too.
(Jeremy)>> There's many different ways we could go about doing that. If we were gonna keep the suspension we could grab wrenches and unbolt everything, or if we were being a little less cautious, we could grab a cutoff wheel and cut that way, but we're not interested in keeping any of this stuff and we just want it out from underneath here as fast as possible. So, the torch is gonna be our choice. [ torch hissing ]
(Jeremy)>> With our trusty torch we can throw caution to the wind and start cutting some metal. The plan here is to keep most of the suspension intact. So, when we get ready to get rid of it we can just roll it right out of the way. [ torch hissing ]
(Jeremy)>> Now while I was using the torch to get rid of the rivets I noticed one thing. On the corner of the brackets they also welded these to the chassis. So I'm gonna use a cutoff wheel, score a little line right down here on the edge. Then hopefully we'll be able to pound those brackets off. [ saw buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> With our welds cut our air hammer makes quick work of our brackets. [ air hammer vibrating ]
(Jeremy)>> Woo! While we're at it we'll go ahead and take care of the rivets that hold on the rear bumper. There it goes.
(Jimmy)>> This chassis is a really good place to start but we're about to be missing something. A set of axles.
(Jeremy)>> I know a guy but it's gonna requires us getting out of the shop.
(Katie)>> Coming up, it's making marks and throwing sparks. Our offroad rig is well underway.
(Jeremy)>> With our axles out of the yard and in the shop we've got a lot of work ahead of us. Now we're gonna end up stripping down both of our axles to just bare housings and we're gonna do that for two reasons. One, we're gonna end up rebuilding both axles pretty much from hub to hub and two, we're gonna use just the bare housings to set up the suspension underneath our Jeep. It's a whole lot easier to move around just a housing than it is a few hundred pound axle assembly.
(Jimmy)>> And while he's finishing up the axles I'm gonna be finishing taking off all the unnecessary brackets on the chassis. We already did it on the top side. So, we flipped it over and there's a few things left, like the leaf spring hangers and the bump stops, but that's nothing that an air chisel can't fix. First, I'll remove these bump stops by taking out a few bolts. Now these leaf spring hanger brackets are riveted in. So, here's a little trick that I like to use. Using a cutoff wheel, I make an "X" in the head, which makes it weaker and that makes quick work for my air chisel. [ air chisel vibrating ]
(Jimmy)>> With the brackets out of the way I'll grind the rivets down and punch the rest out with my air hammer.
(Jeremy)>> With our axles all cleaned up we're gonna be adding a set of Artec Industries axle trusses that we picked up from Summit Racing dot com. We're gonna be doing this for two reasons. One, it's just gonna help strengthen our axle, and the second and more important reason is it's gonna give us a great mounting point for our upper arms and for our shocks. So, what we're gonna do is just tack this into place. Then we'll set our axles back underneath the chassis, keep rolling on our suspension. [ welder crackling ] [ Music ] [ welder crackling ]
(Jeremy)>> Alright that looks pretty good. Get her back under the chassis. Got it? It got a little heavier that's for sure. [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> We now have trusses tacked to both axle housings but there's one thing we need to do before we start designing our suspension, and that's deciding where the axles are gonna land. And in the rear it's not too critical but we do know we're going to extend the wheelbase a little bit for stability.
(Jeremy)>> But on the front end it is critical because the position of our front axle solely depends on the position of our steering gearbox because we don't want our steering to bind under heavy articulation. So, the next step is to mount the gearbox on the passenger side. [ Music ] We mounted our new gearbox using an existing hole from the original box. Now this is just for mockup. We're not sure if we're gonna have to move the gearbox towards the back or toward the front of the Jeep but this is just a good starting point. Now with our axle and our chassis set at ride height I'm gonna use a plumb bob and drop it down the center of our pitman arm, and then we're gonna mockup some steering and that should help us find the final resting position of our front axle. [ Music ]
[ welder crackling ] [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> Now that we have the tabs on our axle it's time to figure out the hoop section, and basically what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a tube and bend it 180 degrees and weld it to the chassis, but we have to figure out what length of tube to cut. If I stand up this tube that represents our shock it stands up about a foot off the chassis, and a little bit shorter on this side but it's best to have some excess. And we know from experience using our bender the 180 degree section is gonna take up about 18 inches of tube. 18 plus 24 is 42 and that's the length we need to cut. [ Music ] For our shock hoop we'll be using some 120-wall d-o-m. [ mechanical humming ] [ Music ] [ mechanical humming ]
(Jimmy)>> With our shock hoop bent up now the first noticeable thing is that our simulated shock does not fall in the center of it, but the idea here is the shock hoop is gonna fall on the boxed section of the chassis to maintain strength. So, the compromise is to lean the shock over a little bit and let the tabs fall right in the center, but before we get to the tabs we've got to tack this thing in. We'll give the chassis a quick grind before installing our hoop.
(Jeremy)>> Go ahead!
(Jimmy)>> We'll make sure this thing is square and drop in a couple of tacks. [ welder crackling ] [ torch hissing ]
(Jimmy)>> Then we'll head back over to our plasma table and cut out a few tabs to mount our shocks. [ welder crackling ] [ Music ] [ welder crackling ]
(Katie)>> Up next, Project Junk Mail is coming together for a real offroad delivery.
(Katie)>> Welcome back to Powernation Builds. It's time now to return to Carcass.
(Jeremy)>> We're making really good headway on Project Junk Mail. We've pretty much buttoned up the suspension. We threw in the drivetrain, bolted our shocks back up, and we even mounted a set of wheels and tires.
(Jimmy)>> But before we final weld all the suspension we want to throw the body on it to do some final checks, and we do know we're gonna have to cut some holes in it so we can clear the rear shock hoops, and the easiest way to do that is to roll this thing over to the lift and see what we're working with. [ Music ] [ tires squeaking ]
(Jeremy)>> Turn a little bit here. It's hard to tell where we're at.
(Jimmy)>> It's pretty close.
(Jeremy)>> Let's grab some plumb bobs and we'll drop them down from the rear mount just to see how close we are. [ Music ] Straight off the ground. That's probably enough. [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> That's a nice piece right there.
(Jeremy)>> Okay I'm gonna go down slow. You let me know when we get close cause the hoist arm's gonna block me. [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> Stop right there. We'll mark out the area that needs to be removed. Our lines don't have to be super precise, just straight enough to give us a guide. Something like that. [ saw buzzing ]
(Jimmy)>> We're using cutoff wheels for our application, but you could use a plasma cutter as well. Either way makes quick work of our floor. [ saw buzzing ] [ Music ] [ saw buzzing ] [ Music ] [ saw buzzing ] [ drill humming ]
(Jimmy)>> We'll yank off the wheels and tires and remove our shocks so we can lower the body down onto our chassis. [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Full speed, let's see what happens.
(Jimmy)>> Keep going. Stop!
(Jeremy)>> Like that! It looks close. I'm gonna look inside.
(Jimmy)>> I think we should be able to get the shocks in there.
(Jeremy)>> That totally fits. I think the shocks will fit. We'll throw in some new body mounts and drop our shocks back in before setting the body back down. [ Music ] Here we go.
(Jimmy)>> A lot of room between the firewall and valve cover.
(Jeremy)>> Come down in the back. Hoist arms are coming off.
(Jimmy)>> Getting close.
(Jeremy)>> Keep going?
(Jimmy)>> Yep, transfer case is clear and everything, yeah.
(Jeremy)>> How much room do we have between the firewall?
(Jimmy)>> An inch.
(Jeremy)>> There's some wiring there but we're good. Let's get the front clip on it. Then the fenders and the grille shell.
(Jimmy)>> Make it look like a Jeep again.
(Jeremy)>> I'll go grab them. [ Music ] Jimmy, you want to grab the back side and bolt that in.
(Jimmy)>> That should be good for now. [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Body work is done! Now it's time to give Junk Mail a facelift with a fresh coat of paint. Since our paint is a pearl we'll be laying it down with a 75 percent overlap to achieve maximum coverage. Spraying three medium wet coats, allowing for five minute dry times between each coat. For the final application I'll be applying a drop coat to give us a uniformed look. [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> So now all I've got to do is top off the fluids like fuel, power steering, transmission, and coolant before firing up Junk Mail for the first time. [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Okay all the fluids are in it. We did prime it a little bit cause we've got fuel pressure. I think it should start right up.
(Jimmy)>> Let's hear it.
(Jeremy)>> Here we go! [ engine starting and revving ]
(Jeremy)>> It's got a good sound. We're super close to hitting the trails now. We still have some stuff to do. We've got brakes to do, driveshaft, and we've still got to button up all the interior.
(Katie)>> Up next, time to haul the trail mail.
(Jimmy)>> Alright it's finally time. We're out here at Adventure Offroad Park. We have almost 600 acres and over 120 trails to choose from.
(Jeremy)>> The trail system here at AOP ranges from anything from mild to wild. Stuff like your side by sides or your weekend warriors, all the way up to like Project Junk Mail and some rock bouncers, but today is the day we're gonna see if Junk Mail truly can deliver.
(Jimmy)>> Let's do it! I'm excited.
(Jeremy)>> This'll be fun! [ engine rumbling ]
(Jimmy)>> Alright we'll start it off a little easy.
(Jeremy)>> This shouldn't be too bad. Should be kinda fun to see how it handles really. This is George Winter trail. Let's run this one. This'll be a little tougher. This is one of my favorites up here at the top. I'm truly impressed right now. This thing is crazy! It's not even struggling. We're just cruising away. Delivering the mail! Alright I'm gonna spot you now. Then we'll just start placing tires in right spots and we'll get up this. Not that we need it. We're doing really good! So hard driver. Okay, like that. [ engine revving ] [ Music ] [ engine revving ]
(Jeremy)>> Yep! [ Music ] [ engine revving ]
(Jeremy)>> Perfect! [ engine revving ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Alright I've got to know. What do you think?
(Jimmy)>> It's awesome!
(Jeremy)>> This is like your first time out.
(Jimmy)>> Yeah, first time off road. It's kinda sketchy but addicting at the same time.
(Jeremy)>> I think we should keep going. It's kinda downhill from here. We'll go play in one more spot.
(Jimmy)>> Yeah you drive. You've got to get a feel for it.
(Jeremy)>> We're going!
(Jimmy)>> Check it out over here.
(Jeremy)>> Let's try it this way once. Looks like we've got a little bit of mud. Try to play around in here. How we looking on that rock?
(Jimmy)>> Yeah, you've got room.
(Jeremy)>> A little body!
(Jimmy)>> You got it. Ouch!
(Jeremy)>> That's a little deeper than it looks. [ engine rumbling ]
(Jeremy)>> Still not a problem. It just walked right through that no issues. Let's go down yonder, huh? A little bit of mud on these trails. Kinda fun, something different. [ engine rumbling ] Whoa!
(Jimmy)>> A little slippery!
(Jeremy)>> We better square back up on that one. [ engine rumbling ] That was kinda crazy!
(Jimmy)>> A little bit yeah. [ engine rumbling ]
(Jeremy)>> How about that? That's an easier way to get around that one. Life gives you lemons make lemonade Jimmy. We're having a little bit of fun.
(Jimmy)>> And this thing's really handled everything we've thrown at it. We've got on some hard trails, some easier ones, mud, a little slick rock.
(Jeremy)>> I'm having a blast. It's a lot of fun to drive. You know the bars in the cage ended up being like perfect. Exactly where we need them.
(Jimmy)>> Nothing else to hold on to up here.
(Jeremy)>> Awesome out here, I'll take it! All day long I will take it. You know the Jeep pretty much did exactly what we wanted it to do. It took us where we needed to go but there's a couple of things we could improve on.
(Jimmy)>> I think there's room for some upgrades in certain areas, but overall this thing has really proven itself, and we've built a pretty gnarly trail rig.
(Jeremy)>> We've got a little bit of daylight left. So, I think we should go have some fun. If you guys like anything you've seen on the show today why don't you go to Powernation TV dot com and Jimmy and I will see you next time.
(Jimmy)>> And we're gonna hit some more trails in the meantime.
(Jeremy)>> This will be a little bit of fun. I think we've got 5, 8 gallons of gas left. A couple hours of daylight. [ engine starting ] [ engine rumbling ]
(Katie)>> Wow, what a great conversion. Project Junk Mail has to be a new fan favorite. Remember, you can catch our other projects right here on Powernation Builds.
Show Full Transcript
[ engine revving ] [ Music ]
(Katie)>> Welcome to Powernation Builds. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night's gonna keep our guys from their special delivery. Here's Carcass!
(Jeremy)>> You guys are probably wondering why do we have three vehicles in the shop today. You're probably more curious why we have three retired US Postal Jeeps in the shop today? Well, there's a big story behind these trucks and that all started when Jimmy and I were looking for a right hand drive vehicle. We thought to ourselves what's the most readily available right hand drive vehicle in America? Well, that's the US Postal Jeep.
(Jimmy)>> The lady we bought these Jeeps from is a retired postal worker and she drove each of these things into the ground.
(Jeremy)>> But the only way we could get one Jeep was to buy all three. So we shook hands and started loading them up. The white one has seen better days but maybe we could scavenge a couple of parts off of it.
(Jimmy)>> The sea foam one is in pretty good shape, but it wouldn't run. So, we had to pull it to the trailer.
(Jeremy)>> The yellow one seemed to be our best candidate. It was in decent shape, and it fired right up. This thing runs really good, and it's the weirdest thing to be on this side.
(Jimmy)>> We managed to get all three of these Jeeps loaded up and back to the shop in one day, and now that they're all here we need to talk about what the end goal is with one of them.
(Jeremy)>> And that first starts with us trying to decide which one of these we're gonna build. My vote's on the yellow one because that one runs.
(Jimmy)>> See I think the sea foam green one because I think the chassis and body are a little better, and even though the four cylinder is in this one we should be able to put the six cylinder in it.
(Jeremy)>> That's a good point. Well that pretty much decides it then, but what are we gonna do to the green Jeep. We're dumping the wheels, the axles, and the leaf spring suspension. We'll be replacing that with a four link setup all the way around. We'll swap out the stock transmission for a setup out of a TJ, and when we're done with that we'll slap on a bigger set of wheels and tires, bringing Project Junk Mail to life. Now you've probably gathered by now that we're gonna be building a four wheel drive off road rig. Now Jeeps are known for their off road capabilities, and to keep with that Jeep tradition we're gonna be taking our two wheel drive Jeep and converting it to four wheel drive.
(Jimmy)>> And the sea foam green Jeep is going to be the Jeep of choice for this build because it has the least amount of rust, dents, and we're hoping it's gonna come apart the easiest, but we're gonna keep the yellow Jeep around just in case we need some extra parts, and the white Jeep is probably gonna end up going to the scrapyard because the body has a lot of rust holes in it, there aren't too many good panels on it, and we really just don't need any of that. [ drill humming ] [ Music ]
[ liquid sloshing ]
(Jeremy)>> A random thing when I take part cars and trucks I keep the hose clamps.
(Jimmy)>> Yeah, I do to. Unless you break them, they're not really going bad.
(Jeremy)>> Just stash them away for a rainy day. [ drill humming ]
(Jimmy)>> It's a good thing we're keeping those other Jeeps because this thing's kinda falling apart.
(Jeremy)>> Junk! [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Ooh, don't take the whole fender. [ drill humming ] [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> You all good?
(Jeremy)>> Yeah, I'm good. [ drill buzzing ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> This is hands down the easiest way to pull this. Just like that.
(Jimmy)>> That's state of the art.
(Jeremy)>> That's the easy way. [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> Now that we have the engine and transmission out of the way it's time to get rid of the old suspension too.
(Jeremy)>> There's many different ways we could go about doing that. If we were gonna keep the suspension we could grab wrenches and unbolt everything, or if we were being a little less cautious, we could grab a cutoff wheel and cut that way, but we're not interested in keeping any of this stuff and we just want it out from underneath here as fast as possible. So, the torch is gonna be our choice. [ torch hissing ]
(Jeremy)>> With our trusty torch we can throw caution to the wind and start cutting some metal. The plan here is to keep most of the suspension intact. So, when we get ready to get rid of it we can just roll it right out of the way. [ torch hissing ]
(Jeremy)>> Now while I was using the torch to get rid of the rivets I noticed one thing. On the corner of the brackets they also welded these to the chassis. So I'm gonna use a cutoff wheel, score a little line right down here on the edge. Then hopefully we'll be able to pound those brackets off. [ saw buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> With our welds cut our air hammer makes quick work of our brackets. [ air hammer vibrating ]
(Jeremy)>> Woo! While we're at it we'll go ahead and take care of the rivets that hold on the rear bumper. There it goes.
(Jimmy)>> This chassis is a really good place to start but we're about to be missing something. A set of axles.
(Jeremy)>> I know a guy but it's gonna requires us getting out of the shop.
(Katie)>> Coming up, it's making marks and throwing sparks. Our offroad rig is well underway.
(Jeremy)>> With our axles out of the yard and in the shop we've got a lot of work ahead of us. Now we're gonna end up stripping down both of our axles to just bare housings and we're gonna do that for two reasons. One, we're gonna end up rebuilding both axles pretty much from hub to hub and two, we're gonna use just the bare housings to set up the suspension underneath our Jeep. It's a whole lot easier to move around just a housing than it is a few hundred pound axle assembly.
(Jimmy)>> And while he's finishing up the axles I'm gonna be finishing taking off all the unnecessary brackets on the chassis. We already did it on the top side. So, we flipped it over and there's a few things left, like the leaf spring hangers and the bump stops, but that's nothing that an air chisel can't fix. First, I'll remove these bump stops by taking out a few bolts. Now these leaf spring hanger brackets are riveted in. So, here's a little trick that I like to use. Using a cutoff wheel, I make an "X" in the head, which makes it weaker and that makes quick work for my air chisel. [ air chisel vibrating ]
(Jimmy)>> With the brackets out of the way I'll grind the rivets down and punch the rest out with my air hammer.
(Jeremy)>> With our axles all cleaned up we're gonna be adding a set of Artec Industries axle trusses that we picked up from Summit Racing dot com. We're gonna be doing this for two reasons. One, it's just gonna help strengthen our axle, and the second and more important reason is it's gonna give us a great mounting point for our upper arms and for our shocks. So, what we're gonna do is just tack this into place. Then we'll set our axles back underneath the chassis, keep rolling on our suspension. [ welder crackling ] [ Music ] [ welder crackling ]
(Jeremy)>> Alright that looks pretty good. Get her back under the chassis. Got it? It got a little heavier that's for sure. [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> We now have trusses tacked to both axle housings but there's one thing we need to do before we start designing our suspension, and that's deciding where the axles are gonna land. And in the rear it's not too critical but we do know we're going to extend the wheelbase a little bit for stability.
(Jeremy)>> But on the front end it is critical because the position of our front axle solely depends on the position of our steering gearbox because we don't want our steering to bind under heavy articulation. So, the next step is to mount the gearbox on the passenger side. [ Music ] We mounted our new gearbox using an existing hole from the original box. Now this is just for mockup. We're not sure if we're gonna have to move the gearbox towards the back or toward the front of the Jeep but this is just a good starting point. Now with our axle and our chassis set at ride height I'm gonna use a plumb bob and drop it down the center of our pitman arm, and then we're gonna mockup some steering and that should help us find the final resting position of our front axle. [ Music ]
[ welder crackling ] [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> Now that we have the tabs on our axle it's time to figure out the hoop section, and basically what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a tube and bend it 180 degrees and weld it to the chassis, but we have to figure out what length of tube to cut. If I stand up this tube that represents our shock it stands up about a foot off the chassis, and a little bit shorter on this side but it's best to have some excess. And we know from experience using our bender the 180 degree section is gonna take up about 18 inches of tube. 18 plus 24 is 42 and that's the length we need to cut. [ Music ] For our shock hoop we'll be using some 120-wall d-o-m. [ mechanical humming ] [ Music ] [ mechanical humming ]
(Jimmy)>> With our shock hoop bent up now the first noticeable thing is that our simulated shock does not fall in the center of it, but the idea here is the shock hoop is gonna fall on the boxed section of the chassis to maintain strength. So, the compromise is to lean the shock over a little bit and let the tabs fall right in the center, but before we get to the tabs we've got to tack this thing in. We'll give the chassis a quick grind before installing our hoop.
(Jeremy)>> Go ahead!
(Jimmy)>> We'll make sure this thing is square and drop in a couple of tacks. [ welder crackling ] [ torch hissing ]
(Jimmy)>> Then we'll head back over to our plasma table and cut out a few tabs to mount our shocks. [ welder crackling ] [ Music ] [ welder crackling ]
(Katie)>> Up next, Project Junk Mail is coming together for a real offroad delivery.
(Katie)>> Welcome back to Powernation Builds. It's time now to return to Carcass.
(Jeremy)>> We're making really good headway on Project Junk Mail. We've pretty much buttoned up the suspension. We threw in the drivetrain, bolted our shocks back up, and we even mounted a set of wheels and tires.
(Jimmy)>> But before we final weld all the suspension we want to throw the body on it to do some final checks, and we do know we're gonna have to cut some holes in it so we can clear the rear shock hoops, and the easiest way to do that is to roll this thing over to the lift and see what we're working with. [ Music ] [ tires squeaking ]
(Jeremy)>> Turn a little bit here. It's hard to tell where we're at.
(Jimmy)>> It's pretty close.
(Jeremy)>> Let's grab some plumb bobs and we'll drop them down from the rear mount just to see how close we are. [ Music ] Straight off the ground. That's probably enough. [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> That's a nice piece right there.
(Jeremy)>> Okay I'm gonna go down slow. You let me know when we get close cause the hoist arm's gonna block me. [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> Stop right there. We'll mark out the area that needs to be removed. Our lines don't have to be super precise, just straight enough to give us a guide. Something like that. [ saw buzzing ]
(Jimmy)>> We're using cutoff wheels for our application, but you could use a plasma cutter as well. Either way makes quick work of our floor. [ saw buzzing ] [ Music ] [ saw buzzing ] [ Music ] [ saw buzzing ] [ drill humming ]
(Jimmy)>> We'll yank off the wheels and tires and remove our shocks so we can lower the body down onto our chassis. [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Full speed, let's see what happens.
(Jimmy)>> Keep going. Stop!
(Jeremy)>> Like that! It looks close. I'm gonna look inside.
(Jimmy)>> I think we should be able to get the shocks in there.
(Jeremy)>> That totally fits. I think the shocks will fit. We'll throw in some new body mounts and drop our shocks back in before setting the body back down. [ Music ] Here we go.
(Jimmy)>> A lot of room between the firewall and valve cover.
(Jeremy)>> Come down in the back. Hoist arms are coming off.
(Jimmy)>> Getting close.
(Jeremy)>> Keep going?
(Jimmy)>> Yep, transfer case is clear and everything, yeah.
(Jeremy)>> How much room do we have between the firewall?
(Jimmy)>> An inch.
(Jeremy)>> There's some wiring there but we're good. Let's get the front clip on it. Then the fenders and the grille shell.
(Jimmy)>> Make it look like a Jeep again.
(Jeremy)>> I'll go grab them. [ Music ] Jimmy, you want to grab the back side and bolt that in.
(Jimmy)>> That should be good for now. [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Body work is done! Now it's time to give Junk Mail a facelift with a fresh coat of paint. Since our paint is a pearl we'll be laying it down with a 75 percent overlap to achieve maximum coverage. Spraying three medium wet coats, allowing for five minute dry times between each coat. For the final application I'll be applying a drop coat to give us a uniformed look. [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> So now all I've got to do is top off the fluids like fuel, power steering, transmission, and coolant before firing up Junk Mail for the first time. [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Okay all the fluids are in it. We did prime it a little bit cause we've got fuel pressure. I think it should start right up.
(Jimmy)>> Let's hear it.
(Jeremy)>> Here we go! [ engine starting and revving ]
(Jeremy)>> It's got a good sound. We're super close to hitting the trails now. We still have some stuff to do. We've got brakes to do, driveshaft, and we've still got to button up all the interior.
(Katie)>> Up next, time to haul the trail mail.
(Jimmy)>> Alright it's finally time. We're out here at Adventure Offroad Park. We have almost 600 acres and over 120 trails to choose from.
(Jeremy)>> The trail system here at AOP ranges from anything from mild to wild. Stuff like your side by sides or your weekend warriors, all the way up to like Project Junk Mail and some rock bouncers, but today is the day we're gonna see if Junk Mail truly can deliver.
(Jimmy)>> Let's do it! I'm excited.
(Jeremy)>> This'll be fun! [ engine rumbling ]
(Jimmy)>> Alright we'll start it off a little easy.
(Jeremy)>> This shouldn't be too bad. Should be kinda fun to see how it handles really. This is George Winter trail. Let's run this one. This'll be a little tougher. This is one of my favorites up here at the top. I'm truly impressed right now. This thing is crazy! It's not even struggling. We're just cruising away. Delivering the mail! Alright I'm gonna spot you now. Then we'll just start placing tires in right spots and we'll get up this. Not that we need it. We're doing really good! So hard driver. Okay, like that. [ engine revving ] [ Music ] [ engine revving ]
(Jeremy)>> Yep! [ Music ] [ engine revving ]
(Jeremy)>> Perfect! [ engine revving ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Alright I've got to know. What do you think?
(Jimmy)>> It's awesome!
(Jeremy)>> This is like your first time out.
(Jimmy)>> Yeah, first time off road. It's kinda sketchy but addicting at the same time.
(Jeremy)>> I think we should keep going. It's kinda downhill from here. We'll go play in one more spot.
(Jimmy)>> Yeah you drive. You've got to get a feel for it.
(Jeremy)>> We're going!
(Jimmy)>> Check it out over here.
(Jeremy)>> Let's try it this way once. Looks like we've got a little bit of mud. Try to play around in here. How we looking on that rock?
(Jimmy)>> Yeah, you've got room.
(Jeremy)>> A little body!
(Jimmy)>> You got it. Ouch!
(Jeremy)>> That's a little deeper than it looks. [ engine rumbling ]
(Jeremy)>> Still not a problem. It just walked right through that no issues. Let's go down yonder, huh? A little bit of mud on these trails. Kinda fun, something different. [ engine rumbling ] Whoa!
(Jimmy)>> A little slippery!
(Jeremy)>> We better square back up on that one. [ engine rumbling ] That was kinda crazy!
(Jimmy)>> A little bit yeah. [ engine rumbling ]
(Jeremy)>> How about that? That's an easier way to get around that one. Life gives you lemons make lemonade Jimmy. We're having a little bit of fun.
(Jimmy)>> And this thing's really handled everything we've thrown at it. We've got on some hard trails, some easier ones, mud, a little slick rock.
(Jeremy)>> I'm having a blast. It's a lot of fun to drive. You know the bars in the cage ended up being like perfect. Exactly where we need them.
(Jimmy)>> Nothing else to hold on to up here.
(Jeremy)>> Awesome out here, I'll take it! All day long I will take it. You know the Jeep pretty much did exactly what we wanted it to do. It took us where we needed to go but there's a couple of things we could improve on.
(Jimmy)>> I think there's room for some upgrades in certain areas, but overall this thing has really proven itself, and we've built a pretty gnarly trail rig.
(Jeremy)>> We've got a little bit of daylight left. So, I think we should go have some fun. If you guys like anything you've seen on the show today why don't you go to Powernation TV dot com and Jimmy and I will see you next time.
(Jimmy)>> And we're gonna hit some more trails in the meantime.
(Jeremy)>> This will be a little bit of fun. I think we've got 5, 8 gallons of gas left. A couple hours of daylight. [ engine starting ] [ engine rumbling ]
(Katie)>> Wow, what a great conversion. Project Junk Mail has to be a new fan favorite. Remember, you can catch our other projects right here on Powernation Builds.
