Project A.J. Part 4

Project AJ gets put back together, suspension, steering, wiring. Today's show is all about the details. Plus, look at the real heroes of rock crawling. Hold on. Xtreme 4x4 starts now.

Welcome to Xtreme 4x4. We're nearing the end of our project AJ the no limit, no budget hardcore off road trail rig. Now as soon as I get these discs painted, we can go ahead and start putting her back together. And then by the end of today, we should have that chassis sitting back on some wheels and tires. We're gonna drop a body on this thing. We should be ready to measure for some drive shafts, not to mention fire this thing up with a set of keys.

Last time we built the top of our engine using GM performance fast burn aluminum heads and then dropped on a ram jet fuel injection kit.

Then once we had the 700 R four and atlast transfer case bolted up. We dropped the entire drive train into our freshly Rhino

line frame

and then just for kicks, we fired that engine up

before we slide these curry axles back under the frame. We need to put a good coat of paint on it so they don't rust up on us.

I masked off the areas that I didn't want painted like the housing the brakes, the A RB air locker fittings,

then clean the dips with a prep wipe,

applied a couple good coats of primer

and then finished it off with D

color fast drying acrylic enamel.

While Jessi finishes up our DS, I'm gonna go ahead and reinstall our Skyjacker, double flex Rock ready suspension.

Now, one of the biggest hang ups you can find when you take on a project. This big is getting nuts and bolts.

We got a master set from Gardner Westcott

and that comes with a complete set of bolts in multiple sizes and thread pitches and that's gonna help us out whenever we get into a jam

that didn't hurt that bad. Not near as bad as my back. Just did

you look, I can still move

it

that

after a smashed thumb and a few bad words, we finally got our suspension on. So now it's time for the wheels and tires. Now, we had originally started with the pro cop simulated bead locks from their extreme series, but this truck isn't going to be seen in the street. So. True trail truck needs to be bead locked.

So

we packed up our extreme wheels

and shipped them off the Champion wheel in California

where they went ahead and added a bead lock ring

to the outside of our rim

that inner ring, along with this

outside lock ring

is going to squish the outside bead of this tire and hold it in place that's going to allow us to air this tire down to 4 to 6 P si

without risking the outside bead coming off the rim while the tire is driving over obstacles. Once we squish this in place, it's got to tighten up the bolts

before we drop that

aquilo

body back on this frame. We have to deal with some of the plumbing. So I'm gonna slip the combination valve in

our prebent brake lines from in line tube, tidy up all the fuel lines and maybe slip in the air locker lines as well.

Remember, we pre drilled and tapped holes for the tie downs before the frame was coated,

making this a piece of tape

inside those curry differentials along with a 410 gear set are A

B air lockers front and rear. So that means we're going to have to add some more plumbing to control those lockers. Now A

B will send this blue plastic airline which is fine under most circumstances. But if you work this stuff really hard, you can kink

tubing and that's going to restrict airflow to your locker. So the newest thing that guys are using is modified stainless brake hose and we got these ones from independent four by and they're made specifically for A B air lockers. We got a 12 ft piece for the front and a 6 ft piece for the back

and they'll just screw into the locker,

heavy lifting, tug of war and darting for cover all just a day in the life of a spotter. When Xtreme 4x4 continues,

we're taking a break from our ultimate Jeep build to head back to Moab Utah. And while the trail runners were having fun on the Slick Rock, the Pros were tearing it up

this year, the New We Rock Series kicked off the week long Easter Jeep Safari where some of the best rock crawlers in the world battled the tough southern Utah terrain.

Moab

is a little bit different out here. As you can see, we got a lot of brush, a lot of wood, a lot of dirt on these rocks. Too much throttle.

You spit the buggy off the side, not enough. You

just sit there and spinning the sand. So this train is very challenging to say the least when the rain and sleet came, tires weren't the only thing spinning on this rock.

We're rock crawlers. We can handle this better than NASCAR.

It's better than off road racing. People doing a lot of stupid stuff. It's great, isn't it?

Sometimes you make it sometimes you don't.

My spotter did an awesome job of stacking rocks and sometimes you don't get it

in a sport where success and failure come down to inches. It's the working men of rock crawling that make the difference.

The spotter is like the lineman in the NFL. They do all the work and the quarterback gets all the glory.

Vince Lombardi once wrote, the harder you work, the harder it is to surrender and the professional spotters do not quit and they will never surrender.

My main function is to guide

the driver threw a course without hitting combs, risking life and limb to accomplish that mission. They do whatever is necessary, getting rocks in position or starting to turn when you need to and then correcting for our next move. Turn that way back up.

The biggest thing is keeping the driver calm if he starts getting irritated and hitting the throttle a little harder than you want him to. I say, whoa, whoa, stop, stop, stop. You know, let's regain thought here and go on. Backbreaking work hasn't made them rich or famous. But to their drivers, these men are heroes. They're the heart and soul of the whole thing. To be honest with you, you can almost put a monkey behind that steering wheel. You can't tell a monkey to put those rocks.

They'd do a fantastic job and we wouldn't be here without them.

You

can't do that without your father for sure. You've just got to admire a guy that wants to lift rocks, stack it, pull on a vehicle and help as a team to get you over the top and through the gates.

After nine Baha

1000 wins and 144 off road racing victories.

Walker Evans could have retired and gone golfing.

Instead, he joined the pro rock crawling circuit

from 100 and 20 to 2 miles an hour and this is my fifth year doing it. I've really enjoyed it for this man of speed. Walker had to modify his style.

The biggest thing that I had to overcome

was being in too big a hurry. My very first rock crawl. I said, oh, they're giving you 10 minutes.

I make it through here in five. Do I get any extra deduction of points? I had to slow down and

patience is really a virtue in rock crawling. There's one aspect of the sport he's having trouble dealing with.

I wake up with nightmares, hitting cones. I mean, it's like

some people count sheep to go to sleep,

man.

It's the opposite. If I see a cone in the middle of a dream or something, I'm wide awake. I hit a cone. You're kidding? Where was it? You know, he may have finished outside the top 20 of moab,

but

fans don't mind. I'm Jeff Stevens. I know who you are. Lock

Evan. How are you proud to meet

you?

Thank you.

And for now he has no plans to pick up those golf clubs. Well, it's very gratifying. It really is to be able to continue doing something and I do love doing that. And so, uh, who knows? I'm 66 years old. I'm in great physical shape and uh I feel good. So,

you know, the good Lord may tell you that. I don't know

what a great guy that Walker Evans. I'm a good racer and let's hear it for the unsung heroes of rock crawling. The spotters

got an idea for the show. Drop us a line at Xtreme 4x4 tv.com.

Welcome back to project AJ our ultimate hybrid Jeep build.

We went ahead and dropped the body on the frame to get ourselves one step closer to having a finished Jeep.

And now we got to deal with some steering gauges and wiring.

And once we had this grill shell on, I got this really cool idea for the off road lights that we got

since we have no intentions of driving AJ on the street, we went ahead and got these wicked Narva lights from Safari lighting. So

normally you would be mounting these on your bumper or on your roll cage. But since we have the holes in the grill, we're gonna go ahead and mount them in here. The only problem is

is that this is a square mounting surface. So I'm gonna have to do a little fabrication to get those flush mounted.

Now for the steering, we went to Flaming River and got a complete kit from them. This thing is everything for a Jeep and it includes a new tilt column, a new steering wheel, power steering pump, all the U joints, a new shaft and a quick ratio steering box specifically for the CJ. The first thing to go in is the box

with the new box mounted to the frame. I can install the pitman arm

and connect the Terra Flax drag link.

Yeah,

before we can put the steering column in,

I have to pull this windshield frame back off

and then put the dash just in place temporarily

so we can see where the column

it is going to come through the opening.

Now, as you can see, I filled in these circles with sheet metal and then I'm gonna have to go back in once I'm done welding and go in in a deeper diameter. So I can actually fit the headlights into something.

We use this universal floor adapter to cover up the hole that we're gonna cut in the floor.

Once we get this all lined up,

mark the location of the column on the firewall,

drill a two inch hole with the haa

mark the holes for the adapter and drill them out,

then install the column and bolt it all together.

Now, we can slip in this steering shaft and cut it to length. We got this collapsible item with all the stuff from Flaming River and we want to make sure that we cut this to the right length.

Now, this is not a cheap piece of equipment. So you don't want to make a mistake. We're going to start with a piece of hardwood dowel. We're going to mock it into place into the U joints. We can check for length and make sure we're not hitting anything before we actually cut that.

Yeah,

with the grill in place, I can start bolting up the hinges for the hood and windshield using the new stainless pieces from quadrate,

all the holes are drilled for the hood hinges. And since we're not gonna be using fenders, we're not gonna be using those hood latches. So I'm gonna fill these holes before it gets sent out to get coated.

And you guys building these trucks at home, you know what this is like, you put something together, you see something you don't like. So you gotta take it back apart or you put something together and then you have to take it back apart to do the next step. And that's where we are with the dash.

It had to be installed to line up the steering column. But now the steering column has to come out so we can take the dash out and deal with the wiring and the gauges. But first, I'll mark all the mounting holes so we can drill them out.

Wiring is one of those things that a lot of guys think you can save a pile of money simply by designing and making your own harness. But by the time you guys find a fuse block fusible links, relays and all the switches, you spend just as much if not more than a premade harness like this one we got from painless. Now, not only is this thing come with fully color

coated wires that are labeled every 6 to 8 inches to tell you exactly where stuff is gonna go.

This off road harness comes with a waterproof fuse block. And that's really gonna help us out in this Jeep, considering we're not gonna put a roof on this thing and trust me, this thing is gonna be a lot easier to put in than a harness that you make yourself.

Since the fuse block will mount under the dash. I'll first drill a hole for the grommet

at this point. I'm just gonna run and mount all the wires to their appropriate spots.

Then once all of our electrical items are installed, they'll be ready to hook up

with the holes filled in the hood. I can start directing my attention to the dash.

Now, this is an aluminum piece that we got from Quadri

tech and I'm gonna be filling it with these Cobalt gauges from auto meter. Not only do they light up with an intense blue led light, but I can calibrate the speedometer by driving over a fixed two mile distance to accommodate any tire and gear size.

Now, one thing that's gonna differ on every truck are the gauges and in this Jeep, there's a pile of them. So I went ahead and made a dash harness for this Jeep. I took all the pig tails from the auto meter gauges and then added the wires that we're gonna need for the Speedo and the tack. Then I pulled all the power

illumination circus to one side

and I took all the engine side stuff and put it on the other.

Now you can go ahead and just crimp this stuff together. But if you really want it to last, you should always solder every joint, especially when you're dealing with an off road truck. It's going to see some serious use.

I like the X I did that for the four by four. I guessed that. Yeah,

here we go. Ready. All right. The bottom one is water.

Once I get all the power and illumination feeds to the gauges,

I'll move to the color wires that feed the sensors,

then we can put the dash and steering column back in place ready.

Yeah, let's go.

Make sure you check back after the break. We gotta put on a transmission cooler,

mount the battery and the fuel cell

and

measure for drive shafts. Why am I doing all the pushing

because you're stronger than I am.

For more information on anything you've seen today. Check us out online, Xtreme 4x4, tv.com.

Welcome back to Xtreme 4x4 and one of our final shows on Project AJ, we have just a few more things to get done and then we'll have a full on driver

and before we can finish wiring up this thing we got to put a battery in it. So we're gonna use one of these new Decca Intimidator, a GM series. They have unique cube design for the cells that resist vibration and shock off road. And once we make a battery box to match this mock up,

just bolt it right in.

Now, everyone with an open trail rig can relate to this.

Securing your cargo off road can be a challenge.

So we went to Tuffy security products to get a cargo drawer for the back of the Jeep.

This is a self contained fully lockable drawer that holds up to 300 pounds and it's weather resistant. On top of this drawer, we're gonna be putting this RC I Racing cell that we got from summit.

We considered putting it where the factory tank went but decided it was a little bit sketchy to have a plastic tank right on the departure angle of some rocks.

And the last thing to do with on this Jeep is the drive shaft. Now Jr

is going to make our drive shaft for us, but we've got to get a pile of measurements before we get that done

with the vehicle at ride height, measure the distance from yoke to yoke,

then extend the suspension to its limits.

Then using the distance between the axles and the bump stops, calculate the compressed distance of each shaft

thought about Rob's

up for today. And we even wired up the ignition switch for us.