High School TJ build

This little Tj is coming along, that big dent in the side is gone due to a friend in town, repainted the hood and part of side panel where the dent was, the paint didn't match to what I thought it would, but that's ok, it gives it character. Repainted the the fender flares black, looks so much better than it did. Put on some Rugged Ridge rockers on it, took the old front bumper off, working on building a new one. It has a cute 2" coil spacer lift, I swapped the tires I had on the XJ and put them on the TJ. I've put some quick disconnect sway bar links on her as well. The heater wasn't working very well, turns out the heater core was clogged inside the pipe and as well as the fins, cleaned it up just enough to get a welcome breeze of nice warm air. As of plans on this daily high school driver, the floppy mirrors need to go, every time I close the door they move out of position, I have a hp d30 and a Ford 8.8 that need a little work before I throw them under. I also plan on putting 4.10 gearing and a lunchbox locker in the front, the 8.8 came with a limited slip that I'm going to keep in there for "High School Budget" reasons. Hoping that I can get 35" tires on there after my axles. I want to do high-line fenders just to get me that extra tire clearance that I may or may not need. This little Tj has been a good little Jeep for me so far, has done what I've wanted it to do for me so far, haven't taken it wheeling yet, but I can tell you it climbs curbs no problem.
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ebryson

Active Member
Location
Bountiful, Utah
Save the money you'd be using to by a transmission and use it for a Atlas. Boom. Lower first gear. Then re gear the axles so they could be more street friendly. You'd then have a more street friendly car that also had lower gears for the trail. 🤷‍♂️
I do want an atlas, but like you said I would have to save the money.
Run it how it is until something fails and then worry about what to do.
That makes to much sense. :thinking::rofl:
 

ebryson

Active Member
Location
Bountiful, Utah
I am finally back on the Jeep train after my other plethora of hobbies have had my interest. I've looked into a few of different styles of Tj rear coil correction plates, kits, buckets or whatever companies are calling them. The "Rear Coil Spring Relocation Kit" from Barnes 4wd had peaked my interest because how "cheap" it is compared to their competitors and it still looks like a good strong option. I currently do not plan on stretching the Jeep, because if I do that I'm just going to go down a giant rabbit hole.
https://barnes4wd.com/products/jeep-tj-and-lj-rear-coil-spring-relocation-kit
Their competitors being Artec Industries, Metal Cloak, Rough Country (theirs is a bolt on option, doesn't seem super strong to me), Genright, so on and so forth. I've been told to just get the Artec Industries version but I'm always looking to find a cheaper but still strong way to do things. Strangely enough I stumbled upon a CAD and DXF file off of Etsy. Yes Etsy. The files costs ~8 bucks. But the problem with that is I don't have a cool CNC plasma cutter.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/127649...ef=sr_gallery-1-1&dd=1&organic_search_click=1

Now the question is before I make a decision on one of these, is there any plus or minus to any of these options? Has anyone done this and liked one better than the other? Or even better has someone designed one that they like and could cut it out for me if I provided some funds? And any tips or tricks that I may want to know?
I will be doing the rear triangulation at the same time so the distribution flanges(?) width wouldn't interfere with the frame side track bar bracket.
 

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
My only input is that now is the time to stretch it. You know it’s the right call… right?

I lied, I have more input: there are companies that will cut stuff for you. I know OSH Cut is local. I think my old friend’s company Carver Sheet Metal also does it. Then there’s non-local options like Sendcutsend as well. Get quotes from a few companies and see if you’d rather just buy a kit.
 

BlackSheep

baaaaaaaaaad to the bone
Supporting Member
I am finally back on the Jeep train after my other plethora of hobbies have had my interest. I've looked into a few of different styles of Tj rear coil correction plates, kits, buckets or whatever companies are calling them. The "Rear Coil Spring Relocation Kit" from Barnes 4wd had peaked my interest because how "cheap" it is compared to their competitors and it still looks like a good strong option. I currently do not plan on stretching the Jeep, because if I do that I'm just going to go down a giant rabbit hole.
https://barnes4wd.com/products/jeep-tj-and-lj-rear-coil-spring-relocation-kit
Their competitors being Artec Industries, Metal Cloak, Rough Country (theirs is a bolt on option, doesn't seem super strong to me), Genright, so on and so forth. I've been told to just get the Artec Industries version but I'm always looking to find a cheaper but still strong way to do things. Strangely enough I stumbled upon a CAD and DXF file off of Etsy. Yes Etsy. The files costs ~8 bucks. But the problem with that is I don't have a cool CNC plasma cutter.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/127649...ef=sr_gallery-1-1&dd=1&organic_search_click=1

Now the question is before I make a decision on one of these, is there any plus or minus to any of these options? Has anyone done this and liked one better than the other? Or even better has someone designed one that they like and could cut it out for me if I provided some funds? And any tips or tricks that I may want to know?
I will be doing the rear triangulation at the same time so the distribution flanges(?) width wouldn't interfere with the frame side track bar bracket.
i installed the metal cloak rear spring relocation perches:

 

ebryson

Active Member
Location
Bountiful, Utah
20240429_171819.jpg
Some might say I'm half way there (more like 5%ish). Finally got all the brackets! Now for the joints and tubing and the actual work.

I went with the GenRight frame side bracket and Barnes axle side brackets. I also have the fancy ETSY design coil correction brackets. Now with all that being said..... I still don't know how the angles and such work out. Now this is me just spit balling here, but I'm going to assume I want a 30 or 25 degree angle for the uppers to be triangulated. I used my fancy compass on my phone to find out if I want either of those angles and eyeballing it I'm leaning more toward the 30 degree.

Is there any reason to go with one or the other?
Also would it be wise to weld all the new links and brackets in while the old set up is still in (goal is to keep the axle still centered)?
 
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