Doc's garage...

[Doc in AZ]

... better known as Stone Soup.

[Doc in AZ]

i don't get much time to work on my own rig, and havn't had a project for quite some time because my free time is so limited. but i was going crazy and something fell in my lap.

what happens when you cross this....



with this?

[Doc in AZ]

you get this....

a 1953 jeep CJ3B on a little bit of a samurai chassis with a sammi drive train.

this was what i drew in the beginning as a plan... i've had to make some changes but overall still following the same path.

[Doc in AZ]

i had a plan in my head that i could build this for under $1000. little did i know i would build it for free and have money in my pocket.

i found the CJ3B on another forum i'm on. i tried to haggle with the guy on the price but he wouldn't budge. i ended up paying his full asking price of $1.98 but got him to deliver it for free. when he got there i reached into my change jar and counted out exact change =)

i got the sammi for $800 and quickly started parting it out
hood & grill $100
transfer case $100
fibreglass top $200
tires $400 plus another set to roll on
tires $100 (the ones i took in trade)
exhaust system with new cat $100
tub & doors $100

the tires it has on it now cost $85 from a used tire shop, everything else is what i had in the shop

divorcing the tub and chassis... showing off that 1.3L powerhouse... back in 87 when it rolled off the assembly line it produced a whopping 60BHP







test fitting the cj tub... yup, this ain't gonna work



so the surgery begins...

[Doc in AZ]

it's not low enough till you can scoot a beer can down the road!

big Z notch in the frame







i got the body back on it and started hacking away at the sheet metal... well, what's left of the rusty sheet metal... and LOTS of bondo..

the axle tucks up real nicely now

[Doc in AZ]

here it is on the ground with the rear end mostly mocked up, i still need to triangulate the suspension and mount the air bag.





then on to the front... i was going to cut out the center section of the sammi front axle and put a straight tube and just re use the front knuckles, but as i was mocking it up (yes i know the axle is backwards in the pix) i kinda liked the 3rd member there to give it that pseudo 4x4 look. my original plan was for a mono-leaf up front like in the pictures i put together in .cad - but i didn't like the reality of it. so i did a quarter eliptical suspension with control arms. the control arms are half of front upper control arms from a jeep JK sleeved with DOM and a heim joint at the other end, it works better than i expected.









wingnut & dipstick helping out as usual

[Doc in AZ]

i got the front axle under it and put a coil spring in the rear just to keep the body from rubbing the tires... so it's higher here in the pix than it will be going down the road.

[Doc in AZ]

then i had to address the steering. it originally had the steering box over the front axle and the pitman arm moved side to side... hmmmmm... that's not going to work. so i moved the steering box back about 12" and turned the pitman arm 90* and used an old TJ pitman arm up on the front knuckle.







it works really well & clears all the suspension.

to address the gaping hole in the front axle i hit up the guys at the shop that does all my waterjet cutting... i said "hey buddy" and told them about my "no budget" build and they happily cut me a cover for it.

[Doc in AZ]

now i'm working on sectioning the body. i really didn't want to do it, but i couldn't find any rims with more backspacing and no one in the phoenix area will "re-hoop" a rim for the backspacing i need.



i really wanted to use the original tailgate but there is no way to widen it. i might just sell this one and put one together from scratch.

[LWM]

Very cool project, you are only limited by your imagination.