The old girl is wore out--time for a change.

[crash]

So I got both panels finish cut from the A-piller to the tail. The wrap around at the tail was a little tricky and not 100% flush like I was hoping but its very close--and I think it looks good...

[crash]

Now onto the front. I had no game plan going into this and was just going to wing it. From the get go I knew the transition from the body to the hood was not going to be spot on due to the angle of the hood and such...

[DukeMinnix]

The craftsmanship is outstanding. I have seen your builds on PBB, I am a longtime member there as well (Dook). Have a Toyota truggy build in that yota section somewhere along the way. This is impressive. I wish I had the skills and patience for such an undertaking, but I am such an immediate gratification person I doubt I could ever tackle such a build.

[crash]

Originally Posted by DukeMinnix

The craftsmanship is outstanding. I have seen your builds on PBB, I am a longtime member there as well (Dook). Have a Toyota truggy build in that yota section somewhere along the way. This is impressive. I wish I had the skills and patience for such an undertaking, but I am such an immediate gratification person I doubt I could ever tackle such a build.

I have noticed quite a few PBB crossovers here. I looked you up pirate and boy its been a long time since you posted over there

Believe me I have been trying like heck to finish this thing up without cutting any corners--its a hard push but I have managed to keep myself motivated and pushing onward...

[crash]

As you can see its not perfect. Hindsight is certainly 20/20 and I would have made it 1" narrower at the A-pillar. Despite that I think I got it pretty decent considering all the angles I had to look at when it was built. It will take a little work but I think I can make it workable,,,

[crash]

So started by angling the panel inward to match the hood and cut the panel. Added one tab at the bottom and a long plate behind where the panel/hood overlap to suck the hood to the panel. I plan on using some Dzus fasteners and made the plate behind wide enough. It certainly looks much better and I think once the hood/body panels are the same color it won't stand out quite as much.

[crash]

So to the back of the rig and time to get the panels cut out for shock/tires..

Started with a good rough cut which actually was pretty close...

[crash]

And the final cut....

[crash]

And the body panels are now done.....

So now its time to clean up and organize a bunch of stuff and time to start tearing it apart and finishing up a bunch of small things....

[DukeMinnix]

Originally Posted by crash

I have noticed quite a few PBB crossovers here. I looked you up pirate and boy its been a long time since you posted over there

Believe me I have been trying like heck to finish this thing up without cutting any corners--its a hard push but I have managed to keep myself motivated and pushing onward...

had to think hard to remember my password on that one My JK isn't hardcore enough to be over there, so I steer clear as of late. With the popularity of rockcrawling classifieds on facebook, I find the need for pirate dwindling, and ever since it was sold a year or two ago, its not worth a shit. I never got hoodies I ordered, gave up on that.

[crash]

So I got what I needed done to start the tear down and finish the needed stuff before paint. Got everything pulled off except the 2 big items.

[crash]

Things were certainly tighter coming out then when I put them in but everything cleared nicely so I was pretty happy about that. One thing I really tried to pay attention to was the serviceability factor.

[crash]

There it is all bare....

[crash]

So I had one portion of the pcm mount made but I could not make the other portion until I knew how much room was needed to pull the motor out. I took some measurements and while the motor was coming out I was able to determine how the other portion could be made. So I got that all done...

[crash]

So another thing that needed to be finished was the motor skid and I had an idea how I was going to do the rear mount. Since the front unbolts the rear I made was a simple slide in. Will it work once it gets whacked a few good times? I dunno but I thought it was a cool idea to try. Its also under a bit of pressure to keep it from rattling granted I think the body panels will make a bit more racket than the skid ever can.

[crash]

So that only left one thing to be done. Finish welding up a few spots on the belly and do the rub bars on the bottom and side of the chassis. 6 times back and forth and got it all finished up.

[crash]

Was a good way to spend 5 hours knocking off dingle berries and any surface rust that had formed. But it was now fully prepped and ready!

[crash]

Got it all primed up and then painted.

Painting this type of thing was probably the hardest thing I have ever painted and if I was to do this every day--I would go mad!!!!

[crash]

Next onto the diffs. I got the rear all cleaned up and painted....

[crash]

I also got about 90% of all the misc stuff painted and hung from the rafters....