Bananaclip's Old Trail TJ

[Bananaclip]

I love my jeeps and figured I would start a new 1.9 build.... Went down to the garage to pick out which body I wanted to go off of.




I want to build a worn trail rig so I figured I'd go with a TJ. I'm going with the silver one to knock one step out of the weathering process.


Off with the ugly fenders.



The Nikko tj has a nice size and I love the removable grill but the front and rear fenders are out of proportion. The floor board is also very high and I am thinking about removing the doors and tailgate so it's going to have to be removed as well.





I normally like to build my own frames but one of our vendors recently came out with a very cool design and I'm going to give it a go. Should be here soon so for now I will start with some body work and a cage.

[Bananaclip]

I just received my MTHead rings for my wheels and was so excited about the new look I had to post them up. I had him recess the holes so I'm going to chuck up a slightly smaller drill bit in my press and drill short holes for my faux scale hardware.



I had John engrave GH in the rings for GearHead. Love the rings brother.....Thank you!!!

[old man 52]

I'm jeep jealous , LOL ,I'm sure it's going to be another great build.

[bayareaaxial]

Nice

[Grizzly4x4]

Looking forward to seeing where this goes. Those rings look mean.

[Bananaclip]

Originally Posted by old man 52

I'm jeep jealous , LOL ,I'm sure it's going to be another great build.

Thanks brother, I hope I don't disappoint.

Originally Posted by bayareaaxial

Nice

They are very nice! John makes killer rings.

Originally Posted by Grizzly4x4

Looking forward to seeing where this goes. Those rings look mean.

Glad you tuned in Big Grizz! I am pretty motivated on this build. Waiting for some parts to show up brother

I'm in to deep to turn back now guy's. I have some rough templates made for the exterior body corrections and am planning out the new interior. I picked up some Dork Star Pro seats from Ryan that will defiantly be going in this build. Nicest seats I have held and damn they are light!


Starting templates


This is the wheel base I'm shooting for (little over 11 3/4) but the ride height will go up a bit.

[Bananaclip]

Still waiting on a part from blue monkey before I can get my new chassis put together. I did get my axles together.......


Man the new locked up 3mm scale hardware is awesome!!!!






Just picked up some more seats from the king dorkstar and some foams for my optional rim and tire package!



My smooth skid and frame rails came in from TSS.... Nice set up but I need to modify the rails to work with the Nikko body.



Should have some real progress posted in a few days...

[Bananaclip]

Forgot to post up a few more parts

Complete axles and my wheel/ tire options. Just put my CI's single stage, pitbull's, mayhem trailready's, MTHead's custom TR engraved rings topped off with locked up scale hardware and lug nuts.



Lovin the Rc bros burley tubes and steering arms!

[Bananaclip]

Making some progress today.....I have today and tomorrow off so I hope to have a rolling chassis at least. So far today I removed a combined 1 3/4 inches from the front and back of the chassis. I could have just cut off the rear of the chassis but the skid/ center would have a little to much rear biased. So I ended up doing it the long way (correct way).

Chassis before modification in comparison to body


Chassis after material was removed


And smoothed in preparation for the final step

[TheRockRanger]

Looks really good! What type of frame/cage are you getting?

[halfcab]

Originally Posted by TheRockRanger

Looks really good! What type of frame/cage are you getting?

The kind he will build himself

Whoever gave you the idea to shorten the chassis like that must be pretty smart

This thing seem to be comming along nicely, keep it up and keep it for yourself this time

[Bananaclip]

I added a few frame gusset for extra beef where the cuts were made and knocked out a few trusses.



I love CarterFab's tab assortment. They make building things a lot faster.



I still need to clean up the frame gussets and trusses but they will do until I get assembly completed. I'm going to work on building my links and pan hard set up today

[Solid94]

Always look forward to see what you come up with. Sub'd!