"Jeep Zerstörer" build

[hasenpfeffer]

had this in my intro but figured I'd move it to a new thread since it's not an intro as much as a build up thread

[hasenpfeffer]

when I bought her: (73 stock 181 w/bad floors,rockers,top, and front clip)


I just rebuilt the front suspension and redid all the fuel lines and then bought a house... with all the work on that, the 181 has been on the back burner, but once the spring starts I'm going to pull the body off and do the floors, front disc brakes, suicide doors, rocker replacement, custom front and back clips, and custom fenders

essentially trying to make an aggressive medium between the type 181 and type 82

alot of work ahead of me but hopefully I can knock it out by the summer so I can get back to driving it

[hasenpfeffer]

uploaded some pics to the gallery showing where I am on the build as of now

Once I move into my new house I'm gonna take off the body and put in new floors and rocker panels. I took apart the fuel system to replace all the hoses and move filters and came upon this:


replaced the steering damper and realized my right tie rod is bent - 181 specific. The driver's side was ok but I went ahead and bought NOS replacements that I'll be putting in once the body's off the car

also going to wire cup the whole front end and rust bullet the pan and suspension

[hasenpfeffer]

this is a basic overview of what I want to do with the front clip:




The line across the fenders and the clip is my cut line, to which I'm going to mount a skid plate (below the line) and headlights (fenders)

The skid plate is going to be constructed of thing door culls and unlike the original typ 82 I think I'm going to keep my fenders angled instead of round... I think it'll mesh better with the rest of the car and be an overall more aggressive look

I removed the bumper and am not really sure what I'm gonna do with it yet

[hasenpfeffer]

my dietz type headlights came in today from the hot rod company... they're ok, a little scratched and one has 2 dents in it (see below)... it'll be the last time I order from the hot rod company though, took 2 weeks to deliver, never responded to emails, and dented headlights? I'll pass the next time

still debating whether or not to put them in the existing holes from the turns signals or drill new ones and keep the turn signal hole for new turn signals... I'm leaning toward the latter

[hasenpfeffer]

by the way, this is the removed front bumper, I don't have a use for it so if anyone's interested let me know - it's a bit heavy for the thin sheet metal stock bumpers mount to

[hasenpfeffer]

Also started removing some of the primer from the tri-mil I bought... as per the suggestions of the forum members, I'm going to re-prime it with bbq grill paint and then paint over it with eastwood high temp paint

for those unfamiliar with the type 181, those two (still painted black) pipes behind the exhaust are actually the exhaust tips which exit through two drilled holes in the stock bumper... will give me back the ground clearance lost when the PO mounted the shitty pea shooters as well as the performance/sound of a tri-mil

also seen in the pic is the mailbox my fiance got me for the house I bought (as of now unliveable - I gutted it and am remodeling it)... looks just like my buddy's 57 ford 300

[hasenpfeffer]

spent the past few days grinding off bondo - the PO covered the entire body with about .5" of bondo as a sealant? I dunno, some of the metal was really nice under the bondo, other parts were covering some holes and dents... Have been welding up the holes and cleaning up the body to get it ready for cutting

will have to post some pics when I get the chance today

[hasenpfeffer]

look at all that bondo, some areas of the car it's maybe 1/16" thick, others it's close to an inch, as seen below:


I've found most of the rot and holes that were under that bondo and like I said before alot of it is covering up good metal - probably just as a sealant/body protector?

still debating whether or not just to leave it on and go over it or strip the whole body

[hasenpfeffer]

here's some of the major holes I just finished welding closed ... the blue lines indicate the original size of the holes (wish I took before pictures instead of just jumping in with the welder, but I wanna get this fucker done!)

there's still a major hole, about 5" wide by 2.5" tall that I'm going to cut out completely and replace with sheet metal, but I'm saving that for when I get new sheet metal and another argon/co2 tank as I hate fluxcore

[hasenpfeffer]

going along with the cut marks I posted before for the front of the car (cutting fenders and front clip to add a skid plate and mounted headlights) I drew up some preliminary cut marks for the side of the car




again this pic shows the cut marks for the front fenders, as well as a section of the rear bumper... Those rockers panels were a really shitty repair job by the PO (they should be double ribbed and NOT filled with foam) so they gotta go, and the door pillar is going to be cut and moved...

I figure that that door pillar can be cut and mounted to the opposite side of the car to the front clip to accomodate for suicide doors... really it should just be a matter of moving the right front door pillar and door to the left and vice versa

I'd have to fabricate another door pillar with double hinges but that shouldn't be too hard

here's a very, very rough photoshop of the suicide door plans and the front clip being cut

[hasenpfeffer]

the more I look at that photoshop the more I think I'm gonna square off the front doors instead of reusing that door pillar... looks like I'll have to pick up another set of doors so I'll have material to weld

[hasenpfeffer]

I'm just about at the point of cutting up the front clip of the car... was going to swap the hood for something flatter and use the ribbed sheet metal to fabricate a ribbed steel skid plate, but now I'm thinking I'll leave the hood as is and use my buddy's brake to put ribs in flat sheet metal

the reasoning behind leaving the ribs in is because I was thinking of fabricating a spare tire mount on the hood using an old drum I had laying around and the extra support would be helpful... will post pics after that process is finished

[hasenpfeffer]

I picked up some steel sheets today, a 24"x48" that I'll turn into the skid plate, and a 24"x24" for maybe the rear skid plate and some patching up on the body...

I was under the impression that the skid plate on the old kübels was welded onto the front clip but it turns out (from what I can tell on a few bad internet pics) that it's bolted to the front clip and then again on the pan...

this is good news as I was a little concerned about body yaw and hitting bumps bending the plate if it was welded without any room to play

going to take the large sheet to my buddy's shop to use the brake and put some ribs in it within the next week or two, gotta figure out the angles in the meantime

[hasenpfeffer]

my buddy just left for San Diego so it looks like it'll be at least another week before I can put ribs in the sheet metal I bought... in the meantime I'm going to start cutting up the fenders and the front end this week and take some measurements/get some angles to figure out exactly how I'll mount the skid plate

here's a preliminary layout, planning on adding a lip to the top of the plate to bolt right onto the shortened front clip with some play to avoid bending and then bolt the end of the plate to the pan... it's crappy, but that's how it'll be more or less


Today I also replaced this (though mine was a 100en):


with this:


I didn't think it'd make that big of a difference except welding thicker material, but the difference is night and day, a much much better welder

[hasenpfeffer]

I wanted to sleep most of today because I have to go in for my first of 7 night shifts tonite (11pm-7am)... Being that I couldn't and woke up at 9 I decided I'd tire myself out with the car and hopefully get to nap later, here's the progress:

drawing up the cut lines more accurately and re-measuring


I started cutting using the cut-off wheel on my angle grinder and once I had some long, solid cuts I switched over to the sawz-all... despite the amount of work that will be going into this front clip I just dove in



just about done with the cuts for the front end

[hasenpfeffer]

I finished up all the cutting today and am pretty pleased with the look of the 181... event though it's not even done I think the front end already looks alot better and more aggressive

here's a front view of the clip, I left the headlight buckets hanging in there for the time being just to protect the wiring while I was cutting and for when I start welding... the semi-circles from where the headlights were will be welded up and the dietz headlights I got will be mounted where the turn signals are (still gotta pick up small turn signals but that can wait awhile)...




I also figured I'd take a quick pic of the sheet metal for the skid plate... my buddy won't be back from san diego for another week or so so the steel isn't bent or ribbed yet, but I still wanted to get a preliminary fitting just to get an idea of the overall look... yes it's a shitty pic but I more often than not work alone



lastly, here's the pile of scraps from today and no that's NOT my case of beer to the left, my brother is the only one that can tolerate that crap... I figure I'll probably clean up and re-use alot of this metal to weld new panels into the front clip but we'll see, after I checked the skid plate I realized that my 24"x48" sheet is gonna be more than I'll need, especially since I bought another 24'"x24" sheet

[hasenpfeffer]

today I cut some more of that front clip piece (where the body bolts to the pan/the fuel tank rests)... it was just hanging down too much and even though I was a little worried about losing support by cutting it, I went ahead and cut it to just below the body mounts and it still seems strong

also tack welded the space left in the fenders from the old headlights



a front view showing what's left of that piece and more or less how the fenders will wind up looking... gotta grind a little on the passenger one as I seemed to have cut it at a bit of an angle




sometime this week I'll have to remove the turn signals and get it ready to mount the dietz headlights... I guess that means I'll also have to start shopping for some new turn signals as these ones are way too big to re-use

[hasenpfeffer]

After tacking up the fenders I figured I'd see if I could tack up a new piece for the bottom of the hood... after spending the better part of 40 mins cutting up a piece of sheet metal I realized next time I'll have to borrow power shears and ditch the aviation ones... wound up using the sawz all for some of it after my hands started killing me

also, one I fit the cut piece it became pretty apparent that my cuts were not exactly level, but the piece fit relatively well so I tacked it on



I still gotta cut another piece to fill in the space right next to the fuel tank (and then some more pieces for to fill in the panels I cut out by the beam) but I'm satisfied with the little work I got done and very happy with the look of the car so far

[hasenpfeffer]

not much new on the project as I've been on night shifts and working on the house in my spare time... My buddy just got back from San Diego, so hopefully in between working on the house I can stop over and put ribs in the skid plate and then finish up the front end of the car...

I was also thinking about a blackout headlight... I wanted to pick up a Notek blackout light for the hood but since ww2 collectors and car collectors are after them the price has been a little steep... that being said, I'm now thinking about fabricating my own

It could be because I've been working for 11 hours now and am ready to finish up my shift, but I'm contemplating finding an old, metal bicycle/motorcycle seat and welding in some steel to the edges of it to cover the light and then fabbing a way to hold a bulb and mount to the hood... In my head I have the design, but since I don't have any seats laying around it's just an optimistic hope that I'll find something close that I'll be able to work with

[hasenpfeffer]

All this nice weather and my 181 being in pieces has really been getting to me... The house has pretty much taken over my life and the car's been in the backburner. Since I still gotta move the car from my parents' house to my new house I can't really start the floors or the rockers and my buddy still hasn't ribbed the skid plate yet, but I did make some small progress today...

a view of the front end with the skid plate being held on by the slat of wood

I welded up the front end a little more to give it to cover a few spots in the hood I missed and then ground down everything nice and smooth... then I removed the turn signals and put the headlights in place... I also cut the sheet metal for the skid plate and fit it just to get an overview on how the front end will look (well without the ribs in the plate)

sure it's just a little progress, but I am moving forward



I also placed the spare on the hood to see how it will look... I'm going to fabricate a tire holder using an old rear drum I have laying around

a side view


I also figured I'd take a driveway pic since my brother has a jeep... I still think it's interesting to compare the two


can't wait till this fucker is done... esp. with all the nice weather and the summer coming up

[hasenpfeffer]

Finally found tires that will work on my 14" smoothies... wanted to go for the wwII style military ones, but couldn't find 15" wide 5 smoothies...

just put in an order with UVT Mike for these, he said they're going into production again so hopefully they'll be ready by Mike Meet...




and on another guy's 181:

[hasenpfeffer]

been restoring a 1950's sink at my house (among all the rest of the work I've been doing there) and only had a little bit of time to work on the car for the past week or so...

figured I'd pretty much finish off the front end and get it ready for primer/filler. I welded in sheet metal to fill the holes for the turn signals and move the headlights back about 3"



figure I'll buy new turn signals like these and mount those in front and to the outside of the headlights...



only 9.95 at cip, can't beat that, though I thought they used to have red ones available - I guess they got discontinued :-/

Also cut some small pieces of sheet metal to fill in the gaps in the bottom of the hood area and ground everything down nice and smooth



Still waiting on the skid plate, but once that's out of the way I'll probably have to wait till I get the car to my garage to do the floor pan and rocker replacements

[hasenpfeffer]

not much to post as of late, I'm really rushing to get the house in move in condition before september when I'm getting married...

I finally cleared the garage and put in a garage door opener so this week I'll be putting the car back to drivable condition and driving it from my parent's garage to it's new home...

once the house is out of the way progress should increase exponentially :)

[hasenpfeffer]

today I'll be moving the 181 to it's new home (or at least trying to)... last time the car was running the carb was leaking so we'll have to see how the drive over goes today, I'll have my fire extinguisher next to me the whole ride

Also picked up this on ebay last night:



I figure I'll have to open up my speedometer, put in the plate, put the speedometer back in place upside down to accomodate the reverse movement of the needle, and then relocate the fuel gauge