Recent content by MacManInfi

Yeah, I got bit by this the first time I purchased axles for my JK Rubicon diff. Here is a picture of my stock 2009 driver's side rear axle (top) versus the one that I got when I ordered a new one. The manufacturer had it listed as fitting the 2009 Rubicon, but clearly it wasn't the right thing...

Got it back from Line-X. Had to paint the door jams, underside of the hood, window frames, inside of the door panels, etc. then reassembled. This is where it's at today. Still more to do. I need to buy new weatherstripping, carpet the cabin and build a center console to integrate the Jeep...

I wanted to do something custom for emblems. Since "Sceep" was coined, I decided to make a Sceep logo in the font of the original Scout logo, and place it more where Jeeps have theirs. 3D printed them, primered and painted. I also needed a new hood emblem. These are extremely difficult to find...

The tail light section is nearly impossible to find used. I bought one, but it was so rust that only the top section was salvageable. Time to learn how to form sheetmetal. Here is the rusty piece (you can see the bare metal cut separating the top section) compared to a piece of sheet metal that...

Now that the mechanicals were solid, I turned my attention to the body. I was temporarily patching the paint with some ballpark-ish spray paint from Home Depot. The paint didn't match and I knew at the end of the day I'd be looking at a total respray. The body is ridden with bondo though. The...

Got it all reassembled and had it dyno tuned. I still had a big hole in the dash that was cut out to make room for the Jeep gauges. Needed to incorporate them into the Scout dash better and decided to make a fiberglass gauge hood. First I bridged the gap with masking tape. Sort of used it to...

Drove the Scout for a few months like that and I really hated the ugly plastic intake ontop of the motor. Wanted something that looked cooler so when I pop the hood people aren't like "..." So I ordered a Magnuson supercharger even though I didn't feel like I needed more power.

Had to notch the firewall to clear the exhaust manifolds. Later I found you can buy LS conversion headers and manifolds that hug the motor and have a more central exhaust dump location which would have eliminated the need to modify the firewall. If I ever do another LS swap, I'll do more digging...

I realized this morning there are lots of odds and ends that aren't pictured. Things like installing the Vintage air heater, fabbing the new Scout engine compartment sheet metal to line up with the wider Jeep chassis, etc. but since I didn't catch pictures of those things, they got skipped...

And that's the Scout that I knew and drove for over a year. Oh! Good story. So I kept the entire Jeep wiring harness and all the boxes and relays and such intact. Sometimes I didn't even know what the boxes were for, but I'd find a good place to mount them (preferably related to where they were...

Was now ready to try to start the Sceep for the first time. Having completed far less complex builds and had significant difficulties in getting them up and running, I didn't expect much. But the gauge cluster lit up with the key on and when I turned the key, it ran the first time!!! It did...

I really wanted the shorty bumpers to match up better with the Scout body so I got some metal plate and extended the ends. Although I stretched the wheelbase, the Jeep frame was still shorter than the Scout body. This proved to be an obstacle when trying to mount a Jeep rear bumper...

The Scout's original windshield wipers were vacuum powered, which turned out to be a terrible design for a number of reasons. If I were going to retain the Jeep functionality, I needed to convert to electric wipers, and given the Scout's super shallow dash, they had to be extremely low profile...

Here's where things get kind of fun and interesting. I wanted to retain the entire Jeep wiring harness all the way to the light bulbs. So I designed tail light buckets that accepted the Scout lenses and Jeep twist in light fixtures.

Modify Scout transmission tunnel to make room for the Jeep shifters. Fabricate mounts for the Jeep gauge cluster. Bought and installed a Jeep shorty front bumper. My buddy Sean in the picture helped that weekend. Also converted the Scout hood over to gas struts, removing the hood prop rod...