Scratchbuilding a mini-me JKU

jeffro

New member
I may as well build a little one from leftover and robbed parts from my other little trucks and stuff. I was starting this in another old thread, but it kinda got lost.

My cash flow has changed direction, to a real Jeep but its still not enough yet, so I will tinker around with a little one and hope you guys enjoy something the same, but different. If not, oh well :) It keeps me busy.

This is what I want to copy, sort of... My Jeep

18114382956_f619692d52_c.jpg


1st, the body, I used to have friends keep there eyes open for these bodies. I ended up with 4. They usually show up around Christmas in some of the department stores.

17521759623_cab9000438_c.jpg


17954459918_c6d73ac250_c.jpg


17954664440_d7cdf2003f_c.jpg




I have already chopped the hell out of it, I did the cut fender mod :)

18120389180_14d3b66aa8_c.jpg


18121965749_d561a0d7b9_c.jpg



Cut the solid part of the roof out, not sure why just yet, that we will figure out later.

18281697956_b34aff9ba1_c.jpg



I also chopped off the stock mopar lookin running boards

18304289792_1ee8fc7aa3_c.jpg




I have to find the other pictures... :thinking: be back with more..
 

jeffro

New member
I am interested in seeing how this turns out. :beer:

Great, come on along :)


I'll get back to the body later. It needs axles, suspension and a chassis.


front axle


18143520921_ed8ca66662_c.jpg


17956167829_2047213448_c.jpg



rear axle


17954559168_cbc94d4a1a_c.jpg



laying it out

18142480635_ab596c201d_c.jpg



linked it up, and dug up some shocks with helper coils and home made shock towers

17914367300_aefee7c062_c.jpg


18103088351_9b647c25ab_c.jpg



robbed a transfer case from another clunker

17914218948_0ae4b509ea_c.jpg


18075655546_aacb1ae494_c.jpg


17479584414_7a7440a2c4_c.jpg


17479608734_e9f48f3aa5_c.jpg



That's it for now.
 

jeffro

New member
Thank you gentlemen ! :)

As I said, its something to do, its a small town, and about all there is too do is go to a bar, but I had my fun years ago, now its time for the younger guys.

The body had the fender flares like the old bushwhacker's, except its a fake bolt hole. They needed ground down and smoothed out.

18748016005_1c3a748485_c.jpg


18125368734_1019165636_c.jpg


18750420431_d2842175f0_c.jpg



On these types of bodies, I use small pieces of styrene plastic, left over from larger sheets of styrene (that's another story) to strengthen areas of the body or whatever I need to do, in this case, make the fenders look a little more modern.

This piece is a hair less then 1\8 th in. thick and about 6 inches long, maybe 3\4 th's wide

18127295893_274680399a_z.jpg


18127253243_339f712cce_c.jpg


Then I use PVC pipe cleaner fluid as a plastic cement type welding, melting agent and some kind of clamp that works in the area.

18721618176_658207432c_c.jpg


18743059122_16a4e75a18_c.jpg


Then I use auto body bondo, and it seems to bond nicely to styrene and other plastics.

18560138608_8815a42fe5_c.jpg


18743040252_7b9af6ee1b_c.jpg


18560265968_d3e5834254_c.jpg




That just about catches up to where I am right now, just staring at the damn thing wishing it would put itself together. :)


.
 
Last edited:

jeffro

New member
I couldn't sleep, so I was in the garage about 4 AM, so I did some sanding and a little primer so I can find the bad spots, mold lines, wavy bondo, etc... It needs more sanding.. :)

Plus a pic or 2 of the interior, and I'm trying to decide if I want to chop up the interior and cut the doors out, or leave them in, and don't really mess with it...

022.jpg

029.jpg

030.jpg

Even though my money is being saved for my 1:1 Jeep, I still have to buy dogfood for these 3 nuts, so its off to go shopping,,,Oh joy :crazyeyes:

Pups.jpg
 
Last edited:

jeffro

New member
I spent a few hours on the interior.

I took a Dremel and a few different cutting bits to it.

18194285214_eb9cce6789_c.jpg


18194271994_6a687fec2b_c.jpg


18811793502_3f688c8af8_c.jpg




Then it was time to build it back. Had to build a false floor, to hide the transfer case, not sure how else to explain it.


18811778412_5f256a5602_c.jpg


18629045038_ef4981c0d7_c.jpg



Installed the electric motor (may change it) and transmission and connected a driveshaft to the t-case.

Also attached a steering servo.

I've got left over electronic speed control and radio system on the shelf


18811750712_e2c2769422_c.jpg


18790510726_4e28fbaee1_c.jpg


18816782995_f4e90e333f_c.jpg


18630603719_842c67f2a2_c.jpg



I'm trying some different shoes for it..little too tall, but for now, they work.

18819380191_c1c26d16be_c.jpg



A mock up to look at

18194128914_125e13c1c6_c.jpg


18629004200_87acce419c_c.jpg



Is it looking ok ? I also chopped the bumpers off.. :)



.
 

jeffro

New member
Nope. Looks terrible. Start over. J/K of course! Looks good...keep going!

Thank you ! I know you were, I need a jab to keep me awake.

I will say one thing, now that I have been here reading and looking at other people's real rock crawler jeeps, I'm learning a little better what a real "rock crawler" looks like, so I can make it look. hopefully close to the real thing, plus it will crawl and there will be a video, if my legs can deal with bounding on the loose rocky terrain I have available for my mini's. I have close to 30 different ones. :)
 

07JKSahara

New member
Looks awesome, I kinda like the flat gray primer. I've always liked flat painted cars but they got a bad rap so I've always steered clear.
 

jeffro

New member
Looks awesome, I kinda like the flat gray primer. I've always liked flat painted cars but they got a bad rap so I've always steered clear.


Thank you. I know what you mean, I always think about doing one flat black actually, but the closest I got was a satin black, sorta close.

Its Monday night, no building tonight, so a video of that satin black blazer, its no longer mine, it moved to Idaho a year ago.


 

jeffro

New member
@ 07JKSahara,

I was digging around on my Flickr page this morning looking for a picture for something else and I found this, I forgot, I did do one in 2011 that I primered flat black before I painted it Rescue green.

5443207830_0605971ac5_b.jpg


5463097950_debbeda0a6_b.jpg
 

07JKSahara

New member
@ 07JKSahara,

I was digging around on my Flickr page this morning looking for a picture for something else and I found this, I forgot, I did do one in 2011 that I primered flat black before I painted it Rescue green.

5443207830_0605971ac5_b.jpg


5463097950_debbeda0a6_b.jpg

Both colors look cool. There's just something so sinister about flat black to me... But it's been kind of overused now. I still love it on classic muscle cars no matter what.

Keep this thread going, it's cool to see all this.
 
Top Bottom