280GE Build

[stjjames]

Thought I would start a thread here as well.
This is my buddies rig, but he isn't the forum hound I am
It'll be a recreational wheeling / camping / hunting / DD rig - I myself fancy for camping as long as I can & often for a week plus, as far away from other folk & less capable rigs as possible.
He picked this rig up to replace his 69' S2A.
He desired a sealed cab (the LR leaked), with more interior room, for folk & gear.

Couple of Pics of the S2A ( the TJ is mine) ;









He picked up this 1985 280GE out of Texas. Inline six, four speed auto, VG80 transfer case, 4.88 gears, etc, for $5K - with a blown transfercase. He quickly squared the T/C away & had it road worthy. Slapping a fresh set of 32" Kevlars on it & proceeded to take it out on the trail, which was short lived. It hardly made it 200 meters before a rock punctured the gas tank & he was headed home in shame
He wanted to get in squared away, similarly to the S2A - so he could at least get it on the trail.

Best Before shot I have handy . . .

[stjjames]

We dropped it off at Those guys rods & Customs up in Bremerton. He has done a slew of work to my rig & decided, since he was particularly well versed in XJ's - he would be the right guy to fab some junk for the G. Aside from the frame, The G isn't a - huge - departure from an XJ. The goal was to get it trail worthy & armored up from the beltline down - without compromising the overall look of the G. From 50 feet we're hoping it all looks rather stock . . . ish.

First thing was to address the particularly low & vulnerable rockers. XJ style rocker replacements were chosen - though it was found there was considerably more reinforcing material in the G than an XJ - I guess that justifies some of the weight
Full cut away & weld in replacement, with a small kicker - to try & keep the tree's at bay



Underside;



Flat Belly skids, an oil pan skid is in the works soon enough - potentially just a armored stock unit, with plate welded to the circumference.



The stock radiator was shot, so a (much cheaper than an OEM replacement ) Griffin aluminum unit was chosen as a replacement. custom mounts had to be made both on top & bottom.
Topside mounts, easy-peasy.



The lower mounts are tied in to the front crossmember, shoring up the whole front end.

[stjjames]

Gas Tank was definitely in need of some up-armouring after its ill fated first venture You can see it's tied into the rear bumper.



And speaking of the rear bumper.
In process;




And with the low-rider rear tire carrier - still looking for a matching wheel if anyone has one for sale

[stjjames]

Moving around to the front - we knew the front fenders wouldn't survive in stock form & were prohibitively expensive to replace - so Vince (the owner) opted for Defender ' trophy" style fenders.

In process;




Inside;
Looking Forward;



And Aft;



Antenna mount;



And done, minus headlights.




Strong!



Onto the front bumper.
He wanted a winch mount, up kicks to keep the rough off the grill & to be stout enough to slay wayward deer.

Top side shot, along with a better shot of the radiator supports;



Under side;

[stjjames]

And, his freestanding light bar. This may end up being tied into a roof rack / rub bar arraignment . . .



Mount & fender transition.



That wraps up Pat's work on it. The first day we got it back, we tossed the winch from my Tj onto it - I'm going to M8000's front & rear.

Oil cooler relocated (Pat actually did this)



We had to trim away both grill & supports abit - but with all of the reinforcement, these became mostly trivial.



And after relocating the 3 pointed star - so mean looking !!!

[stjjames]

Then we decided to flex it out abit - it's gonna need some help in that department, haha! ;

[stjjames]

Aaaand, with heads & turns - still waiting on the trim rings from RoversNorth.
He's gonna put the front flare, front mud flap thingy back on - to further it's stock appearance.




Though, in those pics you may have spied his dented rocker kicker . . .
Their going to have to be redesigned abit, using 3 tube supports, instead of 2 plate units. When we were flexing it out, he started to slip forward & gave it some gas, it tagged the tree with the full weight of the rig on two wheels
A proper first day home & way to christen a rig that will see a healthy amount of trail time.
I circled where his rocker hit the tree, haha.




That pretty much brings us up to date.
A roof rack, sand ladders, communication equipment ( CB, VHF & Ham radios ) are in the immediate future. Well until we hybrid cage it & toss 404's & 37's under it - I mean, for the cost of gears for this thing, we may as well buy a D300 & 404 axles - cheaper in the longrun, or so I'm trying to convince him

[mk216v]

Very cool to see a different take on a G. Keep the updates coming!

[stjjames]

Very cool to see a different take on a G. Keep the updates coming!

Thanks - definitely more to come !
The owner is in Portland as well - we'll be making trips out to TSF & HooDoo soon enough.

[Green96D1]

that is pretty awesome