dana 300 install or tube fenders

[gearhead1985B]

well i got some money set aside for my jeep and was wandering what you alls idears are you guys have seen me beat my heep up and bend up all the sheet metal so here are my ideas

1. continue with plans to install the dana 300 i have
     it needs a complete over haul all the specs are way out of wack (i finally throughly looked it over and the gears don't mesh quite right front input seal toast needs rebuilt be for i run it) $200 for parts
     shifters $400 (if i buy them at the junk yard i had an idea to use automatic tranny shift linkage cables from a honda i think i can make those work)
     drive shafts about $750 ( tom woods price i cant make a 7" slip ds for the front)
     new yokes front and rear $120 (so i can run the cv joints and 1410 u-joints)
     new tranny cross member and skid $100 (so i can a flat skid plate design and make my self know how just need matterial)
     1"  body lift $100
     total i guess  to be $1800 (i think this is missing some stuff that i cant think of right now that is why my math don't add up)

2. buy some armor and the heep will look pretty again (but still have an ugly driver)
    i was surfing the internet and found tube fenders rear corners and rockers for about $1600 total
    $50 for spray paint and preping materails i got a fancy looking heep
    the armor comes from t&t coustoms and i like the way it looks
like this
 


sliders
http://www.tntcustoms.com/page.asp?pageid=276

fenders and corners
http://www.tntcustoms.com/page.asp?pageid=109

[BlacXJeep]

why don't you just stick to your normal ways and just weld any piece of steel you find laying around to your jeep. Why buy brand name? J/k man, I would go with the armor for now, but shop around a bit. You should save the transfer case for when you do your bigger axle swap. Or shit why don't you put some money towards setting up an 8.8 with an air locker or something. That 35 with stock shafts is gonna get eaten alive with those new tires, especially with your lead foot Adam.

[calvynandhobbs]

Adam, you have to think about the type of wheelin your're currently doing and what you plan to do in the future. While in Florida I think drivetrain modifications will help your wheeling much more than armor. If you were still up here I would say armor first. I agree with Andy, put a stronger axle in the rear and put some taller gears in it to turn your tires.

[gearhead1985B]

Adam, you have to think about the type of wheelin your're currently doing and what you plan to do in the future. While in Florida I think drivetrain modifications will help your wheeling much more than armor. If you were still up here I would say armor first. I agree with Andy, put a stronger axle in the rear and put some taller gears in it to turn your tires.

i got the 4.10's for the 33's (and a pile of spare shafts for the pos35) and for the stronger axles i am looking for dana 60 front (i already got the rear just need an ox locker and 5.13 gears) and if i grab a chevy 60 its on the passenger side so the dana 300 install gets a lot easier and cheaper so when i put those in the whole set up will change if i had a hp d60 i could put in the 300 and know how it will be set and only install it once but then again if i set it up the way i am planning flipping the d300 returning it to a passenger side drop will be as easy as unbolting it rerouting the cables and flipping it over and re-bolting it back up.  

down here in Florida i am doing nothing but mud runs and need to drive 3hrs away to get to any rocks that i know of  and i don't know where i will be in 6 months so i have been doing a lot of contemplating on how to build my jeep i know i want to be able to handle anything so i am going to set up for 39" tires (over kill for the stuff we ran in ct yes but where will i eventually settle down is unknown and chicks dig bigger tires and it will make swagger jealous) but i have been doing a lot of reading and i can shave a d60 so it has the clearance of a d44 so i will be good for clearance and i want to be ale to wheel with out breaking anything


and for the suspension i will be saying good buy to leaf springs and going with triangulated 4 links front and rear and a stretched wheel base of about 110" that will put the wheels out past the bumpers  and have a belly height of about 27" so that means about 1.5-2" more of suspension lift and the rest is tires

or i can get a couple of 44's shave them and run 37's for a lower rig and a lower cog and not as much on the stretch

in order to achieve my ultimate goal of a bada$$ yj i need to start totally over acquire a lot of parts and not mess with my drive train until i am ready to take it totally apart rebuild it like the bionic man stronger and faster

so in conclusion i sort of convinced my self to do the armor which will save some tread on the 33's (the front fenders are eating up the tires) and make my jeep look better. so now i am begin the axle acquiring and building process and while i am at it get a better tranny the ax-15 is junk cause i ate another one i hope i find one tomorrow in the jy

i will get some pics as soon as i get them painted and installed

[calvynandhobbs]

Sounds like you have a plan. I didn't realize you were chewing up your 33s on your fenders. Definately get that taken care of before you ruin a good set of tires.

[gearhead1985B]

well i was thinking to day of how much flare to get on the tube fenders my tires stick out over 7" from the body and if i only put a 3" flare on will that still cause damage to the tires when i shove a tire into them

and also today i went to the local u pull it and found a couple of dodge intrepid automatic shift linkage cables (that was already out of the car and i did no work to get them and they only cost me $10) for the start of my cable shifters they are about 5' long so i got plenty of room to route the cables under the t-case and back around to the mount them next to the tranny shifter and so now i need to figure ous a way to make the high/low range selectors move


but i am not going to touch the d300  until the armor is on

[calvynandhobbs]

well i was thinking to day of how much flare to get on the tube fenders my tires stick out over 7" from the body and if i only put a 3" flare on will that still cause damage to the tires when i shove a tire into them

The key here is called bump stops. They will work wonders for keeping tires out of the flares. You can also drill the holes a little lower on your front fenders and trim the hood if you want to high line the front a little bit to make more space. I ran across a home done high line job a couple weeks ago that looked really good. I think it was on Jeepforum.

[BlacXJeep]

there is a guy on SIS running high lined fenders on his TJ. He did a really nice job