The Build of Wanda

[Dave]

What a story!

[fiend]

So you didn’t pay for the wheels but got them anyway? Shows their true value.  

[Savage90]

1 hour ago, Dave said:

What a story!

Thanks for reading!

[Savage90]

52 minutes ago, fiend said:

So you didn’t pay for the wheels but got them anyway? Shows their true value.  

Luckily I didnt Get it with that wheel and tire combo. I picked it up with stock 18” JK wheels and 35” tires

 

which added to how ridiculous it looked since he “built” it for the bigger wheels. It seriously seemed like it was on a 9” lift. 

[Weebz]

I’m not sure whether I want to laugh or cry at how absurd this seems when you step back and listen to it all.  I give you all the credit for tenacity man.  Keep it going.  

[riskitforthebiskit]

Mike has put in so many hours in his garage on a few jeeps to get where he is now. Can't wait for Wanda to be done! He deserves it!

[Dave]

I remember seeing Naboo on WAL a few years back.  I didn't know about the other one or their demise.

 

What happend to the axles under Wanda and what did you replace them with?

[Savage90]

7 minutes ago, Dave said:

I remember seeing Naboo on WAL a few years back.  I didn't know about the other one or their demise.

 

What happend to the axles under Wanda and what did you replace them with?

fortunately Naboo lives on. I sold him to a friend after I bought It back from insurance. 
the friend I sold him to help me every once and awhile with welding and such so I get to see him from time to time. He fixed him up pretty quick. But I’m pretty sure the rear axle is slightly bent. 
 

the axles that I bought Wanda with are Ford axles. Front is 99-04 and rear is a sterling 10.5. They are currently sitting on my garage floor waiting for someone to buy them
I replaced them with the take off axles from my white Jeep which are Dynatrac 60 front and 80 rear. 

[Savage90]

26 minutes ago, Weebz said:

I’m not sure whether I want to laugh or cry at how absurd this seems when you step back and listen to it all.  I give you all the credit for tenacity man.  Keep it going.  

Thank you!

and I have don’t both laughing and crying a number of times!

[Savage90]

Continuing on with the journey of wiring. In addition to trying to start from scratch because I had all my own electronics to run there was alot to just rip out! It was poorly installed and unnecessary for me. 
I mean who actually runs train horns?? Yes this had train horns. 
I digress.. I probably Pulled a good 5-8lbs of wiring and hoses out one i

stripped all the electronics. 

[Savage90]

Ok so this far most of it has been WTF is going on but let’s address the biggest one now. Not sure if it was the guy I bought It from or the previous owner. 
but if you have noticed the large metal square on the driver side quarter panel and wondered what is that… let’s talk about it now. 
yes there are air chucks as I mentioned previously. But, not just one chuck… there are 3 chucks as well as 2 pressure gauges annnnd a pressure adjustment.

guess what didn’t work? all of it!! Well maybe the air chucks but never tested it. I do know that nothing but the chucks were connected to airlines

this set up would have been a good thought if it was done well. But… it was not! There was a HUGE hole that was cut out in order to set this up. Very very unnecessary!! Luckily for me I was going to put quarter panels on in the future so this as well as the hole from the tire carrier thing we’re all going to be covered up. (Still hurts my heart knowing what’s behind the armor though)

 

editing because I found Another photo. 
it came with a 2 gallon air tank for the lockers but more importantly the air horns. 
this was mounted where the stock exhaust would be. Also done poorly. Haha 

since I found This photo now would be a good time to talk about sweet sweet differential skid plate it had. More like shovels really. The front also had one. 
these were very easy to remove and was also something I think were the first things I removed. The hard part really was the diff bolts were all too long after so I had to run to the hardware store for new bolts

 

[Savage90]

Ahh shot. Just thought of another thing looking at the front axle picture I just posted. 
Initially when I checked the Jeep out before buying it I thought It was a full PSC hydro set up. 
after bring it home and taking a closer look I would find out that I was very wrong. 
it was all stock and infact just had a PSC ram the steering box was ported but no idea who did it because it was a hack job!

I’ll try and cover that that later. There is more I did before getting to the steering. 

[Savage90]

While working on stripping the wiring I found this switch under the dash. To this day I still don’t know what it’s for and neither does the guy I bought The Jeep from. 

[Savage90]

Excited about this one!!

 

For the first time since owning Wanda it was finally time to do some upgrades rather than take things off. Haha. 
after owning Naboo and knowing what half door life is like; there wasn’t a world I couldnt have half doors again. 

 

They were tough to find but I got Luckily for 2 reasons. 1- the person selling them didn’t know what they were worth so I got a killer deal!! And 2- my good friend Jake lived in the state I found them in (Texas). Thank goodness for him!! He drove 2 hours to one way to meet up with the person and grab them for me!

 

getting them back to CA was a future Mikes problem. Haha

I’ll spare you the details but they hitched a ride in the back of a Jeep that was being shipped back to CA after being build by Exodus Jeep. 
 

[Savage90]

Things I did that I can’t find photos of.
-removed rear bumper

-removed winch 

 

Now it’s time to address the suspension. As I mentioned before; there was a huge lift added for no really reason. I always knew I was going to be going to EVO DTD in the front and the lever in the rear so in the mean time I was Just trying to make Wanda look less embarrassing to drive. 
 

the front was interesting to say the least… Previous owner added 14” ORI struts. And I’m pretty sure he made his own “towers” to get them mounted. Using angle iron

I found some 2.5” coils and spring to replace everything with for only $100 so that’s what I was going to swap in next. 

[Savage90]

The swapping suspension ended up turning into a longer project than I originally planned (not surprising). so all my photos are in the dark:/

 

after removing the front ORIs and putting the Jeep in the ground it was clear I also had to remove the PSC ram. 
it wasn’t needed after all since I only had 35” tires anyway. But I needed To remove it because of where it was mounted. The track bar mount in the frame side was going to crush it once the Jeep was on its own weight. 
 

other than the PSC steering everything went really smooth as far as swapping suspension. 
 

the issues came later. Ones Wanda was on all her own weight I realized I was going to have to redo the drag link and pitman arm. 
because of how tall the Jeep originally was he added a super big drop pitman arm. So now the geometry was totally off with a 2.5” lift.

[Savage90]

regardless of the issues I needed to address with the suspension changes. The look was soooo much better and worth it!

[Savage90]

The parts I have removed started piling up on the side of my house! 
 

a little extra story. 
I removed The Tuffy security center consul to reinstall the stock one. I wanted 1 key to lock everything. Personal preference. Also the Tuffy one was only mounted with 1 bolt. 3 other sides were lose so it was just bouncing around.

I removed The back half of the exhaust because of how low it hung down and looked terrible. 
 

I replaced the driver front fender because the cowl had a huge hole cut into it for the roof rack lights to all be ran. I’m talking like a 1.5” hole I’ll add a photo. I tried To temporary cover it up with a sticker before I replaced the fender. 

 

also removed the body mounted rock slider it came with. 

 

 

[Savage90]

Because of the steering geometry issues I ended Up ordering a drag link kit from Barnes 4WD and a stock pitman arm. 
 

went over to my friends house who bought my old Jeep Naboo from me and had him help me cut and weld up a new drag link. 
 

geometry still wasn’t there but it was the most comfortable I had Felt driving it since I bought It. At this point I have Had it about 9 months. 

[Savage90]

At this point and out of absolutely no where the Jeep developed a terrible terrible squeaking noise coming from the engine compartment. 

I’ll try too keep this one short. Haha.
 

I would eventually end up replacing everything on the front of the motor except the harmonic balancer. And guess what? The squeak continued! 

 

the other bad thing about this squeak. It lead me down yet another road of poor builder experience from the previous owner. 
not only did I figure out that the belt alignment was off, but it appears he may have made his own accessory brackets as well. Also used all the incorrect bolt length so he would stack a bunch of washers ontop of each other to account for the incorrect length. 
I haven’t yet but I’m considering having Motech send me their billet aluminum assessors brackets. 
 

From here in the journey of building Wanda up it’s all been in the past as far as these posts are considered. But as present day; the guy building Wanda right now told me the harmonic balancer can get dirt, rust, grim in the grooves and throw the belt off just a little which can cause a squeak. Well he cleaned it all up with a wire brush while he had been working on it… and guess what? As of now there is no more squeak!!! 
man I wish I would Have thought of that from the start. Spend hundred of dollars on parts and hours and hours in the garage trying to track down that damn squeak!!!

[riskitforthebiskit]

I forgot about some of those stuff.  Glad your doing this build thread!  

If only you could weld better, you've done so much work you about ready for a shop. Haha

[Savage90]

1 hour ago, riskitforthebiskit said:

I forgot about some of those stuff.  Glad your doing this build thread!  

If only you could weld better, you've done so much work you about ready for a shop. Haha

I am Too. Been a lot of fun going down memory lane and writing things out. Can’t wait to get to the good stuff haha. Almost there!

[Savage90]

May of 2022. 
 

I was trying to track down the squeak I previously mentioned. I spent a whole Saturday swapping in a new water pump  it was a successful swap and I ran The motor for a good 30+ minutes. 
you already know how the squeak turned out. But this is about a new hiccup Wanda decided to pull with me. 
 

the next morning I went out to take her for a spin. Started right up and the motor dies about 5 seconds later. 
 

Over the next couple weeks and maybe a month I’m trying to diagnose the problem of the Jeep not being able to start and idle. I bought A fuel pressure gage for it. I added extra fuel. 
 

I thought it might be the fuel pump. i ended up dropped the fuel tank and replacing the pump (10/10 would not recommend!!)

 

finally ended up having it towed to a local shop. 
 

most frustrating part. It rolled off the flatbed. The mechanic hopped in to park the Jeep… it started right up and didn’t die. Over the next few days they had it. Ended up calling me and telling me to pick it up. They couldn’t find an issue. Hahahah

 

lucky that hasn’t happened again. Still don’t know what the issue was to this day. 
 

long story short I replaced The fuel pump. Haha. 
 

oh and I found Out that my transmission has a slow leak from where it mates with the transfercase. 

[Savage90]

Let’s get back to upgrades and stop worrying about the issue for just a moment. Haha. 
 

it was time to remove the front bumper and get something stronger as well as a better approach angle. 
 

I have to admit. I initially saw this on Jerry’s jeep Vengeance and loved it. Just without the stinger so I opted for the winch hoop. 
 

introducing VKS Felon front bumper. 
 

Apparently I didnt take photos past the cutting part. Haha. 
but I had To cut part of the grill and the radiator mount to get the winch in. a little disappointed having to do that but I think I did a good enough job that it’s not noticeable. 
 

[Savage90]

Next up is the corner armor. 
 

had a friend help me install these. It might be the 3rd set him and I have done on my jeeps. Also he loves cutting things up so I let him loose haha. 
 

he also is an electrician so I need him help with the new tail lights I’m adding. I have also put these on 3 of my other builds.