The Build of Wanda

[Savage90]

Continuing with the upgrades:) 

 

Wanda originally came with a dual battery set up. And personally I dont need 2 batteries. Also, once again… it wasn’t done very well. 
 

anyways, I replace the battery set up with axis industries U.S.A. single battery/fuse box tray. Unfortunately I dont think they make these anymore. What I really Like about it though is it moves everything up about 4 inches to clear any suspension you may want to add. 
Also knowing I’m going to be installing DTD I wanted to add any clearance for the towers to help. I know from previous builds the fuse box is very very close to the towers. 
also the cool part about this is they also made one for the brake system which I also got:) haha. 

honestly the hardest part of the install was routing the huge plugs to fit well back into the fuse box. 

[Savage90]

At this point there are no upgrades. Wanda was just waiting around for Pickle Rick to leave the picture so she could take all his parts for herself!! 
 

but she was a lot better to drive from CA to UT with the V8 than all my previous 3.8L motors. Hahah 

 

the cold did spring a radiator leak but I tighten the lower hose clamp and all was good. 

[Savage90]

Next up were very good find and very hard to find!! 
 

I think I got super lucky not having to buy these new from EVO. 

 

Front DTD brackets as well as the rear EVO lever cage suspension thing. 
 

I found both of these out of state and they were good people to not steal my money and actually send me what I paid them for!!:) 

 

I have been burned before so I have Trust issues with this stuff. Haha. 

[Jdofmemi]

58 minutes ago, Savage90 said:

Continuing with the upgrades:) 

 

Wanda originally came with a dual battery set up. And personally I dont need 2 batteries. Also, once again… it wasn’t done very well. 
 

anyways, I replace the battery set up with axis industries U.S.A. single battery/fuse box tray. Unfortunately I dont think they make these anymore. What I really Like about it though is it moves everything up about 4 inches to clear any suspension you may want to add. 
Also knowing I’m going to be installing DTD I wanted to add any clearance for the towers to help. I know from previous builds the fuse box is very very close to the towers. 
also the cool part about this is they also made one for the brake system which I also got:) haha. 

honestly the hardest part of the install was routing the huge plugs to fit well back into the fuse box. 

I would love to find one of these !

 

I really need more room

[fiend]

I hope after all that work you got the train horn installed and operational. 

[Savage90]

Next up. Paint and body work!! 
 

when I bought Wanda she came with shittybuilt rocker armor. I must say. This shit is terrible!!!! Not only does it come in 3 different sections. There are wayyyy wayyy way too many bolts for what it is. Also they are like 1/2 bolts so that’s a huge hold to drill for a nutsert to be installed!!! 
They suck! 
 

again, I digress. Hahah 

 

I originally thought I could cover all these holes with other armor but that’s wasn’t the case. 
I was going to have to do paint and body work regardless because my Wife bought me a new fiberglass hood and the front fenders needed works since the shittybuilt armor also bolted into that. 
 

so off to the body shop it went for maybe 3 weeks. 
 

full disclosure.. my neighbor at the time was who I hired to do the work. I regret everything and am very disappointed in his work. But being he gave me a “deal” and was a neighbor I paid him and said I was happy with it. 
I sometimes have a hard time sleeping sometime at night because of this haha. 
if he painted the whole Jeep it would have been fine. But he did the hood, fenders, and rockers without blending anything. So the doors, windshield frame and rest of the jeep are a different shade of burgundy

 

I keep reminding myself. The good thing is it’s all fixed and at least the “same” color now. 
front the right angle and sun light it looks fine. But if you know… well you know. 

[Savage90]

50 minutes ago, Jdofmemi said:

I would love to find one of these !

 

I really need more room

The company is still around. Give them a call and see if they can make another?

 

it’s a super easy concept you could build one yourself. 

[Savage90]

32 minutes ago, fiend said:

I hope after all that work you got the train horn installed and operational. 

Haha nope. I sold all that stuff. 

[Jdofmemi]

14 hours ago, Savage90 said:

Next up. Paint and body work!! 
 

when I bought Wanda she came with shittybuilt rocker armor. I must say. This shit is terrible!!!! Not only does it come in 3 different sections. There are wayyyy wayyy way too many bolts for what it is. Also they are like 1/2 bolts so that’s a huge hold to drill for a nutsert to be installed!!! 
They suck! 
 

again, I digress. Hahah 

 

I originally thought I could cover all these holes with other armor but that’s wasn’t the case. 
I was going to have to do paint and body work regardless because my Wife bought me a new fiberglass hood and the front fenders needed works since the shittybuilt armor also bolted into that. 
 

so off to the body shop it went for maybe 3 weeks. 
 

full disclosure.. my neighbor at the time was who I hired to do the work. I regret everything and am very disappointed in his work. But being he gave me a “deal” and was a neighbor I paid him and said I was happy with it. 
I sometimes have a hard time sleeping sometime at night because of this haha. 
if he painted the whole Jeep it would have been fine. But he did the hood, fenders, and rockers without blending anything. So the doors, windshield frame and rest of the jeep are a different shade of burgundy

 

I keep reminding myself. The good thing is it’s all fixed and at least the “same” color now. 
front the right angle and sun light it looks fine. But if you know… well you know. 

Oooh! Two tone paint!

 

Isn't that supposed to be a feature!

 

Just kidding. 

 

It's still a vast improvement from where it started out. 

 

 

[Jdofmemi]

14 hours ago, Savage90 said:

The company is still around. Give them a call and see if they can make another?

 

it’s a super easy concept you could build one yourself. 

I googled the name, but came up with a bunch of random shit that had no relation to Jeep parts. 

 

I will have to try again 

[Savage90]

57 minutes ago, Jdofmemi said:

Oooh! Two tone paint!

 

Isn't that supposed to be a feature!

 

Just kidding. 

 

It's still a vast improvement from where it started out. 

 

 

Extra cost feature that’s for sure. Haha.

if it wasn’t my neighbor that did it I wouldnt have paid the shop and told them I want It redone before I picked It up. 
it is what it is and is better than what it looked like before. 
 

[Savage90]

1 hour ago, Jdofmemi said:

I googled the name, but came up with a bunch of random shit that had no relation to Jeep parts. 

 

I will have to try again 

I ordered It via email in January 2022. At the time he said there was 1 left on the shelf. 
he is responsive to emails so might be worth trying that way. I am Happy with the product. Its was $330 for the battery tray and $75 for the ABS bracket. 

[Savage90]

The EVO lever arms are traditionally silver. But I found out the powder coating that EVO uses is trash. Flakes off just handing the parts with your hands. I had a brand new set I bought (Both take offs were damaged in the accident with the white Jeep) and I had an extra set that were included with the lever cage I bought. So I sent off one pair to be sand blasted and powder coated black. 
came back way nicer than what I originally Got from EVO. 

[Savage90]

Small but something I have wanted for awhile. A new factory 55 winch hook.  

[Savage90]

Ok. 
I think we have now come to the really exciting part of the build that Wanda really starts to transform. Axles, suspension, steering!!  
 

This is just after I finally sold Pickle Rick so it was time to empty my storage unit and collect all the parts to drop off to my builder!!

first photo is after I emptied My storage unit. It was hot that day. Haha. 
 

hard to believe the uhaul full of parts would eventually turn into a kick ass Jeep. But I was finally on the big build after waiting so many years!

[Savage90]

Let the real build begin!! 
 

I dropped the Jeep off and all parts July 30, 2023. 
 

My dude Darin got started the following week. 
getting the Jeep up on tall jacks and starting to remove all the parts I’m replacing. 
Starting with the front. He made sure to tell me how lucky I was to have not taken the Jeep off-roading in its current state. Most of the front control arm bolts were all too short and holding on by just a few threads. I’ll add photos for this. (Also this part I knew and also why I didnt take it anywhere but the mall) 

 

he also made quick work of the stock suspension brackets with a plasma cutter and had the DTD tower tacked in the following day.
 

 

[Jdofmemi]

On 12/3/2023 at 1:14 PM, Savage90 said:

Small but something I have wanted for awhile. A new factory 55 winch hook.  

Nice!   I want one, but can't bring myself to spend what they want for one. 

[Savage90]

On 12/4/2023 at 3:27 PM, Jdofmemi said:

Nice!   I want one, but can't bring myself to spend what they want for one. 

I got It as a present so that was helpful.

[Savage90]

might be hard to write out in detail some of the upgrades and changes that are happening to Wanda now that she is in her building phase so i may just list things that happened and include photos. ill try to explain where and when i can  

 

with the front towers in place it was now time to work on getting the Dynatrac 60 in place. but first we had to cut almost all the existing brackets on since the Pickle Rick was set up for full hydro and double triangulated control arms. However we decided to keep the truss that was built for the full hydro as our platform for the new upper links we will be adding. 

 

Darin also decided to pull the rear axle at this time.

 

up next: 
- mock up front axle with suspension

- lay out control arm locations and tack in all new brackets

 

The front control arms were an interesting decision but hopefully one that will prove to be beneficial down the road. Initially i was just going to use the EVO front long arm bracket. but after a long discussion we decided to scrap it and get some builder parts so we can layout our upper links on the frame side where we wanted them. the additional benefit to doing it this way even though it was very very time consuming. at the end of the day all 4 front control arms ended up being the same length!! all the clearances were very very tight though. haha

[Savage90]

up next was to work on the EVO high steer set up.  initially i just wanted Darin to burn it on the axle where all the other EVO built jeeps have them and call it a day. He was not having it hahah. He didn't like how far off the geometry would end up in relation to the track bar and drag link. 

 

I will say this part of the build for me was probably the most frustrating for a few reason. 1- it was very very time consuming which resulting in the cost for me. and 2- there were additional parts that would need to be purchased that i didn't originally account for.  3- there was a lot of trial and error and at times thoughts that it wasn't going to work out. 

 

Happy to report in the end it turned out awesome! and im very very excited with the attention to detail Darin had for setting this up correctly.

 

for the track bar we still ended up using the EVO set up but raised it off the axle a good 3" or so so that it was parallel to the drag link.  and on the frame side we originally tried to use the Genright bracket but it ended up interfering with tie rod at full stuff so we ended up cutting up the bracket and making it all clear. 

 

you will also see in the photos we cut up the Genright track bar as well. because we narrowed the Genright track bar bracket we would not be able to use the Johnny joint end that Genright uses. We would end up welding in a heim. 

 

oh and also. because of the high steer i was always going to do a frame notch to the steering components could clear. but with moving the track bar bracket up a few inches we had to notch the frame even more. but dont worry. we boxed it in and added extra plating in the end to reinforce it. 
 

 

[Weebz]

Nice work.  Lot of time and thought going into this. 

[Jdofmemi]

Looking good so far....

 

I'm curious to see what you ended up with to get the upper and lower arms the same length. 

 

Maybe it don't bind up like the original EVO system does.  

 

[Savage90]

On 12/6/2023 at 7:13 PM, Jdofmemi said:

Looking good so far....

 

I'm curious to see what you ended up with to get the upper and lower arms the same length. 

 

Maybe it don't bind up like the original EVO system does.  

 

no binds at any of the joints 

I’ll try and get to more detail later with the front but will include a few photos now of what I have. 
 

Its basically a full custom set up at this point with the control arms with the exception of The transmission crossmember. 
I wanted to go back to stock but we stayed with the aftermarket that was in the jeep when I bought It because ya build with 1/4 material. 

the rest of the mounts are builder stuff from Barnes4wd. As well as custom made control arms using ballistic fab joints. 
 

I should also mention before I forget  The front control arms are

all set up with 5/8 bolts. 
 

please note the exhaust is in the way and will be redone. Infact I was Planning or redoing in the entire time. 

[Savage90]

With the front almost set up it’s now time to transition to the rear and start working in the EVO lever. 
 

The rear lowers control arm brackets on the axle side were both damaged in the accident so I bought new ones to replace. 
now was the time to cut the old ones off and burn in the new ones. 
one slight problem. Being the rear is an 80 the tub is 4” diameter (I could be wrong with that). So there was some shaping to make them fit. 

[Savage90]

Continuing with the rear. 
 

time to work on the rear long arm EVO brackets. 
 

I would have loved to go with a triangulated set up here but I had All these parts donates from Pickle Rick so it was the smart thing to do and most cost effective. 
 

got the rear brackets burned in and control arms installed. 
 

while working in the rear it was time to do the frame side track bar relocation bracket since the EVO lever put the track bar to the front side of the axle. 
 

also fitted up some rear bump stops