Rumble Bee -- Part 2 -- The "Semi-Final" Product
By Louis Dawson
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Rumble Bee as purchased in 1992. |
It's true, "Jeeps are never done." Even so, the Bee is built to the point where we're extremely happy. It can tackle the hardest trails with a bit of winching and the occasional obstacle bypass or rock stack, but still drive a safe and stable 58 mph on the pavement.
The long process of building this truck included one nearly complete disassembly and restoration, then another frame-off for an engine and transmission swap. In the beginning we were primarily interested in restoration, but I soon realized it was more fun to build for trail performance, while playing the game of cost and time vs. performance -- along with keeping the Jeep looking like a flat fender instead of a rock buggy, and retaining some semblance of highway manners so we could use it as a grocery getter.
A sea change in the project came a few years ago when I started working for Chris Overacker as his CODE 4x4 webmaster. An acknowledged master of Jeeps, Chris has owned and resto-modified a flat fender, worked on scores more, and truly cares that his friends and customers have achievable goals.
Follow along for twelve years, starting with my rather amateurish attempts at building a Jeep, all they way up to my education by "Dr. Code" in the finer points of Jeep building:
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Prepping for paint. |
First Restoration
It might have been a midlife
crises, or simple obsession with things mechanical, but our first
years of flattie ownership saw me out in the garage for many
days off and late evenings, bashing and welding on
the body tub, with the Bee in parts stowed in boxes and sheds.
I didn't have a clear goal in mind -- just the desire for a reliable "Jeep" that
was fun to drive around the Aspen area, and would handle
the trails within reason.
I first met Chris Overacker during this stage of the project. My original frame was trashed. He owned Stage West 4x4 then, and I took him the frame with the intention of paying for a pro job of fixing. He took a quick look at the frame and informed me that it was much too tweaked and trashed, and that I should get a better quality used one -- or buy a new one.
While I should have followed "Dr. Code's" advice to buy a new frame, instead I located another original in a pile of Jeep parts a local had been accumulating for years. It was in better shape, but the front frame horns needed to be boxed -- a job Chris did agree to do, and has held up for more than a decade.
We de-rusted the frame and painted it gloss black, then I pretty much took the Jeep back to stock, refurbishing or replacing each part as it went in, upgrading the drum brakes to 11-inch GM style grabbers, and laying a precision (hah) coat of rattle can yellow on the bodywork.
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On the way to
summer skiing in Montezuma Basin near Aspen. New motor
is in, still running meager tires and axles but they work
great for this moderate trail. |
Let the Build
Up Begin
Rumble Bee was back
together a few months after the first frame-off, and fun
to drive around. But the old motor was tired and prone to overheating.
I studied up on options, and realized that swapping in a modern
4-speed transmission, along with clutch and Chevrolet V-6, would
be a much wiser way to have a decent power plant.
To do it right, I took the body off the frame again, and carefully fit a 229 V6 engine and clutch from a 1981 Chevrolet Malibu, mated to a rebuilt T-98 4 speed we bought fresh and new. We re-used the same tired transfer case, and added a Warn overdrive a few years later so we didn't have to burn up the V6 trying to top 45 mph.
Axles -- round 1
With our added power and gears, we were having too much fun
on the trails. We were still using the original front and rear
axle, and I'd been through the rear several times, trying to
reliably secure the funky axle hubs that attached to the axle
shafts using a taper and keyway. Having enough of that, I ordered
up a Dana 44 rear axle with a locker and off we went, smoothly
crawling terrain where before we would have been bashing and
jerking, if not simply stuck. Fun stuff.
We still had smallish tires, so the vintage 1947 front axle did its job, though I did go through it and reinforce the spindle/hub bolts so they wouldn't yank out when under a side load.
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| Enjoying our Grip Spur tires -- an adequate and economical solution for moderate trails. |
Tires -- round 1
Our Willys came with classic
Powermaster bias tires equivalent to about a 31 inch tall off-road
tire. With such a short wheelbase, we had tons of fun with
those tiny rollers. Nonetheless, with a decent rear axle and
V6, I knew I could run taller meats and crawl bigger rocks.
Trying to keep it simple, I drove a few blocks over to our
Co-Op car center, and bought a set of 16-inch white spoke rims,
mounted with four Grip Spur mud tires that measured equivalent
to what we now call a "33 inch" tire.
While stiff and unforgiving, the Spurs worked well for Colorado scree and alpine gravel -- conditions you find on most of our high altitude Jeep trails. More, they were cheap, and incredibly thick. Flats were not even a concept. We used these tires for years, and I still recommend them if you're doing a moderate build-up and want a skinny aggressive tire with a cool "retro" look.
Miscellany
We also spent quite a bit of time on creature comforts.
I built a security console that custom fit between
the seats and locked with a big padlock, and fabricated a large
"rally rack" that rides up high at the rear. (This
ended up too large, so we downsized it in the next incarnation.)
We were mostly happy with the Bee, but I still worried about
the front axle breaking, it needed a better safety cage, better
seats, and more. Thus, the final
buildup ensued.
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