ZMotorsports Shop Projects 2.0

[zmotorsports]

Mike, enjoying the history and projects. I used to be into the sand for a long time as well. We would hit Glamis probably 6-8 times a year late 80's-early 90's until I got into Jeeps. It was all over after that! Still into Jeeps all these years later!

Thanks Quinn and I hear ya on Jeeps.

My wife and I actually started duning in 1987 right out of high school and before we were married and didn't sell our sand toys until 2012, so a good 25 year streak with a high emphasis the last 9 years or so. We started snowmobiling in 1989 right after getting married. I bought a wrecked sled for me and rebuilt it and a fairly clean one for the wife and we snowmobiles for 20 years until 2009.

We had had Jeeps since around 1994 when we bought our first motorhome and needed a tow vehicle. We sold the wife's Thunderbird (thank goodness) and she wanted an SUV as a daily driver. I suggested a Jeep Cherokee so we could use it as a toad as well as daily driver and maybe do some off-roading since I had sold my 1984 shortbed and we hadn't done any exploring off the pavement in a few years. She eagerly agreed and loved the XJ and we enjoyed towing it and exploring where we traveled. We then traded it for a 1996 ZJ that I lifted slightly and set up as a toad.

When my son got his driver's license around 2008~ish he was more interested in Jeeping than duning or sledding so we began by selling the sleds and continued to use the sand toys for a few years because I had just built the sandrail. My son always wanted to go to St. Anthony sand dunes in Idaho in October for his birthday weekend in October but in 2009 he asked if we could go to Moab instead and the rest was history. We put the sleds up for sale and then sold the sand toys in 2012 and have been very heavily involved in Jeeps ever since.

Those Jeeps will change your life won't they Quinn.....

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my thread.

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike, the sand quads are real nice. I used to have a Quadzilla 500 Suzuki in the past younger bachelor days. My friends and I would go out to SoCal deserts, or Glamis. Riding a quad around the dunes is so much fun, especially with your buddies and just having fun together. One friend had the 250 Suzuki, and another had the Honda 250 (2-stroke). None of us had the Banshee, but those could be very fast! Ours were mostly stock, maybe a pipe, some simple bolt-ons and we all had the paddle tires of course. Your custom suspension and frames are very nice, thanks for sharing the pics. Brings back good memories for me too.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the projects and sharing your experiences Terry. I appreciate it. While I did enjoy going with the guys on occassion to dial in a new quad or something, i enjoyed going with the family the most. Although my wife enjoyed the dunes and riding her own she now admits that she enjoyed the Jeep even more but I'm glad we got to dune as long as we did.

 

[zmotorsports]

Finally caught up!



My last snowmobile was in 1975! Bought a new Polaris TX 500 Triple from local dealer.



My last sand toy was in 2003. Glamis China Wall on way down at high speed did not see a large hard bump in sand. Broke my leg . . Quad never got a scratch.

Thank you for following along. I follow your adventures as well and hope your health is doing good.



Those hard lips and/or witches eyes in the sand will get ya every time if you don't see them. I crashed the week before my wife and I's wedding and wiped out the front suspension on my quad but didn't get hurt. She saw it happened and though I was going to in a body cast for the wedding.

 

[zmotorsports]

My neighbor hit me up and asked if I could repair a bracket off of his tow behind aerator today.

Not much penetration going on here.


I knocked down the failed weld.


I placed a .750” piece of O1 drill rod to align for welding.


Ready for paint.


Painted.


Next item of the day was to build the rock sliders for my son’s WJ.

Bent some 1.5” x .083” tubing.


1.5” square tubing mocked up with brackets bolted to the sides of the frame boxes.




Tacked into place.






Ready to go off to the powder coater.


Before closing up the shop we mocked up the Mac’s Black Box in the back to locate for mounting. We opted to shift the box quite a bit to the passenger's side so we can create a large void on the driver's side for storage as well as mounting his Powertank nearly vertical yet allowing easy access.


Thank you for looking.

 

[C_F]

Mike, I have seriously spent the last 4.5~ish hours reading through your posts of your life's various projects, and have thoroughly loved it! Until today, I didn't know that you also built your previous shop too. I should have known.

I have said it before, but the amount of hours & intensity you throw at every project you do...makes me exhausted just reading about it!

Thanks so much for opening your photo albums, and sharing all those old projects & the stories that go with them. I (and I'd bet all who posted here) thoroughly enjoyed them.
The snubbing you received from the car club with your first show car just pisses me off. I hate it when someone with that sort of raw talent is brushed off due to his young age, like he somehow doesn't deserve the kudos for the amazing work done. If anything, it should be the exact opposite reaction!

Anyway, thanks again for sharing with us all. Your talents know no bounds.

 

[Boosted1]

Sliders look good.

 

[Kevkx125]

Sorry for your loss Hope all is well by now, may she Rest in peace.

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike, I have seriously spent the last 4.5~ish hours reading through your posts of your life's various projects, and have thoroughly loved it! Until today, I didn't know that you also built your previous shop too. I should have known.

I have said it before, but the amount of hours & intensity you throw at every project you do...makes me exhausted just reading about it!

Thanks so much for opening your photo albums, and sharing all those old projects & the stories that go with them. I (and I'd bet all who posted here) thoroughly enjoyed them.
The snubbing you received from the car club with your first show car just pisses me off. I hate it when someone with that sort of raw talent is brushed off due to his young age, like he somehow doesn't deserve the kudos for the amazing work done. If anything, it should be the exact opposite reaction!

Anyway, thanks again for sharing with us all. Your talents know no bounds.

Thank you, I appreciate the comments and especially for taking the time to read through all of it. I threw a lot of pictures and commentary out over the past several days and appreciate anyone who read through it all.

As far as clubs, the snubbing was exactly why my wife didn't want us joining either of the Jeep clubs that we currently belong to. I have pretty much kept my head down and enjoyed most of the people but mainly the Jeeping and haven't gotten involved with those who are merely looking for freebies or something for nothing.

 

[zmotorsports]

Sliders look good.

Thank you. They turned out pretty nice and should protect the body as these WJ's are a bit girthy.

 

[zmotorsports]

Sorry for your loss Hope all is well by now, may she Rest in peace.

Thank you for the condolences. I appreciate that.

 

[PhantomEB]

As far as clubs, the snubbing was exactly why my wife didn't want us joining either of the Jeep clubs that we currently belong to. I have pretty much kept my head down and enjoyed most of the people but mainly the Jeeping and haven't gotten involved with those who are merely looking for freebies or something for nothing.

I hear you on that, I used to belong to half the clubs and found out it was more just the moneybags using the club for something they couldn’t do on their own.

Now I just stick with my friends who all have built their own shops, purchased tools and just get out for the hell of it. No need to depend on anyone!

 

[Johnno]

Mike
I have never commented on your thread but I have been following along for a while now and all of your builds both old and new have been great. I really enjoy all the pictures and stories that go with them. I also had a 91 Polaris RXL and what a sled that one was, that triple wouldn't let anything pass me on the lakes. Looking forward your future builds.

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike
I have never commented on your thread but I have been following along for a while now and all of your builds both old and new have been great. I really enjoy all the pictures and stories that go with them. I also had a 91 Polaris RXL and what a sled that one was, that triple wouldn't let anything pass me on the lakes. Looking forward your future builds.

Thank you for following along and for commenting.

If I could have combined the handling and weight of the RXL with the brute power of the Thundercat I would have been ecstatic. That would have been one heck of a combination.

 

[zmotorsports]

I hear you on that, I used to belong to half the clubs and found out it was more just the moneybags using the club for something they couldn’t do on their own.

Now I just stick with my friends who all have built their own shops, purchased tools and just get out for the hell of it. No need to depend on anyone!

We've met some great friends from both clubs and if not going on a club run will still usually end up with friends from either depending on where we are at the time.

I just don't get conned into working on everyone else's stuff anymore like I used to. IF I have time and IF I want to I will take it on otherwise I don't lose sleep over not working on something for someone. Completely different than back when I was trying to keep paying jobs coming through the shop for revenue.

 

[steves_001]

Thanks again for sharing the stories. Neat stuff... Ed Roth, how did you run into him? I belonged to a Camaro club back in the mid 80's. Part of that was having the club name painted on the rear window. Guess who did that for us? Yep, Ed. I ended up at his place one evening somewhere in LA. Cant remember the actual suburb anymore but, he painted the window up for me (and scratched my trunk in the process with is belt, lol) Funny how small the world really is.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks again for sharing the stories. Neat stuff... Ed Roth, how did you run into him? I belonged to a Camaro club back in the mid 80's. Part of that was having the club name painted on the rear window. Guess who did that for us? Yep, Ed. I ended up at his place one evening somewhere in LA. Cant remember the actual suburb anymore but, he painted the window up for me (and scratched my trunk in the process with is belt, lol) Funny how small the world really is.

Thank you for following along.

I actually met Gary Mizer first and was then introduced to Ed. At the time I didn't realize he lived in Utah as well as I. I had Gary stripe several projects of mine in the mid-late 90's.

 

[macgyver]

Those Jeeps will change your life won't they Quinn.....

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my thread.

This right here! Jeeps did change my life! Back when I was into the sand with quads and 3-wheelers, my step dad invited me to a "Jeep run" with his Jeep club. I tried to follow along on my quad. After overheating from moving too slow on my 250R Honda quad, and having to struggle trying to rock crawl on the quad, I gave in and bought my first Jeep. A 1964 CJ5 POS that I sunk so much money into! That started the craze for me around 1994. That was the first of around 30 Jeeps that I have owned. My new Gladiator being #30. A lot of them I bought, then fixed them up and re-sold. Currently I have 3.5 in the stable. Plus we started our shop in 1997 building Boulder Bars for Jeeps which has morphed into our current Jeep Shop. So yes It has changed my life! And I have met some awesome lifelong friends through Jeeps!

 

[Wanna Ride]

Always enjoy stopping by to see your latest project (and past ones too!). Very inspiring, as usual. The front bumper turned out really nice, and can't wait to see the sliders once completed and installed.

This is my busiest time of the year and I'll soon have plenty of shop time back on my calendar again. So I'm going to buy a tubing bender as soon as work slows down to a norm again, and once I determine which one, but I'm curious to hear which one you have and why that one, as opposed to others?

 

[zmotorsports]

This right here! Jeeps did change my life! Back when I was into the sand with quads and 3-wheelers, my step dad invited me to a "Jeep run" with his Jeep club. I tried to follow along on my quad. After overheating from moving too slow on my 250R Honda quad, and having to struggle trying to rock crawl on the quad, I gave in and bought my first Jeep. A 1964 CJ5 POS that I sunk so much money into! That started the craze for me around 1994. That was the first of around 30 Jeeps that I have owned. My new Gladiator being #30. A lot of them I bought, then fixed them up and re-sold. Currently I have 3.5 in the stable. Plus we started our shop in 1997 building Boulder Bars for Jeeps which has morphed into our current Jeep Shop. So yes It has changed my life! And I have met some awesome lifelong friends through Jeeps!

Timing sounds similar to us Quinn.

We bought our first Jeep (XJ) around 1994/95. It was a 1992 model and in pristine condition. We replace the wife's Thunderbird as that 1993 winter here in Northern Utah was pretty severe and she had gotten stuck twice backing out of the driveway after the snowplows went past. She said that's it and wanted something with some ground clearance. We both migrated to a Jeep but she wanted the SUV style vs. a Wrangler. We did a little off-roading when we were dating with my 1984 shortbed Chevy but nothing like we do now. I haven't owned as many as you have by any means and I usually keep them for a long time. We had our 1992 XJ for only a couple of years but I traded it in for a 1996 ZJ which we kept for nearly 16 years after handing it down to our son when he got his driver's license. That's where the love of Grand Cherokee's started for him I guess. He had his LJ that we build, then I bought another ZJ nearly identical to his for a toad and now our JKUR and his WJ, so we've only had about 6 in our stable over the past nearly 31 years of marriage.

I'm envious that you get to make your living around Jeeps however.

 

[zmotorsports]

Always enjoy stopping by to see your latest project (and past ones too!). Very inspiring, as usual. The front bumper turned out really nice, and can't wait to see the sliders once completed and installed.

This is my busiest time of the year and I'll soon have plenty of shop time back on my calendar again. So I'm going to buy a tubing bender as soon as work slows down to a norm again, and once I determine which one, but I'm curious to hear which one you have and why that one, as opposed to others?

Thanks for stopping by and checking in on projects.

I am using a JD2 tubing bender. I've had it a long time, nearly 25 years now. I purchased it as a manual version and then added air over hydraulic about five years later. I originally purchased it when I was building sand drag ATV chassis and bought dies for .5", .625", .750", .875" and 1". I bought it from a company that offered a "beginners race kit" that came with the bender and 4 dies and I added the fifth die right at the point of purchase to cover all of the sizes I was using at the time. Later I added a 1.25", 1.5" and 2" dies to cover the sandrails and Jeeps that I was working on.

It has really been a great bender and has gotten quite a lot of use in the first 10+ years I owned it but I don't nearly as much tube work these days.

 

[zmotorsports]

Speaking of sandrails, I forgot to post one of my favorite projects, our 120” mid-engine sandrail that I built around 2008/2009. I think I have a full build thread on here because that was my first project that I documented when I joined garagejournal.

I had wanted a sandrail since we got into duning in the late 80’s but couldn’t afford to build one for quite some time. There was something about watching those things ripping around a bowl that just sent chills down my spine. I subscribe to Sand Sports magazine mainly to follow along with the various sand cars being built and would wear out the magazines drooling over them, issue after issue. I was collecting parts as I could afford them and storing them in my basement. My wife used to joke that I was like Radar from MASH that mailed a Jeep home one piece at a time but I was building a sandrail one piece at a time.

I had done some work on several for clients such as engine and transmission work and even a few engine cradles for engine swaps but never a complete car until my own. My goal again was to build one that would generate business for our shop.

During my build I had a guy from the old car club hit me up about doing another street rod. I told him I had tired of the street rod scene and was turning my attention to sand cars. When he asked why I told him because anybody can build a car and make it look nice because they can hide a lot in a full bodied car such as poor body work, poor welds and even poor wiring but in a tube chassis car you can’t hide things as everything is right out in the open for the entire world to see and will really show the builder’s workmanship.

Here is the start of my new chassis on my chassis fixture.


PRP suspension seats being mocked into position. I told the wife it would be a smooth and comfortable ride.


Radiator and engine cooler being mocked up.


Steering.


Rolling chassis. Cycling suspension and checking for interferences and final fitment of things before blowing it apart to send out for powder coating and bright work.


This was the first chassis that I had powder coated. All of my others I had painted myself but we had just sold the parent’s farm and I was out of a place to paint. Had it not been the middle of winter I would have painted it outside but choices were limited and I swore I would never paint in my home shop.


Final pictures after completion and interior work. I caught some slack for adding interior panels because most were not finished to that degree but I guess that’s the old street rodder in me and I had some left over gray tweed material from our 1940 Chev Coupe street rod.














That was a fun as hell and fast as hell car and I miss it.

Thanks for looking.

 

[vwracer]

Great stuff Mike, I started watching your posts when you built this awesome buggy. How did you like the shifter? I have driven buggys with every style mid-engine shifters but the style in yours. Hated the Jamar, and Cable shift was not much better. I have a PBS system now and it works great. Really liked the LS swap in the Jeep!

 

[zmotorsports]

Great stuff Mike, I started watching your posts when you built this awesome buggy. How did you like the shifter? I have driven buggys with every style mid-engine shifters but the style in yours. Hated the Jamar, and Cable shift was not much better. I have a PBS system now and it works great. Really liked the LS swap in the Jeep!

Thank you for following along for that long. Glad I didn’t scare ya off. [emoji12]

The mid-engine shifter in my sandrail worked very well after some tweaking upon initial setup.

I had mixed feelings on the Jamar shifter. I put a couple in clients cars and one worked quite well right out of the gate and the second one took a lot of fussing with and I still wasn’t all that impressed. I have no experience with the PBS shifter but I’ll keep that in mind if I ever work on another mid-engine rail.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Subie motor? I always thought you had a VW in there, but you mentioned the radiator I never noticed.

 

[JCQuick]

Mike i can not lie just just cruised thru many pages of pics with out reading much. ( love the banshee my son has that same year) What I see in these pictures is a man that takes much pride in his Family First, his gear head desires, and just having a good time in life.
As a man that happen to marry a great women that puts up with what ever I want to do and be involved. I'm going to take a moment and commend your wife she has trained you well. LOL.

Ok now I can go back and read all this.

 

[zmotorsports]

Tonight my son and I made some decent progress on his rear cargo area in his WJ.

The Mac’s Black Box is designed for the rear of a Jeep JKU so we had to cut and modify the front mount and fabricate new rear mounts to work in a WJ.

Front mounting plate.


Squaring up some .625” thick plate.




Cut, machined square and drilling holes to 1.375” on center to match the holes we are utilizing in the rear cargo area.


Block sitting down in the void to bring up to flush.


Test fit successful. One down one to go.


After more drilling time to break out the TIG welder.












Passenger’s side mounted.


Driver’s side mounted.


Box removed with mounting brackets remaining.


Curved body plates for the rear hoop cut, drilled and mocked into place.


Short length of tube cut and notched.


Sleeves cut and ready to weld into the half that will be bolted to the floor.


Next will be to bend a hoop that goes up and slightly over the forward edge of the black box yet just behind the rear seat. This is to serve as a mounting point for his high lift jack and then an angled tube back from the hoop to the driver’s box mounting point to serve as a mounting point for his Powertank CO tank.

Hope that makes sense but pictures following tomorrow night will clear up any confusion on what we’re trying to accomplish.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Wanna Ride]

Mike, if I understood you right, you’re going to weld the sleeves into the lower “stems” (for lack of a better word). But then are you going to implement some sort of quick-detach for the hoop, onto those stems? Knowing you’re as forward-thinking as you are when you build something, I can see the necessity to possibly remove that hoop at some point, even if just temporarily, to facilitate other use of the cargo area. You know, for not-so-fun **** like hauling furniture, etc. Sorry if you mentioned that somewhere along the way, and I just overlooked it.

As for the tubing bender, I’ve pretty much narrowed it down to the J2 also, and right away, I’ll be upgrading it to hydraulic. Too old for all that manual **** anymore. ;-)

 

[zmotorsports]

Subie motor? I always thought you had a VW in there, but you mentioned the radiator I never noticed.

Bb&G, the engine in the sandrail is actually a Mazda 13b rotary. This was my first experience building a rotary and it was quite a fun project. I've always loved the sound of those rotaries with limited exhaust and this one sounded cool as hell.

The engine I had been planning on building was a turbo'd 2332 VW but changed direction at the end. I had built several VW engines and felt comfortable with them but the damaged car had a rotary and so I tore it down and went through it after doing a lot of research and reading up on the rotaries.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the projects.

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike i can not lie just just cruised thru many pages of pics with out reading much. ( love the banshee my son has that same year) What I see in these pictures is a man that takes much pride in his Family First, his gear head desires, and just having a good time in life.
As a man that happen to marry a great women that puts up with what ever I want to do and be involved. I'm going to take a moment and commend your wife she has trained you well. LOL.

Ok now I can go back and read all this.

Thanks JC. I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and browse through my projects.

I'll agree with ya that my wife has me trained well.

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike, if I understood you right, you’re going to weld the sleeves into the lower “stems” (for lack of a better word). But then are you going to implement some sort of quick-detach for the hoop, onto those stems? Knowing you’re as forward-thinking as you are when you build something, I can see the necessity to possibly remove that hoop at some point, even if just temporarily, to facilitate other use of the cargo area. You know, for not-so-fun **** like hauling furniture, etc. Sorry if you mentioned that somewhere along the way, and I just overlooked it.

As for the tubing bender, I’ve pretty much narrowed it down to the J2 also, and right away, I’ll be upgrading it to hydraulic. Too old for all that manual **** anymore. ;-)

That is correct. The mounts will allow easy removal if necessary but also easier installation where it will be sectional. That would be tight squeezing that in there as one piece without scratching anything inside. I don't see it coming out much as he has a truck for hauling duties but ya never know.

As for the bender, you won't regret the hydraulic option. I couldn't afford it at first but having it bolted to the floor was kind of a pain. I much prefer not only the hydraulic bending but also having it on a cart that is mobile and can be used in various locations around the shop.

 

[zmotorsports]

Tonight’s work consisted of bending the rear cargo area hoop and welding the floor plates.



















Before closing up I cut out a couple of 1/4” thick tabs in which to use as mounting points for the hi-lift jack on the hoop.


Thanks for looking.

 

[Pressingonward]

Nice work - on the jeep and everything else! That sand rail looks like a lot of fun.

I love the lines of that 36 Ford - what a cool car!

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice work - on the jeep and everything else! That sand rail looks like a lot of fun.

I love the lines of that 36 Ford - what a cool car!

Thank you, I appreciate the comments and thanks for stopping by.

 

[zmotorsports]

Finished up the actual fabrication tonight on the rear cargo storage rack in my son’s WJ.



Black Box mocked into place and mounting tabs fabricated for the Powertank, everything tacked and ready to remove for final welding.








Tabs for mounting the Hi-Lift jack. I’ll machine two standoffs for mounting the jack.






Thanks for looking.

 

[LXCam]

Slick as always Mike. So will this be powder coated or rattle canned?.

 

[zmotorsports]

Slick as always Mike. So will this be powder coated or rattle canned?.

Thanks Cam. I have some PPG Silver left over from a previous project that isn't an exact match to his Jeep but close enough that we will use. I'll use some PPG Epoxy Primer and then topcoat it with the Silver paint.

He was going to have it powder coated but I think I talked him out of it on this one. My thinking was it is inside the vehicle and not subjected to the elements and secondly he may want to add other tabs for other accessories down the road and this will be easier to touch up if that is the case. Lastly, it will save him some money not being powder coated.

Thanks again for checking in Cam.

 

[Balor]

Outstanding as ever zmotorsports.

 

[aka Larry]

Top notch work as always Mike, but I'm not understanding what this rack does exactly? I understand the actual box, but not the rack since it doesn't seem to be designed to "contain" the box.

 

[zmotorsports]

Outstanding as ever zmotorsports.

Thank you and thanks for stopping by to check in on my projects.

Top notch work as always Mike, but I'm not understanding what this rack does exactly? I understand the actual box, but not the rack since it doesn't seem to be designed to "contain" the box.

Vincent, the hoop is merely to be an anchoring point for accessories, nothing structural and in no conjunction with the box as the box mounts independently. The hoop did however, have to clear the box which is why the box had to be installed prior to the tubing work.

The hoop up and over the box has attachment tabs in which the Hi-Lift jack will secure to after I machine a couple of standoffs. The driver's side rearward facing tube will hold the Powertank as well as his fire extinguisher which will allow easy access by opening the rear driver's side door and reaching around the seat to grab the fire extinguisher.

That is pretty much all for now but there will still be a little space remaining in he wants to mount things later on but the jack, CO2 tank and fire extinguisher were the main items he wanted to secure outside of the box and he didn't want the Hi-Lift jack mounted outside of the car like I have mine mounted. This was the next best and safest solution to avoid having loose items in the passenger area of the car.

Hopefully that makes better sense.

Thanks.

 

[aka Larry]

Vincent, the hoop is merely to be an anchoring point for accessories, nothing structural and in no conjunction with the box as the box mounts independently. The hoop did however, have to clear the box which is why the box had to be installed prior to the tubing work.

The hoop up and over the box has attachment tabs in which the Hi-Lift jack will secure to after I machine a couple of standoffs. The driver's side rearward facing tube will hold the Powertank as well as his fire extinguisher which will allow easy access by opening the rear driver's side door and reaching around the seat to grab the fire extinguisher.

Gotcha. Thanks for taking the time to explain it to me.