Project Muscle Heep

[Mr X]

I. Introduction

I declare this project on topic.

II. The Heep

Here are some photos the day after I brought it home. I bought it on EBay without having had a chance to inspect it, but it seems to be in better shape than I thought. The prior owner said it had been sitting in a field for three years after the motor grenadeed itself. The rest of the Heep is in pieces in the garage.





Original rear seat in surprisingly nice shape.




With the hood on. With progress like this, I'll be done in no time.



This was a nice surprise.



And so was this. It's too bad the T5 won't be staying :frown2:



III. New Tires

I decided the first step was to order new tires. My thought was that new tires would make the car easier to roll around because they would actually hold air. I also figured it would be nice to have the tires on to examine fitment before settling on a final lift setup. My fear is whether or not I can get the project done before these dry rot too...

I went with Mickey Thompson Deegan 38s in 33x12.5x15. I never thought I would be excited to buy tires.



Was curious how they were going to look.



Heep rolled in.



Jacked up. Filthy.



Something that will be a recurring challenge in this build is that my normal car isn't spacious. I didn't want to wait for a friend with a truck, so I ended up making 6 trips like this...



Eventually I had them all home.



And then they were mounted. I think the Heep has a 2.5" spring lift and a 3" body lift. I haven't decided what I want to do in the long run, but I'm pretty confident I want to go with a shorter body lift.





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[Mr X]

IV. Disassembly, Inspection, and Rotisserie

Patient in the operating room. If I went much higher I'm not sure it would clear the garage door.



The original color of the car was this maroon. The roll bar padding did a nice job protecting the paint.



Seats out.



Rust situation. The inside of the tub is coated in bedliner. I'm not sure how much cancer it's hiding.



Doesn't seem too bad...



Off goes the dash.



I saw a post somewhere on the internet where a guy made a rotisserie out of Horrible Freight engine stands. I thought that was brilliant and decided I wanted to give it a try. I bought two 1,000 lbs capacity stands and one 750 lbs capacity stand. The two 1,000 lbs stands are used for the main uprights. The 750 lbs stand is used for extra materials and parts.



In order to get enough height to completely rotate the tub, I chopped up the 750 lbs stand and made extensions for the 1,000 lbs stands. The smaller stand is made of the same square tubing as the larger ones.



I tried to keep them straight with clamps while welding the pieces together, but ultimately the whole project didn't really require that much precision.




There is enough material between the three engine stands to make a brace that will run underneath the tub.



Starting to take shape.



I debated using 2x4s to mount the casters, but decided that it would be too ghetto, even for this.



Back to the rotisserie a little later.



Here is a bonus shot of the engine it came with.



I think I've diagnosed the problem, but I guess you can never been 100% sure.





And also, at some point during all of the above I noticed I had a problem--one of the brand new tires was running low.



Soapy water test revealed it was leaking out of the stem. I brought it back to the tire shop and when they dismounted the tire they showed me the inside of the rim. It was covered in corrosion. I didn't have the wherewithal to take a photo so ya'll are gonna have to trust me. At some point before the Heep is driving, I'm going to dismount the tires and see if the wheels can be saved with some some sand blasting.

[Mr X]

IV. Disassembly, Inspection, and Rotisserie (Cont.)

Disassembly continues.



Everything in the dash came out pretty easy.



The first real battle came from the roll bar bolts. I tried PB Blaster, a torch, and a breaker bar, but I kept breaking the bit. The bedliner wasn't helping because it prevented the pb blaster from pent rating and it burned nasty with the torch, even after trying to grind it off. I think the bit in this photo may have been a size too small.



Eventually I found the right size tool.




And out it came.



More stuff coming off.




I used the engine hoist to pull the tub up. The body bolts didn't give me too much trouble.



Eventually, separation. Don't forget to unhook the parking brake cable.




Had to leave it here for the night.



Back to the rotisserie. I went to this place to get materials for the tub mounts and the wheel mounts. They have a scrap bin that sells you steel for I think 75 cents per lb, but I unfortunately couldn't get everything I needed out of the scrap bin. I had to buy a 20 ft length of square tube for the wheel mounts and main tub mounts. Total for the square tub, cuts, and some miscellaneous scrap tube came out to about $100.



Started to make the tub mounts.



I wish they all looked like this one.



I'm using the factory mounting positions with the 3" body lift bushings that came with the Heep. In order to keep the tub level the front mounts need to be about 2" higher than the rear. That's not an exact measurement.




Getting the mounts into the frame was a pain, but eventually it worked out.



And it has just enough clearance to spin.




The frame seems to be in good shape and it looks like it has a larger than normal gas tank. Anyone have an idea of who may make it?

[Mr X]

IV. Disassembly, Inspection, and Rotisserie (Final)

Having the tub up on the rotisserie makes it pretty easy to see everything that's wrong with it. I hope it ends up saving my back later too.






And that's where we are now. I just sold the bike to help finance the project, which means I have some new tools showing up later this week. I think the next step will be dealing with the rust.

[misin4mati0n]

Cool and all but lets be honest. Needs clears and a drop.

[Mr X]

If the wheels are permanently buggered I might have to throw some LTWs on too.

[misin4mati0n]

If the wheels are permanently buggered I might have to throw some LTWs on too.

Good call.

[Mr X]

A small amount of progress. I picked up a pressure washer. It's nice that I can touch the tub without getting covered in filth now. I also think this got rid of the fire ants.








And more importantly, this thing showed up today.

[misin4mati0n]

[Mr X]

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One.

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Two.

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Three.

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Four.

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Five.