Waste Not, Want Not

Originally Published: May 2010 Words: Olly Sack Pictures: Steve Taylor

Jeep’s trusty old AMC 258 4.2-litre straight-six was fully rebuilt by a previous owner, but hasn’t been tinkered with for extra power. Running off a single carb, factory figures give it 112hp and 210lbf.ft, though in Will’s words, ‘with nearly 120,000 miles on it it’s not surprising if some of the ponies have run off!’ About the only mod he’s aware of it’s the aftermarket rocker cover in aluminium, replacing the plastic original which had a habit of leaking. Since buying the vehicle, he’s added a manually controlled electric fan and some bonnet louvres to let hot air escape when the vehicle’s hard at work in deep mud or water, but that’s about it. Behind the engine, the original Chrysler 999 auto and Dana 300 transfer case remain, too; the former has a remote breather now, after it coughed all its oil out on the way home from a playday at Kirton, but aside from regular oil changes after deep wading, that’s all Will’s done to them

One of Will’s earliest mods was the installation of an SAE 750 Ah tractor battery, which sits in a custom tray and runs heavy-duty cables to prevent power loss at the starter. ‘It gives me a massive store of energy to run the winch,’ he says. ‘Even though I’m running a standard 60-amp alternator, it has winched me out of trouble without the engine running after I got into deep water.’ Welder-spec cables for the rear winch run through conduit inside the vehicle, while there are dash-mounted winch controls and extra power sockets inside the cab for a compressor and hand-held lamp

Front axle is a Dana 30, whose casing is thick enough not to need any further strengthening. Rear AMC20 unit, seen here, is thinner skinned, hence the addition of Will’s own rock guard to prevent damage while reversing. On the inside, both axles contain Aussie Lockers – automatic units which, at £150 each from America, were in Will’s words ‘a no-brainer.’ These date from when the axles were running their original 2.72:1 diff ratios, the idea being that they’d prevent shock loads by stopping the wheels from spinning when they lighten up over extreme terrain. When a halfshaft finally let go about a year later, Will replaced the original two-piece units with one-piece items imported direct from USA Alloy; ‘parts from the USA were relatively cheap then,’ he says, ‘around two dollars to the pound exchange rate and shipping not too high if you shopped around. I found 4 Wheel Drive Hardware to offer great advice and service.’ [Cont.]

The exchange rate had made things more expensive by the time his next round of modifications came along, but now, after a couple of trouble-free years, he wanted to go up to bigger tyres for all the usual reasons. The 2.72:1 diffs had been borderline on 31-inch rubber, but Will got a result when regular parts supplier Lighthouse Jeep Parts turned out to have a 1979 CJ7 available for spares, with the same axles but a set of 4.1:1 units. ‘I borrowed a trailer and collected the rather sad looking vehicle along with all the shims and gaskets I would need, got it all home and switched the diffs. I spent a day or so on each to set them up and swap the Aussie Lockers over, but the job went smoothly and a year later they’re working fine. And I’m still using bits off the spare motor now!’

You know what you’re getting with an old CJ7; strength, simplicity and… rust. The whole of the rear chassis and crossmember was fit only to be axed off and replaced, and Will wanted to replace the latter with a stouter item for recovery work anyway. This is what he came up with – a stronger-than-original unit which it tied into the back chassis with extra plates of steel to take the strain of heavy snatches

Something else a good back bumper should protect is your departure angle. Job done there: there’s an almost straight line down from the back of the body through the rear spring hanger to the tyre’s contact patch

The multiple receivers Will designed in can be seen here. These allow the bumper to accept a 50mm ball hitch, a demountable winch (he has two, a Come-Up 9000i and a Superwinch 4500) or the toe of a high-lift jack, in whatever position is most suitable for the recovery in hand. Note also the fuel tank guard; this protects a 1979 CJ unit, which at 50 litres is smaller than the original while still containing enough gas for a day’s green laning or a weekend at a playday site. Its size meant that after lifting the vehicle’s body, Will could mount it higher in the chassis, tucking it up higher and further away from expensive rocks

Will doesn’t do as much winching as he used to in the days before he got his Aussie Lockers, but the Come-Up 9000i still sees plenty of action. It’s spooled with Dyneema Bowrope, which is his first choice for safety – no small matter when most of the time it’s being operated by his wife. Interestingly, he’s found that the alloy hawse fairlead tends to get damaged by the rope when pulling at tight angles – ‘after a while, the rope cuts in and makes a sharp edge which I have to keep re-profiling with a die grinder. I blame it for snapping the rope a couple of times – not my fault for getting stuck, obviously!’

The winch mount looks unusual, but it’s been carefully thought through to provide maximum strength without sacrificing flexibility. Tied into the standard quarter-inch U-channel bumper, it’s bolted right through to the chassis to create an integral crossmember

Despite the fact that he has a second winch for use on the back bumper should the need arise, Will also designed the front one to be demountable. It sits on custom receiver brackets made from box-section and 14mm pins, allowing it to be detached with ease. Will does this when he wants to bring down the weight over the front axle, as well as when the situation calls for a more powerful pull astern; note the carry handles on the cradle making it easier to lug the unit around once the pins are pulled out

Tied to the underside of the bumper is a custom steering guard. This is asymmetric in shape, accommodating the vulnerable power steering box while doing the least possible amount of damage to the vehicle’s approach angle

Owning the Jeep has been a never-ending story of trying to fight off the dreaded tin worm, so it’s no great surprise that the original sills are long gone. Will cut them away and welded in his own fabricated full-length rock-sliders made from 40mm box with profiled ends. Tubular nerf bars provide added protection when it’s trees rather than rocks that he’s worrying about: ‘these create real side impact protection where there really was none, until you get to the chassis rails, about mid-way on the seats!’

Will’s changed the Jeep’s tyre size twice, and you won’t be hugely surprised to learn that they’ve got bigger each time. From 29” to 31” and on to its current 33x12.50R15 Mastercraft Coursers, it’s well chunky without being the biggest in the world – but even with the extra height in the springs, he still needed to lift the body by 60mm (a touch less than 2.5”) to make room for the taller meat. This was a simple case of chopping some polyurethane rod into seven equal lengths, drilling each one down the middle and using them as spacers between the chassis and body. Will reports that the brake and fuel lines had more than enough flex in them to cope

Will bought the vehicle with the +2” springs it still uses now, but he’s gained an extra inch by using home-made hangers and liberated some extra flex with his own anti-roll bar disconnects. He reckons it’s on the limit for the Rancho shocks, which he says have taken a beating over the years; when these are replaced, he’ll consider going with something longer in conjunction with a Z-link arrangement to let the springs dislocate. Meanwhile, he’s cleaned up the shape of the U-bolts so as to reduce the likelihood of snagging

Having converted the vehicle to a truck-cab, Will found that the top of the rear deck was an ideal home for his waffle boards and high-lift jack. ‘The waffles are a must,’ he says, ‘especially in snow,’ but in a break with tradition he’s not that excited about the jack. ‘I’ve not found a use for it yet, except for pulling roots in the garden and trying to trap my fingers’

The Jeep carries spare water, petrol and fuel during its normal life as a daily driver, but for off-road jaunts Will loads up with a pair of cargo boxes containing all his recovery kit. You’ll find a home-made ground anchor in here, along with a kinetic rope, various strops, two snatch blocks, shackles and a Superwinch S4500 on a demount bracket with matched skid plate for the rear bumper

There’s not a lot of unused space in a very well sorted interior, which carries everything from spare clothing to twin 12-volt air compressors – necessary to achieve equal pressures at both ends of each axle, so that the Aussie Lockers will work correctly. A first aid kit is carried in one of many cargo nets (how many people forget about that one…?) and there’s a removable carry store for yet more incidentals. The seats you can just see here were robbed from an Alfa Romeo in a scrapyard, and promptly treated to some waterproof covers for the journey ahead. Will prefers standard belts to harnesses, as they let him lean forward and watch where the tyres are going during those technical moments

You’ve got to love the combination of classic old-style simplicity and modern electronics, with an MP3 stereo and 80-channel CB mounted in the severe vertical dash of an old-school Jeep. Further clever kit comes in the shape of a hand-held GPs, which can be linked in to a laptop running the sort of navigation software that science fiction writers were still going on about in the days when the CJ was built

Being a traditional Jeep, the CJ’s doors lift off should you want to strip it down for some fun and games on the beach. Not the likeliest of contingencies in North Yorkshire, of course, but Will’s made up some lightweight tubular doors, skinned with cargo netting, which he fits when the weather’s warm enough. ‘A lot of people don’t “get” them,’ he says – ‘but they keep your arms and legs in and branches, nettles and thorns out!’

Will Cowley’s CJ7 is a masterpiece of recycling. It’s his everyday vehicle and off-road toy, and an object lesson in reusing parts and making your own bespoke bits. It might not sip fuel the way a modern-day shopping cart does – but it’s 27 years old and, thanks to his efforts in the workshop, going stronger than ever.

‘Now,’ says Will Cowley, ‘this is real recycling. It’s got to make more sense to build a car and keep it running, than scrap it and keep buying a new one every couple of years, with all the raw materials and energy used in the process!’

An agricultural engineer from North Yorkshire, Will’s the sort of person you can rely on to know a bit about making stuff go again. Waste is a four-letter word in his world – and crushing cars while they’ve still got life left in them is little short of criminal.

You certainly can’t imagine a good set of wheels being let go while Will’s around. Having grown up driving tractors on his parents’ farm and tagging along with his older brother on green laning trips, he was always going to be a bit of a petrolhead, and as he started learning his trade it wasn’t long before he began modifying cars. ‘Most involved getting a larger engine from the scrapyard, rebuilding it with high performance cams and carbs and chasing about with my mates,’ he admits. ‘My best upgrade was a 1.3-litre Vauxhall Chevette to a 2.3 on twin carbs, with an upgraded axle, brakes, suspension, wheels and tyres.’

Various GTIs followed, before commonsense prevailed and a 4.0-litre Jeep Wrangler came along. This was followed by an old Suzuki SJ, which possibly unsurprisingly didn’t have enough grunt for his tastes, before he went back to Jeep and got himself a diesel-engined Cherokee. ‘It was a perfect all-round car for getting about, green laning, camping trips, towing a dinghy and so on. It was also very good off-road, so I lifted it a bit and added 31-inch MTs and fabricated a front winch bumper, side rails and some underbody protection. That made it better still, and I started to do more serious stuff with it. Trouble was it was just too good and expensive a car to ruin.’

His answer? You’re looking at it. Will’s current toy is a 1983 CJ7 with a 4.2-litre six-pot and auto box, which he bought with an alloy rocker cover and two-inch lift springs and dampers already in place. ‘It’s an off-road icon,’ he says. ‘You’ve just got to admire the longevity and pedigree of the breed. Also, it’s easy to work on, body wise and mechanically, and has decent engine power. I fancied trying an auto, too – I could see many benefits of the smoother power application.’

That was five years ago, and the project has progressed steadily since then. Will didn’t buy the vehicle intending to do a full-on build straightaway, but has instead tried to do one major mod each year. He didn’t waste any time getting it on to bigger tyres, but additions like a new starter, bigger battery and fuel lift pump were more about reliability than performance. Since then, he’s fitted Aussie Lockers, converted the body to a truck-cab with a chequer plate storage compartment, converted the back axle to Suzuki disc brakes and Rover 400 calipers and swapped out the original diffs for higher-ratio units to cope with taller tyres yet.

Of all these, he rates the ‘brilliant’ Aussie Lockers as the best bought-in mod and the truck-cab conversion as the best home-brew. ‘It has improved visibility and access round the vehicle when in awkward situations, and it gives me all that rear storage space.’ Not that he’s unhappy with anything he’s fitted: ‘I considered the pros and cons of everything first, either proven on previous builds or observed on other vehicles.’

Something he didn’t need to observe anywhere else was that before he thought about improving the Jeep, first he needed to stabilise its descent into the land of crumbs. ‘When I got the vehicle,’ he says, ‘the rear chassis crossmember and rails were a bit ripe. As a known weak point for recovery work anyway, I cut out the rusty steel and replaced it with a stronger than original crossmember, repaired the rear rails and added extra steel along the length to tie it all in. I then added a custom-built multi receiver rear bumper for winch mounting and recovery points.

‘Over the time I have had it, I’ve worked through various old bodywork repairs and some newer rust areas. I’m probably about 90% through, but like painting the Forth Bridge I will be starting again eventually!’ When they say there’s no such thing as a finished project, that’s not normally what they mean…

Once Will does get the vehicle totally sound, assuming the first bits he repaired haven’t started rusting out again already he’s got a lengthy wishlist of future mods. These start with either a good straight-six diesel engine or a V8 with fuel injection – no shortage of choice either way, you’d think – and a stronger auto box to cope. Bigger tyres are on the agenda too (think 35-inch or more), along with stronger axles and bigger rear calipers to cope, and on the suspension front it’s a toss-up between going spring-over or converting to coils. As Will says, ‘there’s always something!’

All the same, he admits that if money were no object, he’d like to build a TJ Wrangler along similar lines to the CJ7. ‘Just to get on to coil springs, and get more clear air under the axles.’

Given that TJs are coming down in price all the time, don’t rule out the possibility of yet another Jeep joining Will’s long list of tidily modded off-roaders. As it is, though, he’s happy that this one is pretty much where he wants it to be, and with the knowledge and tool collection he’s gathered about him during his career there’s not a lot he can’t do to move it in whatever direction he decides.

Not that that’ll be far from where it is now, because after five years of modding, maintenance and restoration he’s got himself a daily driver that’ll put up with real beatings on playdays and still show up for work the next morning. It’s not a challenge-standard machine, but this is a fine example of how to build yourself a real-world off-roader of the very highest standard. It’s competent, it’s reliable and it’s fun – and as Will says, it’s the purest form of recycling.

Small wonders

As if owning a very neat CJ7 isn’t enough, Will also has a couple of radio-controlled rock-crawlers in his stable. ‘One is a Nylint customised to look like the full size one, though some may say the other way round! The other started off as a standard 4x4 Wheely King, but is now heavily modified. The chassis is reversed to get the weight of the battery up front, the axle locating rods are custom-built from ally tubing to extend the wheelbase to 12” 2.2 comp class, the diffs are both locked, the steering servo is an upgrade, the motor is an upgrade to a 55 turn Novak, the transfer box has lowered gearing, the speed controller is a Novak Rooster rock-crawler special and the tyres have been modified for max traction’.

DIY DIFF GUARD, USA ALLOY HALFSHAFTS, AUSSIE LOCKERS, DIY CROSSMEMBER, DIY WINCH MOUNT, MASTERCRAFT COURSERS, DIY BODY LIFT, DIY SPRING HANGERS, DIY STEERING GUARD, DIY ROCK SLIDERS