FOR SALE - $3,000 OBO
Email AJ
Additional info from Offroad.com message boards
I have talked with AJ a bit on and off for maybe a year. I still don't have his VIN info but at least I have some pictures and a write-up he did for another site. AJ is missing his hoodscoop and emblems, but you can see he still has the tachometer. You can see in the engine bay picture below that there is an outline where his special order tag used to be. AJ is currently working on rebuilding his Hurst into a serious off-road vehicle.
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AJ's Story
I found this "Hurst" Jeepster in the summer of 04. It was about 2 blocks away from where I had just moved in. I had always liked Jeepsters because I had grown up with a 67 convertible. I saw the hood tach and where it looked to be a hood scoop and thought that someone added these on. I had never heard of a "Hurst" Jeepster. I bought it and found a ton of things that the PO had done. It was repainted, a different engine/tranny swapped in, and a sweet front bumper. It needed a lot of work.
First to go was the front bumper and the rack hanging off of the rear bumper. I had plans of doing a small lift and converting the front to discs. The thoughts of doing a small lift and a disc swap ended after I started checking out the front end. It was a super strong Dana 27 with closed knuckles. The ring and pinion were shot because someone swapped a front end that had 4.27:1 gears and the rear had a 3.73:1 gear ratio. It was then that I started having visions of a sprung over, big tired, low geared rock crawler. I was in a tight time frame, so I had to find axles fast. Luckily I found a set of scout axles, so I re-geared and rebuilt them. If I would have had more time I would have waited for a pair of Dana 60s. I really wish that I would have now, but at the time I was telling myself that dana 44s were going to be ok.
The spring over was pretty straight forward in the rear. My rear leafs already had an extra leaf so I will run it until I have an issue with axle wrap. I also added a 1" extended shackle. The front has outboarded YJ springs. I also decided to go with a reverse shackle setup.
I am running a set of Toyo 35/13.50/15 tires with some custom backspaced wheels. The wheels are 2.5" bs. I am regretting getting 35s when I should have gone with 37s. I guess when I go to Dana 60s I will get 37s.
I was going to keep the engine/tranny/tcase, which at the time I thought was stock, until I got it running and heard an exhaust leak. I tore the heads off and found some metal shavings. I also realized that the engine was rebuilt with very few miles. I kept going until I found the root of the problem, the thrust bearing on the crank. It was in bad shape and so was the crank on that one journal. I started to check into rebuilding it and when I did I found out it was a 231 odd-fire. The transmission was a t-98 and it had the stock Dana 20 transfer case. I decided that I wanted fuel injection anyway and more power, so the v8 swap was on.
Since I went v8, the t-98 wasn't going to work out for me. I was thinking of just finding another standard transmission, but autos are better for slow speed crawling. I was going to rebuild a c6 auto but then I decided that I wanted overdrive. I found an aod transmission that I rebuilt with heavy duty clutch packs and beafed up the overdrive. It should work out just fine.
The transfer case is a stock Dana 300. It is coupled to the aod using an advanced adapters unit.
The power steering is a Saginaw unit with a ford pump ( I will see how long this holds up).
As of now the Jeepster needs painted, and I am still trying to find an original hood scoop. I also want to get the hood tach calibrated for a v8. I have a set of fender flares and a swing away tire carrier that aren't pictured. The next thing for me to tackle will be the interior. I already have a cb radio and a nice sound system to add. I am thinking of going with all custom gauges.