Keeping it cheap is hard work

I wanted to start this blog off with telling you the How and the Why I'm building this Jeep, but it's Sunday night, I'm a slow writer and I want to go to bed soon so I'm just going to tell you the What I'm working on now.

So about a month ago I was browsing through the local Pull-A-Part. I'm taking a shortcut through the imports and that's when I see a ninety something Isuzu Rodeo with a tireless tire carrier and I get a mental picture of various Jeep catalogs with the prices of after market tire carriers floating in my head. So I pulled my tape out and started measuring and then found out the carrier would fit, but not perfectly. First the tire would be around an inch shy from being centered when on the carrier... I can live with that. Second the Rodeo's body has a convex shape and the Jeep is flat so I would have to modify the mounting points... I can weld and grind. Third when finished, I figure the body would have around 300 lbs attached to it so I would have to reinforce the heck out of it... Yey more welding and grinding! The big advantage, well a tire carrier for about 25 bucks and one that would keep my frame/ bumper free for other things. Lucky for me I included some Torx wrenches in my tool box.

So right now I'm a little over three quarters the way done. I plan to includes pics and some instructions in the next blog; but I wouldn't follow too closely, because I have a tendency to eyeball too much and grind to correct.