Wally's SFA getting closer to done.... fired up on Monday!!

jpzkj · **Posted:** Tue May 09, 2006 11:40 pm

Man....the flex shots are gonna be S I C K !!

JeepJunky33 · **Posted:** Wed May 10, 2006 9:50 am

Check out the Rock Krawler site. They have a posting to buy the KJ SFA system. They dont have a pic nor do they have a price but they do have a write up. It is lookin good. Plus I did notice that their Lift Kit system is out of control expensive.

skrracing · **Posted:** Wed May 10, 2006 10:08 am

The RK kit is not evn in the same ball park as far as what we have done. No trying to pull our own chain... But the RK kit is junk and can not even come close to what is on the Camo Edition for dang sure.

We know a couple of folks that have installed the RK and let's just say it did not work out too well at all. later. Clint

pixeldzn · **Posted:** Wed May 10, 2006 1:59 pm

Rock Crawler is actually advertising an SFA kit on thier site along with the proven crappy 7-UP kit.

Problem is, it is vaporware. It doesn't exist yet.

What All J has done, adapting an Nth Degree TJ lift to Wally's KJ is above and beyond anything RK will ever design. They are kind of know around the Jeep community for producing less than stellar lift kits.

zjmikey · **Joined:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:01 am **Posts:** 90

Well, I tell you I have a RK setup on my ZJ and it has been great.. (O.k.,I have their rear 4 link kit, arms and I am running their Coil springs.. The front I made myself and is custom

I have been a Rubicon Express distributor for over 10 years and the RE kit is not as nice as the RK kit I can tell you from experience. the RE Kit loses WAAAAY too much ground clearane..

However, the Nth kit is bitchen... good clearance.

there is a new kit coming out for the ZJ from a company called TNT customs, that is a VERY nice kit made for the ZJ, similar to an NTH kit with the bent arms.

Wally... your rig looks great.. cant wait to see it out on the trail...

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Wed May 10, 2006 4:18 pm

Gosh I need a write up on that!! Hopefully it will not take as long as jeepin alhas!!! I check to see if hes made one everyday!!

Anyway, wouldnt it be alot cheaper if you did what Jeepin Al did on the rear? Then all you would need to worry about would be the steering on the front and the axle conversion. You really dont need a new t-case and its easy to drop the tcase/tranny with shims. I purty sure you all went all out on that one! Hopefully you will not have any problems.

Ohhh, thats one awsome libby!! :wink:

allyrand · **Posted:** Wed May 10, 2006 6:27 pm

Sheesh if all we needed to worry about was the steering and the axle conversion we would have been done along time ago..there is ALOT more that has to be done to do this swap....crossmembers have to be fabbed, track bar mounts, sway bar, coil over mounts, I doubt we will even do a write up on how to do this, its not sometihn you can do in your drive way, nor will it probably even be a kit..it will probably be more like...show up to All J with a bag of cash and call back in a couple a months, and thats not because they don't work on it, its because thats just how long it takes, you can't rush a job like this and make it come out right, and you can't dedicate people just to do SFA swaps on KJs...it takes time just like any othe product that has to be fabbed up...I know alot of you want to know what it costs...well I can tell you this..if you were thinking 5k..your too low....the long arm kit alone is half that...and if you plan to run 33s thats probably another grand for tires and wheels.then you will need all new brakes in front, and the axle, and all the steering components, coil overs arn't cheap no matter what you do, then also add in new gearing and lockers if you need them...oh and then someones got to get paid for labor to do all this work, and if you don't have a lift. to get the vehicle in the air...forget it..it will be nearly impossible to work on it...I couldn't imagine having to plasma cut the crossmembers out on the ground and welding frame stiffeners on jack stands, also you will need to re do the entire exhaust from the motor back....the long arms will hit right where the cats come down..so thats at least another expense that has to be taken care of...I'm not writing this to detour anyone from doing it, I just want people to know to do this right it can not be a kit and it won't be cheap...with everything Ive done so far I am over 9k and I'm still not finished..I did do things that some probably wouldn't have done, but since we were doing all this anyway I didn't want to cut any corners..so far I am very happy with the outcome and I think its money well spent for me and how I wheel my rig..I know some will say thats too much money....you get what you pay for...if you can get it done for less, and you are comfortable with the outcome...go for it..I know All J will come up with a price to do this and it will be a fair price for this type of work...but it definatly won't be something that can be shipped to your front door....thanks...Wally

SavageSS27 · **Posted:** Wed May 10, 2006 8:30 pm

Ow, my wallet hurts just thinking about it, darn, that's a second car payment!!! OK, well i guess i'll start saving now...i wonder how long it's gonna take me to save up 10K, come to think of it probably double that, cuz i don't wanna do an exhaust if i'm gonna rip it out later to put in a V8, so might as well do it all at once...YIKES...i think i just spent $40K in the blink of an eye...'cuz if i'm gonna do all that, might as well do the audio while i'm at it, there's another ~$5-6K, and the engine and trans is gonna be at least $10K after labor...wow...now my head hurts too.....

DaveKJ02 · **Posted:** Wed May 10, 2006 8:31 pm

allyrand wrote:

..there is ALOT more that has to be done to do this swap....Wally

I'm willing to bet my KJ the SFA Camo Edition KJ will be an All J exclusive.

I'd be happy with the front bumper! :wink:

ShadE · **Posted:** Wed May 10, 2006 9:02 pm

yeah.. It is becoming blindingly apparent that the liberty is bound to IFS. for 10k, I would just assume get myself a beat-the-piss-out-of, trailer-trash rig. It would be cheaper to have two vehicles for that price.

Congrats to wally and AllJ for puting all that work into it, but I agree, this is probubly going to be a one-of-a-kind.

SavageSS27 · **Posted:** Wed May 10, 2006 9:27 pm

I've got all intentions of spending the cash. I mean, as far as i'm concerned, the Liberty is the perfect vehicle (except for the engine and IFS). It's sealed if you want it to be, open enough for most, plenty capable, good looking and alla around a GREAT rig, i just need to dump some more, ok A LOT more cash into it...

Heather · **Posted:** Wed May 10, 2006 11:59 pm

a lot of progress today

Stinger and Crossmember are pretty much done and the KJ is sitting on the ground so we could figure out rear ride height. Also, our stock front sway bar showed up today as well. Now that we know what to do for springs in the back, the rest of the major work will be done. Then to all the little details........ also we got the Rock Lizzard rear bumper on today as well. Getting closer by the day

Just a side note...... some of Wally's $$$$ was spent on the 241 Rock Trac t-case, ARB lockers, Beadlocks, and a replacement rear axle (someone hit it before it came to the shop) Some of these parts wont be needed normally, so the cost could be a lot lower than the figure Wally is at. I still see a good SFA conversion running in the 7,000 to 10,000 range as a estimate.

We have also talked with other interested parties about future SFA KJ conversions.......

dirtykj · **Posted:** Thu May 11, 2006 2:44 am

Heather wrote:

I still see a good SFA conversion running in the 7,000 to 10,000 range as a estimate.

We have also talked with other interested parties about future SFA KJ conversions.......

I won't hold you to these figures

BTW, is the 'guesstimate' parts-only, or parts + labour? Or, put another way, what kind of hours are we looking at, after you've done a few of these conversions?

JJsTJ · **Posted:** Thu May 11, 2006 7:24 am

Were parts like crossmember, mounts, brackets, steering mount, trackbar mount, coil over mounts, any fabbed adapters, etc. documented and can they be made ahead of time?

Will any of those parts be available to purchase by someone that is in another state and wants their local shop to perform the work?

I think I will start shopping for a front diff now and build it up w/ better axles, gears, locker, etc. to at least get it ready. I am going to plan to have mine SFA'd & ready for Big Bear 07. I can't wait to see how this all shakes out in the end.

krazz1e · **Posted:** Thu May 11, 2006 10:51 am

My ? is how much is the labor factor? If we can source some parts over time and then have it fabb'd up that might help. 5-7k seems resonable but 10k does not. Not saying it dosen't cost that much just saying it's get to a point where is it better to invest into something else, say perhaps a newer 4 door wrangler rubicon w/ diesel?

JJsTJ · **Posted:** Thu May 11, 2006 11:01 am

krazz1e wrote:

My ? is how much is the labor factor? If we can source some parts over time and then have it fabb'd up that might help. 5-7k seems resonable but 10k does not. Not saying it dosen't cost that much just saying it's get to a point where is it better to invest into something else, say perhaps a newer 4 door wrangler rubicon w/ diesel?

Which you will then drop several thousand $$ into to make it capable enough for hard rockcrawling. So, a $30k 4 door wrangler rubicon w/ diesel + another bunch of $$$$$. Would be cool, but I am not looking for more car payments, just a more capable Liberty. THough once I see a 4 door Wrangler I might have to have it! :shock:

UGH.

krazz1e · **Posted:** Thu May 11, 2006 11:13 am

Quote:

Which you will then drop several thousand $$ into to make it capable enough for hard rockcrawling. So, a $30k 4 door wrangler rubicon w/ diesel + another bunch of $$$$$. Would be cool, but I am not looking for more car payments, just a more capable Liberty. THough once I see a 4 door Wrangler I might have to have it! :shock:

UGH.

How true that is, lol! It would be cool to have a KJ w/ SFA though. We'll see glad someone is willing to try it so the rest of us can decide.

chefdab · **Posted:** Thu May 11, 2006 3:19 pm

Quote:

..I know All J will come up with a price to do this and it will be a fair price for this type of work...but it definatly won't be something that can be shipped to your front door....thanks...Wally

But wasn't that the objective of this whole exercise? To create something with as many off the shelf parts as possible that could be sold as a kit to anyone who wants to do this type of mod. I know I can't do the work involved for this conversion but there is a local shop that has done SFA swaps before who I could take this kit to and have them install it. Or I could shell out another grand or two and just have them create a one off just for me. The benefit of a kit however is a slight cost savings and the ease of replacing any parts when necessary. I would really like to do this swap someday, but living on the east coast, I'm certainly not going to be driving out to Cali to let All J have my Jeep for a month to work on.

kickit_in4wheel · **Posted:** Thu May 11, 2006 5:16 pm

chefdab wrote:

But wasn't that the objective of this whole exercise? To create something with as many off the shelf parts as possible that could be sold as a kit to anyone who wants to do this type of mod.

No, actually it was not. This is happening because Wally wanted a SFA KJ, and he wanted it done right. Like he and Clint have said, kit options were considered, but the fab work has been too extensive to seem plausible. They did say that they are speaking to other parties about a kit. Perhaps some of the SFA swap stuff could be universally made. Plus, not everyone doing a swap will want the same height, hardware, and suspension system Wally is using.

sibiri · **Joined:** Tue Jul 12, 2005 9:29 pm **Posts:** 5

Wally, Would you mind to give me the model and specs for the coilovers you are using in front and for the ones in the rear?
Your Kj looks pretty good, hope you test it off road very soon.!!

Thank you

Saludos

Bruce

Wally's SFA getting closer to done.... fired up on Monday!!

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