A lot of years have passed since building my old red Jeep YJ. I started building the red YJ about 12 years ago while in college. Carla and I had just gotten married. A few months before I sold my previous black Jeep YJ rock crawler sitting on full width axles to help fund a new place to live for Carla and I. The urge to get back in the shop lurked in my thoughts but did not take long before I had to build another Jeep. Carla and I found this red beauty in the Truck Trader magazine and bought it for 4500 dollars. One week later I ripped it apart to the bare frame and starting building a new rock crawler. I admit it was difficult working full time, going to college, and recently getting married to get the Jeep built. My wife worked at night as a nurse so I did have some time to bang on some steel.
The Jeep was built the first time in Birmingham and then rebuilt after college in my dad’s barn. I sold the Jeep 8 years ago to a guy in Birmingham. I hated to see the Jeep go but swore I was done with offroading. LOL I guess you can say the bug never left me. It came back hard in 2001 when I founded Blue Torch FabWorks. My history in offroad fabrication has spanned many years and I think I will always love building things and love offroading. I sold BTF out last year and moved home to focus on family. I am looking forward to building a new buggy with my son. It is going to be a change as I have not built a buggy for myself in roughly 4 years. I have spent all of my time bending tube, welding, and planning builds for other people for way too long.
My life seems to go in cycles around fabrication and offroading. I guess you can see a pattern emerging as I build, then step back, and jump back in deeper. I have not built anything since leaving the shop in September 2009, but I do plan to start something very soon for my family and I to have some good times with. I don’t think I will ever go back into the fabrication business. I think I will keep it as a hobby this time. Thinking about all of this brings back memories of building this red Jeep YJ when fabrication was done simply for the love of it. This Jeep was built before rock crawling competitions were ever heard of. As a matter of fact the very first rock crawling competition held in 1999 was in my sights until I found out I could not compete because of my last college finals. I had to finish school rather than go play with a Jeep as my wife would say. I look back at the last 10 years in amazement of how the offroad industry has evolved.
Anyway, enough of my rant. Here are some pics of my old red YJ.
Brent's BTF Fusion Chassis Wrap
King Of The Hammers 2010
[...] on my YJ about 12 years ago. You will have to work about the steering box but it is not a big deal. You can find pics of my old red Jeep HERE __________________Dan DuBose <<<"I Build Stuff">>> http://www.509media.com [...]
[...] YJ in 1997 ish. I sold the Jeep 9 years ago. I have built a lot of them over the years since then. Dan DuBose's Pre Blue Torch FabWorks Jeep YJ, The Barn Built Jeep | 509 Media __________________ Dan DuBose <<<"I Build Stuff">>> [...]
[...] Dan DuBose's Pre Blue Torch FabWorks Jeep YJ, The Barn Built Jeep | 509 Media Probably not the flat fenders you were looking for but they are flat. This was a Jeep I built many years ago while still in college. Things have changed a lot since then. For those looking for a simple way to build flat fenders at home this might be of help. Blue Torch FabWorks, Inc. Please direct your questions about this part to the Blue Torch Fab staff. I sold the company last year. From what I understand they are vendors here on the board. __________________ Dan DuBose <<<"I Build Stuff">>> http://www.509media.com [...]