Jeep_SLC, Taking Care of Their Own	Short Cuts
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by: Bart Jacobs

A Friend in Need

I met Scott Phillips almost five years ago when I was just beginning the phase of building a 4x4 rig to do harder trails. Scott had one the first CJ7s I had seen with Dana 44s, 4.10 gears, an ARB locker, winch, T18 tranny, and 33 inch tires. Man, those were huge back then.

I got to run with Scott for a couple of years before he started having problems with his rig. Basically his frame started to disintegrate from years of use in Utah. First the steering box broke from the frame, then after it was fixed it broke again. The body mounts were also rusting through and had been fixed several times, but continued to fail. It got to the point where it was dangerous to drive the thing, both on and off road. In the end, Scott had a nice looking Jeep with great components, but both the frame and body were toast.

Shortly after parking the rig, Scott had some things in his personal life go bad, as things sometimes do. This caused all his resources and priorities to be funneled in a different direction and as a result the Jeep went into storage.

Now despite being Jeepless, Scott was always the first to volunteer for projects and events that helped local off-roaders. He has been a Judge in both the ARCA and UROC series events. He still managed to get to activities like Easter Jeep Safari in Moab as a passenger in one of his brothers' rigs, or with friends. He has been involved with Land Use issues and continually helped with community events like the Utah Four Wheel Drive food drive around Thanksgiving time. In addition, Scott has been active on a couple of 4x4 related e-mail lists, one local list in particular being the Jeep-SLC list.

Occasionally Scott would post something concerning his Jeep, but when it came down to it, there was just no funding to get it back on the road. This fall Brett Culpepper, a friend from another e-mail list, mentioned he had a frame and tub he was letting go for $250. I wrote to Scott and told him this could possibly be the solution to his Jeep. Timing (just before Thanksgiving and Christmas), logistics (the frame and tub were in California, and Scott is in Utah), and finances were all contributing factors that seemed to nix the deal.

A Community Comes Together

I understood Scott’s position but just couldn’t let this opportunity go by. It had been too long since his Jeep had seen dirt, or pavement for that matter. I put together a large number of people from the local Jeep-SLC list and let them in on the situation and an idea. The plan was to get enough donations to purchase the tub and frame and transport it to Utah. The response to this conspiracy was incredible. There were so many friends and list acquaintances that wanted to help Scott that the initial goal was met and exceeded in a couple of days. Together the "conspiracy list" agreed to raise as much as possible and give him the balance for the additional parts and extras it would take to help get the rig back together.

Once the money was raised, the problem of getting the tub and frame to Utah had to be addressed. Coincidently, Matt Hornback from Rocky Mountain High 4x4 mentioned he was heading down that way for Thanksgiving, and would be willing to tow a trailer and bring the stuff back. It’s amazing how things just seem to work out when good people get involved to help someone out.

The further this thing went along the more great ideas emerged and the more people got involved. The conspiracy list decided that, not only should we give the tub and frame to Scott, but that we should spend a day to get it cleaned up and somewhat straight. It was also decided to pledge two additional work days to the project. This would help get everything swapped over and on its way to becoming a drivable rig again. Russ Fullmer, owner of Amos Rents in Salt Lake, was generous enough to let us store and work on the project at a shop behind his business.

Now, you know that for $250 you’re not going to be getting a whole lot of Jeep parts, yet I was amazed how nice the frame turned out to be! It cleaned up well, too. The tub was just what I expected and needed a lot of work to get straight. Russ showed the project to ARCA competitor Kevin Hawkins and Kevin was generous enough to donate a very clean front cowl to the project. The intent was that we could cut off the other cowl and splice on the new one, and it would be much less work than repairing the tub. This act of kindness snowballed again. When I mentioned the good cowl to Matt Hornback, he offered to trade a whole YJ tub, that needed some work, for the cowl. Now we had a nice frame and decent tub that was complete.

The work day turned out to be one of the greatest days I’ve had working on 4x4s. A bunch of people linked together by an e-mail list, some meeting for the first time, all contributing to help out a fellow off-roader. The coolest part of that day was "body-by-backhoe" where we blocked the tub and used the scoop of a backhoe to tweak it a bit. Scott’s brothers and father got involved, too, and were there to help and to buy pizza for lunch. We had no hardware to attach the tub to the frame, so a team was sent to Mepco to acquire body bushings and hardware. When Mike Espinoza at Mepco found out what we were up to he threw in a body lift to help the cause. It is amazing how the off-road community bands together to help each other out.

It was decided that we would surprise Scott with the project at lunch the following week. His dad agreed to help get him there without revealing what was up. There happened to be even more things going on in the Phillips family that week that almost postponed the event, but again, things worked out. Scott, his father and brothers, and about 30 local friends and off roaders converged on the Soup Kitchen. The ruse was supposed to be a meeting about Easter Jeep Safari. At lunch the BS was flying and Scott still had no idea this was just a big gathering of friends on his behalf.

Brett Davis made sure Scott was there before pulling the project into a parking lot across the street. After lunch we all gathered around in a corner of the building. I announced that it was a goal to get all rigs to Easter Jeep Safari that year, following the theme of the luncheon, and then went on and mentioned that it was Scott’s rig, in particular, that we were determined to get there this year. Scott’s jaw dropped as we handed him $190 in cash, which we almost had to fight him to take. Next we told him that we had a bunch of donated parts out in the parking lot and he could have what he wanted.

Scott was speechless when he saw the tub and frame. When Scott was almost able to breath again, Andi Vogt presented him a Warn Winch accessory kit, compliments of Warn, that had also been donated to the project. All the conspiring, planning, and work had come together in a magnificent manner. This was a fun project to be part of and it is still amazing to me how helpful and giving the off-road community to can be. Look for Scott at Easter Jeep Safari this year, I’d almost guarantee he’ll be there.

Scott's dad getting into the sanding.	Scott with Brian Cannon.	Scott in the parking lot.