Jack in the Box Style Creature From Car Suspension Parts

This all started when I found an old plastic head and hands for sale at a local Goodwill shop. I didn't know what they were from, or what I'd use them for, but there was no way I was going to leave them there for someone else to get! Once I had them home I researched them a little and found out they were from a Jack in the Box that sold at Home Depot. That gave me the inspiration to do something with springs, but I wasn't sure what until I was rummaging through my scrap metal and I had an idea. I had recently replaced the suspension on my Toyota FJ Cruiser and on my kid's Jeep Liberty and I knew I had everything I needed to create my own evil Jack in the Box.

This is also a great project for someone learning to weld. The welds don't have to be perfect or look great, in fact the gnarlier they look the better. There are also multiple types and thicknesses of metal so it makes good practice.

For this there are plenty of options if you have a bunch of parts around, but the specific parts I used were:

1. Head and hands from a Jack in the Box (if I make another one of these I already have in my mind to use an old propane tank for the head and weld together hands with old wrenches)
2. Front strut assemblies from a Jeep Liberty and Toyota FJ Cruiser
3. Rear spring and shocks from the FJ Cruiser
4. Rear springs from the Liberty
5. Front lower control arms from the Liberty
6. Front brake rotors from the Liberty

I also used a bunch of miscellaneous supplies and equipment

1. Pieces of scrap metal for adding support and bracing
2. Welder, either a wire feed or arc welder will work. I used a MIG welder for most of it and an arc welder for a couple spots.
3. Torch and miscellaneous hand tools
4. Rope or tie downs to stabilize everything while assembling

I started by laying the parts out to get an idea of the proportions. I used a few different things from my scrap pile before I ended up with a combination that worked for me. I immediately knew that the super long forearms were going to add a creepy factor just from looking at it on the ground.

Using the brake rotors for feet, I welded the FJ Cruiser struts to them, making the lower legs. I really wanted to capture an organic "in motion" feel, so I stood in a walking position and matched the angles of the struts to my legs. It was tough to get good penetration of the welds on the rotors at first, so I grabbed a torch and heated them up before welding the struts to them and it worked much better.

I then welded the rear FJ springs to the top of the struts to create the upper legs. I used a lower control arm to form the hips and welded them in place. I had to get creative and slide a couple steel rods through the control arm bushing to create a way of fastening the control arm to the spring.

Important note: while assembling this I basically tack welded everything in the beginning. I didn't want to have to work too hard to break or cut welds later if I wanted to move the positions of anything.

To create the body I welded a spring from the Liberty onto the hip section and then mounted the other control arm to form the shoulders. The whole thing started to get pretty wobbly at this point, so I decided to bolt it down to a pallet. This would also make it a little easier to move around.

The front struts from the Liberty became the upper arms. To get the organic feel mentioned earlier, I again tried to match the position of the arms to a walking stance. I was really happy with how it was turning out, and really felt that it didn't just look like a motionless robot standing there.

Once the shoulders went on this became very top heavy, and began rocking back and forth pretty uncontrollably. I tied it down into position using ratchet straps connected to the pallet.

To mount the head I used a steel bar run through the control arm bushing and welding into place, and a small piece of strap hanger to hold it in place. This is one of the times that just using a few pieces of scrap was necessary.

The nice long rear shocks became the forearms, which are awesome. They add a feel that the creature is about to wrap it's arms right around you. The lower section of the shock also rotates, allowing me to change the position of the hands easily. The hands have small metal shafts on them that slid right through the lower shock mounting bolt which made it very easy to put together.

Now that everything was put together and where I wanted it, it was time to follow up with welds. I put solid welds on every tack I did earlier and gave it a good shake test. The springs for the thighs were way too wobbly and didn't offer enough support so I used more scrap and added bars to the front and back of each thigh to give them rigidness. Other than that everything was just right. At this point I was about 3 hours into the project and was VERY excited at how it was turning out.

Now that it was all done it was time to drag it into it's final position. I happened to have an old cast iron cauldron so I put some light into it that change colors and put a piece of leftover pandemic plexiglass (can we use that as an official name) over it to keep leaves and water out. At this point I consider it done and I'm thrilled with how it turned out. When the wind blows the upper half rocks back and forth on it's "body" spring and it really looks cool!

I don't think this Instructable needs a lot of detail, as it's mostly visual. My main hope is that someone sees it and realizes what they might be able to do with some scrap material they have. Any automotive springs and shocks/struts will work, I just happened to luck out that the proportions of what I had really worked out well and made just the right creep factor. I think the most important step is laying out the pieces before starting any assembly.

I know that earlier I called this done, but I don't think it is. I picture adding something to make it rock back and forth, maybe a motion sensor and light up eyes. The list keeps building in my mind, and to me that's what makes this one fun. It's just the beginning and a great starting point of some cool decorations.