95 Frame off Restoration Project

KTM265 · 01-25-2008, 10:44 AM

I recently purchased a 95 YJ...4.0 with the 3 speed auto as an Anv. present for my wife. She has no idea about it... The first car we bought together after getting married was a 95 Wrangler Sport....remember the ugly splash stripes on the blue? We loved the Jeep, had a lot of fun with it until we traded it in to get her a new car. Anyway... I found this one in great condition. It's completely stock with only a little surface rust on the hindges and a stress crack on the inside of the driver's door. The plan is to do a frame off restoration, add on the sport trim package for the 95 and paint it blue...currently it's red. I'm leaving off those ugly splash stripes. I'll try go get some starting pictures posted up...

With that being said... I have never done a frame off before. My buddy that is helping me has done a lot of frame off restorations so I'm comfortable there. He hasn't done a Jeep before so what we are looking for is what are some trouble areas we should check, what are some tricks we should know when it comes to pulling the body off the frame. Anythingy special we need to know about?

aaronc88 · 01-25-2008, 09:46 PM

Look at the rust give it a hammer test check around the shakles and the rear crossmember. Fix anything that needs to be fixed now its alot easier when it is all apart. Get a good cut off wheel. All but tow of my body mount bolts broke as i went to take them off. O yeah dont forget to remove that engine ground strap that connects to the firewall some how i missed that and tore it off when i was taking the tub off.

sam.b. · 01-25-2008, 10:22 PM

watch the body bolts when trying to take them off
watch what wires and screws/nut and bolts go where (i always end up with extras somehow)
personally id PB blast every nut and bolt about a week before i got started even if they are not rusty

KTM265 · 01-26-2008, 01:21 PM

The plan is to nut and bolt the entire Jeep. While the tub is off I have the frame, motor, drive train...all exposed and easy to work on. Anything that has any rust will be blasted and we are going to undercoat the frame and other parts painted or poweder coated... The underside of the tub is going to be Rino lined... Lots of fun.

goatboy · 01-26-2008, 07:10 PM

If there's no reason to take the body off the frame...don't... and most of the time, the VAST majority of the time, it isn't necessary...the reason I say that is because the tub without the frame is a relatively fragile assembly...it is fairly easy to tweak, and once tweaked, theres no untweaking it... but if you do wind up taking it off, always keep it well supported, ALWAYS!!! Not doing so is a pretty common mistake in the car restoration hobby...the guys doin' it as a business know this, and take the necessary precautions...

KTM265 · 01-27-2008, 08:20 PM

We are planning on building a jig with wheel so we could roll it around... but good tip there to be extra careful with it.

KTM265 · 03-08-2008, 03:36 PM

OK, it's in the shop now and I have decided to replace all the suspension bushings with Polyurethane bushings while I have the body off and also replace the body mounts. Any recommendations for a brand? I'm looking at Prothane and Energy Suspension kits... Also shackles, looking for some recommendations on a good greasable shackle. This is not going to be an off-road Jeep, just a good getting around town Jeep for my wife...maybe a little lift with the new shackles but no lift kit...nothing more then 1 inch.

cheap5.0 · 03-08-2008, 05:06 PM

I have been shopping for a body lift as well, and really like how the JKS 1.25" lift or the daystar 1" lift looks. The daystar lift is actually your body mounts as well, so if you need new mounts that would be a good way to go.

As for the shackles, check out some M.O.R.E Boomerang shackles. They give 5/8" lift and i have read they mellow out the ride a little bit. They are also greasable

KTM265 · 03-08-2008, 09:13 PM

Not planning on doing any body lift... Just replacing all the stock mounts and suspension bushings. I'll check out those shackles... Are they in Quadratec?

KTM265 · 09-01-2008, 08:59 PM

Update time... After getting it into the shop and looking closely at it, we decided no need to pull the frame. I went ahead and replaced all the body mounts though as planned.

I stripped it down and painted it Viper red... It was already red in color so it brightened the old Jeep up a lot. We found very little rust. Most of the rust was surface and ground off easily. Put some bondo on it to smooth it out...not perfect but it's solid and it's bright. The hood I went with a metalic blue...You can only guess where I'm going with this next...white stripes and stars.

Right now I'm in the process of bolting back all the trim, lights and doors. I gutted the doors, picked up an extra set of half doors and gutted those. So far it's taking a lot longer then I planned but I'm enjoying it. I think my wife will be happier though when I don't have Jeep doors sitting in our livingroom being pieced back together.

KTM265 · 11-27-2008, 02:27 PM

Here are a couple of pictures of my 95 Jeep project. This all started about a year ago when I found a 95 YJ that was in very good shape and left completely stock. the paint was faded and the body was solid. I pulled the body and put in new body mounts, next was the paint. I went with Viper Red and a Metalic blue on the head. The last step is putting on stars and stripes. I'm having a friend make those and hopefully we'll be applying those and creating a look of them flowing in the breeze. I have a full bushing kit and 1 1/4 inch shackle lift ready to go. I'll probably wait until spring to put those on. The roof rack came off a Cherokee and you own the night when you hit the switch for those lights. The bumper is a tube bumper and I'm working to see how that will work with a winch.