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Earthcrosser, my 1992 YJ build (of sorts)

7K views 43 replies 23 participants last post by  57plymouth 
#1 ·
Here's the story;

I was given this 1992 YJ by the original owner's son when he went to Georgia (the country in Europe, not the state). He had towed it to my house in drive over 200 miles three years ago. He sort of left it here for a year, then he came back and we pulled and rebuilt the tranny. Then he abandoned it at a local garage, mostly because I was sick of looking at it and would not diagnose why it wouldn't run right. It sat there for seven months, then he went to Georgia, so he mailed me the title and told me I could have it. I drove it home, and replaced the two primary fuses for the charging system and have been driving it as my daily driver ever since. So, it's a $6 Jeep.

I built a towing bumper this summer to use it to pull my dad's shrimp boat. Then I got sick of looking at the flat blue paint.

Since my wife has the week off, and I'm a stay at home dad, I had a week to work on the Jeep while the wife watches our daughter.

Here's what it looked like when I got it:



Here it is after I painted the wheels and roof, and bobbed the front bumper and built the rear.





And here is this week's work...











It is not orange as the crummy camera I used makes it look. It's a VERY bright red. I still have to paint the interior metal and the insides of the doors. I think I will repaint the bumpers just to freshen them up. I need to put another two coats on the flares, then color sand and buff the Jeep and assemble it. I have to repaint the black, since I got too anxious and masked it before it had fully cured. Some of it lifted when I peeled off the masking this morning.

Next plan; shoot the interior metal to cover the rest of the blue, then shoot the floors with Upol Raptor.
 
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#2 ·
It looks great! :thumbsup:

In my opinion, find a way to leave the flares off. It looks killer like that! :thumbsup:

Max :cheers2:
 
#3 ·
I like, and agree with max about the flares, I wish I could get rid of mine as well. Anyway, looks great, and post more pics when you are done.
 
#4 ·
Very nice job man. Any interior plans???
 
#10 ·
I agree that would be nice, and it looks awesome. I will never be lucky enough to get a deal like that!!!
 
#11 ·
So, I finished the interior this afternoon.

Here are two shots of my floor pans, just to piss off the guys with rusty floorpans. No repairs, just some paint to hide where the carpet does not cover until I can spray it with Upol Raptor.





Here's the interior. The gray is hammertone paint.











And the exterior in better light. I still am waiting on a few decals to finish the project.



 
#15 ·
Looks good! What did you do to the front turn signals? Did you paint them or buy them in the dark/black color?
 
#17 ·
I painted them with VHT Nite Shades paint. I put on four coats, and the can says that more than three is too much. I tested them after three, and wanted just a little more. They are too dark for the parking lights to show, but the turn signals are still very clear in bright daylight. I'm very happy, as I hate yellow lenses on cars.
 
#16 ·
Looks good $6 well spent good job on the paint and i like the roof rack too

:cheers2:
 
#18 ·
After drilling out those stupid torx bolts on the windshield frame, I have my roof rack on. It's off a TJ, so I had to re-drill the front mounting brackets. I took the lights that came with it off until I get them wired up. I guess I could have left them on, but it didn't.





 
#19 ·
Herculined the interior. I must have put it on too thick. I did not coat the tailgate or the interior walls and used the entire gallon. Oh well, I'm happy with it.

I broke two bolts holding the roll cage in, so I gave up. I know, I'm a wimp but I don't really care. I also coated the door jambs where I kept scratching up the paint. I planned to coat that area when I painted the Jeep, so I didn't do a great job of prepping under the red paint, and it looked rough. The Herc covered a lot of sins there. I also didn't take a lot of time to tape up and get a hard clean line at the joint between the floor and the walls. I plan to put the carpet back in after the Herc cures for a week or two. The purpose of this Herc job was to coat the floors for the two months that the Jeep sits at Edisto Island during shrimp season so I wouldn't have to worry about salt water killing the floors. Also for sound deadening since this is my daily driver the other 10 months of the year.









 
#21 ·
It's a Warrior Products rack I got used with 6 KC lights for $100. It is attached to the windshield hinge, so it must be removed to fold the windshield. I usually pull the pins on the rear legs, then I can swing the soft top frame past the rack. I can feed the fabric in place with the rack in place. It adds about 30 more seconds to folding the soft top. Let's face it, folding the soft top isn't a breeze anyway.

I have to pull all four pins and lift the rack off to swap the hardtop on and off.

If I hadn't found this one so cheap, I would not have bought it. It would be nice to have one that swings away, and that does not have the large inverted V shaped brackets bolted to the tub. I wanted a rack, and this one was cheap, so I put it on.
 
#23 ·
I've got just over $900 in the Jeep altogether.

Lots of used and e-bay parts, and the paint was leftover. Tires were new, but marked down closeouts. The Herc was on sale, which is why I used it over Upol Raptor. Even the radio was a Black Thursday sale.
 
#24 ·
I still have been to lazy to take a photo with the soft top on.

But here it is with the top off. I got caught in the rain at a fund raiser BBQ I was working at with the top at home. There was water standing in it about 1 inch below the door openings. Oh well. It took the CD player a week to start working right again.

 
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