As most of you are very familiar with, when somebody asks what year your Jeep is, you smile and say "Which Part?" hence the question marks in the title...
I tried my best to wait until I was finished to do the build thread b/c if you guys are like me, it drives me crazy waiting months & months to see a completed project so I was going to try to post it all from start to finish but anxiety has gotten the best of me in wanting to share the project with the fellow gearheads so here we go....
Background: Got the Jeep almost 3 years ago for FREE! The guy couldn't get the 4.2 to bolt down in the engine bay & thought he had all kinds of stuff messed up so he said just take the thing minus the top & doors. $15 later for new motor mounts, the motor dropped right in!!! :2thumbsup:
A few hundred $$$ later (mainly for a radiator) I had a running & driveable mud buggy. A lot of mud & a few trees later, I had a broken frame rail (D. side where it turns up to go over rear axle) so in comes a $700 rolling chassis (minus engine & tranny) with 4" SL by Rough Country. When the body was being CUT off, it was apparent, a lot of work was in store to get it to bolt to the new chassis. All body mounts were disintegrated & nothing but rust existed. That brings us up to the current "build" which was to fix the body & get this baby goin again. First a few history pictures to prove that it was, indeed, once a mud buggy:
This is how i got it: No top, no doors, no windshield, no radiator, engine wasn't set in
First time out: The brown jeep is my girlfriend's dad's jeep....HE's the one that got stuck this trip :laugh:
New water pump with fresh paint on that & thermostat housing to keep it from lookin like old water pump:
Bondo fiberglass:
More fiberglass:
More fiberglass:
Now before looking at the Bondo pictures, you need to realize my goal with the bondo or with the Jeep period is not to make it a show or original jeep by any means. I used the bondo just to smooth out some of the HUGE "elevation changes" created by welding on really thick pieces of steel to fix body panels.
Skid plate problem took me most of a whole day to fix. Either motor needed moved back an inch or skid needed moved forward an inch. Decided to move skid forward an inch....it's not as easy as it sounds!
Fabbin up new mounts for the skid:
Skid plate done:
Sprayed undercoating on whole frame:
Tub back from "Lightning Liner" and installed on chassis:
Thought this was just a funny picture....it's the bellcrank and at one point, somebody put in that grease zerk & thought it a good idea to fill the whole thing with grease (yea, it's hollow) so when I put a rag in there & pushed it out, it came out lookin like one big turd. :rofl:
Test fittin grill & radiator:
Makin brackets to lower the radiator:
Notice the bracket welded to the radiator flange:
Radiator done...notice the middle of the radiator where you can see where the fan got into the radiator one time. Yea, that'd be the same tree that broke the frame & buckled the whole body....it was a bastard of a tree...but it was either take the tree or roll....and with no roll cage and no seatbelts with 4 people in the Jeep, I opted for the tree:
Front shot of grill after radiator has been lowered. Sometime, I'm gonna make some kind of guard to protect the bottom part of the radiator hangin below the grill:
Shot from the inside:
Painted firewall...used Krylong Rust Tough enamel...that stuff is awesome:
So that's about where I'm at now....I did get the base coat of paint sprayed on the tub last night and the hood also has a base coat (you have to pick & choose days warm enough to paint now that the snow is falling frequently).
I'm also in the middle of fixing the clutch linkage to work with the 3" body lift...not a big deal just a couple hours.
Still to do:
-) Run bypass hose from thermo housing to water pump since I have no heater
-) Finish clutch linkage
-) Finish dash
-) Wire engine compartment/gauges/radio/lights (I'm not using any wiring harness...making my own)
-) Install fenders & hood then finish paint job
-) Finish brake lines (from master cyl. to prop. valve) & bleed all lines
-) Install seats
-) Fill with fluids
-) Try to get it to start
-) Figure out what all problems I have & try to fix them :thumbsup:
Widely open to any suggestions. Please hold off on the 3" body lift putdowns...I know they're bad news but I'm not doing any serious trails, I just want the clearance. And the rollcage will be the next project....in good time.
I think it is great that you took something that was in tough shape and have it looking really good for the purposes that you wanted it built for.
Aside from the rear section, it still looks like the way it was when you started working on it. The extra tire clearance is definitely nice, add in that BL and you have plenty of room.
The 2 comments I have are
1) Radiator exposure... I know you dropped it down, but if you put a winch in front of it, you might not have anything blowing through it since there will be a lot of stuff in the way. Are you planning on running some sort of electric fan? I couldn't really tell from the pictures how much blockage there was.
2) Turd picture made me laugh. I had something similar when I pulled out the clutch setup. Good news is that there was grease in there. I have pulled them out bone dry before.
Thanks for the compliments guys...it's definitely been a ton of work but it's my first real project like this and my first time doing any real welding so it's been a fun learning experience.
certifiablejeep, the blockage isn't bad right now at all so I'm just going to keep the stock fan...however, if I ever build some kind of a guard to protect the lower radiator hanging below the grille, then I might have some problems b/c the guard would potentially be blocking a lot of airflow...
LSU, I'm hoping to have her done by next week. I ran into a pretty big problem with my front D. side fender tonight that's gonna require some crazy fab. that might not turn out pretty...I'm still not sure what I'm gonna do exactly. But yea, end of next week (fingers crossed). And I'll be stickin with the 33X12.50 TSL's that it's got right now. I'd love to upgrade but $$$ prohibits that anytime soon. I'm sure I could fit 35 and maybe even 37's in there without much trouble...but that'll have to come in time.
Sheesh...I got tired just looking at the pics of all that work to salvage the body...I'd have just bailed on it and picked up a $300 YJ tub and called it good
Question on your wheelhouse cubbies. Did you check to see where the rollbar 'kicker' feet sit? That's right about the area...
Thanks Fatman....After looking at some of the threads you've got going (which are AWESOME by the way) for a moment, I feel like I've done a really sub-par job but then I take a step back & look at it again and realize it's really almost spot-on with what i set out to do.
It takes a good set of blinders to stick with a "plan" and not dive deeper...and deeper...and deeper into the abyss otherwise known as "Owning a Jeep" so I'm happy I've refrained from tearing absolutely everything apart and working it over & spending a lot more $$$ than what I had originally intended.
Jeepskate, the $300 YJ tub would've probably saved just a couple hours or work but all the work & "customization" if you will has been satisfying. Plus, it was cheaper....I bought all the steel & a lot more (probably near a ton) for $15 in an auction. You bring up a good point about the cubby holes....I had forgotten about that when I had done it but had no intentions of using the original rollbar again anyway....so if I was going to try to use the roll bar, then no it would not work. Nice catch!
Most of your pictures after the second post don't work. That is to bad because what I saw looks great. Would like to see the finished product.
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