[Ford_Prefect]

Wow, those springs are dang close to the tires on that last photo. Is that going to be a concern for you when you lower the tire pressure?

Still coming along nicely. Hey, tell me, what color are you going to paint it when it is all said and done?

[danheit]

Yep, springs are just far enough away to fit my hand between them and the tire. As far as airing down, I hope that won't have to happen. I dunno if this one will make it to rock duty. Kinda depends on how everything plays out. As of right now, my plans are to leave the engine bay black (firewall, don't have any fenders), paint the rest of the tub bright yellow with the center section of the hood in a gloss black. Interior is already Herc'd all except the driver floor which needs a little work. Gonna follow it up with the black headlight rings and we are in business. Either that or I will go with a nice bright red. Depends on what color Tractor Supply has in stock at the time of paint! Yes, I am going to use implement paint on the Jeep. It's cheap, wears pretty well down here as long as you use a decent clear over top, and I won't be afraid to take it off road like I would with a $3000 paint job. My only complaint is that I have a tan tonneau cover for the back, black roll bar padding, grey seats, and a charcoal and black dash with white face gauges. Color combo isn't too great right now. I think I am just gonna keep it with the grey color and see if someone will swap me tonneau's. I still haven't completely decided how I am going to finish the Jeep off, or how far I am going to take it. I actually spent a few hours today planning out my next build, which certainly WON'T be on a little budget. Kinda want to build a '7 from scratch. Find a good frame, source a motor, etc. This time though, no rust. Build it the way I really want to, instead of the way I have to. There has been a lot of creativity and luck as far as my budget goes, but all in all, it is going well.

[ken78cj5]

Just got mack in from Vegas. My middle son, former marine, just graduated from the Metro Police Department Academy. I was looking forward to seeing your progress.

Looks great.

I may start a new thread with my build in the next coupla days.

Keep up the good work.

Ken

[schecterguy]

any updates?

[Ford_Prefect]

Still love seeing what you have going on here. Would love to hear what is new. I lost this thread for a while, but now that I found it again I am hoping to see more photos... What is new for you?

[danheit]

Hey man, CJ build is on hold right now, as I am off in the Police Academy 3 hours from home. The last thing I did was to paint the Jeep with black Rustoleum all the way around, and install my rock sliders. After that I towed it to my farm, stuck it in the barn and covered it up so it can be ready in a month or two when I get out. Paint came out pretty good, and touch up will be really easy (I have already had to do a few spots). Need to go back and do a little more work than I thought, as my intake manifold gasket that I just put on started leaking around the intake bolts. They are properly torqued, so my guess is that the permatac didn't set up properly. It is driving me nuts being this far away from a project that I spent every day working on for so long, but thankfully, I haven't had a whole lot of down time to focus on it. I will be sure to keep the updates coming once I get back in the swing of things, and I will get some good pix when I get back. Thanks for following up on it!

[Ford_Prefect]

So how did the Police Academy go for you then? All done yet? Go figure, I am greedy for more info on this jeep!

cheers
Brian

[danheit]

So I finally got all settled into my new home, settled in (kinda) at work, and had a chance to go pick up my CJ from the farm yesterday! She was so ready to be home that she unloaded herself from the trailer! I would have loved to see the look on my face when the chain that I was using to winch the Jeep down off the trailer let go and the Jeep went rolling on down the ramps, down my long driveway, and came to a final rest in it's planned parking spot. I didn't even get a chance to put the cover on today before having to come to work, so hopefully I will get a little time to play on Wed. being that I am off then and Thurs. One thing I can say is that working nights is a little hard on the Jeep play time!

[Ford_Prefect]

I feel you on that one! Did the night thing for a while right after I got into wheeling. It made it nice for wheeling during the day with no one else on the trails, but, I also lived within an hour of a good three dozen trails. I hate night work, my body just can not seem to handle it for some reason... such is life I guess.

So is it running then? Plated and all, can you drive it yet!?!?

[danheit]

So I actually got to do a little bit of work on the Jeep today!!!! First time since April and I sadly, didn't know where to even start. The Jeep was full of tools that got packed into it, along with other assorted crap, it wouldn't stay running last time that I tried to start it as there was no fuel getting to the carb, the oil pressure gauge sending line had started leaking, intake gasket was leaking, missing exhaust gaskets, and more. So, today I pulled the carb apart, cleaned it up (recently rebuilt it in Mar or April), changed out my needle seats to off road spring loaded, painted my front grill black to match the rest of the Jeep, as well as my headlight rings, and charged the battery. Whether or not the battery is any good, I don't know, but it is still on charge, so I am hoping for the best. I think that tomorrow I may try working on a few little things before going into work, but we will see. It is just nice to have her back though. I missed being able to just stay at home and play Jeeps. Even my 4 year old daughter came out to help today. She has claimed this one as "her" Jeep and somehow passed on her Pink Barbie Jeep to me......

[danheit]

Couple of Updated Pics....


Here she sits now, waiting to be buttoned up. Need to do a LOT still, but it is nearly road worthy. If anything, it looks good standing still!
Sadly though, I am contemplating tearing the whole thing back down, swapping everything over to my YJ frame that is a little more solid and going from there. I just hate to start all over, but there are some things that I couldn't do earlier due to limited time and space, that I can do a little more easily now. That and the fact that my wife finally came to terms with the fact that I never had any intention of selling it. Almost a full year later, and she just came to grips with it last week...... I married such a good woman though! I will add in my list of things to do a little later. The list grows more and more every day!
One thing I was unsure on though, I painted the headlight rings black as well....kinda unsure whether or not I like the black, or if I would have been better off going chrome. Rings were pretty thrashed, so no big loss there with painting them.

[danheit]

Well, today I finally dug back into the Jeep. Pulled the carb and intake in order to replace the intake/valley pan gasket. Thankfully, I keep my receipts, so Advance Auto will be replacing this one under "warranty". I am back working days for two months, although, as you see, it is 4 am and I am still up, so my body has yet to get adjusted to working days. It felt great to get back in there though. I was having a great deal of trouble wanting to work on it since I didn't know where to start, so I went to something small, easy, and evident, and now I am ready to jump in full force again! Need to make another list of things to do though. Thankfully, I have talked myself out of swapping frames for the time being. I think I am just gonna stick with what I have, and get it finished and DRIVE IT! Gonna try to make it to Gulches ORV Park in the very near future, so I need to get moving. Biggest things I need to do are get the motor runnning right, even if it means buying a new carb, tear out all of the wiring and start over with a much cleaner platform, throw in a rear drive shaft, some shocks, a new front bumper and go.
Wiring, I initially wanted to save my CJ harness in case I went back all stock with this Jeep, buy I seriously doubt that one will happen. I had just cut off the needed connectors from the YJ harness I have and used solderless conectors to attach them to the CJ harness, as well as taped up the un needed stuff on the CJ harness, but I am just going to clip it all out and run bare bones. I am also contemplating removing the YJ dash section around the steering wheel and going diamond plate. I initially liked the idea of having all of the idiot lights hooked up to the CJ harness, but the wiring back there is a mess. Just gonna go with a flat panel and some LED colored lights for turn signals, Hi beams, 4wd Indicator, electric fan, and whatever else I end up thinking of. That way I can stick with a simpler setup for my lights and wipers. I was trying to use the YJ light switch, and although it works, I am not happy with the setup.
Driveshaft, I luckily found a local driveline shop that all of the local guys swear by. It is supposed to be a well kept secret, and the guy will make shafts for under $100, any way you want them. I am hoping to get a very long travel shaft on the cheap, so we will see. Main reason I want a long travel shaft is that if I do decide to go back to a stock wheelbase, I won't have to buy another driveshaft!
I would also love to find a YJ windshield frame if possible. Although my CJ one is in great shape, and the glass is good, I want to use the YJ defroster ducts and hold downs without modification (for aesthetics only) and refuse to hack up the frame that I have.
There is still a TON of work to do to get her finished up, but it makes me feel good to know that I have at least gotten started again. Sadly though, being that it has been so long since I last worked on it, my wife has lost some of her understanding with time, so I am gonna have to be careful in the beginning.

[243]

You have come a long ways!

The condition of the original body points to a DSPO driving through the surf...I did that once in an old Yota and it looked like your CJ a few years later. Lesson learned and I will never again be called a DSPO.

[Ford_Prefect]

Glad to see you have gotten some work done on the thing!

Personally I think I would just go with the painted lights. I do not think that it looks lacking in any way. IF IF IF you wanted to put more chrome on then I might think about doing that as well, but with everything black I think it would look pretty odd being the only shiny thing on the entire rig...

Are you not required to run fenders there in SC? Colorado does not require them at all, so there are a lot of guys out there who do not have them, but I am really into the Highline fenders now, so, I was trying to imagine what it would look like with that on there...

Thanks for the up dates...

[danheit]

I would definately agree that the PO was a surf driver. What makes it worse is that it started life as a TX Jeep, then got moved to NY, then to SC at the beach. Glad it did, cause it made it to me, but still sucks either way.

Ford, as far as the fenders go, this Jeep is waaaaay past being a legal, streetable vehicle. Most people don't know that modifying a vehicle suspension in any way is illegal and is a ticketable offense. Luckily, I know a cop and think I can get myself out of a ticket

Today, I actually got to do a little bit of work during the girls' nap times. I was able to finish cleaning the intake manifold and reinstall it with a fresh gasket and a LOT of black RTV. The last one started leaking from the intake bolts, so I pulled it off, replaced it under warranty (gotta love Advance Auto!) and did this one. I am hoping that I can get back in the swing of things and get old girl here done soon. I have been toying with the notion of swapping another frame under here, but I think I am gonna stick with what I have got. Just need to get some skinnier tires/more back spacing/wider axles or any combo of the three and a rear driveshaft. Then it is off on the road I go!