Hello everyone. I enjoy keeping up with all the different builds on the forum and thought others might enjoy mine. Nothing fancy or spectacular here. My goal is to restore my jeep to as close to factory original as possible. I am not a mechanic or a welder, but I am pretty handy. So here goes...
Searched Florida for about two months. I was looking for an original, unmolested CJ7 with a solid frame. I finnally gave up. They seem hard to find around here and were too expensive.
Got one on ebay for $2,000.00, but I had to drive to Louisiana to get it. Probably paid too much, but it was just what I was looking for.
Spent about a month taking it apart. I wish I had been a little better organized, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Engine only had 72,000 miles on it and ran great. No smoke or any other issues.
With the exception of the rear crossmember and the back four frame to body mounts, the frame was in great shape. 90% of the paint still and no rot.
Replaced the rear crossmember
And the back four frame to body mounts. That was a monumental task. I was very careful to put them back on in the same place. I used the ones from 4wd hardware. They seem alot stronger than the ones that were there originally.
Spent the next several weekends removing the paint with aircraft remover and sandpaper.
Well after I got all the paint and rust of the frame, and welded everything up, I painted the frame with several coats of Rustbullet. Then I sprayed two coats of Dupont Nason 2K.
Then I replaced the springs and shocks wither Superlift Superride 1" lift springs and shocks. New heavy duty shackles with a 1/2" lift.
Replaced the gas tank too.
New bearings, seels, rotors, brake calipers, all new brake hardware, polyurethane bushings etc.
I wanted original chrome wagon wheels but couldn't find any. So I found that Cragar makes identical wagon wheels, found some mint center caps on ebay.
That's a great looking CJ. I too just recently bought a CJ7, my first Jeep ever and didn't know what to look for as far as price comps or rust, anything. I've just always liked the CJ. Just looking at the pics of yours, I now know that I definitely spent too much. Mine looks good on the outside and interior is new, but the undercarriage and tub have some rust issues that I didn't find until after the money jeep swap. I also found that I have carb issues. But hopefully with that carb I get from you, I can at least get that taken care of. I'll just have to wait a little longer to restore mine totally. Money these days, just doesn't grow on trees, at least for me it doesn't.
Awesome job man. Its gonna be good lookin' when you get er done. Are you buying a new tub or just fixing/resuing old tub? Keep the pics coming:cheers2:
The yellow sticker on the frame came with the lift kit. Just some info about the kit. Figure won't be able to see it, if there is a future owner he'll have a reference for the rebuild 25 years from now.
Picked up the jeep in Covington, LA.....I forgot to mention before, my friend and I drove his H2....wow what a gas guzzler. Did a lot of this (ouch!):
.
The tub that came on the jeep is probably salvageable, but outside my skill level. Found an original '86 CJ7 tub, no rust. Apparently after AMC's demise, some "86 tubs were galvanized. This is one of them. Found it right here on the forum. Paid $600.00, what a steal. Oh, by the way, drove to New Orleans to get it.
You are doing a realy good job! That seems like a steal on that tub-pending no bondo suprises.
Keep up the good work! And, just curious, are you really doing that all outside or do you just roll it out for pics? Either way it looks great I was just wondering.
Maybe you're the luckiest guy on here. I'll bet working outside makes you pick up and put away your tools when you're done! I'm a garage dweller and very guilty of what I call F.S.S.
I call it flat surface syndrome. If there's something flat in the garage it's a perfect spot for that.... instead of putting it away.
Looks great! I just went through what you're doing, so I know what a job it is. The only thing I would suggest is relocating the fuel filter & fuel line AWAY from over the exhaust manifold. That's an engine fire waiting to happen.
Well I have also been working on the tub. I had considered all the option as far as removing the paint. I even considered just sanding the old paint, but it was pretty rough. The vehicle has two coats of paint on it. I decided to use aircraft stripper to get the paint off, same as I did for the frame.
With the help of my friend, we got all of the paint off the top half in about 3 hours. It went a lot quicker then I had expected.
The next day I did the bottom. I am not sure why, but this paint was a little more dificult to remove. Spent an entire day doing the bottom.
Sprayed the whol thing with phosphoric acid to keep it from flash rusting.
No problems so far.
I want to remove all the old seam sealer, but the stuff is hard as rocks and the aircraft remover didn't even touch it.
To remove the old Seam sealer, I took an old sturdy flat head screw driver, with my bench grinder ground down to a fine edge. Just use a hammer to tab along and scrape it off. Did the entire inside of tub in about a half hour.
I used an old screw driver because i wasn't going to screw up any of my chisiles.
Also, kudos to your uncle! You owe him big time. I say take him out to a nice steak dinner once a month for a year and let him drive the Jeep anytime he wants.
By the way, has anyone ever told you that you look just like the actor in Kevin Smith's "Clerks" and "Clerks 2?"
Thanks everyone. Ya, my uncle who is 73, works circles around me. He drives an hour every Saturady to work on the Jeep with me. He's even more addicted then me, calls me mid-week to talk about what we are going to do next. He is an old school mechanic and has been working on motors like this since the 50's.
Never heard the Clerks resemblence before. Ran it past one of my partners and he was in stiches laughing. I'll have to watch the movie again, its been a long time.
Thanks CopperCJ7...I really enjoyed the side by side. I think I'll print it up, it will make a nice conversation piece! LOL.
Ya Fatman, the Aircraft stripper is no joke. I had the hose at the ready for the occasional speck that would fly my way of stripped paint. Hurts like a @#$%^&*!
I live right down the road... and I'm in the middle of my own rebuild can I come visit?
Brian
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