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KConnor's build thread...

3K views 38 replies 7 participants last post by  JeepdaddyRC 
#1 ·
Ok guys,

I am finishing up my build, and starting to have enough questions that i figured i needed a real build thread so that i didn't have to nickel and dime the forum with a thousand different threads to answer (mostly for you guys) easy questions.

Background is i'm not a mechanic in any way shape or form, in fact i spend my day working on people, not automobiles, but i've always liked working on cars/trucks and jeeps rock. Always wanted one growing up, never got one cause ma and pa said they were to dangerous and would flip over. Given the amount of speeding tix i got long ago, there may have been some truth to that.

Anyway, now i got one, and i (and most likely eveyone else in this section) thinks the CJ is the best looking Jeep that was ever produced by AMC/jeep. Something about square headlights that were never appealing.

My goal for this project was to tear down my midwest jeep (=rust), and basically just restore it with a small (2.5") lift and larger tires.

I started this project 4 years ago, but 3.5 of it was taken off having another kid, and buying into my business, moving....etc. Now my wife says i gotta finish it, which to me is permission to spend time here without getting yelled at. >:)

The rig is a 1978 CJ7 from Wisconsin, only 40k original miles on it, when i got it, it was almost completely stock, and originally had a factory plow on it? (did they come from the factory with a plow?....cause some of the stickers on the dash vin talk about the plow and they appear to be factory).

Here is how she sat when i bought it in 2008











 
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#2 ·
So, 1st things first....i jacked it up 2.5" with a 0.5" shackle lift and put 33's on it. And i also rebuilt the carter YF carb and it ran great.













Then i drove it around for a few months.....not too bad.
 
#3 ·
But i always knew what was under that cheesy outside diamond plating, there is only one reason why people put that on......

Plus the drivers seat was always way too comfy...like it was on a spring. After a little investigation...its cause tow of the bolts holding it on were rusted out and the seat was falling through the floor.

Sooo, i decided that needed to get fixed. And while i was at it i decided to fix all the rust. Which turned out to be a total tear down.

I also wanted to change to wide track axles just for more stability, as i will road use this thing more than off road.

So here she goes...

New axles i found on CL, from an '82





They were also very rusty.

 
#4 ·
Started to tear her down...



see the seat leaning.....yeah, cause its falling into a hole....





Look at this....someone already fixed this floor once....(kinda)







Odd tailgate rig up...just a piece of metal welded into place.



I have become the nations largest advocate of air tools since starting this project. If you can swing it, it literally cuts time in half working on these things. Although they also blow up rusty bolts pretty well, so you have to be careful to some degree.



Early on, it became very apparent that this tub was shot......
 
#8 ·
And now for the rebuild....

I sent the frame off to a local welding shop for sandblasting and to repair the holes. There were only the typical spots like under the proportioning valve, the rear spring hangers, the rear crossmember body mounts and two of the body mounts toward the rear. I do have a welder but not the skill. So i had them did it. And it came back very nice. I think the total was like 300$ for all of it.

Then i went to town with the POR15. That stuff is amazing. It gets everywhere and puts like a nice shell coating on it. It also gets on your fingers and skin and takes like 2 weeks to get off by way of your epithelium turning over rather than actually cleaning off. I also used eastwoods rust converter paint in the can that does like a 360 degree explosion out of the rubber hose to coat the inside of the frame.

I was happy with it. The other frame was given to me by someone with an extra, i didn't need to use any parts off of it, so i gave it to someone else who needed it.

frame back from blaster:


starting with the POR













 
#9 · (Edited)
Topcoated the frame POR with a dull black, didn't like it so i retopcoated with the POR blackcote. Now its shiny



Sent the super rusty wide track axles off to the sand blaster, then straight to a local guy i know who rebuilt them, as well as the brakes, and put in a 1pc rear in the AMC 20.
The only thing i don't like is that the blaster primed them after sandblasting. I would have like to have gotten them back right away and POR'd them instead, but oh well. The sandblaster guy was trying to look out for me by priming them right away so no new rust started so how can you fault him. I POR'd over the red primer anyway. We shall see if it sticks over the long term.

 
#10 ·
Ok, now this here guy became my new best friend for the next 2 months. My jeep restoring life became a series of

1. parts washer
2. blast part
3. eastwood paint prep cleaner
4. POR 15
5. Hang part to dry
6. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat......

 
#11 ·
Ok, gas tank seemed too rusty to not change now when it was very easy to do so.







 
#12 ·
Alright, so i didn't do a good job or documenting mouning the axles and suspensi on except for after pics. But basically i put on a 2.5" Dick Cepek spring lift with 0.5" shackle lift. Used the cheap shocks that came with the lift kit, they may get changed later, but will do for now.

Also painted the calipers...and mounted the steering box













 
#13 ·
Ok, here is where i took a 3 year hiatus. I went and bought into my business, had another kid, bought the house you see in the very 1st pics and moved. So about a month a ago i was given the A-Ok to get back to work on it. I finished building my shop in a basement garage and was ready to go. What you see in the pics above and the first pics below are different in that i took down the engine, i did not rebuild it, but just down to block, replace water pump, cleaned, degreased and did new gaskets and painted. Rebuilt the clutch, I also cleaned/degreased the transmission/tcase and remounted everything including driveshafts. I also ran brake lines from inline tube.

So this is what she looked like when i started back up 1 month ago.....

FYI all that white stuff you see on the black frame/axles, etc. is.........dust. :(









 
#15 ·
Thanks Hotrodsnova. Yeah POR15 is great, just don't get it on you.

Ok, so i started with this mess of spaghetti, manifolds and carburetor.



Broke it down....(after taking many pictures so i know where that stuff goes later)

Got rid of this power robbing stuff......



Broke off a stud in the exhaust manifold...



And while i was getting ready to drill it out....



Found that crack in the manifild near the left side outer mounting bolt that went straight down into the manifold.



So it made that job easy, scrapped the manifold....ordered a new one from omix-ada (would rather had a OEM one rather than chinese, but i couldn't find a decent one quick...)



but they are purrrdy when new.....

And then cleaned up the intake manifold...





I thought these things were aluminum? I'm pretty sure that my intake manifold is cast....at least its heavy like that. Still has some of that original green/blue paint on it yet.
 
#17 ·
Now to start putting everything back together.....

Gathered up my gaskets (all felpro), copper gasket sealant spray, and mounting hardware (all new except those really weird washers for mounting the manifolds.)



Dug up the old mounting hardware and new mounting hardware....

FYI....kudos to tsanchez23 for writing up a how to on remounting the manifold and exhaust with sizes of all hardware and links to buying it.



scrapped all the bolts, just kept the washers, washed them, blasted them, painted them.....







Ok, all thats ready.....

Now the manifolds.....

I wire wheeled all the mounting surfaces to ensure no residual old gasket material was left on there. Then i used eastwoods prepainting cleaner and prep on both manifolds. For paint i used a flat black high temp manifold paint from tractor supply, and about 5 coats on each manifold.





prepped the mounting surface of the engine....



test fit everything...



took it all off, sprayed my gaskets with sealer, and mounted the manifolds. I used the diagram in the haynes manual that shows the torquing pattern.



And done.



Mounted EGR, mounted carb after cleaning it in a bowl of carb cleaner.

 
#18 ·
Thanks Matt, i know you help out a lot of guys around here so i'm glad you are watching!
 
#19 ·
Ok, next was to mount up the power steering pump, and the alternator........oh and i ordered my fuel lines from inline tube.

So i got the power steering pump mounted, and the alternator mount bolted on.....which i realized was rigged up something weird for the wrong alternator....



Ok, weird and i need help with this one. These are new power steering pump lines, and when mounted the low pressure line is fine, but there is all this extra in the high pressure line. It makes it do this crazy bend before getting to the pump and while it holds its form now, what happens when that line gets older and is able to kink? Is this right?







So...hmmmmmmm. Any ideas?
 
#20 ·
Ok, then the fuel lines showed up 2 weeks ago...yay.

Again, the fuel lines from inline tube are about as perfect as you can get. They all fit.











My only concern was this fuel return line 90 degree bend at the engine end. I didn't realize that was supposed to be like that. but in another thread i was informed that was the stock bend, and the return from the fuel filter has a large "u-shaped" flexible bend before it gets there.

Its purpose apparently to avoid that really large and hot exhaust pipe right in front of it.

 
#21 ·
Ok, so for the alternator mount, i got the correct (or a correct) delco alternator to fit that mount that i have, but the mount had been cut, and rewelded to a weird position so i couldn't slide the alternator on it to tighten it.

So i cut out the weld, bent it back, and re-welded on a support plate, and painted it. sorry i didn't take any cutting or welding pics...it was late and i was mad the situation so i didn't think of it.

See how it fits but cant slide cause the sliding line is too high...



Finished mount...



sorry crummy pic....but anyway now it mounts and the alternator slides.
 
#22 ·
Ok, right now i am running vac lines and finishing fuel lines. i will have pics soon, but i have a question....WHAT IS THIS THING!!! I can't figure this out at all!



Its an insulated metal line that runs from the top of the carb and in to the exhaust manifold at the top of the middle of the manifold. I need a new one cause its broken and i dont even know what it is, let alone where to get one. If no one knows what it is, i'm going to call it the flux capacitor and cause its broke, it must be the reason my jeep won't take me back in time.

Any help i'd be crazy greatful!
 
#24 ·
Yes fuel lines are stainless. As are the brake lines.

As far as the washers, i used that manifold paint, which is like super thin stuff, and only put one coat on . Hope it doesn't allow it to loosen.
 
#25 ·
You should be good on the manifold bolts. Header bolts are notorious for backing out. The cast manifold doesn't heat up/cool down as fast as tubular headers do. Thats what causes them to loosen up. A thin coat of paint won't hurt a thing.

Nice to work on something that won't be getting you all dirty. Once you're done, you will know every part, and know you did it.
Congrats on the project. Mine is Maverick. I have yet to do a build thread. Soon though.

THUMBS UP!
 
#27 ·
I'm thinking the mystery part is the choke heater tube.

What carb?

Matt
Oh, i'm thinking you are correct cause it comes out of the carb right near the choke. The carb is a carter YF.

Thanks much!!
 
#28 ·
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