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How-to-replace-your-frame write up. could take a while

42K views 115 replies 47 participants last post by  JBV1967 
#1 ·
All right, for a little background, about 2 weeks ago I had my rear upper control arm mount snap right off the frame. Thank you, road salt.



(Yes, before any of you get all riled up saying I shouldn't have bought it, this was obviously going to happen eventually)

So, since I like my jeep too much to just drive it into the river and go back to driving a honda, I figured it was time for a frame swap. We looked around for about a week, and found one we liked. So, we drove 2 and a 1/2 hours to a Salvage yard in Hammonton and got one from a 2002.




It had some minor surface rust, but for the area its in great shape and we figured it was nothing that couldn't be cleaned up real nice.

We wire brushed the new frame down, made sure every square inch had been touched by a piece of sandpaper(prep is 90% of the work with painting as we all know) and then we got all the tight areas(in the brackets and such) with some rust converter. We then went over the whole thing with a coat of rustoleum rust preventer stuff, and then a coat of rustoleum satin black.




she cleans up nice ;)

Now we have that all set up, time to start tearing into the old one.

TurtleRace was real helpful with this, giving me a sense of direction for where to start. Before I get real far in, my only experience so far with jeeps(in my 18 years) has been a suspension lift and a fender replacement. My dad had a jeep, so he has a pretty good idea what he's doing with most of this. To be clear, half this stuff I don't even know what its called, so your going to be seeing a lot of "remove the black thing that looks like a bowl except with a little pointy object on the bottom". Correct me as you read.

First thing we did was remove the fenders, I'll get that up tonight.
 
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#5 ·
I am definitly getting a new gas tank skid, its completely shot. The transfer case skid is ok, it just needs to be sanded up and painted.

While its apart, I will be putting on a MML, body lift, frame(ha) gas tank skid, new brake lines, and pretty much anything else that I feel needs to be replaced. One of my upper rear control arms is pretty shot, so I'll probably replace those.

I am still debating axles. I'm broke and will be running 32's for a while so I don't really need stronger axles, but I would love a dana 30/35 with something like 3.73's or 4.10's. I'll see what I can find.

I'm leaving for college in a week, so I will do as much as possible before then, then work on weekends when i come back
 
#8 ·
Very interesting. They don't allow the plow trucks in the winter to lay down salt up here in Washington.

I like driving in the snow.. its fun. It's kind of like an expedition.. you against the elements. With 4 wheel drive and a winch.. it'd be pretty hard to get stuck in a ditch :D
 
#10 ·
im planning on doing something very similar with my jeep - i just hope my frame comes out looking that nice, its almost a shame to hide it under the tub.

Good Work!
 
#12 ·
Nice. I would be too tempted to go all out custom if I was doing that.

Take tons of pictures, this could be invaluable for many!
hahaha honestly, half the reason I'm doing this is because if i didn't, when i go to put it all back together i would have no idea what goes where:(

Half the trick to a project this big is to be incredibly organized. Everything that comes off gets put in a ziplock bag, it gets written on that where it came from, and how many of them there were. Hoses all get taped up saying where they went to. It's a pain, but it will be a huge help later.
 
#15 ·
Thanks, yeah I agree. When i got the old one, it was really too far gone to even bother trying to clean up. This one is gonna stay nice ;)

Everything that comes out is getting degreased, sanded, and painted. It's gonna look SEXY when its done :shhh:

Edit: as far as being tempted to do everything custom, I have the same temptations, but In 7 days I will officially be a poor college kid lol
 
#16 ·
Wow, you're not wasting any time are you? Why didn't you list the purchase price of the frame? Im interested to know.
 
#19 ·
All right, fender removal isn't too difficult. As always, PB blaster is such a huge difference. I started with the left front fender. First thing I did was disconnect everything attached to the fender under the hood.



I believe this is the horn? No idea to be honest :cheers: but there are two bolts holding the brackets in. Remove these bolts, and then undo the two wiring clips leading to each.

I bagged all the bolts i removed and labeled where they were from. Next thing is the windshield wiper fluid.




There are 3 bolts holding this on. My fender is aftermarket, so some of the holes didnt line up. Take out these 3 bolts, then disconnect this clip on the back, and pull the hose. I was lucky i didn't have much fluid left.



Last thing on the inner fender wall is that black cylinder, some kind of polution control thing? No idea to be honest, but you disconnect 3 or 4 metal pipe-ish things and pull that.

After this, there are ~10 bolts holding the fender to the body/grille. 3 in the back for the left side, 4 in the back of the wheel well, 3 in the front of the wheel well, 3 in the very front, and one on top. That makes 14. Sounds about right.




To get the bulbs for the blinkers out, you just twist right behind where the bulb goes and they pop right out. Then there is a clip on the wires that you disconnect, and pull everything out.

Double check to make sure everything is disconnected, and pull the fender out carefully.



anddd so it begins. hahaha
 
#21 ·
Right fender wasn't bad.



Start out, unsnap the lid of the airbox. Pretty self explanatory, and remove the air filter. Under this, there are 3 or 4 bolts that you undo. They have a weird plastic nut on the bottom, we used channel locks to hold them still.



Once thats out, disconnect the battery(avoid electrocuting yourself). Lift that up, and you can see the battery tray underneath. 4 bolts hold that in. Remove those, and then pull the tray.



Next, I only had 2 bolts holding the fusebox on, but it looked like there were supposed to be two on the other side? either way, remove all of those. The back of the box has a bolt holding two wires to it, remove the bolt and take the wires off. Put the fusebox up out of the way for now.



Last thing is a little black box down below the battery tray, one bolt, pull the hose on the right side and then it just snaps right out





The bolts that hold the fender on are in the same location as the other side, so unbolt those. Take those out, disconnect the wiring the same as the other side, and pull the fender.

heres the four along the back of the wheel well.

one already removed.

heres the top two connecting the fender to the tub. the top one has to be removed from the top, but the other three are accessed from the bottom. It's a pain in the *** to get your arm up there.


These are the three right in the front left of the tire on the inside, already removed.



These 3 are right up front.
 
#24 ·
Get yourself a bunch of baggies and a sharpe marker and group nuts/bolts/small parts that go together in different bags and label them. Do this no matter how obvious it seems when you take it apart. This will be a huge help when you go to put everything back together. Too many different baggies is better than too few...

[ edit ] woops - missed the part where you said you were dong that already [ /edit ]
 
#26 ·
I think the idea behind that being a bad idea is that it traps moisture inside or something along those lines, I know I've brought it up before and there was a legitimate reason not to.

What we are going to do is, take a quart of tractor enamel, thin it, and dump it into the frame, rolling the frame over. This will hopefully coat everything inside.
 
#28 ·
That very thing is what I have been thinking about recently. The main area seems to be at the dip around the rear control arm mounts. My main question is what size hole to drill and where to drill it without hurting the structural integrity of the frame.

FOG
 
#29 ·
Not a JEEP expert why don't you have the frame Line-X, or Rhino lined and never have to worry about it for a long time?
 
#30 ·
I'm eventually going to have to replace mine too. Salt is no good for metal. My frame is also too far gone to clean up, already did repairs for the t case cross member and now i have found a crack behind the cross member on the bottom of the frame rail. I subscribed and will be following your progress. Good luck.
 
#40 ·
Any thoughts about spraying some type of oil, wax or mixture of both (like waxoyl or fluid film) inside the frame to prevent rust?

I've seen a couple of postings about some guys making something similar to Waxoyl by using 3 quarts mineral sprints, 1lb paraffin wax and 1 quart light machine oil (5W-XX non-detergent).

That or just spray the inside of the frame with motor oil every month?


FOG
 
#45 ·
Any thoughts about spraying some type of oil, wax or mixture of both (like waxoyl or fluid film) inside the frame to prevent rust?

I've seen a couple of postings about some guys making something similar to Waxoyl by using 3 quarts mineral sprints, 1lb paraffin wax and 1 quart light machine oil (5W-XX non-detergent).

That or just spray the inside of the frame with motor oil every month?

FOG
I've used Waxoyl on my E-type Jag. For the Jeeps, I do squirt used motor oil inside the frame on the YJ and TJ. Park it on the grass, and squirt it up in there. Let it sit and settle and that's it.

For everyone who thinks that's a horrible thing, I know old farm folks who used to pour their used oil on their dirt driveway to keep dust down. Said it ended up making an asphalt-type surface on the driveway. And they have a well for their water. And they're in their 80's, and he still goes out and hunts and maintains the farmhouse. A few drips won't kill mankind. :thumbsup:

JMO
Pete
 
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