I say rescued because, well, I did rescue this poor jeep from it's redneck previous owner. No it wasn't rolled over... I rolled the paint on. And I say it's finished but as I'm typing those words I'm planning my next moves. In fact I have a set of rocker guards on it's way to me right now.
The pictures are crap because I took them with my phone. It was the only camera I had with me at all times so it's what I used. The jeep is a 90 2.5. The only good thing the previous owner did was herculine the interior. I won't even go into the things he did wrong...
This is how I found the poor jeep when I went to buy it!
And this was the interior. There was no dash at all.
Here's where I started by fixing the messed up fender. I could have just bought a new one but this was easy enough to do myself.
Also had to repair a huge dent in the back. It was a lot deeper than it looks in the picture
My original plan was to just repair the dents and shave the holes from the tailgate. I also painted the wheels white.
While I was at it I ended up stripping everything off the body and repainting everything. I shaved all the body lines from the entire jeep except where the front fenders meet the tub.
And yes, I drove it down my street a couple times like this and my neighbors thought I was crazy.
This is after wetsanding but before polishing.
test fitting the new dash made by Dan - dislsmoke.
had a small problem when I put the stock gauges back in. I had to grind out some areas to make room for them to fit.
Painted the hood and the rest of the body
Starting reassembly
The blue tape on the windshield is holding some bolts so I don't lose them.
Installed a license plate bracket with lights so I could move the plate to the bumper. I shaved all the mounting holes where it used to be. Also installed a third brake light in the gap from the body lift.
Put the tailgate back on finally and reinstalled brake lights. Notice there are no mounting holes for the spare tire carrier. I also shaved off the license plate bracket holes and all of the body lines.
Needed more contrast in the cab so I painted the plate over the transmission
put in a cable to keep my dog in the back when wheeling
finally getting the dash installed and put together. Also have the new seats installed. The old black ones are crap! the drivers side rusted out so bad that the back fell off when I was moving it around in my yard. I love these new bestop seats.
after shot of the dash with gauges, toggles, lights and new steering wheel
After shot of the jeep today out at Corbett
My current plans for the jeep now are to install the rocker guards when I get them, lift the jeep another 3" (it's already lifted 3.5"), and get some 33" MT's under it.
Also, I have a new (to me) engine going in soon. I'm replacing my 90 TBI 2.5 with a 93 MPI 2.5 that I found for $200. As soon as I find a 4.0 for a decent price I'll be swapping that in. The good thing about swapping to the MPI 2.5 first is all the extra work involved with doing the TBI to MPI swap now is stuff I would have to do with the 4.0 swap anyway.
The pictures are crap because I took them with my phone. It was the only camera I had with me at all times so it's what I used. The jeep is a 90 2.5. The only good thing the previous owner did was herculine the interior. I won't even go into the things he did wrong...
This is how I found the poor jeep when I went to buy it!
And this was the interior. There was no dash at all.
Here's where I started by fixing the messed up fender. I could have just bought a new one but this was easy enough to do myself.
Also had to repair a huge dent in the back. It was a lot deeper than it looks in the picture
My original plan was to just repair the dents and shave the holes from the tailgate. I also painted the wheels white.
While I was at it I ended up stripping everything off the body and repainting everything. I shaved all the body lines from the entire jeep except where the front fenders meet the tub.
And yes, I drove it down my street a couple times like this and my neighbors thought I was crazy.
This is after wetsanding but before polishing.
test fitting the new dash made by Dan - dislsmoke.
had a small problem when I put the stock gauges back in. I had to grind out some areas to make room for them to fit.
Painted the hood and the rest of the body
Starting reassembly
The blue tape on the windshield is holding some bolts so I don't lose them.
Installed a license plate bracket with lights so I could move the plate to the bumper. I shaved all the mounting holes where it used to be. Also installed a third brake light in the gap from the body lift.
Put the tailgate back on finally and reinstalled brake lights. Notice there are no mounting holes for the spare tire carrier. I also shaved off the license plate bracket holes and all of the body lines.
Needed more contrast in the cab so I painted the plate over the transmission
put in a cable to keep my dog in the back when wheeling
finally getting the dash installed and put together. Also have the new seats installed. The old black ones are crap! the drivers side rusted out so bad that the back fell off when I was moving it around in my yard. I love these new bestop seats.
after shot of the dash with gauges, toggles, lights and new steering wheel
After shot of the jeep today out at Corbett
My current plans for the jeep now are to install the rocker guards when I get them, lift the jeep another 3" (it's already lifted 3.5"), and get some 33" MT's under it.
Also, I have a new (to me) engine going in soon. I'm replacing my 90 TBI 2.5 with a 93 MPI 2.5 that I found for $200. As soon as I find a 4.0 for a decent price I'll be swapping that in. The good thing about swapping to the MPI 2.5 first is all the extra work involved with doing the TBI to MPI swap now is stuff I would have to do with the 4.0 swap anyway.