Jeep Enthusiast Forums banner

80 CJ7 frame replacement

12K views 47 replies 7 participants last post by  Cutlass327 
#1 ·
Hello All
I am new member to this site but have browsed the forum a lot. I want to thank everyone who has submitted their adventures here. I have learned a lot and still have a lot to learn.
Anywayhow, on to my story.
I have previously owned a 1990 YJ and a 1993 YJ. Loved them both but I ran across a 1980 CJ7 and although I knew it needed some major work I purchased it. I wanted to go 'Old School'
The 80 CJ I got had a fiberglass body already on it. I know a lot of people do not like it but the Ohio salt will eat an older body. So to me that was a plus. The Jeep looked good but the frame was shot. And I do mean shot! It had a plow on it. It had a 304 V-8, 4 speed T-176, Dana 300 transfer case, 30 and 20 axles with 3.31 gears.
I purchased the jeep in the fall of 2009. I figured a frame replacement wouldn't be too bad or that costly.... lol yea right. I am working with limited funs so I have to watch my spending. I figured I would get a year or two out of it before I had to get the frame done.
As it stands now May 2011 it is about 7/8 of the way done. Any comments will be welcome.

On to the story! Pic heavy :thumbsup:
 

Attachments

See less See more
2
#2 ·
Well the first winter went well. I babied it because I knew the frame was not in that great of shape. We got a lot of snow in NE Ohio and the jeep did an awesome job of moving it around. I did some extra drives and made a few dollars here and there. I like this! Extra money for the wallet!
 

Attachments

#4 ·
so the search began for a frame. I found a 1983 frame in very good shape. It had the 6cyl motor, wide track dana 30 and 20 axles, complete power steering and wiring. I picked it up for $400.00 It was in great shape except for the rear cross member and a little bad around the rear shackle mounts. I figured this would be an easy fix. I sold the motor for 50.00 the power steering set up, pump, box and all for 150.00, and the wiring harness for 75.00. Not a bad return! :)
 

Attachments

#5 ·
I began the process by stripping the new frame and starting to clean it up. I wanted it sand blasted down bare. I was getting prices in the 400 to 500 dollar range. Heck with that. I went and purchased a sand blaster and used play sand. Good investment into tools and learning and time. After the frame was blasted clean, in and out. Well in as best as I could get it. The repairs began.
 

Attachments

#8 ·
As for the frame repair I picked up a pair of frame repair sections and had them welded on. It made it easy and also strengthened the rear end. There were a few other places I had to do some nut repair, drilling and tapping. But all together it went very smooth. I was very pleased. My cousin did the welding for me in his shop.
 

Attachments

#9 ·
I had heard a lot about por 15 and how good it was. A lot of people on here have talked about it and have made some great comments on it. So I followed suit. I brush painted the frame with the por 15 then used a sprayer and coated the inside of the frame so it would not rust from the inside out.
The body was not properly mounted so I got the kit to mount the fiberglass body correctly and put it on. Instead of bolting the mid plate on I had it welded on with spacers giving it a 1"lift.
 

Attachments

#11 ·
I sand blasted the wide track axles and por15 them. The old suspension was totally shot. sagging, warn bushings and broken springs. So after shopping around I decided on some 4" lift rough rider springs from Morris 4x4. I know rough rider springs have a not so hot rep. But I have heard they have come a long way in their quality. And they were very cheap and had a complete bolt on system including shocks, dropped pit-man arm and all. I purchased 4 new Goodyear wrangler tires, 33/12.50/15 with a new tread pattern. They may be a little loud but that is what I want. I also got a new power steering gearbox mount since the old one was rusted. (surprise). I put the tires on the old steel rims instead of the aluminum ones. I wanted some good strength just in case. The old tires on aluminum rims are still on at this point. The tires are lt 235/15.
 

Attachments

#12 ·
Ok... what I have learned to this point. If you are planning on doing a frame replacement there are sooooooooooo many things to consider. Cash and time are the two biggest ones. To this point I have a lot invested, New this , new that, purchasing tools ect. And it really has not even started yet. But remember. Take lots of pics, do a lot of research, and any job worth doing is worth doing well!

Stay tuned to the local channel. More to come, more mistakes made, and more good things going on! :)
 
#13 ·
Wow, makes me not so nervous about driving mine!! Yours is probably 2x as bad as mine...

Also makes me jealous seeing that huge garage... all I got is a car port..
 
#15 ·
Most of the summer went to making a list of things I needed, wanted and prices. I spent many hours online looking for the best prices and a lot of time on e-bay. Like I said money is/was not in great supply. So a total rebuild was out. The engine runs good, will save that rebuild for later. The trans, t-case, axles were all working and in good order. So rebuilds were out of the question for now. I wanted just to replace the frame and get it back on the road. I debated on things like brake lines. Make my own or go stainless. Well I figured it was worth it to go the stainless route. Things like that I spent the extra money.
Like I said, pics, research, research and more research.
Finally a lot of parts began to come in. So in late Oct 2010 the frame was finally ready so the tear down would begin. Heck how long could it take? unbolt, swap, bolt, done. Easy right? lol O.M.G. I had no idea what I was getting myself into! I don't think there was one bolt that came right off. All of them had to be drilled, cut, or chiseled off! So many parts had to be taken off, cleaned up, sand blasted, prepped and painted. Wow. But I wanted it to be done right. sooooooooooooo on with the tear down....
 

Attachments

#16 ·
I 100% did the tear down by myself. Should have called for help! lol Would have been so much easier. Finally got the body off. Lots and lots of work! Was thinking hopefully it will all be worth it. I think it will be...
 

Attachments

#17 ·
Now I don't want to alarm anyone or change anyone's mind on doing a complete frame change or major resto. But it will take time, lots of time. There were days i only spent a few hours working on it, some long days and some days not at all. There were many days I had to stop and leave it alone or something bad would have happened lol. But I continued stripping, sand blasting and painting all the parts to put on the new frame. I used a lot of por15! Do not want the rust coming back!
 

Attachments

#18 ·
Now this is where it starts to slow down and be a pain of sorts. Every part that comes off the old frame has to be checked, cleaned, sandblasted prepped and painted. Trust me there are a lot of things on a frame! Also I had a 15 gallon square gas tank on my jeep. I thought it was aftermarket or something. Maybe home made. But it looked strong. After looking through the forums here I saw a few other jeeps that had similar tanks but the sending unit hole was different. When I began to clean it up I found that where the tabs were welded on it had rusted through enough to have holes in the tank. Great now what?!?! I just happened to see a 20 gallon polly tank and setup on e-bay. Cool. I bid and won it. $150.00 including shipping. But as I was prepping it before mounting it I found that it had a dead frog in it from Fla. Oh well.
 

Attachments

#19 ·
as the 'construction' continues there are always little things popping up. But the more you get done the better you feel. Getting the drive train into the new chassis was a great feeling!
Like I said before. I really didn't have the money for a total drive train rebuild at this time. And I am still not sure what drive train I really want. Should I rebuild what I have? maybe go from a carb to fuel injection? Should I go with a 4bt, nv4500, d300 set up? maybe a 6cyl? What ever I decide to do it will cost a lot of money. But the good news is when I decide to do it, the drive train will be easy to get out because all the mounting points are new! :)
 

Attachments

#20 ·
Well I finally got the body on for a dry fit. The way I got it off, by myself. Wow what a chore. Since it was not properly mounted right in the first place I decided to do it right. First i set it on mock body mounts. Yes 2x4's Hey but it worked. After whet seemed to be taking thousands of measurements I finally had it where i wanted it/ where it needed to be. With a fiberglass body mount kit I had to cut the 'log to make the body bushings to the proper size. I made them a little long giving myself a very moderate 1" body lift. I used my chop saw to cut the log. It went very well.
 

Attachments

#21 ·
I should mention that while the body was off I decided to take the dash out to fix some electrical issues. Also my dash was a little rusted and i wanted to fix it. The carpet was worn and needed to come out. I wish I knew why they had used soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much glue to hold the carpet in. I spent days getting it all out!
Also being a fiberglass body, no matter how much you try, you can not get the body to act like a ground! I wish the previous owner would have realized that!
 

Attachments

#22 ·
well since I had the new body mounted and I got the new meats in. I had to try on the new tires. I was originally shooting for a 2" lift and maybe 31"s. I ended up with a 1" body, 4" suspension lift and will be running 33/12.50/15 Wranglers on this cj.
But now I have created 2 problems. 1, the door opening is over 33" my inseam is only 22". Need a way to get in. Right now I am using a milk crate. Yes a milk crate. I am going to have to remedy that! problem #2 is now the keep is too tall to drive out the garage door! I had to take off the show bar and lower the windshield to get it out and turned around! lol Oh you have to be careful! lol
Sure makes it nice and easy to work under it now though! :)
 

Attachments

#24 ·
Kinda making me nervous, but also motivated. Now if the weather would be nice, I might get mine going. It sounds like you're going the same route I planned - just swap the frame, any part attached to the frame either new or reconditioned by me, and the S.S. brake lines. I bought the pre-bent brake kines and just regular bulk S.S. fuel line. I'm almost convinced I'll be going EFI Ford 302/NP435/D20, so I don't see the need to spend the $100 each for prebent fuel lines to have to tweak and bend them if I decide to go with the 302. The lines are going to be 3/8 and 5/16 though, so that they will be suitable for EFI. I'm also thinking of a piece of SS to sandwich between the rubber mount and the tub. I'm nervous about the 'glass sagging over the rubber, like I've read a few on here complain about. I figured a 4" square (or circle) would help spread the weight. I have noticed my battery tray starting to deform the 'glass, so I'm making a piece of SS to put between the tray and tub to stop that.

Maybe make some rock sliders that mount to the frame, and have them stick out enough for a step. I have the tube nerf bars on mine and they are great to stand on to put the top on, and I'm 6'1. I know my 5'4" girlfriend likes them, she uses them to get in/out of my CJ. I'm on stock springs, 31's and a 1" BL like you have. Couldn't imagine 5" of combined lift!
 
#25 ·
emillika

I took some pictures and measurements of the support. (hope the pics turn out ok.) This is what came in the kit. I however welded 1.5" round steel spacers to the body mounts and then welded the support to the spacers in effect giving it a little body lift. 2 reasons. 1 because I did not want the part that folds down to interfere with the nerf bars when I remounted them. 2 because I have read that if I some day install a nv4500 that you need a 1" body lift to clear the trans. So yes I am trying to think a little ahead. If I had it to do all over again I would have just got the log roll and not the whole kit. I didn't need most of it. All just my opinion of course.
 

Attachments

#26 ·
cutlass 327

I hope this here is more of an encouragement. It is going to feel good driving this jeep now that I know how it is built! Good and strong! It should have no problems lasting another 30 to 40 years!
I like the idea of the ford drive-train. But I think a Dana 300 may be better than the d-20.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top