Late 95 Resto-Mod

2263 Views 62 Replies 12 Participants Last post by jeep63, 1 d ago

jeep63

Discussion Starter · 1 mo ago (Edited)

I've been AWOL for nearly 4 years now, but I'm back with another YJ build...

I just picked up a late model 95 and hope to document my build here.

It is a 4.0 liter, manual with 164,000 miles. It has a Banks header on it and what appears to be a rancho lift kit as far as I can tell. It has TJ rubicon wheels and 265/75R16 tires which I believe are 32x10.50 tires.

The motor is strong and the Jeep drives great. Steering is tight and ball joints are good.

3rd is a bit hard to get into gear. I plan to change all fluids and run MT-90 in the trans to see if it shifts better.

It is in decent shape with only a few body repairs. The frame is solid.

I need to check to see if it is still running 3.07 gears still.

My Plans are mild:

New fenders
Fix/replace hood (PO let if fly up and hit the windshield, so it is creased)
1. Very hard finding a late model 95 hood! boo...
Old Man Emu 2 1/2" lift
MonstaLiner interior (white)
30x9.50 tires (likely Falken Wildpeak A/T3W tires
Eary YJ factory seats (Found a set in great shape from a club member for $50! for all 3)
Refresh exhaust full and add Flowmaster super 44 muffler
Chassis Saver Frame, skid plates, axles
Restore factory front bumper and bumperettes in rear.
New 'factory style' top from BesTop.

I have a wheeler in my 2013 10th Anniversary Rubicon. This Jeep will be a fun summer runabout and 'show Jeep'.

Here is the Jeep as I picked it up:

Automotive parking light Wheel Tire Automotive side marker light Window

Automotive parking light Automotive side marker light Wheel Tire Land vehicle

Hood Automotive tire Road surface Grey Floor

Vehicle Car Plant community Plant Automotive tire

Car Vehicle Window Motor vehicle Vehicle door

Automotive parking light Tire Wheel Vehicle Sky

Automotive parking light Tire Wheel Automotive side marker light Window

Automotive tire Motor vehicle Bumper Wood Automotive exterior

Vehicle Motor vehicle Bumper Automotive exterior Personal luxury car

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jeep63

Discussion Starter · #2 · 1 mo ago

Home and ready for a minor tear-down:

Automotive parking light Tire Wheel Vehicle Car

Tire Wheel Vehicle Land vehicle Car

Here is what I've learned about this Jeep over the past month:

Insidious rust spots lurking...
Lift is a Rancho 2 1/2" lift
Wheels are TJ Rubicon (Moabs)
Fuel lines at tank have been replaced, and rubber block removed
Header has been welded to repair cracks

The pics below show my progress thus far:

Automotive tire Tire Road surface Asphalt Motor vehicle

Tire Wheel Vehicle Automotive tire Motor vehicle

Tire Wheel Motor vehicle Automotive tire Vehicle

Automotive parking light Vehicle Vehicle registration plate Grille Car

Wheel Vehicle Car Automotive tire Tire

Tire Wheel Vehicle Automotive tire Hood

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jeep63

Discussion Starter · #3 · 1 mo ago

Thus far the tear-down went relatively smoothly. The body mounts and skid plate were a different story...

Three body mount bolts snapped, which if I'm being honest, is not too bad considering. The two rear most ones and the passenger one near the rollbar. The rears should be easy to access from behind and then close up the access hole. The passenger side one will leave a pretty big hole, but I plan to cut three sides fold back and then weld shut. I will be installing Monstaliner inside so it will 'hide' most imperfections. I have the original sidestep holes to plug weld too, but there will be a lot to hide.

The skid plate drop kit Rancho used consisted of a complete bar and allen head bolts. The icing on the cake is their use of loctite on the bolts! Here again, two heads stripped and one bolt broke. Fortunately for me the two stripped heads were in the front, and I could access the sleeve they went through. I used a sawzall to cut the sleeve and bolt. This burned through 6 blades, but worked out. The skid dropped easily and the remaining part of the bolt was long and easy to grab. A bit of torch heat and the spun out easily.

Motor vehicle Automotive tire Bumper Vehicle door Automotive exterior

The frame nuts are in great shape too! Over all this frame is in terrific shape!

Automotive tire Motor vehicle Automotive exterior Wood Bumper

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gehlsurf

· #4 · 1 mo ago

The heater core bungie, lol.

That's pretty awesome.

MrCamo

· #5 · 1 mo ago

Looks like you got lucky and somebody pulled the carpet right off the bat a long time ago?

jeep63

Discussion Starter · #6 · 1 mo ago (Edited)

MrCamo said:
Looks like you got lucky and somebody pulled the carpet right off the bat a long time ago?

near as i can tell it was pulled early. It was a CA jeep originally. the last 2 years it was in a PA garage and "supposedly" only driven ony nice summer days.

Not sure about the last statement.

suzieque

· #7 · 1 mo ago

my 95 passenger side fender had big rust spot behind the factory flare, exactly same as yours, that i repaired over the winter. is your drivers side fender rusting like that too? i have not pulled the drivers side flare yet.
your floors look mint, maybe the previous owner rarely removed the hard top.

jeep63

Discussion Starter · #8 · 1 mo ago

Driver side flare is fine at that spot. The issue with that side is a ****ty repair job in the front.

jeep63

Discussion Starter · #9 · 1 mo ago

gehlsurf said:
The heater core bungie, lol.

That's pretty awesome.

I know, right?!

The funny thing is I have had YJ heater cables in my storage bin for years. I've tried to sell them at a swap meet every year and no one wants them. Now I can actually put them to use!

He tried to explain the bungee to me, and I told him "I get it, I've had 3 previous YJs, I know how they are".

I was not worried about that. I have really torn this apart, and it really could have just been "run" the way it was, but I wanted to do a slight restoration and freshen up stuff I know typically needs it by this time.

I like the project and I hope to complete it before a big show in July this summer.

Reactions: 1

gehlsurf

· #10 · 1 mo ago

jeep63 said:
I know, right?!

The funny thing is I have had YJ heater cables in my storage bin for years. I've tried to sell them at a swap meet every year and no one wants them. Now I can actually put them to use!

He tried to explain the bungee to me, and I told him "I get it, I've had 3 previous YJs, I know how they are".

I was not worried about that. I have really torn this apart, and it really could have just been "run" the way it was, but I wanted to do a slight restoration and freshen up stuff I know typically needs it by this time.

I like the project and I hope to complete it before a big show in July this summer.

A show? I'm intrigued now!!! Lol, are you gonna try and put it back to stock looking?

When I saw the fenders, and read about the hood, instantly I thought, "Aftermarket flat fenders and hood scoop or something...." lol, but I didn't want to open a can of worms and hijack a thread.

jeep63

Discussion Starter · #11 · 1 mo ago

gehlsurf said:
A show? I'm intrigued now!!! Lol, are you gonna try and put it back to stock looking?

When I saw the fenders, and read about the hood, instantly I thought, "Aftermarket flat fenders and hood scoop or something...." lol, but I didn't want to open a can of worms and hijack a thread.

Nothing fancy, just an annual jeep show my club puts on In Carlisle PA.

I’ve gone done the rock crawling builds before and pretty much use my 2013 Jeep JK for wheeling. This will be a factory-ish looking Jeep. Lifted, but maintaining stock proportions. I picked up new fenders and a hood that I’m dropping off at the painter in early June. I like the YJs stock look, but it needs to be lifted with slightly bigger tires. This probably comes from a 1991 YJ being my first new car and what started my love affair with Jeeps in general.

I’ve done this twice before and have threads here about those two Jeeps. This will be very similar.

Reactions: 1

fishadventure

· #12 · 1 mo ago

The only two things that strike me is ‘mostaliner’ and ‘chassis saver.’

There’s no way I’d mostaline such a clean jeep. I know PA is known for the salty road crustamunchies but you don’t have that going on. Growing up in NH plus 30 years now in Vermont and I’m jaded: you can’t weld around undercoating if repairs are ever necessary and they usually are with 2-pak crap and undercoating because they make stuff rust underneath it. Clean it, paint it well with 2-pak polyurethane paint (chassis saver is that).

The stuff that “saves” a frame isn’t painting the outside. Fluidfilm on the inside after pressure washing and vacuuming it out has benefits. You can paint the outside with chassissaver or whatever other paint you’d like to but these frames rust from the inside out. (I paid $250 for a good frame once, 300-mile round trip. Survived the ball-pien hammer test at pickup. In November. In May I went to prep it and discovered the frame was essentially junk: I was FULL of mud and debris that was frozen when I bought it, but the clean-looking exterior with mostly factory-looking paint with undercoating was intact, wire brush on angle grinder started baring metal but then tore through paper thin metal in all the usual areas plus a lot of areas that are usually ok.
it rusted out from the inside.

fluidfilm sprayed heavy inside the frame with rustoleum exterior on the rust-free frame I acquired from my 89 has survived since 2017 without any internal rusting.
I wouldn’t just make the frame look pretty - rustoleum with internal fluidfilm works great.

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jeep63

Discussion Starter · #13 · 1 mo ago

Hey @fishadventure

I get what you are saying and perhaps you misunderstand my plans. I’m only going to monstaliner the interior. The frame has been borescoped and will be cleaned out inside and have Eastwood internal frame coating sprayed in it and will get fluid film in the fall. I doubt I will have to do it again since this YJ will be parked in my garage during the winter months.

The outside of the frame will get chassis saver, same as the axles.

I have a fluid film routine I follow with my son‘s LJ, my 13 JK and my 250. Every fall they get sprayed inside the frames and all underneath, every spring they get pressure washed clean.

I think I follow you, but I‘m not sure we are on the same page regarding the interior. I’ll just clay and compound the exterior paint as best I can.

This is not unlike when I did my 91 and my wife’s 95 some years back, threads are lurking around here somewhere.

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Luuca

· #14 · 1 mo ago

Nice find! I like the work you have documented so far. Welcome back to the /f12.

A Few Things:

The OME lift will net you roughly 3 inches of lift if you do not have a hard top, winch, aftermarket bumpers to weigh the jeep down. If you are only going with 30 inch tires, I feel it would look wrong. I would suggest something more like a metric 32" tire, or simply purchasing the Crown Automotive (or other brand of your choice) stock springs for the 30" tires. You could always run a 5/8" lift shackle without running a lift and fit a 30 comfortably achieving a larger than factory tire, a small lift, and a factory look.

IMO you simply cannot beat the OME springs for comfort and performance at that price; however, you will need to use their bushings, which are yellow. If a stock look is what you are after, Yellow may not be the look you want in the end.

The rims are not correct for a "factory look" Don't get me wrong, I like them, but can't place them. I would hunt down a set of the YJ aluminum rims for this.

Wheel Font Rim Automotive wheel system Circle

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jeep63

Discussion Starter · #15 · 1 mo ago

Thanks. Good to be back.

I only got the light duty ome springs and I ordered their shocks and yellow bushings.

The tires measure out to 30.5” I put this same setup on the 91 I worked on and feel it looked okay. That thread is here somewhere. That jeep also had a 1” body lift.

I agree the wheels are not original. The ones you show are for sure. These are TJ rubicon wheels “moab’s” and they are my favorite wheel by far.

This is not a numbers matching type restore. I use the term resto-mod since not everything is factory.

fishadventure

· #16 · 1 mo ago

jeep63 said:
perhaps you misunderstand my plans. I’m only going to monstaliner the interior.

Ya, I wouldn’t do that. Too difficult to reverse imho. And I’ve witnessed a lot of rust under bredliner jobs after a few years.

Luuca

· #17 · 1 mo ago

fishadventure said:
Ya, I wouldn’t do that. Too difficult to reverse imho. And I’ve witnessed a lot of rust under bredliner jobs after a few years.

My daughter and I Monstaliner her 1991. She went to school through Idaho winters and now live in Idaho. I am 98% sure there's no rust under the monstaliner coating. It's not a bedliner, it's a coating, closer to paint, but much more chemically stable and durable.

dshot59

· #18 · 1 mo ago

I'm intrigued as well by a show, I have friends in Boiling Springs PA . Might have to plan a visit , July it is ya say ?

Reactions: 1

jeep63

Discussion Starter · #19 · 1 mo ago

fishadventure said:
Ya, I wouldn’t do that. Too difficult to reverse imho. And I’ve witnessed a lot of rust under bredliner jobs after a few years.

I hear you, but this has not been my experience.

Luuca said:
My daughter and I Monstaliner her 1991. She went to school through Idaho winters and now live in Idaho. I am 98% sure there's no rust under the monstaliner coating. It's not a bedliner, it's a coating, closer to paint, but much more chemically stable and durable.

I’ve lined the interior of 3 Jeeps, YJs specifically, since 2004. An 89 was done with Rhino liner and I still see it frequently as my nephew has it now. It is not rusting underneath afaik, but it is garage kept.

A 95 I did several years back with Monstaliner is also not rust, afaik, and I see if frequently since my brother bought it from me.

I am most likely going to Monstaline the interior of this 95 too once I repair the cracks by the seat riser bolts and patch the body mount hole that I need to cut.

This Jeep will also be garage kept and not go out in the winter if at all possible.

jeep63

Discussion Starter · #20 · 1 mo ago

dshot59 said:
I'm intrigued as well by a show, I have friends in Boiling Springs PA . Might have to plan a visit , July it is ya say ?

Look up PA Jeeps show in Carlisle.

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