• Remove old body
• Remove old fuel system
  • Tank
  • Lines
• Remove brake lines
• Remove engine
• Clean frame
• Wash frame
• Replace front U joints
• Repair frame
  • Body Mounts
  • Left & Right Rear Frame Members
  • Gas Tank Cross Member
  • Secondary Cross Member
  • Driver Side frame by transmission
  • Rider Side front by front end
• Sandblast frame
• Rustproof frame
• Reinstall front end axel and hardware
• Reinstall rear axel
• Reinstall front and rear bumpers
• New brake lines
• New gas tank
• New fuel lines
• Reinstall engine
• Body
  • Fix body dents
  • Paint body
  • Install body
  • Install Fenders
  • Install Grill
  • Install Windshield
  • Install Tailgate
• Interior
  • Break/clutch pedals
  • Dashboard
  • Steering wheel
  • Seats
  • Center console
  • Rollbar
  • Canvas Top
• Electrical system
• Repair Wreck Damage
  • Straighten Frame
  • Replace Leaf Springs
  • Replace front shocks
  • Straighten tie rod
  • Straighten & Paint Front Fender
  • Replace side marker light
  • Get Comprehensive Insurance Coverage
• Winter 2004 Upgrade
  • Two Barrel Carb
  • Herculiner on floor
  • Paint Roll Bar
  • Replace starter
  • Replace front u-joints
  • Reorient air compressor
• Winter 2005 Upgrade
  • Two new axels w/ 3.4 gears
• Spring 2006 Upgrade
  • New (old) engine!
• Spring 2008 Upgrade
  • Roll Cage!

All the pieces are ready to paint! Tomorrow I'm going to load up all the non-body tub pieces into my Nissan 240 (This will be a feat!) and take them over to the body shop to start the painting process. Hopefully, next week sometime I'll take the tub over.
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Sanding. (Or scuffing.) It's one of my least favorite things in the world. But hey, I have to do it or else pay someone else and this is a low budget project (that is already way over budget) so I get to sand everything myself. Nothing good ever comes easy. This had better be damn good! (I think so...) Next I need to take the body back off the frame, flip it over and sand (ick!) the bottom. Then it's off to the body shop!
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Bondo. Does that stuff ever really change? I worked with it many moons ago on my brothers Pontiac Ventura. I had to have been about '78 or so. Anyway, the stuff looks and smells exactly the same as it did back then. So, now I have a hood without holes under the hinges. Also, there were about a dozen tiny holes in the front of the hood where the sand blasting went through. Had to patch them up too. Didn't take too long and I should have a good enough hood. Will be exciting to see it all painted!
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Tuesday, June 26, 2001

This is the color! I just bought the paint today! Phew. $164 for a gallon of Nissan Xterra yellow. Next, parts to the body shop to be painted.
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Thursday, June 21, 2001

Well, it looks like I'm going to have to use a little Bondo(tm) on the hood. It came back from the sand blaster's with a dozen or more tiny holes in the front of the hood. I knew there was some work I had to do under where the hinges attached, but I didn't expect all these tiny little holes. No big deal, just unexpected.
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The hood, tailgate and front grill are all clean as a sand blasted babies bottom. Just picked them up from the sand blaster's yesterday and I learned two things. Frist, make sure you get all the miscellaneous hardware off them before you take them to be cleaned. (Forgot to take the windshield supports and hood tie-downs off the hood. 10 miutes with the wire wheel and it was clean.) Second, it costs more to do many small things carefully than to do one big thing not quite so carefully. They charged me more to do these parts than to do the whole frame. Still a bargan at $80. Oh, also, check out the picture of the tail gate, see how it sparkles, that's what sandblasting does to the metal. Cool.
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Monday, June 18, 2001

Here's a shot of the new gas tank. Complete with it's fresh coat of POR 15. It goes on as soon as the body comes off. It will be a whole lot easier to put on with the tub off. Acutally, lot's of things are a whole lot easier to work on with the body off. I'll have to make it so that I can take the tub off real easy. It'll make those transmission oil changes or U-joint repairs so much easier. {grin}
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The front of the tub had quite a dent right in front of the windshield on the driver's side. (It's where the fork lift caught it causing it to end up at Rex's damaged freight.) Anyway, I pounded out the dent but several spot welds on the seam right below it had given out. So, one hand drill and three small bolts later it was reattached. (By the way, the picture was taken from where the driver would sit and looking behind where the steering wheel would have gone into the dashboard. The firewall is on the right side of the picture.)
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Here are the aluminum shims I had to put in the middle body mounts. The one right in front of the rear wheel needed almost a full 1/2 inch! I added an extra 1/8 inch all the way around so you might say I have an 1/8 inch body lift.
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Here's that damn bumper. The second picture is looking at it from the outside behind the rear wheel. The third picture shows all the bolts I had to put in the damn thing. It's looking at the rear frame member from the inside. Where the gas tank would be. Bolts 1 and 2 are for the rear spring shackel. Bolts 3 and 4 hold the bumper bracket to the frame. 5 and 6 are for the trailer hitch bracket. 7 and 8 hold the bumper to the bracket. And finally 9 holds the trailer hitch to it's bracket. And if you want to count the bolt from the second picture, which holds the body down on the bumper, the count comes to 10! And let's not forget, there's two rear frame members! Phew! Sure am glad it's over.
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Boy, I have been working on the rear bumper/cross member for the last 5 days! That thing is a pain in the butt! It attaches to the frame, holds the body in place and also helps hold the trailer hitch in place. Consequently, there are 9(!) bolts on each end of the frame. And each bolt goes through at least two pieces of metal, this comes out to 36+ holes to drill!! Man is this thing a pain!
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When I fabricated the new cross member I wasn't able to reproduce a bend it had and consequently it raised two of the body mounts up about 3/8" from their original location. This created a kind of "bridge" between the front and rear mounts. (Visible in the second photo.) I'm cutting a number of aluminum plates to shim in these places. I think I'm going to add 1/8" or so all around to raise the body up just a tad. Should make the gas tank fit in a little better. It was a tad tight.
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One of the two dents that got me my "scratch and dent" price for the tub was right on the flat spot on the body where the windshield attaches. I put a bottle jack in there and mostly have it straightened out. Just a few small dents now that can be easily fixed with some bondo. Looks like I'll be learning how to do body work next.
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Thanks to a couple of friends from the local 4WD club I sat the body down on the frame last week. It looks like a Jeep again! Now to get the rear bumper attached, shim up the body and test fit everything. Then it's off to the paint booth!
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Thursday, June 14, 2001

Puttered around today. Put a new valve cover gasket on it. Degreased the engine with a can of that spray on stuff. And, if luck is with me I'll have the body sitting on it by 9:00 tonight. More news as it happens. Oh, one more thing. I may have made a connection with the brother-in-law of a friend of mine that has painted three of his last cars himself. I think that qualifies him as "knowing what he is doing." I'm told he might be persuaded to do mine for a nominal fee. Let's hope...
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Wednesday, June 13, 2001

Boy, ask and ye shall receive. I had barely posted the previous note about needing to track down a sawzall an a friend of mine called up and said he had one and could drop it off this afternoon on his way home from work. Gotta love friends like that! (Thanks Keith!) Needless to say, I have the bumper all trimmed and it seems to fit just fine now. What I need to do now is to put the body down on the frame and adjust the bumper so that it lines up with the body mounts. Then I can drill some holes and bolt it on.
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Tuesday, June 12, 2001

Doh! I made a slight oops on the size of the rear bumper. I designed it so that it was the same length as the original but decided to make it 2" deep instead of the 1 1/4" of the old one. Figured it would make it a tad stronger. Well, I didn't take into account the fact that the gas tank had to fit in between the bumper and the rear frame cross member. So now I am hack sawing off about 3/4" of an inch on along the back side of the bumper. At 1" ever 10 minutes of sawing it's going to take a while. I am trying to round up a sawzall(sp?) that I think will make short work of it. As soon as I get the rear bumper installed it's on with the body!
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Thursday, June 07, 2001

I've got the fuel lines all bent and attached. Just need that rear cross-member/bumper (which I'm picking up this Saturday.) and I'll be able to put the gas tank in. Then All I need to do is get the emergency break cables attached and I'll be able to sit the body on the frame and start fitting parts.
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Ok, this has nothing to do with my jeep directly but it is pretty cool. This link takes you to a sort of timeline of the jeep over the years It's way cool. It's part of this site which seems pretty interesting. Check 'em both out.
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Wednesday, June 06, 2001

I have a grill on the way! I just won an auction for a new (old) grill for my CJ. $29!!! It should be here by the end of the week. And I'm going to be picking up the new rear bumper and roll bar base plates from my metal fabricating friend in Columbus. More as it happens!
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Monday, June 04, 2001

Tonight, I finished bolting on the engine. The skid plate under the transfer case has six bolts and I had accidentally covered up one of them with one of the frame repair plates. So, I had to drill a hole in the plate to expose the threaded hole underneath. Trouble was it was completely covered up and I had to drill blind. Lucky enough I hit it right on. I also reattached both drive shafts. So, it has a complete drive train! All it needs is a gas tank, battery, steering wheel, body and seats and it could move! Now, on to the gas tank and fuel lines.
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It has a motor! My Dad came over on Saturday and we rented the engine hoist again and viola! It has an engine!
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