Build Thread 1986 CJ7 Rebuild - Chasing my youth

Masscj7 · Sep 15, 2020

Another weekend of cleaning stuff up. First off, got the crappy remnants of the PO’s roll cage off the roll bar. Forgot to take an after shot, but thankfully his welds hasn’t little to no penetration so the spots cleaned up awesome.

Then went after the windshield frame as the sandblasted again couldn’t get it clean. This time I used the eco friendly paint stripper in conjunction with a heavy wire brush cup attachment for my angle grinder, that did the trick.

Then loaded up and off to the paint shop. Now I’m really getting antsy. Just a waiting game now. Grrr

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Ultrunner · Sep 15, 2020

Dude, I’ve sometimes completely skipped blasting as the wire cup and angle grinder always win.

Looking awesome! Can’t wait to see everything painted and ready for assembly.

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CJ · Sep 17, 2020

Masscj7 said:
Another weekend of cleaning stuff up. First off, got the crappy remnants of the PO’s roll cage off the roll bar. Forgot to take an after shot, but thankfully his welds hasn’t little to no penetration so the spots cleaned up awesome.

Those are the worst welds I have ever seen.

Masscj7 · Sep 28, 2020

Been pretty slow progress recently. Just been bogged down with primary job and I own my own 2nd business doing car electronics and with a recent cold snap up here, remote start calls have been ramping up. Good is that it’s Jeep funds, the bad is it soaks up a lot of time.

But I did steal 4 hours on Friday evening to go run up to New Hampshire and score these! With center caps! Not cheap, but far less money then sending out my old ones to get rechromed.

Come on body shop, let’s get moving!

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Ultrunner · Sep 28, 2020

Man those things are awesome looking. Great score! I broke a bolt off removing both of the front hubs. I'd love to get the broken bolts out a polish them up.

Masscj7 · Oct 7, 2020

First up the quick one, got my new soft top frame mocked up on windshield frame. Holes didn’t align with what was there, so closed them up and got everything drilled out so that now can go to paint.

Had to trim driver’s side as it wasn’t going to clear the visor mounts.

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Masscj7 · Oct 7, 2020

I was originally just going to post, finished my fresh air box refurb, but then I figured I’d elaborate some of my mistakes. Such a small item, I feel massively relieved to be done since I started this back on July 3rd!

And I prob over did it. But first thing I learned is be careful trying to drive out your baffle pivot rods, I tore the metal on mine cause I was impatient.

Tried to weld some of it, but it was too far gone. Learned my lesson on the 2nd baffle and I soaked it in God’s miracle for Jeeps, Evaporust.

After a good couple day soak, I was able to work the pivot out.

Then I ripped the rubber seal trying to get it off. Take your time with something flat.

Next as I looked at my two plastic shells and saw the plastic was pretty brittle and many of my holes were either cracked or a little close for comfort towards the edge. So after some thinking, I decided that a layer of fiber glass mat would be help reinforce the edge. First attempt, it didn’t adhere with some good 3M spray adhesive after resin. But the failed attempt Peels off relatively clean and 2nd attempt I scuffed it good with 60 grit and adhesive again. Stuck well and hardened nicely. I would recommend tearing the layered mat and dabbing it on, versus cutting strips because as the resin hardened, it wanted to shrink and bubble the fiberglass mat and pull away from the corner, so I had to keep using a putty knife to push it back into the length of the seam.

Finally got everything painted and tried to reassemble the ripped seal with some super glue and it would not just go right. So when I bought my set of wheels, took a chance on cracked and beat up box from the seller for $40. The baffle needed an Evaporust soak again, but rubber came off good and the metal
was in great shape.

The round baffle in the new box was just as beat so I just used some JB weld epoxy on my existing round baffle.

Finally ready to assemble after multiple nights of going in the garage and only having an hour and running into issues. Leaned that must have river washers or they’ll pull through, learned that with the added fiberglass, might need to shave some of the washers, but in the end it’s finally done!!! Get it off the bench. I did use 3M strip caulk for sealant and found that the below lubricant has a nice viscosity to kind of stay on moving metal surfaces with minimal run. Everything moves great now!

Hopefully the heater box resto will go wayyyy faster! But the lawn has been reseeded and I’ll winterize the boat this weekend, so can get back to focusing on this.

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Ultrunner · Oct 7, 2020

Man! You had way more bad luck with your than I did. The biggest problem I ran into was having to re-drill some rivet holes. I feel lucky.

It is so satisfying finishing this job though. I don’t know why, but I know what you mean.

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Masscj7 · Oct 29, 2020

Not a lot noteworthy. Just adding some visual content for those board at work.

Redid my heater box, pretty straight forward. PO did cut or busted a hole in the front. Been using this JB Weld epoxy and have had really good results with both adhesion, rigidity, and ability to shape. Fill or built up several broken plastics things.

Paint guy is finally moving along. But the final spray will be a big one as need to do it all at once since it’s a pearl based color.

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Ultrunner · Oct 30, 2020

Heater box looks good. I used the same templates for my gaskets.

Did you get the upgraded blower motor?

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Masscj7 · Oct 30, 2020

Yessir. K5 for the win.

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Masscj7 · Dec 16, 2020

Wow, it’s been a bit. The one and short is I’m still waiting on the painter. So in the mean time, Ultra kept bugging me about my transfer case and rebuilding it, so thought about it as my whole driveline has been in for couple months and done.
So after much contemplation and whispers by Ultra, I said I’ll yank the case. Well, can’t get at my adapter bolts without dropping the skid plate. Well there goes the rear mount, so I’ll just pull tranny too. Pulling and swearing and then duh, torque converter is bolted to flex plate. Damn, yank it all and say, well, if I pulled it all might as well break down and send the tranny to a shop for rebuild. I had only had the pan pulled for a real cursory look.

Send it to tranny shop and glad I did. When I replaced the pump gear, I punched the o ring on the pump assembly. Plus we found some surface rust in valve bodies. But tell you what, when the hot tank stripped the old paint off my tranny, it was not pretty!

So already this deep. Let’s grind and sand it down and hit it with some UPol adhesion promoter and then some Eastwood 2k alum blast in an aerosol can and real pleased with the results so far. We’ll see how it holds up.

Onto the T case....

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Masscj7 · Dec 16, 2020

I must say, I’m very glad Ultra convinced me to do this. One of the most rewarding things I’ve done on this build and in general. I was super apprehensive, but with lots of YouTube time and Ultra’s advisement, I tore into it and found that it could use a touch up.

Started cleaning everything up, chase all the threads in holes, couple of days for a rebuild kit, bought some more shop tools, more YouTube watching and notes and then went at it.

And finished. Thank you Ultra for the hand holding and that was a great time!

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Belizean · Dec 16, 2020

Going that deep, I decided to go with the Lomax 4:1

Ultrunner · Dec 16, 2020

Masscj7 gives me waaay too much credit. But thanks all the same. Your t-case and transmission look fantastic. You’re a true craftsman.

What you left out of the story was the three days of exchanging texts where you swore me up and down for “getting In your head”.

I’ll just say, “you’re welcome”.

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Masscj7 · Dec 18, 2020

Well played.

Another positive outcome of this was I found an issue with my starter set up. Summit sold me my flex plate, torque converter, converter bolts all at same time.

Had a fitment issue w the 168 tooth plate they first sent me as well as the bolts were wrong thread pitch for converter. So after fighting what seemed to be bad machining on the flex plate to crank fitment, they sent me new flex plate. This one fit perfect, but wrong bolts again. So waited on corrected fine thread bolts. Finally get bolts, put altogether and great.

Couple months later, order a starter, a staggered mount 168 tooth to match. All from Summit. Get starter and they sold me too short of starter bolts. Wait some more. Finally get all bolted in through transmission cover housing and all good.

Pull driveline for recent upgrade and looking at the below, say, well perfect time to shim starter. Wait, something does not look right.

Well, in my haste to put everything back together, didn’t notice they sent me a 155 tooth plate. Grrrr. With the stagger mount starter, never going to reach. So I really didn’t like fitment between headers and starter, so said I’ll just get a straight mount starter. Little unhappy that Summit made me purchase a new starter. Get new starter and see that it’s a straight mount, but...

Old starter was two long housing mounts, roughly 4” housing

New starter (no out of box pic) has a housing w inboard mount of roughly same size, but the outboard mount is only like an 1”. Grrrrrr again! Why don’t you tell me this! Starter bolts have a particular knurled shank, so I just threw a regular bolt for now.

So morale of the story, for most part Summit owned the issues and took care of me.

GM builders pay close attention to flex plate size, tourque converter mounting dimensions, starter mounting positions, and starter mounting hardware.

Will save you versus me.

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Masscj7 · Jan 6, 2021

So most importantly is this view which I haven’t seen in almost a year.

She’s at the painter for final body work and paint!

So of course after it’s out for the garage, I went big and added a sub panel for dedicated circuits for my welder and air compressor

And most importantly....

No more propane burn bucket with fumes and condensation, heat and AC!

And lastly, the Jeep. Impatiently waiting.

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Ultrunner · Jan 6, 2021

Starting to look like a real Jeep. The excitement must be awesome.

Didn’t notice the new circuits in the original garage photos. That’s awesome. Now you’re giving me ideas. More excuses to spend lots of time out there.

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Belizean · Jan 6, 2021

Nice job and nice upgrades !

Masscj7 · Jan 29, 2021

So while the chassis is over at the painter, I decided to play a little bit with painting a few items and also trying some black oxide coating.

First off, laid down some rattle can 2k paint and 2k clear on the seat risers. And I must say, this was very much a patience test. Multiple passes as you try to get every surface and angle as well as having to spray them both collapsed and extended and in the middle.

Then played around with my black oxide kit. I’m exploring this for some items that move, such as some internals in the ebrake assembly and the tailgate latches. So far I’ve only tried with metal prepped with a wire wheel. You must ensure that the pet is entirely stripped and cleaned. Any imperfections impacts the finish. As well, different metals seem to take color differently.
Not sure if I’m sold on it yet. I need to try some sand blasted pieces. But they say you get a darker more robust color with a wire brush prep. But I like the thought of it as painted bolts, just chip.