Build Thread 79 CJ-7 Renagade

[jeepboy45]

I love the color scheme, and I'm keeping it!
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Can anyone tell me the color??

DAMN DAMN DAMN!!!
I just noticed these pics....this was the color of mine with the same decals before I got rid of rust and oxidizing paint and had it painted....

Wow,,,its like seeing an old friend!

 

[Niedhogg]

DAMN DAMN DAMN!!!
I just noticed these pics....this was the color of mine with the same decals before I got rid of rust and oxidizing paint and had it painted....

Wow,,,its like seeing an old friend!

Yep! I love the colors! I won't be able to paint it this year, I have already stripped it all down and have it in primer, everything except the tub, and that's next!

 

[Niedhogg]

I just realized, I mispelled Renegade in the title of my thread!


i am soo ashamed...

 

[Niedhogg]

Wheels, painted.... went with a khaki tan, satin, so we'll see how it looks against the primer red. Kinda like the color, might just hit the body with this color. Pics tomorrow!

 

[Niedhogg]

Thought I'd mention that I'm still alive, and still working on my Jeep. Weather has been a big issue lately since I'm doing it in my back yard, so not too much progress.. been working on the tub, I have found out recently that I have no skid plate for my tank, so I can't put it in yet... I have made some 2" spacers for my Transfer Case drop and will get them in soon... I still haven't bent my new tranny lines because of weather, but hopefully soon, and then I can attempt my first engine start, maybe Sunday. Will mount the tires this weekend, shocks are on, but need to install the sway bar.

Oh, and I bought a snow plow for it. Older style Meyers, power up, down and angle, and I came off a CJ.. The headlights are the cool bullet style with the large CJ headlights, so very cool.... well, for a snow plow.

 

[Niedhogg]

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Tub is almost finished, still needs the bedliner spayed onto the floor in the rear and the firewall as well on the engine side. My floor panels haven't showed up yet, but will soon.. This is my son, he's been doing most of the work while I'm at work, if not for him we wouldn't be very far, LOL, and it should sit a couple inches higher when we get it together. I got my skid plate for the fuel tank the other day and I found the rear frame/body support in my pile of parts, it's new and will need to be trimmed to fit onto the frame correctly, but then I can get the tank in and the fuel lines installed and hopefully get it started!

 

[Niedhogg]

Well it was a pretty good weekend here. Got quite a bit done this weekend..

Mounted the tires onto the wheels, a couple took quite a bit of weight to balance..
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Ran my new tranny lines..
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Installed valve covers, water pump, plug wires, temp fuel line but have purchased the tubing to bend the new stuff..
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Undercoated the firewall, and the rear wheel wells and trimmed my rear frame mount so it can be welded onto the rear frame rails..
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Just need to finish the wiring to the new HEI and it should be ready for it's first start tomorrow night! It will be a short run without water, I need a new radiator it seems, lol.. but I need to hear it run!!

 

[Niedhogg]

If anyone is still reading this thread, IT RUNS!!!!!!! Fired up on the first try! No knocks, no ticks, no smoke!! So my original $600 dollar purchase has been well worth the money! What a relief, and now we can finish the assembly of the Jeep! I'm so excited!!All that hard work and determination has paid off... You don't ev [HQ]

My dually kinda drowns out some of the sound, and it's pretty dark, but you'll get the idea!


This is for evryone's help so far!! Bottom's up, boys!!!

 

[Petescj]

Temporarily unavailable from facebook!!! What a tease. Glad to hear you got it running. Supposed to be nice weather till Thurs if your still in Pa.

 

[Niedhogg]

Temporarily unavailable from facebook!!! What a tease. Glad to hear you got it running. Supposed to be nice weather till Thurs if your still in Pa.

Aw, man! Really? My son said it would work! LOL, well I'll get a better video on youtube and then post the link tonight! I'm still in Pa, been trying to take advantage of the nice weather while I can! Got all the painting done this weekend as well.. time to assemble!!

 

[Niedhogg]

My new tank sending unit from an ebay store I can't seem to remember, showed up smashed yesterday, and several emails sent with no response, has forced me to get one from my local parts store for nearly twice as much. But at least I can move forward on the project. Fuel tank is in, lines will be bent and installed tomorrow, and then the tub can finally be fitted and I can spend the rest of the weekend moving body mounts to fit my YJ tub, and hopefully the exhaust as well.. Boys, I might have all the body parts back together by Sunday night... and I'll see if I can't get a better video of the beast running!

 

[Niedhogg]

Here's what I hope to accomplish today...

Fuel tank. I had this mounted yesterday, and I had moved it to the left to center it in the frame rails so the dual exhaust could exit on either side, but now I've decided to move it back to the right, further past stock location and hugging the right side, and then plumb the dual exaust so they both exit left of the tank. And the main reason for this is so I can use the factory molded fuel filler and vent hoses, without modification, and it should look pretty trick.

Bend and mount the new fuel lines, and also mount the new brake lines, which are already ran but not strapped. This shouldn't take too long.

Set the tub. I know, I can't believe it either, but I think it will happen today. I need to measure and move a couple body perches, but it could happen today .... cross your fingers!

 

[gliryan]

Good luck! I hope I can get some work done this week, nothing for me today due to work.

 

[Petescj]

Here's what I hope to accomplish today...

Fuel tank. I had this mounted yesterday, and I had moved it to the left to center it in the frame rails so the dual exhaust could exit on either side, but now I've decided to move it back to the right, further past stock location and hugging the right side, and then plumb the dual exaust so they both exit left of the tank. And the main reason for this is so I can use the factory molded fuel filler and vent hoses, without modification, and it should look pretty trick.

Bend and mount the new fuel lines, and also mount the new brake lines, which are already ran but not strapped. This shouldn't take too long.

Set the tub. I know, I can't believe it either, but I think it will happen today. I need to measure and move a couple body perches, but it could happen today .... cross your fingers!

Just got home from work myself. Hope all went well. Pics

 

[Niedhogg]

Mission accomplished!! My tub is finally on the frame!! It's not nailed down yet, but it's on! I decided to leave the tank in the middle, one reason is I had forgotten that I had already tack welded the mounting bolts in the frame, soooo.. that's ok. Funny thing though, my camera forgot to take any pictures throughout the day, until it was dark, and the tub was on.. stupid camera.. but I'll share the one it did get, and make sure I get some more in the daylight tomorrow..
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Sorry it's so dark guys!!

 

[AdamH]

Word of advice...

Get some high temp wrap / shield and cover the starter. I too have headers on my AMC 304 and after awhile the headers make the starter so hot that it won't crank if I shut it off and try to re-start. I have to wait until the starter cools down some. I bought a wrap that I plan to put on once I can find the time. FYI.. at least with my application, the clearance is so close between the starter/engine/headers that I will have to take the starter down to do this. Would have been much easier if I did it earlier in the build.

 

[Niedhogg]

Word of advice...

Get some high temp wrap / shield and cover the starter. I too have headers on my 304 and after awhile the headers make the starter so hot that it won't crank if I shut it off and try to re-start. I have to wait until the starter cools down some. I bought a wrap that I plan to put on once I can find the time. FYI.. at least with my application, the clearance is so close between the starter/engine/headers that I will have to take the starter down to do this. Would have been much easier if I did it earlier in the build.

What type or brand of wrap did you buy? I would be interested to know how you install it too. I had wondered about this, and now would be a good time to put it on. Here's my clearance on the starter side, it's not too bad...
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These were't taken specifically for the starter clearance, but you can kinda see what I've got. I was more concerned with the replacement of the starter if it were captured by the header to where I couldn't get it out, but it looks like R&R won't be too bad. But you are right, I should wrap it...

 

[Niedhogg]

Goals for the weekend:

Replace my shock towers. It has been determined that I may have an earlier frame, from the pics on the previous post you can see what I am talking about. Thanks to Mike, from Texoma Jeeps, I now have a pair of correct towers that will allow my shocks to extend to where they need to be..

Get my body bolted down. Had new bolts bought that were similar to the factory bolts, but it seems the bushing set ups are a little different from stock to aftermarket and they look to be about an inch too long.

Rear wire harness. Need this in so I can finish mounting my fuel tank.. I hope it's all there...

Brake, gas and E-brake pedals, and hopefully the heater/blower ducts.

Windshield frame.

Master cylinder & booster for brakes.

And maybe the dash and steering column...

Wish me luck, had to work this morning, so I'll be getting a late start.

 

[Niedhogg]

Goals for the weekend:

Replace my shock towers. It has been determined that I may have an earlier frame, from the pics on the previous post you can see what I am talking about. Thanks to Mike, from Texoma Jeeps, I now have a pair of correct towers that will allow my shocks to extend to where they need to be..

Get my body bolted down. Had new bolts bought that were similar to the factory bolts, but it seems the bushing set ups are a little different from stock to aftermarket and they look to be about an inch too long.

Done and done.. Got the new bolts and fastened down the tub

Rear wire harness. Need this in so I can finish mounting my fuel tank.. I hope it's all there...

Got the harness ran through the tub, and Just happened to find the sending unit wire, but did not get it connected to the tank yet..

Brake, gas and E-brake pedals, and hopefully the heater/blower ducts.

Brake pedal mounted, throttle cable is too short, E-brake not mounted, blower ducts were disassembled, cables lubricated, need to re-tack a mounting bolt and replace the blower fan, so... not done

Windshield frame.

Windshield not mounted

Master cylinder & booster for brakes.

Well I mounted the booster when I mounted the brake pedal, but it looks like the booster may be bad.. Got a new booster and master cylinder ordered

And maybe the dash and steering column...

Didn't get this far today...

Wish me luck, had to work this morning, so I'll be getting a late start.

Well besides what I got done, or didn't get done above, I got my old shock towers removed and the new ones installed. Here's a few pics, and I notice now I did not get one of the finished tower, but you can see it in the last pick, with me and my Jeep, and all it's tires mounted up finally.. wasn't a bad day after all...
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[Niedhogg]

Ok, here's a pic of the finished shock tower that I forgot to take the other day. Switching to these probably gained me 6" of shock travel, so here's a before and after shot...
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I also did the heater blower upgrade, and installed a new heater core while I had the duct apart to clean, lubricate cables, and re-welded one of the stud bolts for the firewall...
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A pic of the ductwork after mounting to the firewall, and a question, the upper duct fits into the lower duct on the right side, and the fit is really loose.. should I fit weather stripping around it to tighten the gaps?
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Also in this pic, you can see I've started the wiring as well. I have a bad headlight switch, and I need a new dimmer switch, and I hope I can figure the rest out.. PO labeled 6-8 wires with letters A-H, with no key, so hopefully they are marked on the dash somewhere..

I have also started modifying my YJ tub to accept the CJ defrost ducting into the windshield frame. I think you can see the cutouts I made in this pic, and I had a brain storm on how to make this work, without welding in new metal.. If you'll notice (and I'll take a better pic) The YJ tubs differ in the area where the air comes up through the dash, and the CJ tubs duct through the windshield frame, which also passes through rectangular cutouts in the tub.. the YJ tub, like mine, are not flat across this area, they dip in to allow the dash defrost ducts to nestle there, and CJ tubs are flat and square across the face.. so what I did, is I cut the rectangles into my tub, then I will mount the ductwork, and istead of welding in the material to make the tub flat across here, I will use weather stripping and sandwich it between my dash panel and the ductwork, when I install the dash panel.. Simple, and effective... and I will probably fix it right eventually, maybe this spring..

Here's a pic of my engine as well..
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Getting closer to done everyday