Build Thread '81 CJ-7 Laredo build

[Petescj]

Also, take and block, either with sheetmetal and silicone sealer or some closed cell foam chunks, each end of the bottom of the frame. This keeps the warm air from condensating all around the inside of the frame (hot air / cold frame) which is the main cause of them rusting from the inside out, plus it boost's the velocity of your defroster air.
And as was said, definitely coat the inside of the frame. Mine did great after 16 years like that and I'm going to spray it again, this time with Eastwood's internal frame paint.

I remember you bringing this up in another thread. Great advice, for now Im gonna wheel it a little but I'll definately pull it off and use this set up. I am just so tired of rust.

Yep, and when you put expanding foam in the ends of the inside of the frame, make sure you leave room for the wiper linkage to work. It's not fun digging it out with a screwdriver. Ask me how I know.

Ahhh.. Real life experience , the best way to learn. You get alot of rust in Arkansas?

 

[Petescj]

Im pretty pumped up right now. I only have 1 more 3am-3pm shift and then Im off for 11 days. I managed to get a little work in on the Cj over this last month of 12 hr work days. Even the little stuff counts then. The battery I had took a . I was looking for one the same size and with both post locations so I can hook up my winch the same way. By checking the the date on the battery it was 8 years old and from Napa. Ive had alot of sucsess dealing with them so I got the 2013 version of this battery.



I couldnt leave the battery tray all crusty so I sprayed it with some Rustoleum while the battery was out.



The windshield is also on now , just need to remove 2 broken torx bolts and re tap the holes.



So shes sitting here now waiting to wheel. Im gonna let the shop go over it while they install my rear bumper and tire carrier. Thats kind of a "Im tired and they have better tools than me" thing. I need a garage that is wired for better tools. Ordered up a bkini top and a cargo rack for the the bumper. Heres how she sits now. I see some trimming of the wheelwells in my future. I may even wash it.

 

[JR74CJ5]

Looking good Pete.

The Optima battery i got is set up the same with top and side posts like you have there. may have been a little more expensive at the moment though... I agree I like having both for my winch hook up as well.



~ Jr

 

[Petescj]

Looking good Pete.

The Optima battery i got is set up the same with top and side posts like you have there. may have been a little more expensive at the moment though... I agree I like having both for my winch hook up as well.



~ Jr

Thanks Jr. Its a little rough but wheelable and I cant wait to get out. Right now Im on the outside looking in on the Kentucky trip. There are no opening at any campsite within an hour of Natural Bridge. There are two places that are supposed to call me if they have a cancellation though.

If I get to go to Ky. its two new tires for the rear. It has some Exterrains on it now that Im less than impressed with. I dont care for directional tires to begin with and these dont get me up my driveway in reverse without a headstart. If no Ky then its 4 new tires and wheeling around here. Not exactly a bad deal but I want the road trip.

After that plans are for the 4 to 1 kit from lo max , lunchbox locker in the rear and the body re done and painted. Cleaning up the under carriage is on the list as well. For now though I have to wheel it and feel it out. Who knows what thatll add to the list.

 

[JR74CJ5]

I tell you I'm in love with my KM2's

These tires are awesome in my opinion...

both on road and off.

Just pitch a tent on top of the jeep!


~ Jr

 

[Petescj]

Well the maiden voyage revealed a few flaws in the Cj.

1. The rear main seal leak needs to be taken care of now. Once the oil heated up it leaked way to much for me to ignore.

2. The ride is best described as bouncy. I think this is a combination of the newer 4 in springs and uneven tire pressure around all 4 corners of the Jeep.

3. The steering is a little sloppy for my liking.

4. The Transfer Case shifter linkage needs some work. Its difficult to get in 4wd.

5. The rear Xterrains are junk. I needed 4wd to back into my driveway. I planned on replacing atleast these two from the start though.

6. This is the big one , the brake system is totally inadequate for the 35 in tires. It doesnt have power brakes and I havent checked into the condition of whats on it. I just know it doesnt work well.

It wasnt all doom and gloom though. This Cj is the quietest one Ive ever had. Its hard to tell its even running when at idle. There isnt any spring or suspension noise either. It seems to have plenty of power even with the automatic and 3.73 gears. The front tires hum but are pretty quiet for a large Mud Terrain. I was expecting a much louder ride but was pleasantly suprised.

Basically nothing was terribly wrong but the brakes really need attention. I guess a brake upgrade will be my first real modification. Time to go study up on it.

 

[Old Dog]

Sounds like a typical cj to me.

 

[Petescj]

Sounds like a typical cj to me.

True . Its definately a rougher ride than the last few Cjs I had. Tire pressure adjustments took some of the "squirrely" away and I had it up around 65 mph today. The front end still feels "floaty" though.

I feel a little better about it than I did the other day though. Even had a guy in a Bronco stop the other day and ask if it was for sale. I told him no
and he asked if he could look at it anyway. He asked again before he left and offered to trade his Bronco and cash but I never wavered.

Anyhow headed to Napa tomorrow to get the rear main seal and pan gasket so I can knock out that leak. Only thing Ive really done since is slap a new bikini top on it. Gonna clean it up a little today and reinforce and reinstall the center console. Heres a pic just for the heck of it.


http://s39.photobucket.com/user/Cjpete85/media/81 CJ7/laredo17_zps9bf253a2.jpg.html

 

[Petescj]

I tell you I'm in love with my KM2's

These tires are awesome in my opinion...

both on road and off.

Just pitch a tent on top of the jeep!


~ Jr

Thats good to know. I just sent out an email to this ad. These are close to my place and Id just buy 2 more new ones. Id love to have a trailer with a tent on the top of it.

http://allentown.craigslist.org/pts/3889732610.html

 

[Petescj]

Proof I actuall washed it. Heres a wet pic. Put her back in the garage and Im off to NAPA for the rear main seal , pan gasket and oil.

 

[Petescj]

Well have to order the stuff and it'll be in on Wednesday. They had both the rear main seal and 1 piece gasket there just like it said online. The 1 piece got damaged on the corner and the rear main seal wasnt the newer upgraded version. I forgot to mention one of the modifications I made the last couple days. Upper drivers side windshield has my Jeep-Cj.com sticker.

 

[wm69]

Ahhh.. Real life experience , the best way to learn. You get alot of rust in Arkansas?

Not too bad, but it gets humid here in the Delta, so gotta have a good defroster! I was trying to direct more air to the windshield when I have the defroster on!

 

[Petescj]

Not too bad, but it gets humid here in the Delta, so gotta have a good defroster! I was trying to direct more air to the windshield when I have the defroster on!

Heres the only Arkansas story I have. When I moved my now ex wife from Pa. to Az. we toted her Saturn Sc-1 behind the Uhaul. We left in February and there was a bunch of snow in Pa. Later on down the East coast things cleared up and we had people waving at us all the time. They were pointing at sparks flying behind the Uhaul truck toward the Saturn.

I was in my mid twenties and had no idea about towing or how to do it. I knew that the straps around the tires needed to be tight and it had to be hooked to the ball correctly. I put the safety chains on as well. People were flagging us down all the time from the sparks that were flying. We actually considered putting signs up in the widows saying " We know Dammit"

We finally get pulled over in Arkansas. The state cop was like what the heck are you guys doing. His back up pulls up prety quickly afterward. We explain that we are moving to Az and this has been goin on since we left Pa. The trooper leans hard on the front of the ramps , turns the lock and locks them in. They were about 2 ft shorter when I returned the dolley in Az.

 

[oldjeeplady]

Heres the only Arkansas story I have. When I moved my now ex wife from Pa. to Az. we toted her Saturn Sc-1 behind the Uhaul. We left in February and there was a bunch of snow in Pa. Later on down the East coast things cleared up and we had people waving at us all the time. They were pointing at sparks flying behind the Uhaul truck toward the Saturn.

I was in my mid twenties and had no idea about towing or how to do it. I knew that the straps around the tires needed to be tight and it had to be hooked to the ball correctly. I put the safety chains on as well. People were flagging us down all the time from the sparks that were flying. We actually considered putting signs up in the widows saying " We know Dammit"

We finally get pulled over in Arkansas. The state cop was like what the heck are you guys doing. His back up pulls up prety quickly afterward. We explain that we are moving to Az and this has been goin on since we left Pa. The trooper leans hard on the front of the ramps , turns the lock and locks them in. They were about 2 ft shorter when I returned the dolley in Az.

This is a great story!!!!

We had an experience back in '09 where we were bringing some things to Wisconsin from my Mom's estate in West Virginia and we had our 02 F350 4X4 dually with a fiberglass topper pulling our 4 place horse/stock conversion trailer. We were traveling I65 North of Indy a ways and all of sudden we hear this terrible crashing sound and then it sounds like we are dragging something. At first I thought the trailer did an emergency stop without us and the chains let go.....So we pull over, and the trailer is still back there but somehow the hinges on the topper have come loose and the back window fell out... but it got caught on the horse trailer, shattered the glass and ground down one corner on one side where the latches are. Of course it was pretty bent up, but my husband was able to replace the glass with lexan, clean it up, and get new hinges, and PUT IT BACK ON and we still have it to this day! That would have been bad news for someone behind us if that thing had gotten away...

 

[wm69]

Heres the only Arkansas story I have. When I moved my now ex wife from Pa. to Az. we toted her Saturn Sc-1 behind the Uhaul. We left in February and there was a bunch of snow in Pa. Later on down the East coast things cleared up and we had people waving at us all the time. They were pointing at sparks flying behind the Uhaul truck toward the Saturn.

I was in my mid twenties and had no idea about towing or how to do it. I knew that the straps around the tires needed to be tight and it had to be hooked to the ball correctly. I put the safety chains on as well. People were flagging us down all the time from the sparks that were flying. We actually considered putting signs up in the widows saying " We know Dammit"

We finally get pulled over in Arkansas. The state cop was like what the heck are you guys doing. His back up pulls up prety quickly afterward. We explain that we are moving to Az and this has been goin on since we left Pa. The trooper leans hard on the front of the ramps , turns the lock and locks them in. They were about 2 ft shorter when I returned the dolley in Az.

Ha, we rednecks love fixing people's on the side of the road.

It's almost like a "gotta do it every so often" to maintain your "Southern" classification.

 

[Petescj]

This is a great story!!!!

We had an experience back in '09 where we were bringing some things to Wisconsin from my Mom's estate in West Virginia and we had our 02 F350 4X4 dually with a fiberglass topper pulling our 4 place horse/stock conversion trailer. We were traveling I65 North of Indy a ways and all of sudden we hear this terrible crashing sound and then it sounds like we are dragging something. At first I thought the trailer did an emergency stop without us and the chains let go.....So we pull over, and the trailer is still back there but somehow the hinges on the topper have come loose and the back window fell out... but it got caught on the horse trailer, shattered the glass and ground down one corner on one side where the latches are. Of course it was pretty bent up, but my husband was able to replace the glass with lexan, clean it up, and get new hinges, and PUT IT BACK ON and we still have it to this day! That would have been bad news for someone behind us if that thing had gotten away...

Yeah all those miles shooting a trail of sparks under the car wasnt too bright at the time either. Live and learn. It does make a funny story though after the fact.

Ha, we rednecks love fixing people's on the side of the road.

It's almost like a "gotta do it every so often" to maintain your "Southern" classification.

He had that kinda look on his face like "Dumb***!" Cant really blame him. I cant believe we made it all the way to Arkansas without being pulled over. It was a real show at night.

 

[Petescj]

Heres the headlight upgrade in case you guys missed the thread:

Well Im 2 days later than I wanted to be but I got the harness installed today. This had nothing to do with the harness cause its only a 30-45 minute job tops. I'll come right out and say it " I hate and alot of times fear electrical work!" I dont understand it and thats probably the major part of my problem.

That said this was a nice easy install. Jimbos76cj made this set up very easy to install. You'll need a drill , phyllips head screw driver , socket wrench and sockets for your battery terminal (1/2 and 7/16 in my case) 4 fasteners of your choice and the socket to mount them 1/4 in for me and a small piece of sandpaper. So lets get started:



First remove your negative battery cable from the terminal. Then take your screwdriver and remove your headlight rings and retainers followed by the headlights. You'll take notice in the picture that the passenger side plug for the light is no longer in the grill.



That plug is pulled through this opening and pluged into the large black female end on the harness.

http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f7/an...ade-harnesses-19110/index3.html#ixzz2Ys6jIWVO

 

[Petescj]

Next take the 2 gray plugs and feed them through the grill using the same opening you pulled the passenger side plug through. The longer end will feed over to the driver side while the shorter end is the passenger side.



Next I installed the two orange wires to the positive side of the solenoid. Here I also installed the fuses. I used the 10 and 15 Jimbos76cj provided for the low beam and high beam repectively. Jimbos76cj had the high beam relay already marked with an "H" so it was a simple matter of tracing it back to the fuse.


http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f7/an...ade-harnesses-19110/index3.html#ixzz2Ys7SH5bw

 

[Petescj]

Now its a matter of laying the harness out where you want it on the inside fender. I lined up the two fuses where I wanted them drilled two holes and mounted them down. Then drill your holes to mount the relays. You'll notice in this pic that before I mounted the relays I took a small piece of sandpaper and cleaned up around the mounting hole. The small black wire will get mounted to the fender behind the relay in that spot. That will ensure you get a good ground.


__________________

 

[Petescj]

Finally after mounting the relays and the short black wire , run the long black wire to your negative cable or where the negative cable is mounted on the block. I installed mine directly to the battery cable and you can see it feeing back that way in the pic. Re install the cable to your battery and your done. I'll probably add a zip tie or two but the install was pretty clean just as it laid out.


__________________