Build Thread Father/Son Project in Orlando

[FiNorman]

Look again...........under Torx sets. or any Napa store.......common socket to attache to a 3/8" or 1/2" drive ratchet.

found it.... $10 bucks at Harbour freight... tailgate is off as is the grill. I also found an engine lift for $108. I tied 3 ratchet straps, one in the front, one in the back horizontally, and one going up the middle from the tail gate to the firewall vertically to try to lift the tub out with the engine lift. Has anyone done this solo or is there a better method?

 

[rr41mag]

I ran a chain across from roll bar mount to roll bar mount and picked it up that way. I think it was tail heavy.

 

[rr41mag]

When I intially took it off I used a 2x4 and just flipped it off the side. Then I picked it up and put it on saw horses.

 

[FiNorman]

Ok... so three ratchet straps, pushed it into the drive way, used the motor lift to gain clearance, turned and spun it and dumped it into a trailer rented from u-haul. At least I have it out of the garage so there is a little room to work.

Once I had the body off I noticed that there were two places on the rear body mounts (adjacent to the tailgate) where the frame was rusted through... it looks like it won't be too hard to fix, but I will address them once I have the gas tank off.

Now my six year old sees all of this and states "I want when I get older too". Ok, so maybe I will have to do another one in the future. I see that Eastwood has a dual media blaster to clean the parts so I start to think maybe I should invest the $400 and buy one. If anyone has any experience with one of these please let me know. The thing that holds me back is the size of the compressor, they are recommending a 60 gallon model... sounds really expensive, but again if anyone has ever used one of these please let me know your thoughts.

Next up is to remove gas tank, engine and Transmission and to start looking to do the drum to disc rear brake replacement (I think we are going with the fabricated bracket, 85 Nissan 300zx calipers and the geo tracker rotors).

At the same time I need to look at media blasting the frame and getting the axels apart.

 

[tarry99]

Ok... so three ratchet straps, pushed it into the drive way, used the motor lift to gain clearance, turned and spun it and dumped it into a trailer rented from u-haul. At least I have it out of the garage so there is a little room to work.

Once I had the body off I noticed that there were two places on the rear body mounts (adjacent to the tailgate) where the frame was rusted through... it looks like it won't be too hard to fix, but I will address them once I have the gas tank off.

Now my six year old sees all of this and states "I want when I get older too". Ok, so maybe I will have to do another one in the future. I see that Eastwood has a dual media blaster to clean the parts so I start to think maybe I should invest the $400 and buy one. If anyone has any experience with one of these please let me know. The thing that holds me back is the size of the compressor, they are recommending a 60 gallon model... sounds really expensive, but again if anyone has ever used one of these please let me know your thoughts.

Next up is to remove gas tank, engine and Transmission and to start looking to do the drum to disc rear brake replacement (I think we are going with the fabricated bracket, 85 Nissan 300zx calipers and the geo tracker rotors).

At the same time I need to look at media blasting the frame and getting the axels apart.

Wow your moving along on that project.............I have been busy re-doing the steering & brakes and rebuilding the Transmission & TC........and doing upgrades to the roll cage & rear end.............soon I should be ready to take the tub off and finish the chassis..........good news is I have an overhead hoist here.

 

[mtnwhlr]

Wow you are moving right along

 

[JAG811]

That is a wicked front bumper !!
And I see there's a matching rear too !!
Looks good mate, moving very fast.

 

[FiNorman]

That is a wicked front bumper !!
And I see there's a matching rear too !!
Looks good mate, moving very fast.

I'm not crazy about the bumper... it's coming off, along with the Huge wheels... are you interested in it? I'm sure shipping will be cheap!!!!

 

[JAG811]

I'm not crazy about the bumper... it's coming off, along with the Huge wheels... are you interested in it? I'm sure shipping will be cheap!!!!

BAH HA HA HA !! Lucky it's you AND your son as I'd assume it would take two people for you to lift it off !!!
I might decline on the freight offer all the same.

Love the father son thing man. I've told everyone I know I'll be doing the same for my daughter ... she's not even three yet

 

[FiNorman]

The first step in solving your problem is admitting you have one...."hello fellow jeepers... my name is Frank, and I'm a jeep-aholic".

I have been working nights and getting off at 700 am, then head to the garage to work on the Jeep until 1100 or so...My wife is now referring to herself as a Jeep Widow.

I was trying to get the frame finished by the time the tub arrives, but my son broke his toe at football practice. I learned this week that when you break your toe it apparently causes your vagina to hurt... Actually I kid my son about it but he's tried to practice with it buddy taped and it was just too painful, so I held him out until it has an opportunity to heal some more. Bottom line is I've had to go at it alone, but progress continues.

I pulled the engine and Transmission with my $108 engine lift from Harbour Freight, and the project is down to a rolling chassis.

I bought the bracket from ebay and 1994 Geo Tracker rotors to do the disc brake conversion, I still have to do some research to find the calipers.

The power steering unit is a huge PIA.... I think it might be welded as I've taken out every bolt that looks to be holding it in but no movement.

Rookie mistake... I couldn't get the tie rods out, lost my patience and hit the threaded portion and bent it... I don't think its too expensive to replace but I bought a tie rod remover tool from HF and will give it a try once I get the wheels off.

Question for you guys... I looked at a new suspension from Old Man Emu. The kit comes with YJ springs, shocks, bushings, brackets, pitman arm, Transfer Case lowering. Jeep CJ OME lift

A. Am I going to need a new hanger bracket?
B. Should I also replace the steering components with this Jeep CJ High steer, knuckle over steering system, high steer. Steering for spring over or tall lifts or are these pieces that can continue to be used if they clean up.

Keep in mind that when I bought the Jeep it was not running so I'm not sure how it rides.

I have ordered the POR 15 (Sebastian and Gabbie should have fun painting with that) plus the metal prep stuff.

Sandblasting has been a headache to try to find, so I started grinding with an angle grinder and wire brush to remove the old stuff and superficial rust... it seems to be working well, just slow going.

If there is anyone in Richmond, Virginia that could recommend someone to move a tub about 16 miles to the shipping dock please let me know.

 

[mtnwhlr]

The first step in solving your problem is admitting you have one...."hello fellow jeepers... my name is Frank, and I'm a jeep-aholic".

I have been working nights and getting off at 700 am, then head to the garage to work on the Jeep until 1100 or so...My wife is now referring to herself as a Jeep Widow.

I was trying to get the frame finished by the time the tub arrives, but my son broke his toe at football practice. I learned this week that when you brake your toe it apparently causes your vagina to hurt

I feel your pain. With POR15 if you use all the steps it will kill the rust and the paint will seal it up. but you will need to put some paint over it because it can't handel UV light. I hope your son feals better soon. I have raised 2 boys so I know what you are going thru.

 

[rr41mag]

I dropped a small boxblade on my small toe and broke it. It hurt for weeks.

 

[FiNorman]

Ok.... toe is better and we are moving along, it has been very difficult to find a sandblasting guy in Orlando, so we went to plan b, which is just grinding the rust off. It has been slow going but surprisingly the rust comes off and it actually looks pretty nice.
The POR15 and the marine clean should arrive today so we will seal everything up as instructed.

If anyone can tell me... there are some grooves and places where we can't reach with a grinder/wire wheel, (an example are the grooves of the Axels and the inside box of the motor mounts. Will the POR 15 take care of this or should I try something else?

Also some advice on the rear crossmember of the frame... the body mounts rusted the piece so we have ordered an new one and cut out the bad parts (as you can see in the pic below. However, the place where the crossmember is welded to the frame is still stuck there. How do you get this weld seam off? should I try to slice it with the metal cutter, or is there some tool that maybe looks like a big chisel to into the seam between the crossmember and the frame?

 

[JAG811]

Man that second photo looks familiar !!

But I've got no advice as it sounds as though I'll be looking at the same thing in the next few weeks ......

 

[FiNorman]

"Dear PO.... why in the world would you....."
Have any of you said this?
Well we have everything stripped off of the frame, except for the steering box. I couldn't quite figure it out, I had taken every bolt off that I could find yet it wouldn't even budge.
Then I noticed that the PO had welded the steering box bracket onto the frame, even going so far as to weld a nut to the frame I guess to bolt something on. Notice the picture below. If someone could provide me some perspective on the reason he did this, I would assume he didn't want the bracket to break, I would be interested for history sake.
I cut the weld and removed the bracket and will finish removing the rust that is present under the hanger and bracket.
I ordered the Old Man Emu lift a couple of weeks ago and expect it to arrive shortly, along with new hangers, shocks, bushings and U bolts and plates.
The frame stripping is going well and we are almost done, I would say about 75% of the old paint, rust clear coat have been removed from the frame. When I get a couple of days off (next week) I think we will be able to finish this portion, clean it with Marine Clean, prep it with Metal Ready and paint it with POR15. If anyone has any suggestions on applying it please feel free to chime in, but from what I have read brushing it on will work just fine.
We also plan on washing out the internal portion of the frame and using Eastwood Internal Frame rust protection Paint with a spray nozzle.

 

[FiNorman]

"Into every world, a little rain must fall"

So we are trucking along and turned our attention to the front axel. Thanks to many of your post and instruction I ordered a spindle nut wrench to prepare for the job and we got down to it.
Problem 1.... after 30 years the hex bolts on the hub, which are 1/8, quickly stripped on 7 our of the ten bolts. At the suggestion of a buddy we got hex wrenches to fit on a ratchet wrench, which helped with 3 but left me with 4 still stuck. I had no choice but to cut into the hub to cut the bolts and remove the caps. we then used the dental tools we normally use to clean the guns to remove the pressure ring.
Next we attempted to remove the spindle nut, but quickly realized that the washer was hopelessly bent to prevent the wrench from fitting over the nut. the solution was to use a punch, chisel and hammer to bend it back and finally allowing the wrench to fit and allow removal. The actual spindle nut was also burred on the outside as if something had cut into it.
If anyone has any experience with this and can tell me why this washer and the nut were damaged please let me know. I am curious to know if this signals that any of the other components were damaged some how and should I replace them also.
We also noticed that there was a significant amount of debris inside the hub, packed into the grease. I'm not sure if it was rock or metal, but I suspect metal.
Can anyone tell me how to remove the front hub assembly from the rotor? I know it comes of somehow but it seems to be stuck. Do I need to use a hub remover?

 

[Rippin]

sometimes people will bend that washer so that it revents the nut from backing out on its own. And the chewed upnut is a sign of someone that was too cheap to go out and buy a spindle nut remover, instead opting for a hammer and chisel to tap it out and back in.

fyi, If you order new hubs from quadratec (that cheapest place i could find them), they come with races. the customer service guy that i talked to said they didnt, but they do. they were the exact same ones i had gotten from advance auto parts. same part number and everything

 

[Rippin]

and about a tub, i bet if you put in some time in lookin up all the junkyards around here you could find a decent priced one. I'm goin to a yard today to get parts for another car im working on, ill get a price ona tub for you. I may be needing one too when i get into my rebuild

 

[coldair]

On a '85 you have a d35 in the front and a AMC20 in the rear.

D35 in a CJ

 

[FiNorman]

sometimes people will bend that washer so that it revents the nut from backing out on its own. And the chewed upnut is a sign of someone that was too cheap to go out and buy a spindle nut remover, instead opting for a hammer and chisel to tap it out and back in.

fyi, If you order new hubs from quadratec (that cheapest place i could find them), they come with races. the customer service guy that i talked to said they didnt, but they do. they were the exact same ones i had gotten from advance auto parts. same part number and everything

I would think it's a possibility but the washer was bent so badly that it actually adhered to the edge of the nut. At first I thought it had actually melted onto the nut but after I got some of the grease cleared away and hit it with the punch a couple of times it became clearer.

If someone could offer some advice on the hub assembly and the rotors it would be greatly appreciated. The assembly looks like its in pretty good shape but the rotor needs to be replaced. How do I separate them? are they pressed together or is there a trick to getting them apart?