Build Thread First cj7 build 1985

[85Renegade]

Hello all,
I am new to this forum and new to jeeps in general. I have rebuilt an 85 jetta diesel, it's not pretty but extremely reliable. See link here..... 1985 rebuld - TDIClub Forums

Anyway I have been looking for a jeep for a little while. I've been looking for either a cj or yj just to cruise around in, enjoy the open air, and take in the sun.
The budget wasn't to much, but that was ok cause I wanted to turn this into a project. I looked at a few jeeps but they were beyond beat. On the way home from one of these hunts, I drove past my neighbors sons house and there it was. It was a CJ with the word Renegade scrolled on the hood. I noticed it had no plates on it. I Found he was looking to sell it but really made little effort to.

The story is he bought the car in 1987 with 10k miles on it for 8000 dollars, and drove it too and from college. After a few years he got soft I guess lol and bought a car with air conditioning. In 2000 it was put in the garage and there it sat until 6 months ago when he pulled it out to make some room.

Long and short we struck a deal, and now I am the proud owner of a 1985 jeep Renegade with 104k miles on it. The floor boards up front are rusted through but overall it's in impeccable condition. The engine hasn't turned over since it was taken off the road 10 years ago. I plan on doing a bit of work on it over the next few months..... Enough bull**** here's the pictures....

 

[Petescj]

Id put some floor pans in her , clean it up a bit and fire it up! Seriously though that is a pretty clean Cj for around this area. The Red Garnett interior is actully kind of rare as well. Whats the plans?

 

[85Renegade]

Well I plan on restoring her to glory ones again, plan on doing some light rock crawling mostly trails. Honestly Idk what it will end up being but I just can't wait to cruise with the top down. I have read in a few forums the red interior is kind of saught after....

 

[85Renegade]

I had a chance today to do just a little bit of work in preparation for the start up attempt later this week....

I took out the spark plugs and sprayed some fogging oil in the holes. This in an attempt to avoid scoring the cylinders do to a dry start up...







When I took the spark plugs out I was amazed at how clean they looked no soot no burn looked very good to me.







When I went to look at the car the first time a mouse ran under the radiator, well I found out where the little basterd was keep his acorns... Lol. It apparently built a little nest in the intake tube (the thin black paper part). While I was over there I also lubed up the carb to insure everything moves freely.










I threw some fuel stabilizer in her just to clean up the fuel, I'll also throw some fresh fuel in it before the start up.





Stay tuned tomorrow we're changing the oil...

 

[85Renegade]

I was able to get a few things done and get a better look at what work needs to be done...

I started off by changing the oil in preparation of initial start up. I love how I didn't need to jack the car up to get to the oil pan plug, and the location of the oil filter is super easy to get to. I was able to offer do it so quick I felt like I missed a step.. Lol

As you can see I go with all amsoil fluids, some of you might not be fans others disciples. I believe in the benefits so I use it...





6 quarts is alot of oil, I'm used to little four bangers...





It was hard as hell to get the old filter off after 10 years but fortunately I had the proper socket....



I left it one quart short so just before the first start up ill add the final quart, this way I'll have some oil in the head.

Remember the acorns in the air filter tray..... Well I found where it was living....





I decided to tackle the interior so we can get a better look at what needs to be welded up on the floor.









So here's the rust folks, it's pretty much what I expected. Let me get your thoughts on it.

 

[85Renegade]

Today was a very event full day. I was able to get the old girl running and actually drove it for the first time in 10 years.... It was having a few idling problems which is to be expected. Me and my buddy took part of the carb apart and cleaned out the tubes with carb cleaner and some wire. After this it smoothed out alot. I figure as with most cars a few heating cooling cycles will help bring stability to it.... Now pictures videos to follow!!!

Oh I nearly forgot, new floor panels have been ordered and are on there way.

Battery in place and spark plugs in....





Once we got it running we took it for an off road experience lol

http://static.photobucket.com/playe...02/Snapbucket/20130608_172128_zps497ba6b5.mp4













More videos to come!!

 

[85Renegade]

Here you go two more videos, first is of the start up attempt, and second is my buddy driving her around.

http://static.photobucket.com/playe...02/Snapbucket/20130608_170832_zps5e33f7be.mp4

http://static.photobucket.com/playe...02/Snapbucket/20130608_174934_zps8e48cbdc.mp4

 

[85Renegade]

Well the floor panels came today and they seem to be of excellent quality. Of course there will be trimming and shaping, but I'm positive it will be a perfect fit in the end.... I plan on getting some high quality undercoating anti rust type stuff, and hit the rails. Ultimately I'll monsta coat the interior maybe in a red that matched the old carpet or a black...
In other news I plan on picking up some lightly used 31s tomorrow and hopefully by the end of the weekend have some new wheels and tires mounted up....

Just a few pictures of the test fit











I also fired her up and took her for a spin around the yard... The belts like to squeal a bit, and it stalled once while at idle. I need to get all the bugs out....

 

[85Renegade]

Made some more progress, picked up some used but in great condition tires today.... Take a look.

My friend my know jeeps but doesn't know much about a 1985 jetta. He insisted I wouldn't be able to transport all four tires in her..... Well it fit with room to spare





And two in the trunk...





Here they are in comparison to what's on there now...



The girl I picked them up from said the tires rode awsome, I'm sure they will.

 

[85Renegade]

Nothing earth shattering here today.... Had just a little bit of time so I washed the old girl... I I didn't expect much but wanted to get some of the green funk that was on it... Came out better then expected look here...

Pre wash...







Post wash...







Just for ****s and giggles I polished up the door a bit to see what was left in that tired paint...


Section of door looking very much like slate



Came out alot better then expected picture does it no justice...



Look at the color of that water!!




On another note I had the car idle for about 40 - 45 min it sounds pretty good.. Every now and again it stumbles and gives a squeal, like a belt slipping.... When I get in drive it a bit around the back yard and come off of load it stalls out on me.... It's possible the stepper motor on the carb is not adjusting right.... I plan on doing the nutter Bypass this Tuesday stay posted for that... I already cleaned out the idle drip tubes but I might attempt that if issue continues, I also plan on drilling out those tubes to .032" which used to be recommended by jeep themselves.... I also plan on updating the ignition system a bit too... Something along these lines

I-6 'TeamRush Upgrade' (definitive) - JeepForum.com

Thoughts comments ideas are as always, much needed and appreciated

 

[85Renegade]

All I can say is wow!!! I simply can't wrap my mind around how much of a difference this made. I mean all I did was splice two wires, pulled out some pins in the carb and boom a perfectly smooth running motor. What this does show is how much emissions bull**** inhibits the performance of a vehicle....the engine would stumble after it came off of load and would crank a few times before it turned over. Now it turns over immediately and the stumbling and the stutter is gone. What's even crazier me and my buddy didn't get a chance to time and tune it properly and it's still running better.... If you can't tell I'm flabbergasted lol. I will be removing the rest of the emissions controls as soon as I figure were everything goes.... On to the pictures.



Not as easy as people like to pretend it is to move the nozzle I removed the entire motor and pulled the pins but they are stiff to move, you need to wiggle as you pull them to extend...



What do we have here, the infamous purple and orange braided wire...





And here is the purple and orange wire under the overflow tank, I already tinned them up with solder.



Here is the wire I made. I used blue to represent purple and yellow to represent orange. I held one end in a vice and used and electric drill on the other end to braid them together... I used zip ties and electrical tape to hold it all together... Turned out pretty well.



Here it is pulled all the way through to the overflow tank area...







I found out what that squeal was.. Lol I'm warming her up when this whole thing began and this belt decides to break and go flying. Needless to say gotta get a new one asap cause it spins the alternator.



Here is a link to the motor running....

http://static.photobucket.com/playe...02/Snapbucket/20130618_181852_zps2fe2de49.mp4

While I was poking around to I discovered this bad boy wasn't connected to anything, can someone please identify it. I'm hoping it's not needed since I did the bypass





Next little project is to clean this up a bit, get rid of the rust and spray it....



Lastly here is the wheels I will be running need to freshen them up a bit but think they will look good with the 31s

 

[85Renegade]

If you remember last time, the alternator belt snapped. I had some time today to get a little done.... I changed out the two belts. The power steering belt was a bit more tricky then I thought. I had to loosen a few bolts each being a different size, then put the 1/2 inch drive into housing to move it to make room....

Broken alternator belt...



Tired and frayed power steering belt...





New belts in place...





I'm also starting to clean up the air filter housing. Since I took the computer out of the equation I'm removing alot of un-needed hoses and wires under the hood....


Little blurry I apologize..





My buddy is getting the other two tires removed from his wheels tomorrow, and we're trying to figure a date to weld in the floor. So slowly but surely we are moving along...

 

[85Renegade]

I started out finishing up the air filter housing, then tackling the fuel gauge issues I'm having. If you don't remember the fuel and temperature gauge don't read any value. I'm attempting to determine if it's the gauge or the sending unit causing the issues....

Here is the housing getting a fresh coat of paint....



All buttoned up... With a new wicks filter in place....







Then I went after the gauge.... Let me tell you there was nothing easy or fun about getting these four nuts off to remove the gauge. I had to twist my body into all sorts of positions, but I did finally get it.

Here it is.. I took lots of pictures so I can remember where all the wires go.











Here is an old voltmeter that me and my grandfather used to use... It's pretty old but that's how you know it's good lol.... Made in Cleveland Ohio not some china bull****.... I checked the ohms of the gauge and from what I can figure looks like the fuel gauge is malfunctioning... Kind of glad it's not the sender. However tomorrow I'll check the reads from the sender to eliminate that...





Finally I borrowed my buddies timing light and finally got her up to speed. At first I cleaned the little grooves that signify 2degree increments. However when I shined the light I saw no groove on the crank pulley.... I turned it off, felt the pulley and eventually found the groove. I sanded the area a bit and bingo we were in business.... It took a little turning of the distributer but in time dialed it in....

 

[85Renegade]

I was able to get the new wheels and tires on, and am blown away by how much more aggressive the jeep looks.....

Just a few pictures so you guys remember what we started as...







Taking the wheel off... Some of the bolts were real stiff..



Here is a before and after...




Here is just a few more so you can get a feel for the ride hight...







I decided to take off the real wheel carrier, I am a fan of the bare-assed look....

 

[85Renegade]

We worked into the early hours of the morning cutting and welding to restore the CJ7 back to its glory days. We didn't complete it just yet but here is some pictures of the progress so far.....

First we need to cut and trim the passenger side to ensure we had good steel to weld too..... It's alot of trimming and fitting, trimming fitting, and trimming some more. Mark has alot more patience when it comes to stuff like that....









Prepping the new floor panel....



Floor cut and cleaned



Test fit....



Manipulate to fit..



We were both happy with the way it was sitting so need to tack weld it into place...







Nice welds with deep penetration, it's all about the penetration lol...






We decided to attack the drivers side, had to remove the high beam switch and the gas pedal to make some room to work....





All cut out....



Prepping drivers side panel....



Laying in place....



Welding it all up....





About 70% complete



All in all the front floor boards are in place and almost complete, we need to finish off the area that sits beneath the seats. There is a bit more work that needs to be done but we're well on our way.... Comments concerns always welcomed

 

[85Renegade]

Here is just a few more pictures from Saturday night.... The floor is incredibly solid, and looks great... Can't wait to get driving....








Today a few key parts arrived.... Magnaflow exhaust... The setup will be 2" from exhaust manifold back which opens up to 2.5" right after the Magnaflow exhaust.... This will be a cat less setup... Also the muffler will be plumbed in 34" down stream from the manifold.

 

[85Renegade]

Yesterday I tackled something I've wanted to do for a little bit. Change the front and rear diffs, the Transfer Case and the Transmission fluids. I was a little nervous though some bolt would snap, strip, and just strait be fused in.... Well I might be the first person in jeep history to get all the bolts out with out incident. It took time, Pb blaster, and break cleaner.... Now for the pictures with explanation.



I secured my next door neighbors electric impact gun... I never used one before but after this experience I'm picking one up this week, I don't know how I lived without it.

 

[85Renegade]

Look at the color of this fluid black and thick sludge, consistency of melting ice cream...





Sludge



And here we have were the unicorn lives....





Makes a good helmet, the bottom one is a English WWII helmet pretty similar huh? Lol







Sanded and sprayed the diff cover, thought it would be nice to clean it up.









Here we have the Dana 30 , same issue here murky dirty oil, with a load of sludge....



All the pretty gears....





The front cover got the same treatment...





I moved on to the Transmission leaving the diffs to really drip clean especially after hitting it with the break clean...



I ran up to tractor supply in order to grab some nice fresh grade 8 bolts....



The fluids I will be using the black bottle for the diffs, the clear for the Transmission and Transfer Case .



I used a lubelocker gasket for the front Dana 30 ... Alot of people use RTV but I prefer these.



Look how pretty she is all buttoned up.



And on the AMC20 I used the traditional cork gasket. Lublocker doesn't make a gasket for the 20... I used the hi-tak in order to hold the gasket in place while reassembly.



Gasket in place.



Back together......

Mark and I have also got the entire floor in place just needs to be finished up with some welds... It's taking awhile but where getting closer....

 

[85Renegade]

attacked the exhaust system. It was a bear of a job getting the bolts loose on the down pipe. In the attempt I snapped one of the studs, I'm sure that will be fun to repair....

Here it is removed...







On another note I like the look of this bumper does anyone know who makes it?

 

[85Renegade]

After 6 hours, many beers and a pizza, the floor is for the most part complete. Still a few loose ends to tie up, but the big stuff is over with. We sprayed it with a black primer temporarily so surface rust doesn't develop. Take a look at some pictures...

Here she is..... Feels great to have a floor in it lol





Seat in place, gas pedal reattached, which makes it much easier to drive...





And now for a test fit....



After trying it on for size I realized there is really not much room in there at all...however it did feel great to sit in her.

Next major step is getting the roll bar back in place, and removing the exgaust manifold in order to fix the broken stud, and get the exhaust all hooked up....