Build Thread My 81 CJ7... The Capt.
Story time..... Here's a little background. Shortly after high school I had a 91 Celica GTS. I was like Ricochet Rabbit in that thing. After I slid it under a Ford F150 and the insurance company totaled it, I decided I need to change directions. I remembered playing (climbing in, turning all the knobs, shifting the gears... I was 7) in an old Willys Jeep that a friend of the family had. So I decided to go the off road route and get one of my childhood dream vehicles. So instead of letting my dad talk me into an old CJ7 . I got a 91 YJ with a 4 banger. You know, cause McGyver drove a YJ. After ingesting water though the air filter and having a piston exit stage right, I had a neighbor who was a mechanic help me rebuild it. I wheeled it for a few years until the Transmission synco decided to take a dump and would not shift into any gear, I sold it to my brother in law "cheap". He had an 83 CJ7 with 33's and wanted to buy it for my sister. I figured the older CJ's were better Jeeps than the YJ's so the hunt was on. Normally they were plentiful and figured I could find one easily. Well.... None of the normal places that ALWAYS had CJ's had any. I had no transportation at the time and not much money. This was back in 99. I finally found one somewhere on the internet for sell in Roseland La. So we drove over with cash in hand to buy my 81 CJ's. After paying 3300 for it and getting the title from the guy, I drove it back to Chickasaw Alabama where I was living at the time. It was a great experience with it's dry rotted street tires and a really bad exhaust leak in a down pour. It did have all the chrome accessories though.... At least it had a hard top and full doors. I got new tires and fixed the exhaust leak and daily'd it for quite a few years. Then the Transmission started popping out of gear so I found an awesome site called Jeep-CJ.com to get help. Well you can see from my old post here that it did not get fixed lol. So I parked it and got another vehicle. Every once in a while I'd get it going and just deal with the Transmission popping out of gear. Then I got a sxs and neglected the old Jeep. When I realized that I was putting axles and money into the sxs, I could just sell it and start fixing up the Jeep.
So the journey stared. I was going to try to keep it stock, but the deciding factor was not being able to find a Transmission that would work. So I dove into the forums and talked to everyone I could pick their brain. The more knowledge I gained the more the build transformed. It all started with researching transmissions on Novaks web site. There I convinced myself I needed the NV4500 because I was tired of transmissions breaking. After digging through mounds of information on junk yard axle swaps, I was gonna go the Dana 44 Waggy route. I even found one in my local junk yard and pulled the axles. I could kick myself for not buying them just to resell or hold on to. I had a folder with me that I had all the information I found on axles and was thumbing through it when I realized that you can get a Eaton locker off ebay from NASCAR for 300 bucks. So I instantly changed gears and ideas for the build because the Waggy axles were not going to be the width I wanted them to be. So, I found me a ford 9 from an Econoline Van that was plenty wide and had 31 spline axles. And that started the build. Those were the first parts I bought. By this time you could find any information you waned on anything on the internet and Facebook had a market place, or maybe it was Craigslist. I found a Dana 44 that had a locker in it from a guy in Florida. He talked me into buying his whole roller even though I just needed the front axle. Turns out his frame already had the SOA lift so I just used it and removed the Chevy 10 bolt. I would randomly search Craigslist or FB for parts I knew I wanted. One night randomly searching for NV4500 an add popped up for one in Florida that said 400 bucks, come get it or its going in the junk yard tomorrow. So I left home at 9pm and get there at 11pm to get what he said was a Chevy 44 with Dodge first gear (it has a lower gear than the Chevy). After spending more in adapters than I did on the Transmission , its all bolted to my Dana 300 and AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l that I built. Everything was going well until my preggo wife said I was spending to much time in the shop and had to slow down and help her out. Got pretty far in my build, tub off and sand blasted, frame painted, axles/Transmission /transfer/engine/ all in it. Tub repaired and painted. Custom fenders built. Got the body back on the frame. At this point in the timeline is a little fuzzy on what I had done. Everything was going good, had money to keep building on the Jeep. Heck, I even took the money I set aside to get some 37's and bought a 47 Willy's a friend seen on side of the road. My original plan was to do 35's on my OEM wheels for driving around town and get some beadlocks with 37's for off road use. But God had other plans for my life. It started when the company I was working for downsized. They were getting close to one of their projects coming to an end. So the first to go was middle management.... 7 of us in one day. It didn't end there from my understanding. Well I was dealing with a possible hernia at the time also. You know, cause we just try to lift anything we can, like a jeep with all running gear. Just to put it up or off jack stands. Or anything else I figured I could just pick up and set where I wanted it. So after figuring out a new job, I went to the doctor. Yup, had to have 2 hernia's repaired. The thing is, they found something not right with my blood. Non Jeep related story short, I spent 6 months to a year trying to figure out what was going on. Several test, biopsy's on my liver/bone marrow, and a spleen removal later. We figured out my medical stuff and I am now doing better and will live longer. This slowed my build down considerably. Since then I have been picking a project on it and trying to focus on just that. Like just installing steering section. This has been ongoing for the past 6 years. I started getting parts to start the build in 2013. With my health and money slowing me down, it sat for a few years until I was at a point I could start on it again. I started working on it more this past year or so. My plan was to have it road worthy with in the year 2020 / 2021. Since I've been back at it, it has actually moved around the yard under it's own power. There have been some set backs. Like the MSD letting out the white smoke, my radiator cracking, electric fan not cutting on when it was getting hot. So I am going back through the engine making sure everything is in operational condition. My current battle is finding idler pulleys that will work. The OEM one's are discontinued with no updated replacements. Things I have planned on doing have changed due to funds and just wanting to get it done. But the plan is to get it road worthy as quick as I can. So the current task at hand is installing new all aluminum radiator, going back to clutch driven fan, and redoing my belts. I had one belt running everything but did not think it was working well. So I am going back to the three belt configuration. I took a LOT of pictures of the build process thanks to cell phone cameras. Ill post some below and continue to add pertinent one's as I go along. Now this was a frame off build, but by no means was it ever meant to be a show room build. This is and always was intended to be an off road rig. So a lot of things were done with that in mind. I've learned a bunch of stuff during this process. Like teaching myself to weld. Lots of things were a learning curve that I can carry that knowledge forward. If you are wondering the reason I call it Capt, is because when I started the build the movie Avengers was coming out. So I have Captain America's shield etched like it is made into the hood. I also have Ironman's Arc Reactor in the dash and it will light up when 4wd is engaged. Unfortunately Disney has ruined those movies IMO. Side note, I called the Willys Bucky. I hope you enjoyed my story and the beginning of my build post. Here are a few pics up unto the point I am at now. Enjoy...
The picture that started it all. This was the printed picture from the ad where I found the Jeep in Roseland La. Flexing on a rock in the front yard back when I use to daily it. Then finally right before I pulled it into the shop to take the body off. It had a dry rotted flat tire, coke bottle for a fuel tank, and would not stay in gear, but it got in there to the amazement of a friend of mine. The YJ I had before I came to my senses and got a CJ. And my Willy's showing some flex on the ramp we built.
.
Gathering parts before I start the build.
Rebuilding the Ford 9 I pulled out of the 85 Econoline Van. Installed Detroit Locker from Nascar.
![[000223].jpg](https://jeep-cj.com/community/data/attachments/76/76007-7c1be9f00443da2d52af0024234045ba.jpg "[000223].jpg")
Got the Dana 300 torn down and rebuilt.
Pulling the body off the donor Jeep to start working on the frame, axles, and drive train.
![[000248].jpg](https://jeep-cj.com/community/data/attachments/76/76011-da9e926a9f316f33dd923689b004fabe.jpg "[000248].jpg")
I don't know how you paint your frame and such, but swinging it from an engine hoist worked pretty well.
Got the drive train and a few other things installed and moved on to the removing the blue body off its frame.
Got the body back from sand blasting and did some floor pan repairs. Side note, flipping and moving the body around probably did not help with the hernia situation, or might have helped cause it....
Building the wide fenders because I have full width axles. Mocked in tail lights. And then painted the bottom of the Jeep. (I'm no professional painter)
Got the body and other parts painted.
Got the shield painted into the hood. Yup, that silver is bare metal cleared over. I was trying to make it look like it was built into the hood, so part of the shield is etched into the hood.
Dash is complete other than 6 buttons to be installed to control OBA, LED's and such. Notice the Arc Reactor lit up. Yes, doing a white overlay on the original Speedo cluster was a bit stressful. It turned out great though. The small gauge next to the button holes is air pressure for OBA.
Speaking of OBA, my reserve tank is an old SCBA from the fire dept. Its mounted under the tub and tucked out of the way. Nothing can get to it to crush it and I figued if it could hold 3k lbs of breathable air, it would hold 150lb of OBA for airing up and stuff.
I didn't want any old center console, so I built my own. The top to the Jerry can opens for storage. I installed a round marine radio for some tunes and made it lockable.
This is basically how it sits now. This was the first drive since the building process started and when the radiator letting go. It's now in the shop as I am working through the issues to get it back running properly again.
I have hundreds of pictures that I've taken during this build process. So these few don't even touch the surface of what all I have done up til this point. But this should give you an idea of my build process. Hope you enjoyed the post. I will be updating it as I make progress on the build.
Here is a video of Capt moving on it's own. Click here -----> Video of Capt moving on its own
So the journey stared. I was going to try to keep it stock, but the deciding factor was not being able to find a Transmission that would work. So I dove into the forums and talked to everyone I could pick their brain. The more knowledge I gained the more the build transformed. It all started with researching transmissions on Novaks web site. There I convinced myself I needed the NV4500 because I was tired of transmissions breaking. After digging through mounds of information on junk yard axle swaps, I was gonna go the Dana 44 Waggy route. I even found one in my local junk yard and pulled the axles. I could kick myself for not buying them just to resell or hold on to. I had a folder with me that I had all the information I found on axles and was thumbing through it when I realized that you can get a Eaton locker off ebay from NASCAR for 300 bucks. So I instantly changed gears and ideas for the build because the Waggy axles were not going to be the width I wanted them to be. So, I found me a ford 9 from an Econoline Van that was plenty wide and had 31 spline axles. And that started the build. Those were the first parts I bought. By this time you could find any information you waned on anything on the internet and Facebook had a market place, or maybe it was Craigslist. I found a Dana 44 that had a locker in it from a guy in Florida. He talked me into buying his whole roller even though I just needed the front axle. Turns out his frame already had the SOA lift so I just used it and removed the Chevy 10 bolt. I would randomly search Craigslist or FB for parts I knew I wanted. One night randomly searching for NV4500 an add popped up for one in Florida that said 400 bucks, come get it or its going in the junk yard tomorrow. So I left home at 9pm and get there at 11pm to get what he said was a Chevy 44 with Dodge first gear (it has a lower gear than the Chevy). After spending more in adapters than I did on the Transmission , its all bolted to my Dana 300 and AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l that I built. Everything was going well until my preggo wife said I was spending to much time in the shop and had to slow down and help her out. Got pretty far in my build, tub off and sand blasted, frame painted, axles/Transmission /transfer/engine/ all in it. Tub repaired and painted. Custom fenders built. Got the body back on the frame. At this point in the timeline is a little fuzzy on what I had done. Everything was going good, had money to keep building on the Jeep. Heck, I even took the money I set aside to get some 37's and bought a 47 Willy's a friend seen on side of the road. My original plan was to do 35's on my OEM wheels for driving around town and get some beadlocks with 37's for off road use. But God had other plans for my life. It started when the company I was working for downsized. They were getting close to one of their projects coming to an end. So the first to go was middle management.... 7 of us in one day. It didn't end there from my understanding. Well I was dealing with a possible hernia at the time also. You know, cause we just try to lift anything we can, like a jeep with all running gear. Just to put it up or off jack stands. Or anything else I figured I could just pick up and set where I wanted it. So after figuring out a new job, I went to the doctor. Yup, had to have 2 hernia's repaired. The thing is, they found something not right with my blood. Non Jeep related story short, I spent 6 months to a year trying to figure out what was going on. Several test, biopsy's on my liver/bone marrow, and a spleen removal later. We figured out my medical stuff and I am now doing better and will live longer. This slowed my build down considerably. Since then I have been picking a project on it and trying to focus on just that. Like just installing steering section. This has been ongoing for the past 6 years. I started getting parts to start the build in 2013. With my health and money slowing me down, it sat for a few years until I was at a point I could start on it again. I started working on it more this past year or so. My plan was to have it road worthy with in the year 2020 / 2021. Since I've been back at it, it has actually moved around the yard under it's own power. There have been some set backs. Like the MSD letting out the white smoke, my radiator cracking, electric fan not cutting on when it was getting hot. So I am going back through the engine making sure everything is in operational condition. My current battle is finding idler pulleys that will work. The OEM one's are discontinued with no updated replacements. Things I have planned on doing have changed due to funds and just wanting to get it done. But the plan is to get it road worthy as quick as I can. So the current task at hand is installing new all aluminum radiator, going back to clutch driven fan, and redoing my belts. I had one belt running everything but did not think it was working well. So I am going back to the three belt configuration. I took a LOT of pictures of the build process thanks to cell phone cameras. Ill post some below and continue to add pertinent one's as I go along. Now this was a frame off build, but by no means was it ever meant to be a show room build. This is and always was intended to be an off road rig. So a lot of things were done with that in mind. I've learned a bunch of stuff during this process. Like teaching myself to weld. Lots of things were a learning curve that I can carry that knowledge forward. If you are wondering the reason I call it Capt, is because when I started the build the movie Avengers was coming out. So I have Captain America's shield etched like it is made into the hood. I also have Ironman's Arc Reactor in the dash and it will light up when 4wd is engaged. Unfortunately Disney has ruined those movies IMO. Side note, I called the Willys Bucky. I hope you enjoyed my story and the beginning of my build post. Here are a few pics up unto the point I am at now. Enjoy...
The picture that started it all. This was the printed picture from the ad where I found the Jeep in Roseland La. Flexing on a rock in the front yard back when I use to daily it. Then finally right before I pulled it into the shop to take the body off. It had a dry rotted flat tire, coke bottle for a fuel tank, and would not stay in gear, but it got in there to the amazement of a friend of mine. The YJ I had before I came to my senses and got a CJ. And my Willy's showing some flex on the ramp we built.
.
Gathering parts before I start the build.
Rebuilding the Ford 9 I pulled out of the 85 Econoline Van. Installed Detroit Locker from Nascar.
Got the Dana 300 torn down and rebuilt.
Pulling the body off the donor Jeep to start working on the frame, axles, and drive train.
I don't know how you paint your frame and such, but swinging it from an engine hoist worked pretty well.
Got the drive train and a few other things installed and moved on to the removing the blue body off its frame.
Got the body back from sand blasting and did some floor pan repairs. Side note, flipping and moving the body around probably did not help with the hernia situation, or might have helped cause it....
Building the wide fenders because I have full width axles. Mocked in tail lights. And then painted the bottom of the Jeep. (I'm no professional painter)
Got the body and other parts painted.
Got the shield painted into the hood. Yup, that silver is bare metal cleared over. I was trying to make it look like it was built into the hood, so part of the shield is etched into the hood.
Dash is complete other than 6 buttons to be installed to control OBA, LED's and such. Notice the Arc Reactor lit up. Yes, doing a white overlay on the original Speedo cluster was a bit stressful. It turned out great though. The small gauge next to the button holes is air pressure for OBA.
Speaking of OBA, my reserve tank is an old SCBA from the fire dept. Its mounted under the tub and tucked out of the way. Nothing can get to it to crush it and I figued if it could hold 3k lbs of breathable air, it would hold 150lb of OBA for airing up and stuff.
I didn't want any old center console, so I built my own. The top to the Jerry can opens for storage. I installed a round marine radio for some tunes and made it lockable.
This is basically how it sits now. This was the first drive since the building process started and when the radiator letting go. It's now in the shop as I am working through the issues to get it back running properly again.
I have hundreds of pictures that I've taken during this build process. So these few don't even touch the surface of what all I have done up til this point. But this should give you an idea of my build process. Hope you enjoyed the post. I will be updating it as I make progress on the build.
Here is a video of Capt moving on it's own. Click here -----> Video of Capt moving on its own
