Build Thread The $120 Jeep CJ7 build thread

[shum8]

I dunno - with the right combination of alcohol and muscle relaxers that purple / green combo might be ok........


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[daddyusmaximus]

Lol wow was the previous owner blind? The Mopar blue is a pretty engine color a lot of parts stores carry the hi temp spray paint to get that motor looking good it’s pretty similar to the old Petty race car blue

Also the Race Hemi orange is a nice color good and bright, the street Hemi orange is to pink for my taste tho

I look forward to watching more of your progress


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Desert sand. Remember, this is going to be a military tribute, so it's gonna look like an Army Jeep. Basically a CJ7 desert version of an M38A1.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

I dunno - with the right combination of alcohol and muscle relaxers that purple / green combo might be ok........


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No booze. Quit drinking about 25 years ago.

Plus I'm a small town guy who lives in the past. Poor as I am, I got neighborhood kids who need to earn money for stuff like this, shoveling snow, picking up sticks after a storm, and running weed eaters...

And the less my shoulder is killing me, the more my wife likes being around me... lol. VA don't give out pain killers anymore.

 

[shum8]

I just meant that’s what it would take for the combo to look anywhere near to right. The desert version of a CJ7 is gonna look killer.


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[gert]

Desert sand. Remember, this is going to be a military tribute, so it's gonna look like an Army Jeep. Basically a CJ7 desert version of an M38A1.

Oh ya good call


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[daddyusmaximus]

First off, thanks to everybody following. The motivation helps.

I made a little progress today. A little. I went out to paint the tire carrier, as I was worried about it being still bare steel. Did the bumperettes as well. I also found a slightly darker color, (Khaki). It's closer to what out vehicles looked like in Iraq, so I'll be going with that.




Now normally (being a redneck) I just shake the spray can, and shoot. However, with this being my first frame up vehicle build... I decided to use some of that prep stuff first to clean the metal... Then, I shot it with some primer... Them I shot it with paint... Then for the first time ever, I got more than just my normal runs from putting it on too heavy. I got cracks. This didn't happen with the frame, or the bumper... Maybe because I hit that with the chassis saver first...



Not a big deal breaker, but enough to **** me off a bit. First time painting bare steel, so maybe there's a trick to it... I'm normally painting over stuff. I'll paint over it again in a day or so, and see how it comes out... It's going to be a rough looking military build anyway... In 28 years, I ain't never had a pristine military vehicle, besides, I want it so that when it gets dinged up on the trail, I can come home, and spray paint the scratches.

Second thing is I'm looking to get the powertrain in this week. This means I had to clean the skid plate. Oh, how I wish I had taken a before shot of it. That thing was caked with, in places, over 1/4" of crud. Putty knife, brush, simple green, water hose, and my shoulders are on fire. BUT, it's clean... ish.





I got some names of some mobile welders, so I'm hoping to get one of them to come out and weld in the motor mounts, and ford truck shock towers I'm using this later this week.

I also figured out a little bracket that will hold the tire carrier open so it won't swing around if it's opened on uneven ground. One thing LOD neglected to put into their design. The welder will have to do that as well.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

Well, this was a long, hot, rainy day. However, I spent it in the garage with my best girl, and my Jeep, so tired, and sore though I may be, I'm happy.

After getting in contact with a couple area mobile welding guys, I thought it best to see how close I could get the engine to line up to where I need it to be. Today was all about test fitting the powertrain. First thing to go in was the skid plate. When you're a cripple working alone, and you're still nursing a sore shoulder, you do what you have to. I used my big labor saving device... the cherry picker.



Next came the Transmission , and Transfer Case .



Now the sucky part. I have to put the tub back on, to make sure I have clearance... Here I discovered something. The stupid old cherry picker I've been wrestling with is a real PITA to move around, so I just left it in place and rolled the Jeep under it... The rollers it's on are much newer, and roll easier. Plus I don't have a swing load...



Perfect fit, or it looks that way. I was worried because the jeep this all came out of had home made motor mounts, and Transmission cross member all welded in solid... I'm using the Jeep Transmission mounts, and Advanced Adapters Dodge V-8 weld in kit.





Then I run into a bit of a hiccup. It seems the Advanced Adapters kit isn't so advanced... there is about a 1/2" gap between the mount and frame on the drivers side, and about a 2 1/2 in gap on the passenger side. the welder will have to build it up some. I don't want to send them back, I like the big rubber bushings, and the plates that mount on the engine. I go in and look them up online... They had sent me the mounts for a TJ... I hope I can get them to sen out the correct ones in a rush... I've had these sitting in the garage all winter... Just need to change out the motor plate part. The CJ part goes wider and has several holes to adjust for the width.



I stretched a chain across the frame to rest the engine on for a couple days till I can get the welder here. Don't want him here till my new torque arm bushing comes in the mail anyway... The engine will be a bit offset to the drivers side. It did squat the springs a bit when I took the weight off the cherry picker...

Next I marked the locations for the shock towers. I'm gonna have the welder knock those out while he's here.





As I was getting ready to turn off the lights Brandy started getting excited. she tend to get bored out in the garage with nothing to do but watch me work... funny she doesn't get bored inside with nothing to do except watch me watch TV... or at the VFW with nothing to do except watch me do paperwork and fill the gaming machines...

I just had to snap this shot of her staring at me...

 

[gert]

I love it when the big parts get put together makes it look like you have huge progress going


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[daddyusmaximus]

Yeah, but of course they have to come apart again...

 

[Impory]

Loving the look..my have to try this route next time....lol

 

[Scout1067]

I saw someone selling desert CARC paint on ebay a couple months ago.

I know it comes in gallon cans because we had to repaint a Bradley by hand once when I was a PVT because the SecDef was coming to our Motor Pool at Hood and my Platoon got picked to have a display track because we had just gotten the ODS upgrade to our Bradleys. It was a blast because we had just gotten back from gunnery and had to spent the weekend in pro-masks painting a track for a dog and pony show.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

I saw someone selling desert CARC paint on ebay a couple months ago.

I know it comes in gallon cans because we had to repaint a Bradley by hand once when I was a PVT because the SecDef was coming to our Motor Pool at Hood and my Platoon got picked to have a display track because we had just gotten the ODS upgrade to our Bradleys. It was a blast because we had just gotten back from gunnery and had to spent the weekend in pro-masks painting a track for a dog and pony show.

Fun times. I remember we had a special visitor come to our unit 3rd Squadron 2nd ACR once, and we had to get the tanks all spiffy... we wiped them down with diesel to make them shiny. Of course this was back in 1982...

 

[daddyusmaximus]

Good news. Steve from Advance adapters says he's gonna send me out the correct parts I need got the engine mount kit. I explained what I have. He wanted photos of my kit, and the instruction sheet, as they couldn't find my order in the computer. I had cleaned out my e-mail, so I couldn't even tell when I got the kit until I came back to my build thread to see when I posted the kit arriving at my house... Back in Oct. Turns out they only sold 2 of those kits at that time... to Summit racing. Sounds about right. I do order from them a lot. Still, it's their kit, so they back it, and it had the wrong parts, so I'm grateful for the correct parts getting shipped out.



Not so good news. When I got the Jeep it had a complete basket case for a tub, so I found another. It's better, but still has quite a few issues. I managed to find (what seemed to be, or so I was told) an even better one on a facebook jeep page. Photos weren't high res, but looked good. So, I drive 3 hrs taking only one break (for about an hr, and a half in an Auto Zone parking lot to replace one set of my trailer wheel bearings, and hub) only to find out the Jeep tub was a rusty piece of ****. 1/8th " steel welded on the floor right over the Swiss cheese rust. No support, a couple body mounts missing... Completely rusted away. Yeah, I had to pass.

But hey, I like wasting 7 hrs of my time, $50 in fuel, having to replace wheel bearings on a trailer, and driving home at midnight in the rain for nothing.

Auto Zone tool loan program doesn't include a jack, so I now have an EXTRA new bottle jack I only needed once. That will probably go back tomorrow at my Auto Zone.

Felt like slapping the little snot nosed brat, but I didn't. The wife would be proud of my restraint.

 

[gert]

dang it what a helluva waste of time, i hate it when people do that

 

[daddyusmaximus]

Holy , this heat is insane...

Tough week. Had to go back to the VA, and get a shot of steroids in the shoulder to calm it down. Good news is I didn't hurt anything they did during the surgery by doing too much too early like I thought. It's just all inflamed...

I've also been dealing with a pretty painful infection in my big toe. Had to get that drained... Not the tough guy I used to be... lol.

Today is good. Independence Day. Happy Birthday America! Well, the heat sucked real bad, but I got to be in a parade. Not with my Jeep though . In my daily driver... 2003 Marauder. I was representing the VFW that I'm commander of.










Went out to lunch at an Iron Skillet. They were advertising free meals for active duty, and veterans. They even had a missing man table to honor our fallen.



Then after a nap, and some freshly grilled hot dogs, I went out to put on the new motor mounts that Advance Adapters sent me. You can see the first set was not gonna work...



Now to watch Independence Day.

After all, Independence day is all about a Marine who marries a stripper, then saves the world.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

Guess who has motor mounts, and shock towers welded in?





Well, that happy feeling didn't last long... Guess who's brain damage, coupled with the inability to think in hot weather caused him to have the guy weld the motor mounts in the wrong place?





Having a TBI is not fun. I'm always forgetting things, losing things. I took off the rubber isolators and bolts, but to prevent me from losing them, I put them on the bolts... Now the guy shows up to weld, and I position the mounts without the rubber... He leaves... I remember the rubber... the engine sits too high with them, or just right without, but then it's mounted solid. I try to put them in, and the holes don't even line up. I remember from when I had the tub on, I should have room, but I really didn't want it that high anyhow. There is another issue...

The Jeep didn't come with this powertrain combo, and I had used the original Transmission mount (a new one) just to locate the engine in the frame. This places it in the correct place (front to rear) but a bit too high for good drive line angles.

So now I have a new plan... I have to modify the motor mounts on the engine block. Cut off the flat part on the bottom, and have it welded to the top, lowering them over the rubber isolators. Also, I don't need 4 inches of room between the Transfer Case and the skidplate, so I plan to have a machine shop remake me one bracket (red arrow) 1.5" shorter.



It's in for now, but it won't be in for good, for a while... I just don't want a complete fabricated solid mounted home made welded in set up like it had in the CJ5 it came out of.

Shock towers came out better. the tops are all perfect.

Rear.


Front.


Only problem here is the lower mounts on the left front are not in line properly, but they can be tweeked easily enough...



Last thing I had him do was a couple of little brackets I found in my scrap pile for my tire carrier. I needed a way to lock it open so it wouldn't swing back, and forth when I was using it. Now I can just open it, and drop a bolt or pin in there to lock it in place. I loved the LOD bumper when I looked at it online, but they didn't have a way to lock it open, and I didn't notice this at the time I ordered it. Problem fixed.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

One other thing I've noticed that will require attention... the longer YJ springs makes for very tight clearance on the big 20 gal fuel tank I took off the CJ5 . I have about 1.5" of rearward movement before the pumpkin gets into the skid plate...




I can't have nothing nice...

This is with the tub on, but nothing in the tub. Those shackles are gonna flex more than that, so I'm gonna have to think of something... I couldn't use the CJ7s fuel tank. Way too rusty. I'm thinking maybe just put a cut out in the front of the skid plate, then a Transmission tunnel like depression in the front face of the tank about 3 inches deep...

 

[daddyusmaximus]

I have not been spending much quality time with the Jeep as of late. The heat tends to kick my *** as I have had heat exhaustion several times in the past, and heat stroke twice. Also I thought my shoulder wasn't healing well from the surgery, but as it turns out it's my nerve damage from the IED that has been giving me fits. Same result in that my left arm hasn't been much use to me. I was able to correct one problem that I didn't like. The Transmission sitting up too high. I designed a very short (half inch) box mount to replace the tall (two inch) zig-zag stock mount and had it welded up at a local machine shop.



A cut out in the side allows me to reach in and hold the center bolt with a wrench to tighten it.




The bolts drop through holes in the opposite sides big enough for the bolt heads. The Transfer Case sits at a more natural height, though with the SOA lift I will need to trim the skidplate for front driveshaft clearance at full droop.

 

[gert]

Sweet dude progress is progress great work a little at a time is better than nothing


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[daddyusmaximus]

Well, nothing has got done on the Jeep all summer. Money is always tight during the summer because my wife is a teacher's aid, so no paycheck. Also my shoulder is NOT healing from the surgery I had back in the spring... I have just started my third round of physical rehab with it. The VA keeps telling me the surgery went well, and that it's useless to even get a new MRI for 1 year, because it will just show abnormal anyway... They say it's inflammation from the surgery. I've had 2 previous shoulder surgeries... they healed much quicker.

Anyhow, I'm getting pissed sitting around, so I decided to start in on the axles. Well, first I took out the fuel tank. No photos, but I don't like how close the pumpkin is to it with the YJ springs, so I'm gonna get a 2" tunnel put in the front edge of it kinda like a Transmission tunnel, to give it some room.

First thing was to get one of the axles out. I decided to do the front one first. I lifted up the frame with the engine hoist,then worked the axle out from under, and onto a set of rollers.





I have too much in the garage, so I decided to use the Jeep itself as the workbench for the axles... I rolled it around to the rear, then hoisted it over the rear frame rails. Using double layers of plywood, I set it on jack stands on the tail of the frame, and strapped it down.







I set to work soaking every nut I could find with PB Blaster, and started in on one side. Being as my shoulder isn't up to snuff, and I haven't been able to stand long periods for years, I didn't get far, but I did make progress, so I'm good with that. I got one side brake caliper off, one Dodge truck automatic hub out, and that's where I got stuck. I stared in on the cotter pins, but the first one I came to was a PITA, and I decided to let it soak,and just call it a day. Just for fun, I tried the other side... pin came right out...