Jurassic Park Jeep #12

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AJ Quick
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Jurassic Park Jeep #12

Post by AJ Quick » April 30th, 2010, 2:04 am

Thanks for the help guys. This is the start of my build. It is a 1993 Jeep Wrangler Sahara.
jeep-sahara.jpg
jeep-sahara.jpg (116.28 KiB) Viewed 61322 times
I purchased this car today for $4000. Its quite a bit of money but it is probably worth more. The previous owner had a lot of work done to it and provided me with receipts for thousands of dollars worth of work rannging from the clutch, to brake lines, and frame repair. It only has 73,000 miles on it.

Came with full hard doors and a hard top. The first owner may still have the half doors and soft top. I hope I can get my hands on them. There is a bit of rust as you can see, but it is all quite basic. The worst is on the windshield frame and on the full doors. I will be cutting out metal when I can (or replacing parts). It will all be repaired right.

After purchasing the Jeep I brought it over to my buddy at Tires Plus and we did an "Inspection". Went under it and found some parts that need to be replaced such as the steering damper, sway bar links, transfer case seal and rear axle seal. I wanted to take a look at the parking brake and find out why it wasn't working properly. Turns out the parking break was SEIZED ON in the driver side drum. The brake was getting hot. We just cut the line and it released the brake. Problem solved.

Noticed the frame has some rust where the rear leaf spring attaches. I hope that will be a easy fix. Do they have frame end kits I can buy to weld on?

We checked the oil and it was rather low. So we also did an oil change. Now the car has a slight knock, but I think it will be ok.

After repaying my buddy at Tires Plus with food, we hung out in the parking lot and figured out how to disable the seat belt buzzer and get the lights to work. I guess we were at it for a little while the battery ended up dying and I had to push start it.

Time for a new battery too!

Overall, I am loving this thing.
1971 Volkwagen Beetle - 1993 Jeep Wrangler Sahara - 1998 Dodge Neon R/T
http://www.GBFans.com/ - http://www.JurassicJeep.com/

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Jeepasaurus
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Re: Jurassic Park Jeep #12

Post by Jeepasaurus » April 30th, 2010, 8:52 am

Congrats! Looks good, nice to see another hardtop. I'm pretty sure I just recently saw frame repair sections, I'll see if I can find it. How's the interior look?
If you haven't found it already, Jeepforum.com is a great source for YJ info.

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AJ Quick
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Re: Jurassic Park Jeep #12

Post by AJ Quick » May 2nd, 2010, 5:19 pm

Thanks.

I found frame repair sections. There were some expensive ($250) sections that were boxed in, or some cheaper ($100) plates that you weld to existing metal. I opted for the cheaper ones as there is still plenty of metal to secure to.

I haven't driven the Jeep since the day I bought it (Thursday) because the battery went dead. I wasn't happy with the battery connections (they were old and rigged in there) so I worked a bit today to replace them. In the process of doing that I had a rusted stud that refused to come out, so I had to cut a wire. I could have been driving the Jeep today if that had gone smoothly.

The last few days have spent scouring information on JeepForum, this JP site and on parts supplier sites. I have spent quite a bit of money on some parts that I need / wanted such as:

-Rear Fog Lights (The amber driving lights). I went with the Pro Comp 100 4"x6" amber fog light. I will be replacing the bulb with a lower wattage lamp and then wiring a flip switch to allow for switching between red and amber.

-Front Fog Lights. One of mine was missing the lense / reflector assembly. Replacing this with a factory one would have cost quite a bit of money. I decided to go with the Delta 150 Foglight. It is a pretty close match for the factory light, just a little bit thicker I presume.

-Fenders. I found a company that claims the fenders they sell are OE quality. If they are not, I will be returning them and attempting to get my money back.

-Soft Top. I managed to find a Spice Bestop top here on Craigslist locally. It has quite a bit of hardware (2 of everything) and a decent top. I picked it up for $200 which is a great deal.

Looking for:
-Half Doors. Saw some on eBay, probably will be out bid even though they are up to $400 right now.
-Windshield Frame. I really don't want to buy a aftermarket steel frame. I am trying to find a used rust free frame. Currently bidding on one, but its already up past where I really want to pay.

Future Steps:

I have a bit of maintainence to do. Hopefully I can get it all done tomorrow. I have the battery, steering stabalizer strut, rear axle seals, TC output seal, and fluid changes for those.

Now that I have a soft top, I want to pull off the Hardtop and install the soft top hardware. That will require a lot of cleaning and painting of the parts as some of them are rusty. I hope there is enough components to make atleast 1 good set of hardware.

But before I put the soft top on, I want to pull the rollcage, seats and carpet and Herculine the floors and interior. I am pretty sure my floors are rust free (atleast no holes). So I want to keep it that way. I figure 3-4 coats of Herculiner should do the trick. After that is done the carpet will go back in. (I really like that look of that!).
1971 Volkwagen Beetle - 1993 Jeep Wrangler Sahara - 1998 Dodge Neon R/T
http://www.GBFans.com/ - http://www.JurassicJeep.com/

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redninja223
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Re: Jurassic Park Jeep #12

Post by redninja223 » May 3rd, 2010, 12:18 am

nice,looks like you have got your work cut out for you

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ncreptile
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Re: Jurassic Park Jeep #12

Post by ncreptile » May 3rd, 2010, 1:11 am

redninja223 wrote:nice,looks like you have got your work cut out for you
+1
nice find though, if you dont go through with it you still have a low miles(considering age) jeep at a fair price.
I wish people would stop turning random cars into JP "jeeps". Come on, its a jeep for a reason.

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AJ Quick
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Re: Jurassic Park Jeep #12

Post by AJ Quick » May 3rd, 2010, 11:00 am

ncreptile wrote:nice find though, if you dont go through with it you still have a low miles(considering age) jeep at a fair price.
True.

But there is no reason not to go through with it. :wink:

I will probably have the Jeep professionaly painted by a guy who does projects on the side. I'm hoping for under $1000 for a perfect paint job. I can't move foward with that though until I have all the parts like Doors, Mopar Lightbar.. etc.

I've probably got another $2500 to spend before its done.

:cry:
1971 Volkwagen Beetle - 1993 Jeep Wrangler Sahara - 1998 Dodge Neon R/T
http://www.GBFans.com/ - http://www.JurassicJeep.com/

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Re: Jurassic Park Jeep #12

Post by AJ Quick » May 3rd, 2010, 8:23 pm

I finished putting in a new battery and cables in the Jeep today.

Drove it around a bit while running errands until I got back to it and boom. Wouldn't start.

Turns out the starter solenoid was on its last legs. So I picked up a new starter and would have installed it today, but its raining here. Kinda funny feeling trying to start it and nothing happens. When it happened on Thursday I had someone push start it with me. This time I just took a tow hook out of the center console and gave the starter a good wack.

Started right up.
1971 Volkwagen Beetle - 1993 Jeep Wrangler Sahara - 1998 Dodge Neon R/T
http://www.GBFans.com/ - http://www.JurassicJeep.com/

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ncreptile
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Re: Jurassic Park Jeep #12

Post by ncreptile » May 3rd, 2010, 9:44 pm

Let me know how those fog lights work out for the front, just checked them out. 2 for $86 thats not bad at all. Looks about the same, nobody will know the difference.
I wish people would stop turning random cars into JP "jeeps". Come on, its a jeep for a reason.

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AJ Quick
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Re: Jurassic Park Jeep #12

Post by AJ Quick » May 4th, 2010, 6:12 pm

ncreptile wrote:Let me know how those fog lights work out for the front, just checked them out. 2 for $86 thats not bad at all. Looks about the same, nobody will know the difference.
Here is hoping they are the design as pictured on the website.

Image

Otherwise it is gonna cost a boat load for stock replacements.

I also put a new starter in the Jeep this morning. Probably the easiest thing to do. Took all of 20 minutes from start to finish.

Gonna go and put a new steering damper in now. I expect that to be 20-30 minutes.
1971 Volkwagen Beetle - 1993 Jeep Wrangler Sahara - 1998 Dodge Neon R/T
http://www.GBFans.com/ - http://www.JurassicJeep.com/

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Re: Jurassic Park Jeep #12

Post by MN-cherokee » May 4th, 2010, 9:17 pm

Not 100% positive, but I seem to recall that the parts interchange program I use at work says the OE fog lights were made by Delta.

Also, I noticed your YJ has the TJ style windshield rests on the hood. Ive heard some of the very last YJ's had these as they started switching over to build TJs. Mine does (10/95 build date). Seems out of place for a 93. Has the hood or front end been repaired?

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