Jurassic Park Jeep #12

[AJ Quick]

We just got in our new stamped metal license plates from Celebrity Machines. They are absolutely great quality and are by far the nicest replica license plates you will find!

http://www.jimshine.com/celebritymachin ... 202011.htm

[jeepnrover]

Perused this entire thread again, and I gotta say, yours is one of if not my favorite Jeep on the forum. Partly because of the fact that your jeep is one of the few with a hard top, and partly because of the do-it-yourself nature of your progress. Just good honest wrench turning as time allows. Also, I'm kind of jealous of all the hard top free pics. My previous 91, and now my 95 both have had hard tops, I have yet to drive either one with them removed.

[AJ Quick]

I have been comtemplating selling the hardtop and full doors.

Its a tough decision because I can get about $1000 for them here in Colorado during the Winter. Yet at the same time... I really am starting to like the look of the hardtop too!

Hopefully once the frame is here and being built my Jeep will start to get a lot nicer. I have a lot of parts to swap out to get rid of the rust.

[jeepnrover]

I have been comtemplating selling the hardtop and full doors.

Its a tough decision because I can get about $1000 for them here in Colorado during the Winter. Yet at the same time... I really am starting to like the look of the hardtop too!

Hopefully once the frame is here and being built my Jeep will start to get a lot nicer. I have a lot of parts to swap out to get rid of the rust.

I'm sure you'll get the rust taken care of. I've seen far worse looking rigs than yours be fixed up good as new. That's my biggest battle as well. As far as the hard top, I should think it would be handy to have because of Colorado winters

[AJ Quick]

I figured out what was wrong with the Jeep.

One of the wheels was on the verge of falling off completely.

Remember to torque your lug nuts.

Hopefully it drives straight now. I did brake my sway bar brackets, but I'm not gonna worry about reinstalling the sway bar until I have my new frame.

[AJ Quick]

Jeep frame just came in.

Its in really good shape. Just a few small spots of unavoidable surface rust. A quick hit with a wire wheel will fix that!

[AJ Quick]

Been a long time since I've updated this. Kinda sad that I got that frame almost a year ago, and it's still sitting waiting to be used.

But it shouldn't be waiting much longer!

In Jan I sold my hardtop. And then the Jeep had been sitting inside for the rest of the winter. A few months ago I moved and Jeep and started to unbolt a few things, but not really remove anything. Earlier this week Kevin (Boomerjinks JP #18) wanted to hang out and I suggested we do some work on my Jeep. He was an hour late, so I started without him and actually unbolted a lot of things. The seats, the rollcage, seatbelts.. etc. I tried to unbolt the windshield, but all those torx bolts stripped out. I ended up doing the quick and simple thing and just cut the hinges right in half. Easy peasy. Finally Kevin showed up to help do some heavy lifting and we got the roll cage, seats, windshield frame and hood out of the way. Enough for a few hours work.





The next few days I would come in and take something off, bag it up and catalog it. Just small items like the license plates, frames, taillights.. etc.

Last night however, I decided I should give a go at taking off the fenders and the grill. The grill I had removed before, so I knew it wouldn't be too difficult. The fenders on the other hand were going to take some work. I started with the passenger side fender, which is easier than the driver side as it just has the battery tray and jack in the way. After some unbolting, it was out. Next was the grill, which required draining the coolant and removing hoses, but again was pretty simple. The driver side fender is only a little bit harder than the passenger side. There are a lot of electrics, coolant / washer fluid bottles, evap canister and some other stuff to remove before getting access to the bolts. A few hours work total over Friday and Saturday morning and I have this:



Hopefully a lot more progress will be made in the next few months. Kind of sucks to not be driving the Jeep with the nice summer weather upon us... but the faster I get this done, the faster I can drive it!

[COBrian]

SO glad you are back working on this. !

[AJ Quick]

I had to bump this up from the depths of page 3 in the JP Jeeps forum.

It’s been a year and half since I got that new frame, and about 8 months since I started tearing down the Jeep. Well. Its finally time to show some new progress on the project!

I’ve been slowly doing little bits of work to the Jeep body and frame. Removing body panels, removing the dash, disconnecting hoses, draining fluids.. etc. I am now at a point where I am almost ready to remove the body from the old frame. The body currently only has 1 or 2 bolts holding it down, and a few linkages and things to remove from the firewall. Here is how it currently looks:



It wouldn’t be wise to dive right into removing the body right now though, as I have no where to put it. I could do a few things to it, but then it would be waiting for the engine and new frame to get finished. So I decided to move on to the new frame. I was originally planning on not doing anything major to it. It is in amazing shape for being 20 years old, but it could certainly use some new paint. I decided to strip the frame down to just the single metal component. I will be picking up a soda blaster and stripping the frame down the best I can, and then coating in rust encapsulator and chassis black paint. Here is a look at how it currently looks:



After the frame is done, I will have to find new Dana axles (mine are horribly rusted too), and then will install the brand new lift kit (1.5 inches) to the frame. Once that is all setup I can move on to the engine, and then the body. The body will also get the rust treatment on the bottom, and some body panel repair in the back. Some of the parts will be painted sand beige poly before being installed, but the main body will be repainted after being installed back on the frame.

[COBrian]

sometimes I wish I could justify going down to the frame and doing a serious restore. Thats going to be one sweet ride when you are finished.