Philosoraptor's Canadian JP#90 Build
Posted: April 15th, 2016, 12:26 am
Greetings!
A new member, but a long-time lurker and admirer of the Jurassic Jeeps, this thread will serve as my progress log for the build of my 1994 Jeep YJ Sahara. Beware this will be picture intensive and maybe I'll even ramble a bit as well! Check out my brief intro here
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=5928
Back in November 2015 I was able to get myself a second car. I came across an ad on my local Craigslist and quickly got around to purchasing my 1994 Jeep YJ Sahara. It has the wonderful AMC 242 4L six cylinder paired with the venerable AX-15 manual transmission. She isn't a young vehicle, right now I am dangerously close to 300,000 km (180,000 miles), but the engine runs strong. Luckily the previous owners only drove it locally around town and it shows because there is very minimal rust on it! But with any vehicle of that vintage there will be mechanical areas to address. The previous owner had grafted TJ seats to fit onto the stock brackets which is okay, but they make you sit higher than usual. Lucky for me though, the owner still had the original Sahara seats which are in good condition. Here she is, from my first drive home with her.
Now I have seen many of the fine examples of Canon replicas built by some of the members here. And wow, the dedication and time spent is overwhelming. For me however I am choosing not to entirely replicate one of the movie Jeeps; hence the use of the number 90. Also from browsing I don't think I have seen anyone else use that number (feel free to correct me on that!) so why not. The number isn't anything too special, however it is my birth year, and it also it the year the original Jurassic Park novel was published; so it seems like a good fit! Plans-wise this Jeep is going to be my trail rig. Secondly it will be a Jurassic trail rig. So with that in mind I will be deviating from making everything look exactly like the movie cars.
However early on and for most of my ownership so far I have been focusing on getting the car up to snuff mechanically. Only now (3 days ago) was I able to finally get some rear stripes painted. Here are some of the things I have tackled so far (and a lot of other things I didn't bother to take pictures of). The engine was obviously running strong but needed some love. I mean look at all this sludge and crud!
So time to do the valve cover gasket and clean up the rest! Surprisingly there was no oil sludge or contaminants on the inside!
Now that looks much better and it isn't leaking anymore! Then I was able to find a set of 5 Jeep alloys on my local craigslist for a mere $50 Canadian (about $3 USD if you do the conversion). Time to start cleaning them up and getting them ready for paint! Thanks to work I have access to a sandblasting cabinet.
Sweet now I have 5 wheels painted and ready to go. Now came time to get this little billy goat some vertical. Rough Country 4.5" lift kit with boomerang shackles and military wrap springs incoming! There was plenty of cursing and swearing with this endeavour; lots of seized bolts. The main spring eye bolts were the most stubborn, so kill them with fire! Another pain in the ass was the steering pitman arm. The hammer could not get it done, neither could a puller tool, and neither could the fire. So the all-effective sawzall method was employed, and the fight went deep into the 12th round where after many blades changes and notches buzzed out of the old pitman arm, a victor emerged! Cue the awkward evolutionary phase of having a lifted Jeep on stock tires... how embarassing.
Thankfully this didn't last too long. I was just waiting for my local tire guy to get stock on some meat for the rims. Now trying to be semi-frugal I was able to source a near-new BF Goodrich All-Terrain KO in the same size as my new tires from a wrecker. This will be my spare. While waiting for the rest of the new tires to come in; you better believe I was sizing up the difference everyday and dreaming of what it could look like. That is a proper truck tire!
Finally, my BFG TA KO2 tires arrived, the size is 33 x 10.5, just right in my opinion. Personally I am not a big fan of wide tires and this size allowed me to still use the factory rims without spacers. They only rub on full lock, back off about 10 degrees on the steering wheel and you are good to go. They are aggressive and sure bite into terrain very nicely. Oh and I also picked up a hardtop along the way as well. It sure rains a lot in the Pacific Northwest!
Diffs are like relationships, leave them open and things are bound to go wrong! Enter the cheap upgrade for my front Dana 30 axle; the Aussie locker. And then protect that puppy with a nice red (this is along the theme of the red Jurassic Jeep right?!?) ARB diff cover. An excellent upgrade, I would highly recommend this for anyone that does mild wheeling. Totally unnoticeable on the street when I am in 2WD (it isn't engaged because the T-case isn't putting power to the front wheels). Throw it into 4WD on the trail and she climbs, even with the stock open rear Dana 35. Very happy times.
Then I noticed the water pump was leaking slightly. Time to swap that out and clean things up. And of course being an old vehicle after doing that my heater core started leaking. Time to fix that And while I had the whole heater airbox out it served me well to replace the blower motor at the same time. Basically I am a radiator away from a complete cooling system overhaul (T-stat was done prior when chasing a perceived under-temp condition... it was just the temp sender at that back of the block that was broken).
Blessed with some sunny days I finally have been able to put some red on the body of the Jeep. Now I have noticed that it is frowned upon by some of the die-hards but I have chosen to go the Plastidip route for my red. I cannot afford to do a whole repaint and knowing that this car will see time in the bush I have elected to go this route. I would hate to invest in a good paint job only to add what we call BC pinstriping (trees scrapping horizontal lines into the paint on narrow trails). The wheels were also painted in Plastidip red. So far they have held up well and after much time in the mud, sand, and gravel are not showing any wear. And after seeing the results here http://www.jurassicjeep.com/tag/paint/ I think Plastidip will serve my purposes well enough for the time being. Oh and also prior I had removed the factory Sahara green and brown pin stripes.
Unfortunately after the paint dried the hardtop went back on. I cannot wait for summer to arrive to keep the top down permanently! So this where I am now in my progress. Just have to deal with tax season here and then hopefully more will get done. Some additional notes
- I have been unable to find a Mopar lightbar so I have fabricated a lookalike. I just need to weld on my attach brackets and figure out an LED lightbar solution for it then it will go on.
- Front stripes will be going on soon hopefully when I have some time off work and get some good days. First I have to contact forum member Jack Faust (spelling? I have the thread saved somewhere) for some Jurassic decals and stencils.
- Half doors are going to get purchased from a local wrecker hopefully.
- Buy some Sahara green door pouches from a forum member here that makes them for the half doors
- Non-OEM front bumper and winch are also in the works
- Rear bumper and tire carrier are also being sourced. Stock unit won't hold the larger tire happily
- Factory headers are cracked along with some other spots in the exhaust causing it to run a little rich and foul O2 sensors. Stainless headers and full SS exhaust are stretch goals
- Oil pan gasket and rear main seal
- Dana 30 will get chromoly shafts (1 piece conversion, goodbye central axle disconnect and posi-lok cable) and bigger u-joints
- Dana 35 will remain stock and hopefully survive the summer. A Ford 8.8 axle swap with a Detriot Tru-Trac will get done in the Fall/Winter. Slip yoke eliminator will be addressed at that time as well.
- Remove the interior and Line-X (Rhino line, Herculine alternate) the tub
- I also want to get my stock Sahara seats cleaned and repaired too.
So that is what is going on. Lots to do and lots to learn still. But it has been a fulfilling and rewarding adventure thus far! Looking forward to hanging out here and watching other builds progress. Until next time, thanks for having a look!
A new member, but a long-time lurker and admirer of the Jurassic Jeeps, this thread will serve as my progress log for the build of my 1994 Jeep YJ Sahara. Beware this will be picture intensive and maybe I'll even ramble a bit as well! Check out my brief intro here
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=5928
Back in November 2015 I was able to get myself a second car. I came across an ad on my local Craigslist and quickly got around to purchasing my 1994 Jeep YJ Sahara. It has the wonderful AMC 242 4L six cylinder paired with the venerable AX-15 manual transmission. She isn't a young vehicle, right now I am dangerously close to 300,000 km (180,000 miles), but the engine runs strong. Luckily the previous owners only drove it locally around town and it shows because there is very minimal rust on it! But with any vehicle of that vintage there will be mechanical areas to address. The previous owner had grafted TJ seats to fit onto the stock brackets which is okay, but they make you sit higher than usual. Lucky for me though, the owner still had the original Sahara seats which are in good condition. Here she is, from my first drive home with her.
Now I have seen many of the fine examples of Canon replicas built by some of the members here. And wow, the dedication and time spent is overwhelming. For me however I am choosing not to entirely replicate one of the movie Jeeps; hence the use of the number 90. Also from browsing I don't think I have seen anyone else use that number (feel free to correct me on that!) so why not. The number isn't anything too special, however it is my birth year, and it also it the year the original Jurassic Park novel was published; so it seems like a good fit! Plans-wise this Jeep is going to be my trail rig. Secondly it will be a Jurassic trail rig. So with that in mind I will be deviating from making everything look exactly like the movie cars.
However early on and for most of my ownership so far I have been focusing on getting the car up to snuff mechanically. Only now (3 days ago) was I able to finally get some rear stripes painted. Here are some of the things I have tackled so far (and a lot of other things I didn't bother to take pictures of). The engine was obviously running strong but needed some love. I mean look at all this sludge and crud!
So time to do the valve cover gasket and clean up the rest! Surprisingly there was no oil sludge or contaminants on the inside!
Now that looks much better and it isn't leaking anymore! Then I was able to find a set of 5 Jeep alloys on my local craigslist for a mere $50 Canadian (about $3 USD if you do the conversion). Time to start cleaning them up and getting them ready for paint! Thanks to work I have access to a sandblasting cabinet.
Sweet now I have 5 wheels painted and ready to go. Now came time to get this little billy goat some vertical. Rough Country 4.5" lift kit with boomerang shackles and military wrap springs incoming! There was plenty of cursing and swearing with this endeavour; lots of seized bolts. The main spring eye bolts were the most stubborn, so kill them with fire! Another pain in the ass was the steering pitman arm. The hammer could not get it done, neither could a puller tool, and neither could the fire. So the all-effective sawzall method was employed, and the fight went deep into the 12th round where after many blades changes and notches buzzed out of the old pitman arm, a victor emerged! Cue the awkward evolutionary phase of having a lifted Jeep on stock tires... how embarassing.
Thankfully this didn't last too long. I was just waiting for my local tire guy to get stock on some meat for the rims. Now trying to be semi-frugal I was able to source a near-new BF Goodrich All-Terrain KO in the same size as my new tires from a wrecker. This will be my spare. While waiting for the rest of the new tires to come in; you better believe I was sizing up the difference everyday and dreaming of what it could look like. That is a proper truck tire!
Finally, my BFG TA KO2 tires arrived, the size is 33 x 10.5, just right in my opinion. Personally I am not a big fan of wide tires and this size allowed me to still use the factory rims without spacers. They only rub on full lock, back off about 10 degrees on the steering wheel and you are good to go. They are aggressive and sure bite into terrain very nicely. Oh and I also picked up a hardtop along the way as well. It sure rains a lot in the Pacific Northwest!
Diffs are like relationships, leave them open and things are bound to go wrong! Enter the cheap upgrade for my front Dana 30 axle; the Aussie locker. And then protect that puppy with a nice red (this is along the theme of the red Jurassic Jeep right?!?) ARB diff cover. An excellent upgrade, I would highly recommend this for anyone that does mild wheeling. Totally unnoticeable on the street when I am in 2WD (it isn't engaged because the T-case isn't putting power to the front wheels). Throw it into 4WD on the trail and she climbs, even with the stock open rear Dana 35. Very happy times.
Then I noticed the water pump was leaking slightly. Time to swap that out and clean things up. And of course being an old vehicle after doing that my heater core started leaking. Time to fix that And while I had the whole heater airbox out it served me well to replace the blower motor at the same time. Basically I am a radiator away from a complete cooling system overhaul (T-stat was done prior when chasing a perceived under-temp condition... it was just the temp sender at that back of the block that was broken).
Blessed with some sunny days I finally have been able to put some red on the body of the Jeep. Now I have noticed that it is frowned upon by some of the die-hards but I have chosen to go the Plastidip route for my red. I cannot afford to do a whole repaint and knowing that this car will see time in the bush I have elected to go this route. I would hate to invest in a good paint job only to add what we call BC pinstriping (trees scrapping horizontal lines into the paint on narrow trails). The wheels were also painted in Plastidip red. So far they have held up well and after much time in the mud, sand, and gravel are not showing any wear. And after seeing the results here http://www.jurassicjeep.com/tag/paint/ I think Plastidip will serve my purposes well enough for the time being. Oh and also prior I had removed the factory Sahara green and brown pin stripes.
Unfortunately after the paint dried the hardtop went back on. I cannot wait for summer to arrive to keep the top down permanently! So this where I am now in my progress. Just have to deal with tax season here and then hopefully more will get done. Some additional notes
- I have been unable to find a Mopar lightbar so I have fabricated a lookalike. I just need to weld on my attach brackets and figure out an LED lightbar solution for it then it will go on.
- Front stripes will be going on soon hopefully when I have some time off work and get some good days. First I have to contact forum member Jack Faust (spelling? I have the thread saved somewhere) for some Jurassic decals and stencils.
- Half doors are going to get purchased from a local wrecker hopefully.
- Buy some Sahara green door pouches from a forum member here that makes them for the half doors
- Non-OEM front bumper and winch are also in the works
- Rear bumper and tire carrier are also being sourced. Stock unit won't hold the larger tire happily
- Factory headers are cracked along with some other spots in the exhaust causing it to run a little rich and foul O2 sensors. Stainless headers and full SS exhaust are stretch goals
- Oil pan gasket and rear main seal
- Dana 30 will get chromoly shafts (1 piece conversion, goodbye central axle disconnect and posi-lok cable) and bigger u-joints
- Dana 35 will remain stock and hopefully survive the summer. A Ford 8.8 axle swap with a Detriot Tru-Trac will get done in the Fall/Winter. Slip yoke eliminator will be addressed at that time as well.
- Remove the interior and Line-X (Rhino line, Herculine alternate) the tub
- I also want to get my stock Sahara seats cleaned and repaired too.
So that is what is going on. Lots to do and lots to learn still. But it has been a fulfilling and rewarding adventure thus far! Looking forward to hanging out here and watching other builds progress. Until next time, thanks for having a look!