Build Thread CJ7 (Work in Progress) in Palm Beach Florida

[Krodberg]

I started this post on the introduction pages, so I thought I'd move the additional details to the CJ Build Forum:

Here is the original post:

http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f60/cj7-work-progress-palm-beach-florida-17157/

I'll add some photos in a minute for those who are interested.

 

[cworld]

Hows the build going.? lets see some pics

 

[Krodberg]

I hadn't been on in a while and I see a few more people have asked for pictures. I've got a couple more showing the tear down, but I'm actually putting things back together, so I'll try to started adding those as well.

Here's the 'Work in Progress' while she's pretty nearly stripped down.

You can see some of the repairs starting to taking shape as my friend handles the welder -- crafting creative replacement panels to fix the rusted areas.
The floor pans and rocker panels I ordered on-line weren't exactly a great fit, but he was able to make the necessary modifications. When that wasn't enough he created his own pieces to replace key areas needing replacing or reinforcement.

 

[Krodberg]

It's also fairly easy to work on the steering, suspension and generally clean up the engine with the fenders, grill and radiator pulled off the front.

I needed to replace a steering gear, and while I was at it replaced the tie rods and added a steering stabilizer and sway bar bushings.

Some sandblasting to eliminate some of the spay can paint, mineral spirits for the grease, and Ospho and eliminate some of the surface rust and its ready for some farm implement black paint for the frame, suspension and firewall.

The headers needed to come off to paint the block, so they'll get some silver colored header paint.

 

[thiswontbetooexpensive]

Looks great!

 

[Krodberg]

Well the body work on the inside is essentially done, and the engine and firewall are cleaned up, so we've moved on to the body work on the outside.

Thanks to my friend's welding expertise, there is very minimal body putty. Most of the patches and panels he welded were flush with the original surfaces.

He used a neat gadget: an air punch and sheet metal flange tool. It crimped the edge of the sheet metal to create a flange that would fit under the existing metal and allowed the welded piece to create a smoother surface, once the welds were ground off.

It may be standard practice for some of the readers out here but it was the first time I saw it and I thought it was a clever idea.

Here's some quick shots after the primer:

Here I thought I was done sanding the body/tub. The primer goes on and I'm back to sanding... "Sand until it's soft as a baby's bottom."
It's nice and smooth so what's next? A few little touches with body filler to eliminate a couple slight imperfections, dings and scratches here and there. I never noticed them until the primer was sanded. You guessed it...more sanding. Another coat of primer and again more sanding.

And three coats a green urethane paint with a metal flake to catch the sun
and it finally seems like its getting closer.

 

[Petescj]

Looking good. Like the color choice.