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CJ8 vs. CJ7 frame rear section question(s)

rreed

Legacy Registered User
City
Anytown
State
TX
I'm prepping the garage to bring in my '81 Scrambler carcass/pieces to rebuild and put it all together. I bought the vehicle as a pile of parts from the PO who had started a frame-off restore years ago and never finished it after tearing it all down.

As w/ most CJs the rear section of the frame from the rear axle humps back was swiss cheese rust at best, so they cut it off right about where the humps come back down and start to level out toward the back. They then began grafting on what appears to be ~2x3" square tubing to hand-create a new rear frame section.

I don't know if the metal working guy was drunk or if the vehicle was sitting on uneven ground and he didn't notice but the two new rear frame rails are about 2-3" inches uneven. I will have to cut at least one of them (if not both) to straighten them out and correct this. The problem is the grafting occurs right at the rear curve of the humps where it starts to level out to head toward the back so I'm going to have to properly reproduce this curvature to get it right. He did a great job cutting/notching/welding/etc. to recreate the curves, they're just not accurate to each other, if even accurate to the layout of the rest of the frame.

My buddy has a good completely stripped CJ-7 frame from which I can get measurements and preferably mock up some cardboard templates. I suppose my question would be can I make some templates on the rear of this CJ-7 frame to get the rear axle hump curves? Are they the same as a CJ-8 w/ the '8 just having longer rear section, if that makes sense?

I've got the pick of the '8 frame specs, measurements, etc. from this site which will help greatly for a lot of things. I just want to make sure I get the frame right in reproducing the rear axle humps right having to do them by hand.
 

John N

Addicted....Ex-SOA VP
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Rockville
State
VA
Maybe not what you were thinking, but Chiefwahoo, on here, sells a set of reinforcing plates for the front and rear of a Scrambler frame. They fit about perfect. If you get a set of the rear plates and install them; they can be your template to get the frame right and, at the same time, reinforce it.
Look at his rebuild on his trail Scrambler for pictures.
 

rreed

Legacy Registered User
City
Anytown
State
TX
Thanks, yeah I saw them and that's really great stuff and I do plan to add a plate along side the inside of both rails to strengthen but I'm a cable metal worker and we have a cheap steel yard nearby. :)
 
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