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‘82 Engine Swap & Restification

ag4ever

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Forecast is rain for the weekend, so no progress is expected this weekend. I did go ahead and remove the body mount bolts. Hit most of them with PB Blaster last night (sorry honey for the obnoxious odor). Those I hit were simple to remove, once breaking them free I was able to remove them by hand. I missed spraying the front 2 and rear 2. Front 2 fought a bit, but were able to be removed with the 1/2” ratchet. Rear 2 only required breaking free and could also be removed by hand.

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I think I had a bird living in the driver side foot well though.

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ag4ever

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Woke up this morning (after recovering from a little too much libations at a charity gala last night) to bright sunshine. After getting over my headache and doing yard cleanup, I started playing with a new toy I bought last week. Found a lightly used sand blast booth on Craigslist for $150.

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Came with 25 lbs of glass beads and 25 lbs of black diamond.

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I was able to clean up some scrap metal building purlins for testing and practice my tig welds.

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Should work great for cleaning up all the small parts to get them ready for repainting. And it can be used for my wife’s glass grinder for her stained glass. (To keep all the small shards contained) Win-win.
 

ag4ever

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Found a few minutes to work on it between yard work, HOA meeting, and bed time routine. Pulled the sway bar, and ground off the passenger side sway bar frame bracket.

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The frame looks rough, driver side has a crack where the horizontal sway bar bracket bolt goes. The passenger side just looks nasty with all the booger welds.

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bigwalton

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Wow, quite the project! I'd totally missed this thread... keep it up!
 

ag4ever

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Not much has happened over the last few weeks. Been busy at work, caught a cold or minor case of flu, etc...

We had nice (nicer than recent) weather today, so after planting some trees and shrubs I drug it out of the garage to do some more grinding.

Driver’s frame rail:

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ag4ever

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Passenger frame rail:

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ag4ever

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Looks like the front of this frame was either torn completely off or replaced. Looks like the front crossmember was welded back to the passenger frame rail, that is the huge blob of weld and it extends along the top and down the front side of the crossmember too.

So now I’m at a crossroad. Either keep fixing this one or find a replacement front frame and chop it off and weld on the replacement. I’ve been looking around here, and have not found a suitable replacement clip yet. So not sure what I will do.

I’m afraid of doing any more grinding on the frame and pulling any more patch metal off for fear that the frame might break since it is still supported by the springs and axles.

Also did some practice with the TIG, all I can say is I NEED PRACTICE. Dipped the filler into the electrode too many times. Grrrr. Had the post flow too low on the argon. Grrr. Was pushing too many amps. Grrrr. It is definitely much more sensitive to user errors than MIG. I am comfortable running MIG beads all day, just need to get the feel on the TIG as that is what I want to use on the body panel repairs. Would like to use it on the frame as well, but not sure I am ready for that, YET.
 

jammer1

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Maple Hts.
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Damn those are some mean cracks. Wonder what the previous owner did to crack the frame on both sides to that extent.
 

jammer1

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See what you mean. With the cracks where the front cross member is you can only put a plate on the outside of the frame. Will be interesting to see what the good welders on the forum say.
 

ag4ever

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Jeep was bought between Cottonwood and Sedona Arizona, previous owner used it to haul rocks up a mountain to build a cabin. I bought it from the Niece of the man who used it as a rock hauler and she said he rolled it once. After rolling it his family demanded he install a roll cage, so he put an exocage on it. He was the second owner, allegedly bought it when it was 1 year old, still had the iron duke in it. I’m wondering if it had been in a collision in that first year and the frame was fixed then resold.
 

jammer1

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If he rolled it, front may have hit at a angle hard enough to do cracks. Also that kind of a hit probably bent the frame. Need to have the frame measured to make sure it's straight. When driving behind it does it track straight?
 

bigwalton

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I was going to say it looks like it took a hard front hit and agree that you also need to check that the frame isn’t bent or otherwise out of whack.

When I see that kind of thing, I worry about what else there might be lurking that you don’t see yet. I’d seriously question trying to use that frame if it were me. Sorry to say it :shrug:
 

ag4ever

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Only things still on the frame at this time is the body, gas tank, and suspension.

I've been over the entire frame and dont see any other areas that are questionable. Really the frame is intact everywhere and certainly looks better than some of the north eastern frames that have been "fixed".

I'm not trying to justify using the frame, just clarifying what I see. Once I lift the body it might be a different story.

I do plan to do some cross measurements to verify frame squareness.

Sad thing is, the jeep drove great before I dug into these issues.
 

Kim Dawson

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Molalla
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Or
Might want to look for a CJ7 frame for the front section. Oil has a habit of covering the front half of the frame keeping it solid while the back half rusts away. Might find one of those cheap.
 

ag4ever

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May have solved my problem, found a frame for sale locally. Gonna go get it tomorrow. Hopefully it will still be there.

:fingerscrossed:
 

jammer1

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:fingerscrossed: If you ever follow a van or tractor trailer and can see the whole side (while your behind it) it can be because it took a hit on the drivers side, around the rear quarter panel. It twists the frame. You can't see it until you measure out the frame (or take to a body shop that has a frame machine). You can have someone drive behind a jeep that your driving (before you buy it), to get a idea if the frame has some extensive damage from a wreck they don't tell you about. Some times it can also be the rear end isn't square to the rest of the body. If you see this, you know somethings not right.
 

ag4ever

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Or the rear steering switch was not centered after doing some crab crawling, er.... never mind, dont have rear steering, .......... yet?
 

ag4ever

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Sweet progress. Bought a factory cj-8 frame that has been powder coated. Had to take a bunch of other jeep stuff to get it. But frame problem solved.

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Also came with a body rotisserie!
 

jammer1

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Maple Hts.
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Oh
That's a nice find. Good frame, Rotisserie to do the work, and nice rims. Plus parts to fix what goes bad or to sell to help finance the project. 8-)
 
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