1981 CJ8 resurrection, again,

[Jeremy]

Well, its been a while, and now 14 months into the latest of a very long list of much neglected jeep projects, here is a recap of the last year plus, and my experience with a MD Juan CJ8 tub. I had planned on a Aqualu aluminum tub last year, just like we did for dad's jeep 10 years ago, But the day before my tax return cleared the bank, Quadratech canceled the order out of my cart. The difference in price to go else where plus shipping was prohibitive. So this was disappointing, HOWEVER, a friend noticed that a shop out towards Philadelphia had a brand new tub for $3000 flat. So even though I was warned, off we went down the PA turnpike, It was a tight fit in a short box pick up.

 

[Jeremy]

Once off the truck I stood it up under the porch, hung a tarp to work under and waited for the snow to melt, this had the benefit of seeing if the shipped in primer flaked off or not, a issue a lot of these tubs had at one time that I was aware off. Once it was warm enough, I roughed up the paint, applied 5 layers of rustoleum primer, and 6 coats of Navy Blue Rattle cans. I also seam sealed all the nooks and crannies with Sikaflex 221 seam sealant Polyurethane. I would prep, apply paint and then go take the jeep apart.

Sikaflex-221, Black, Multi-Purpose Sealant/Adhesive, Polyurethane Fast Curing​

 

[Jeremy]

My original tub is rough, if could be fixed if you weld better than I do, but, I have enough pokers in the fire as it is,

 

[Jeremy]

The MD Juan tub IS NOT a perfect tub, some of the welds look like I did them, BUT AMC Jeep was not known for a high level of craftsman ship either, all but one one of the body mounts lined up, at the one that was off was close enough to MAKE it work. Most of the holes that WERE in the tub were sorta in the right place, EXCEPT for the heater inlet and outlet, this caused no end worth of headaches later. Most of the holes are NOT drilled. a bigger issues is NONE of the firewall reinforcements are on the new tub and NONE of the captured nuts or threaded inserts are included. This is where the time consuming part of the project come up and the whole project goes sideways

 

[Jeremy]

Once the old tube as off, I cleaned up some rust, painted and burned myself a couple of times fixing the body mount pads. The grinder I am makes up for the welder I am not.

 

[Jeremy]

I would like to publicly state that who ever thought it was a good idea to use torx anything, especially button heads is a sadist, and if I ever find you, unspeakable acts already promised might happen to you, you are a marked man. Getting the roll bar off the jeep took weeks using a MAPP gas torch, which set the bed liner on fire, a 4" doom wheel, a couple of chisels , a vocabulary that was vulgar, creative and loud and a sawzall. Everybody that has a sawzall tends to keep used blades up usually on the bottom of a case for those nasty jobs that bend blades and are just going to be a destroyed in a sacrifice to destructive disassembly, everyone has such a stash except me, I destroyed everyone of them plus more than a few packages of new ones, a Pox upon what ever fool thought torx anything was a good idea

 

[Jeremy]

With some creative use of rope, carabiners and skills as a white water raft guide and long ago knowledge of a Boyscouts Pioneering merit badge I lifted the tub on top of the frame, I decided to replace the body mounts with Daystar 1" body mount bushing, with is not a bodylift per say, as it is not a separate puck stacked on a body bushing, this is a taller bushing itself, having done battle with body lifts in the past, I am not a fan of them, although the OTHER CJ8 still has one, if is a PITA. I did the 1" bushing as it does make it so much easier for my rather large hands to reach bell housing bolts, fix fuel tank senders and generally have better access to things under the jeep. This is without adding a a lot of nonsense adjustments like fan shroud clearance, shifter linkage problems, steering column issues, ground wires fuel tank fillers and all sorts of little big things that need adjusted to add and subtract body lifts, also being monolithic, there shouldn't be the shifting extra leverage that cracks and fatigues the tub around the body mounts. The one thing that did need to change was the clutch linkage, I replaced the bubba idiot engineering clutch linkage on the other jeep already, with a heim jointed linkage and later I just converted it to a hydraulic linkage. This jeep was still stock when I started this little project, with the 1" taller mount, I upgraded this jeep to a hydraulic master and slave cylinder as well.

Daystar, Jeep CJ8 1" Taller Polyurethane Body Mount​

 

[Jeremy]

out came the sand paper, and the rattle cans again, I fogged the whole jeep with several coats, part of the reason I decided to do rattle cans is the reputation for the shipped in primer has a habit of flaking off in sheets, until I was confident that it was going to adhear I did not want a lot of money into finishing, BUT I wanted it painted and at the time, I was trying to get it done for LAST YEARS jeep show. (that didn't happen) anyway, its fogged with more navy blue enamel.

 

[Jeremy]

Things were starting to really come together at this point and then..................it didn't

 

[Jeremy]

Butter fingers dropped the steering column collapsing the steering shaft, resulting in a rebuild, then I dropped it again, destroying the upper bearing, resulting in.............you guessed it, rebuilding the column AGAIN< it was at this point that I discovered that mice or a chipmonk destoyed my blue factory seats , but a friend sold me some tank wrongler seats that aren't bad, It was at this time that I spent most of August, September and October put in and taking out the dash and heater box, My God, I was getting ready to go to the Philliphines and knocking some sense of measurement into MD Juan employees, those holes for the heater box were some of the few in the fire wall and they were off just enough to make the fitting out a huge Pain, and that is when it started to get cold and rain, into snow.

 

[Jeremy]

I got the hard top set on and installed TJ rear fender flares, I really thought I was going to have this thing running for the winter, but ran out of good weather and tarped it up for the winter

 

[Jeremy]

I have been trying to get this wrapped up and running since October of LAST YEAR, it has RAINED nearly EVERY Saturday so far this year. last weekend I finally got the brakes bled and the hydraulic clutch trouble shot and bled, then it started to rain.

 

[Jeremy]

I started to trouble shoot my wiring so far this year, this is the major frustration I am having, I carefully repaired the factory wiring harness, replaced all the over spliced wires and loomed it also neatly, THEN had to take the dash on and off half a dozen times. in the process, I pulled some of the wiring out and now the blammed thing will not start! ARRGGHHH, so here I am 14 months latter and I am trying to squeeze my big frame under the dash trying to figure out what got disconnected or cross wired last fall. but I am close now.

 

[Jeremy]

Considering that last fall I had the kung fu flu for the third time and that put a end of any more attempts to get it running until this spring and then the constant weekend rains this has been a project. Also considering that my 1982 Cj8 frame has failed and I am waiting for a new throttle down Custom frame to be shift to fix that jeep AND my LJr decided that it was a good time to have a head gasket failure, I really need this thing to wrap up soon.

 

[ebertf]

Keep going your doing great

 

[barrys]

Sounds like you still have your Red CJ8?

 

[Jeremy]

Sounds like you still have your Red CJ8?

yeah, its been parked for a couple of years, the frame got soft under the drivers side rear, fixed end spring mount, My plan is to put a TDC frame under the red jeep, then fix the red jeeps frame to put under this blue one eventually.

 

[Jeremy]

its a shame because Joe Attardo built me one hell of a dana 30 after I destroyed it trail guiding at the Bantam Jeep festival, several years ago, I got it the front end in it, and then found the soft spot in the frame, all the jeeps have been on the back burner between building the house and the pandemic

 

[oregonscrambler]

Over time I came to terms with and found creative solutions for every single md Juan flaw EXCEPT the heater box situation. So many hole elongation techniques were used until I final forced it in, only to have a heater core leak 6 months later from what I can only assume was from the fight. I can’t even bring myself to pull the box again for fear of never getting it back in again.

 

[Jeremy]

Over time I came to terms with and found creative solutions for every single md Juan flaw EXCEPT the heater box situation. So many hole elongation techniques were used until I final forced it in, only to have a heater core leak 6 months later from what I can only assume was from the fight. I can’t even bring myself to pull the box again for fear of never getting it back in again.

My heater box has a cracked in it now that just might be the size if a size13 WW foot, and I can't find the lead for the blower motor now, it's probably between the heater box and the firewall now. "Fight" was a pretty good word for it. I also had a hard time getting the door hinge on that side to line up which threw the hard door off. Thinking about it, that was also the only body mount that was off too. Maybe the guy on that side of the tub when they made it was drunk? Everything on that corner was just a little bit off.