1983 frame off refresh - finally

[mhinchliffe]

Then I put the aircraft paint stripper to it. Warn must have used some really good paint back in the day!

The clean steel you see is what I blasted off but resorted to chemicals to do the work instead.

And another

After the paint was pretty much removed it was into the blast cabinet for final clean up and to kind of put a profile on it to give the etching primer a little something to stick to. Wiped it down with acetone, hung it and spray time.

Here's a few of the fender

And one for CB

 

[firefighter736]

When I start seeing things in paint I get really excited.


Couldn't find that shield, but I see you made one. Sorry man.

 

[mhinchliffe]

All right. Update time. Decided that since I was taking up too much floor space in the shop I should get a shelf to put my goodies on. This really helped out as far as seeing what I had and what I had left to get.

I'm gone for extended periods of time traveling the country for work. The good is that I have a 32' trailer that I pull which means I've got plenty of room for Jeep parts. I started this spring off in central Florida and came across these via CL. Not in too bad of shape and they should look nice against the silver. I'll start to clean them up if CB will give me his opossum fat recipe he uses on his stuff.

Then last fall I took our son to Hallyburton's Barber Shop (check them out, old school!) and both Steve and his son Reid are Jeep guys so we got to talking and I let them know that I was on the lookout for some TJ uppers and they said they'd keep their eyes peeled. So about 2 weeks ago I get a call from Ried say that he's got my uppers and I need to come get them. End of the story is that it cost me an L&M t shirt. Not a bad deal in my book[emoji2]

Then I get to perusing CL while I'm out working and come across a 1/2 price set of Omix flares.....gotta have em, so Brown brings them.

....more to come

 

[gr8dain]

How the heck have I been missing this? I must have just been too busy in my garage since September.

This is awesome.

 

[certifiablejeep]

I can give you the secret recipe, but first, what is up with the lower on the right side insert? Did that get replaced?
It looks similar, but the sheen just seems off... nice find though, those are hard to come across.
I love those seats, I have them in 2 of my Jeeps.

cb

 

[certifiablejeep]

Then I put the aircraft paint stripper to it. Warn must have used some really good paint back in the day!

The clean steel you see is what I blasted off but resorted to chemicals to do the work instead.

And another

After the paint was pretty much removed it was into the blast cabinet for final clean up and to kind of put a profile on it to give the etching primer a little something to stick to. Wiped it down with acetone, hung it and spray time.

Here's a few of the fender

And one for CB

HA! I was doing 2 of them last night that I got during the week... one is near perfect, the other one has 2 dents in it that I can't quite figure out how they did it.
They are low on the side and bump outwards.
More than likely the front hub let go and caused it, but it would have had to let go in a very strange way.

Looking good!

cb

 

[mhinchliffe]

CB
You're right, the ones center insert is just a tad off. I'm thinking that it was replaced. Now for that cleaning secret formula?....
I'd love to find a set of Laredo seats. I'm going to ask Jim!

 

[certifiablejeep]

There really isn't any secret to it... just a lot of scrubbing and cleaning and repeating.
They some armor all to soak in and then wipe off and do it again.

I use greased lighting, orange cleaner, windex... anything I have depending on how bad the dirt is.
Plastic scrub brush with gentle pressure.

Just repeating over and over.
I know I have mentioned it in other threads, no big secret, just patience and stick-to-it-ness

cb

 

[gr8dain]

CB
You're right, the ones center insert is just a tad off. I'm thinking that it was replaced. Now for that cleaning secret formula?....
I'd love to find a set of Laredo seats. I'm going to ask Jim!

I have been eye-balling a set of Laredo seats that Jim has above his cabinets. Every time I visit I want to take them home. No dice. Maybe you can pry them out of his hands.

 

[BRKLYNZ28]

I got dibs on jims seats . Im going to fight you all off with a stick lol[emoji12]

Sent from my SM-N910P

 

[mhinchliffe]

You're not getting Jims seats. I'll arm wrestle you for them! Been getting a few things done here on the D300 case. Think I've got it sorted out, just waiting on the shift fork bushings from 4WD. Way too commercial an operation for me, think I'll just stick to my local mom and pop NAPA. Nothing remarkable about the case other than it's utterly simplistic in its design and function, nice.

Then at the end of last week I went after my tub. My guy has had several life events and changes over the corse of the last several months and I think he's spending his free time where he needs to so I'm taking over the tub rehab.

In the trailer as I brought it home to the shop.

Some goodies in it.

More....

 

[mhinchliffe]

So here it is in the shop ready to be braced for welding on the flipper

You can tell it's been sitting out by the rust.

A few nice little silver worms

Bracing,

Bracing,

And more bracing......

Then I tied everything together in an "X" with 1/2" rebar

Here's another wide shot of the tie in

This really made it stout. I proved this to myself by lifting up on a corner and proved that there was no twisting. Many thanks to CB and his thread for all of the bracing advice!

 

[mhinchliffe]

Then I started peeling back the onion!

Have a little rot

I like using the 6" dis X 0.045" thick cut off wheels to cut this stuff out. I'll be using the Miller plasma soon enough.

Looking for those dreaded spot welds

More cutting

Finally got the bad boys off

What new corners will look like

Then me and my little helper went out after dinner and made the panels for the rear body mount captured nut enclosures with the shear and brake

And in place

More to come. All told I've got 4 hours in bracing the tub, setting it on the stands and removing the tub corners.
I keep thing of Neil Young, Rust Never Sleeps[emoji33]

 

[gr8dain]

Wow. A lot done in such a short time. Well done!!!

 

[mhinchliffe]

Just a quick update. Got to work on the drivers floor pan and was even able to finally install the rear drive shaft. Front u joints in tomorrow.

More to come.

 

[mhinchliffe]

I got a few hours in after lunch today and boy did things come together!
I got all but the front of the drivers floor welded in, the 1/2" lip to attach the rockers to the rear floor replaced and a small patch under the drivers rear roll bar mount. See for yourselves. What Certifiable has been doing is a lot of work, I feel ya brother. Welding 18ga is no where as easy as 1/4" plate and thicker. It takes a bit of finesse and no gap whatsoever.

Many many tacks

Ground down

Overall

Trans tunnel

Roll bar mount

Needing some flapper wheel love

Rocker lip

Another

I'm using a MillerMatic 252 with 0.035" wire, shield pro 101 gas, 16.3 volts and 182fpm wire speed

 

[certifiablejeep]

I got a few hours in after lunch today and boy did things come together!
I got all but the front of the drivers floor welded in, the 1/2" lip to attach the rockers to the rear floor replaced and a small patch under the drivers rear roll bar mount. See for yourselves. What Certifiable has been doing is a lot of work, I feel ya brother. Welding 18ga is no where as easy as 1/4" plate and thicker. It takes a bit of finesse and no gap whatsoever.

Many many tacks

Ground down

Overall

Trans tunnel

Roll bar mount

Needing some flapper wheel love

Rocker lip

Another

I'm using a MillerMatic 252 with 0.035" wire, shield pro 101 gas, 16.3 volts and 182fpm wire speed

Looking good bro keep it up

cb
Sent from the garage

 

[mhinchliffe]

Ok. I finished the floor pan on the drivers side without incident. Next off is the passenger side. The rocker panel is done as well. I boxed in the left rear body mount and touched up for the installation of the rear corner. I'm thinking I'm going to do both of these at the same time so that I can put it on horses and off the flipper so as to insure it all lines up. While I was at it I sheared and broke material to do the "jsherb" door reinforcement. Hope to have that done and the door window frames repaired. It's funny how the flange tool makes just the right profile to match the door. My thinking is that the engineers at AMC liked even numbers and standard sizes because it's just easier. I'm really liking doing the panel repair, now the bodywork I don't have the patience for. Have a look at what's been done lately.


Left rear corner

Left rear quarter panel flange

Left rear body mount

A series of shots of the door reinforcement angles

Here's he door frame piece I made

And I had to weld nuts on the Torx bolts on the door hinges to remove them. What a pain in the azzzzzz

 

[firefighter736]

After seeing pictures like that I thank the stars that I didn't have any problem with stuck bolts (except for the body mounts but they were so rusted they just easily burnt out).

Keep it up!

 

[mhinchliffe]

OK guys, I was able to get a little more time in on the Jeep recently, get the boat in the water and celebrate the 4th of July. On the passenger side I didn't have to take it all the way apart meaning the toe board support didn't have to be removed, just worked around. All in all I was really pleased with the way the pans fit and eventually finished out. I'm pretty sure the were supplied by Key Parts, but it's been so long ago I can't remember. I wouldn't want to attempt this without having the body off the frame and on a rotisserie. Here's the initial fitment on the right side.

Here it is tacked in with the Harbor Freight panel welding alignment clamps. Can't say how well these things worked!

Then it's off to stacking the tacks

After that it was time to grind things flush/flat

And another

The lip that turns down from the floor pan was corroded and damaged so just like the left side I fab'd a repair strip welded it in and ground it smooth.

Here's a few of the attachment to the bottom and how the welds finished out on the underside