1984 SL Restoration

[spankrjs]

Not a real update, still waiting on the missing steering column part to show up.

As a rule of thumb, if I need a "special tool" more then once, I will usually buy it.

This one only cost $9.00, pivot pin removal tool. I would be half way to $9 if I just replaced my stripped out/bent machine screws:



Just hope I do not have to use it anytime soon!!!!!!

 

[Hoover]

Yep, that monkey is a freak, I think he is LSU alumni or something

Well, at least you're keeping with good company.

 

[spankrjs]

The missing steering column part showed up before the weekend:



The bottom edge with the notches rests inside the inner bearing race, the lock plate spring sits on top of it, thus keeping pressure on the upper steering column bearing:



It slides down the shaft, sits like so:





Balance of the steering column parts, in order:



Missing part goes on, then the big spring:



I temporarily installed the steering shaft, to connect the "straight ahead wheels" to the straight ahead column position:



Note the gap in the splines:



The lock plate spline gap has to line up with the steering shaft spline gap:



If using an OEM wheel, this will dictate the wheel position, because the horn contact button only goes through the lock plate slot like so:

 

[spankrjs]

So, the wheel sits like this with the wheels straight ahead. This can be corrected via an alignment/adjustment to drag link:



Using the lock plate tool to compress the spring/lock plate:



Push the plate down far enough to put the circle clip in its slot:



Lock plate installed/secured with clip:



When the column is "unlocked", this little pin, 11 o'clock, is what is retracted back, does not engage into any of the slots in the lock plate:



When the column is "locked", this little pin is what "locks" it. It slides through one of the slots in the lock plate. This is why you have to turn the wheel side to side a little bit sometimes to get the wheel to lock: the pin has to line up/go through one of the slots:



Plastic dust cover installed:



From the FSM, balance of the "Sport/Laredo" steering wheel parts, "Base" model is simpler:



Steering wheel "skirt" slid on:



Slide the wheel on, it will only go on one way due to the horn contactor sticking out, slide the skirt to the wheel, install three screws:

 

[spankrjs]

The "slots" in the skirt have to align with the "spokes" on the wheel:




These part go together like so:



Screw it to the wheel, install/tighten the big nut that holds the steering wheel in place:



Slap on the horn button, FIN:

 

[spankrjs]

Do a happy dance, then realize you forgot to install the ignition switch!!!!!!!!!

No big deal. Loosen the 4 column to fire wall bolts, drop this part out:



Column will drop down, you can access the ignition switch remote rod:



That "peg" iw what the key moves when you turn the key, it slides inside the ignition switch.

Ignition switch with its two tiny screws:



It bolts to the column like so, bottom end on the upper part of column:



To make it easy on yourself, place the key in the "Run" position, slide the ignition switch to the third click from the bottom:



Ease the peg in the hole, it will all line up, screw it down:



I see something else I forgot to do above the column, more on this in a bit:



Plug up the wire harness to the switch, it will only go one way. Hook up the turn signal connector wire plug all the way, NOT like my picture LOL:



I had to look at my Green Scrambler for this next bit, pretty sure the column has never been pulled out.

When you go to tighten the column down, at firewall and the upper bracket, it should go like so.

Upper end, bolts all the way this way in the slot:



At the bottom, the little nub on the column sleeve should be like so in the firewall bracket:



I left the intermediate shaft loose, for now:

 

[spankrjs]

The lower joint on the steering shaft needs to be rebuilt, so I will be pulling the entire intermediate shaft off some time in the future:



You will also note the split lower radiator hose connector in the picture above.


So, I thought I was finished with the steering column, Well, sort of.

I forgot to plug the wire harness to the brake light switch, which sits directly above the column.

So, lowered the column, again, pulled ignition switch off, again, pulled turn signal switch harness wire connector off, again, to get to the damn brake light switch.

With the column lowered and the other parts out of the way, still a bitch to get to:


Plugged in. The other hole in the bracket/unused harness plug is for factory cruise control:



What makes this even more awesome" I plugged the switch in, put the column back in place, then realized i did not adjust the switch. SO, took it all back apart, again, to adjust switch.



Now, finally done with the steering column, I hope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Parts Monkey Approved:

 

[spankrjs]

Moving on from the steering column.

I picked up the missing tach/clock harness, and the under dash courtesy light harness from Tommy:



Clock harness is good to go, plug and play:





Courtesy light harness leaves something to be desired:







Probably not a good way to tap into a constant Hot, or ground?

At least the harness was not damaged:



Some shrink wrap/tape, good as new:



Finally ready to install:

 

[spankrjs]

Back of the clock:



Light bulb on harness plugs into the big hole, "L" shaped plug slides on to the two spade terminals on the back of the clock.



The other end of the harness plugs into the fuse panel like so:



The power wire from the tach has a geen end, it plugs into the green plug on the tach/clock harness. So, clock and tach should be good to go.


A few left over wires by the head light switch:



1) Fog Light Plug
2) Two ground wires with loops that need to be screwed to dash
3) Courtesy light power plug
4) Courtesy light ground plug that comes off the headlight switch
5) Yellow wire, cut end, not needed, 4 cylinder tach wire
5) Orange wire, cut end, should have a dash light plug on the end, not needed

Let's take care of the courtesy lights.

From chassis, orange is power, constant hot. The black is from the headlight switch, ground:



From courtesy light harness, blue is ground, brown is power:



Plug them together, done.

Cigarette wiring is a mess, kind of dangerous:



Butt connector, some tape, done deal:

 

[spankrjs]

So, the only under dash wiring left to fix, pretty easy:



These two ground straps slide over one of the speedometer attaching lugs, from the factory.


Just need a blower motor switch, from JeepAddict, to plug this in:



And two more grounds, over by the parking brake/speaker:



From the factory, the clock harness ground and the chassis ground screwed/bolted to the bottom of the dash.

So, happy to say, just about finished with all the under dash wiring.


Under hood, well............................................................

 

[spankrjs]

I installed both doors, and all their guts/weather stripping this past weekend, will update later with pictures.

That's it for now

 

[Jeep Addict]

So glad that Jeep monkey is there pointing you in the right direction

 

[spankrjs]

I installed/adjusted the driver side door.

I put thick cardboard down on the sill, no perimeter seal on the door, to get it adjusted to the body:



Door hung and adjusted:



Another nice surprise. But, amazingly, my extractor set has worked flawlessly on this project:



Trying to get all the junk in the bed installed inside the dors to clear out the bed:



New hardware to replace rusty/lost original stuff:



I removed the door latch/lock opening stuff to make it easier to install weather stripping:






Installed and trimmed this piece of weather stripping first:



Installed the vent window inside the door:



Then installed/trimmed this piece of weather stripping next:

 

[spankrjs]

You should leave the last bit of the upper weather stripping loose, hanging down, to ease installing/removing the vent windows:



Trimmed and ready to install:



I wet the glass down, installed it in the rear channel first:



Carefully aligned the glass with the vent window, slid the vent window down the glass, raised the glass to make sure everything was good to go:



Then pulled it all apart because I forgot to install the window regulator first. You might be able to install it after the glass/vent window is in place, I could not, so pulled everything back out to install regulator.


Put it back together, installed these two pieces of weather stripping:



NOTE - if you are installing the door applique stickers that wrap up the door, install them first BEFORE installing this weather stripping. I am going to eventually install the appliques that do not wrap up/around the edges of the doors.

Installed the lower vent window bolt. I also ended up replacing these two red painted screws, damn OCD:



Lubed up the window channel, screwed it to the glass:



After a few "roll up/downs", the piece of weather stripping in the back of the vent window channel gave up the ghost:



Straightened it up the best I could, but I will have to replace it:



NOTE - when I installed this piece of weather stripping in the driver side door vent window channel, I glued it in place with some 3M weather strip glue to keep it in place. This will prevent this from happening.

NOTE - I installed all Crown weather stripping, because that is what was in the Jeep. You can purchase all this weather stripping from Summit, a different manufacturer, better quality.

 

[spankrjs]

Installed all new screws, need to get the door strap footmans loops from Tommy:




Bolted the door latch/lock mechanism into place in the door shell:



Two of these rods go to the plastic interior door handle. I found it easier to remove the rods from the door latch mechanism, install them in the back of the plastic latch, then fish the assembly through the plastic latch hole in the door shell, back to the latch mechanism:



The rods use little metal clips to keep them in place, they are easy to unclip:



Need new interior door handles, these are cracked:



Still functional, for now:





Installed and working:



Missing this piece from the passenger side door, JeepAddict's painter still has it:



Installed the inner door panel chrome strip, and installed all the loose screws, for safe keeping:



And repeated all of the above for the driver side door.

I did NOT install the exterior door handles/locks, because I need to install the door appliques first. It will be a PIA with the two pieces of horizontal weather stripping in place, but should be doable. Once I obtain the appliques from JeepAddict, and paint the new/thin door handle metal trim rings, I will revisit this.

For now, done with doors.

 

[spankrjs]

So, after all this, bed is mostly empty:



I need to do a few more mundane chores, then I will move on to mechanical stuff, which will be much funner!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My "chore" list, not all of it bad:

1) paint the aluminum rear bumper end caps (easy)
2) sand/prep/paint the aluminum rocker trim (medium)
3) sand/prep/paint the driver side seat bracket (PIA)
4) clean/polish/install the front grill chrome overlay (medium)

That should get most of the remaining junk off the floor!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After I assembled the doors, I loosened all the windshield frame hold down stuff, used a ratchet strap to pull it back into position/compress the windshield frame gasket:



Parts Monkey approved, that's it for now!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Jeep Addict]

What a joke that monkey is. Always fun for everyone to laugh at. Today’s was the best

 

[spankrjs]

Got some painting work completed before all the rain/tropical storm stuff arrives.

Prepped the driver seat frame for primer/paint:



Using the Harbor Freight trailer as a paint booth, works well to block the wind:



Forgot to take finished pictures, but it came out really well.

Using the following rattle cans:



Rusty metal primer, then several coats of VHT on the seat frame.

For the aluminum bumper end caps, coat of self etching primer, then then the trunk paint, then VHT.

For the aluminum rocker trim, coat of self etching primer then VHT.


I had to get some supplies to help make painting easier:





Some lumber, some all-thread, and some all-thread couplers.

Made the long sticks and all thread into short sticks:



Painting jigs for end caps:



Using the Harbor Freight car garage as a paint booth, some trash cans/bumper mounted hitch rack as a paint stand:



Positioned the rack like so, to allow easy coverage of all sides of the end caps at once:



Coat of self etching primer on the bare aluminum:

 

[spankrjs]

I used this trunk paint. It is kind of greenish, so a top coat of black was necessary:



I used the trunk paint to obtain a very light "textured finish" to the end caps, to better match the OEM plastic. The trick with this, I sprayed a very light coat from probably 20-24 inches away, just enough to put a very light texture coat on. So, even if the trunk paint would have been black, it would still require a top coat to cover the greenish primer coat. Full coverage with the trunk paint would make a very textured/rough surface.

Came out pretty good:



After several coats of VHT black, the finished product:



Rocker trim masked up/studded up, ready for paint:



In the above picture, you can still see the remnants of the original black finish. I assume some type of anodized coating? I masked the back channel, where the attaching lugs go, to prevent it from getting gummed up with paint primer. But, I wanted to paint the top/bottom back side edges so no "bright aluminum" would show. I sanded the rocker trim down with 220 grit, wiped down with acetone.

Ready for primer/paint:



Primed with the self etching primer:



I was concerned that the self etching primer would be "too rough", might require sanding down to obtain a smooth finish. But, hard to tell from the picture below, it laid down nice and smooth:



And after numerous coats of VHT Gloss Black, the finished product, came out pretty good IMO, for a "RedneckRay" paint job:



Almost time to start on mechanical work, The above stuff took two days, lots of prep for a little bit of paint work!!!!!!

That's it for now.

 

[Hoover]

Nice work, Spanks! I've been toying with the idea of painting my rocker moldings as well.