85 buildup

[jeepin6824]

Ive got a lot done already but here is what Ive started with

Its an 85 Scrambler that I bought for my father in law. He has alway wanted a scrambler and we went through one already. Finally got a good one in this getup I bought.

specs

85 scrambler with the stock 258 mated a np 435 to a dana 300 t case and swapped in dana 44's with arb air lockers and 4.88 gears. My intention is to do a quick frame off clean up and fix any rust as I want this thing to last for a long time. Someday it will be mine so I want my kids to reap the benefits of a classic scrambler with close to show quality paint but still a cheap enough build to not break the bank.

I have a 87 chevy 305 that I am mildly building to help push the 37" Goodyear wranglers around. The guy that sold it to me had like 2 miles on the tires and axles.

Here are some pics, I will probably post up in 2 or 3 posts as I have a lot of pics and work already accomplished in the last 2 months.

305 out of the red parts rig

Tear down

 

[jeepin6824]

Rear dana 44 with disk brakes and arb.

Ford nv435 1 ton tranny with granny low gear some serious beef.

And of course the dana 300 on the back, not a bad setup if we put 4-1 in the dana 300 someday.

 

[jeepin6824]

Here we go with the engine tear down, Its at the machine shop getting freeze plugs, heads worked, bored .30 over and rods machined. Not going full rotating balance so its not going to be a race horse but it will have a little warmer cam and heads after they put a smaller intake valve for torque. I figure about 260 horses and close to 300 ft/lbs of torque with over 200 of that from 1500 rpms.
Flat top pistons also, probably close to 10:1 compression after machining the heads. And for fun some timing gears cause I like the sound of the timing gears at 4000 rpms. That and tranny and t case gear reduction whine should make this thing sing like crazy. Cant wait to drive it.

Little wear on the mains

Heres a better one of the main bearings, must have got some dirt

 

[jeepin6824]

So while the engine is at the machine shop I turned my attention to the frame and body. Got the frame cleaned up(pain in the arse) and painted with some por 15 for now. Might go over it with some better uv protectant paint. And started rust repair on the body, lot bigger job then I hoped for.

Before

After

 

[jeepin6824]

Then the body, started by pulling dash and cleaning up all the unecessary wires and stupid cow seats that had nothing more than leaves covered in duct tape for padding.

And started assesing the rust

Behind these was a whole can of worms, still fixable but a little hole turned into a big hole as soon as the welder tip touched the metal

 

[jeepin6824]

And the typical seem rust

The bed

The worst was the doors, they where yanked and broken and someone did a crappy job of trying at least they tried but that doesnt make my job any easier

Thats as far as Ive gotten, got my sisters wedding to go to then I sign on my new house as soon as I get back so for now it sits for a couple of weeks then I will hit it hard again. Trying to get it ready by the end of June, hopefully.

 

[Polarfire]

Nice work so far! At least you have a soild frame and good running gear to start with!

 

[bigwalton]

Wow, when did you start in on this?? End of June? If I had one in that condition the only way it would be done by end of June is if it was next June, or a couple more Junes Great work!

What are the things bolted on top of the front corners of the frame? Tow hooks of some kind??

Any chance you want to run 35s on this thing? I have the same wheel/lugnut/tire combo in 35" and looking to move to 37s

 

[Randyzzz]

Great progress!

 

[7jeeps7kings]

I didn't know jeep made a "PARKING OPERATIONS" package.LOL(look at the hood)hehe.
Nice progress.

7jeeps7kings

 

[jeepin6824]

Wow, when did you start in on this?? End of June? If I had one in that condition the only way it would be done by end of June is if it was next June, or a couple more Junes Great work!

What are the things bolted on top of the front corners of the frame? Tow hooks of some kind??

Any chance you want to run 35s on this thing? I have the same wheel/lugnut/tire combo in 35" and looking to move to 37s

I bought it late march, I know I work fast, I have a very short attention span so I have to work hard and most of my projects only last for 3 or 4 months so I dont loose interest. My dads yj was a dana 44 swap, high steer, air locker, dual transfercase, custom exhaust, spring over on 37's took me about a month. When Im on it Im really on it. Yes they are tow hooks, kind of cheesy but it wont get wheeled to hard so they should be adequate.

I really like these 37's and I got a set of 33's for rollers for when my father in law wants to drive the street, so pretty happy with the setup I got.

Just got a call from the machine shop they got the engine all bored and rods machined and heads worked so I will probably get back to it first thing next week when I get back from my sisters wedding in cali.

 

[jeepin6824]

I didn't know jeep made a "PARKING OPERATIONS" package.LOL(look at the hood)hehe.
Nice progress.

7jeeps7kings

Yah I thought that was kind of cool, must have been a ranger rig or something used for maintenance. I though about painting it back on but its not really mine to do what I want, yet.

 

[jeepin6824]

On to the next phase. I spared you the bore of patching the panels and doing body work since it really doesnt change much.

Started by tuning my paint skills on the hard top, rocker panels and vent.

That was done last night. I came into the shop on a mission to get the rest of it painted minus doors, but I dont think Im going to make it. Here is the hood and front clip that I did get painted.

I also got the motor painted with the color yellow that will be the accents on the body for the jeep emblems, which is where the problems started, here are pictures of the motor then I will explain.

 

[jeepin6824]

So there is where I am at, the problem started though last night, I used the primer gun to spray the hard top and other stuff. It worked fine but I found out I was using the wrong gun and started using the paint gun this morning. The first thing I was going to paint was the jeep emblems yellow then back mask it and paint white over it. As soon as I started spraying the yellow something wasnt right. somehow some oil got into the tip and made quite a mess on my super clean prepped body. Ever since about noon when I sprayed it I have been fighting that oil. The old paint yould not come off. After cleaning it up really good I sprayed some primer and it just seperated and turned soft. I dont know why it wont clean off but its starting to get bad. So here is what the body still looks like.

I might just need to take a break and let it set for a couple of hours then try and clean it up again and start over.

 

[bobbysjeep]

Are the seat covers for sale?

 

[jeepin6824]

100 bucks a piece.

By the way its an 83 scrambler, I dont know where I got 85

I figured out that I was just rushing it, I should have just sat down and waited for everything to dry. After I let it all settle, the primer cured and sanded out nicely, they yellow went on smooth and now it sits overnight so I can mask it tomorrow and spray the rest. Almost ready to put the dang thing together.

 

[jeepin6824]

Well got the motor put together last night, here are pictures of everything except all the pistons installed, it was late and I was done. Ill take some more later before I install the heads.

Before the goodies got put in

The goodies

The cam installed. This is supposed to be a torquer cam you can deffinetely tell by the rise of the lobes. Should still idle pretty good though since its not a very long duration.

The crank installed

I got everything else internal done last night but like I said I was tired. I should be able to get the heads, timing gears, oil pan and intake on tonight. Then all I have to do is figure out how the np435 in going to mate up to it and I should set right into the frame rails.

 

[jeepin6824]

I got the engine all together and worked on painting it last night. The scheme is going to be canary yellow and white valve covers to match the body. Then the entire engine bay will be painted black to set off the engine. Here is the engine and the first look at the Jeep insignia on the side also accented in yellow.

I feathered the rear in a little bit as you can see the yellow water underneath and it really turns out pretty clean after some time, the sides arent cleaned up yet as you can probably tell. Its looking clean for just a simple 120 dollar paint job.

 

[jeepin6824]

Alright on to stage 2,386

Got the engine done and installed, it looks cool, I may talk my father in law into sticking some chrome valve covers on it eventually.

So I dont like to tell stories I would rather let the pictures do the talking, so here you go.

Getting a bath

We have ignition

This is one heavy setup to be moving around by myself

 

[jeepin6824]

Painted and ready to install, just need a clutch

And **** I forgot a fatal piece good thing I cleaned up before I started installing the engine, this is the drive for the oil pump, it goes in between the distributor and oil pump. I installed the pump first thinking I could drop it down through the top but no go and I forgot it after I installed the distributor, so off came to pan and the oil pump to get installed.

That was close

Got the engine set in there for now

Since this is a chevy bellhousing and Ford transmission I had to drill 2 new holes to mount the bell housing, the upper holes just had to be oblonged to fit the bellhousing but lowers had to be drilled and tapped.

Put on the shocks just for grins to see how it looked