FlagJeep Build - A Rookie Build

[FlagJeep]

I am almost 100 posts in on this forum now, and this forum has been a tremendous resource for me. When I started into this project, I had in my past managed to successfully change an alternator once. Other than that, oil changes were the extent of my auto expertise. Additionally, I had no real understanding of the terminology around autos or generally how things worked to any real extent.

That being said, after talking with my wife and living in the middle of a national forest. we discussed buying a new Jeep, or potentially buying an old one and rebuilding it so that I would actually understand how it works, with a benefit there being that if we are out in the middle of nowhere, and something happens to the Jeep, perhaps I can fix it to an extent of getting back to civilization with minimal stress on the family.

We had a friend in town with a Scrambler with two benches in the back of it. This sounded like a model we were interested in, so that we could bring the kids out with us on some adventures. Additionally, two guys I work with have Scramblers, so I figured I could look at those Jeeps whenever I got stuck on something so I could have two models to work from. One of those is completely stock, the other is modified with a lift and an AMC V8.

So, while driving across the country on a family trip back from Indiana, my wife found a Scrambler on Craiglist in Scottsdale for $2500, and seeing the prices on some of the other ones, we decided to give it a go and talked the guy into holding it for us, and eventually he even delivered it up to Flagstaff, 120+ miles away, free.

2 1/2 years later, the Scrambler looks a lot different now, but in digging up the old pictures I found some from the day it was delivered. Little did I know of how much work this thing was going to soak from me.

 

[FlagJeep]

And it started

I have a vision in mind, something close in appearance to my friend's Scrambler that could seat six (if they have short legs).

Again, I had no real experience at what I was trying to do, so at this point I started reading, a lot from this forum and from any online resource I could find. I looked over other Scramblers closely, and jumped in. One side goal was to build a garage full of tools. I bought them as I needed them, and I generally had to have a problem before I felt like I needed them.

Anyhow, I started tearing down the Jeep with what few tools I had. One major obstacle was rust. Rusted bolts did not let loose. Rusted bolts with Torx heads were impossible to remove with the Lisle and Harbor Freight bits I had. Much later I stepped up to Snap-On Torx bits, the difference is tremendous. Most of those early bolts that stripped out the head got torched, impact wrench treatment and then cut off if accessible or drilled out if that failed.

There was a pretty good wrinkle in the sheet metal behind the driver door.

 

[mssldn]

I thought one of the joys of living in AZ was no rust.

My first Jeep I had no idea what I was doing or what I was getting into. My advice to anyone starting a rebuild would be to know when to put the wrench down. What I mean is that working without a deadline is key. It stays enjoyable that way. I have bought several abandoned projects and the main reason people give for selling is they lost interest. Remember, they come apart a lot quicker/easier than they go back together.

Also having Jeep friends nearby WITH tools is a huge bonus.

 

[FlagJeep]

I thought one of the joys of living in AZ was no rust.

My first Jeep I had no idea what I was doing or what I was getting into. My advice to anyone starting a rebuild would be to know when to put the wrench down. What I mean is that working without a deadline is key. It stays enjoyable that way. I have bought several abandoned projects and the main reason people give for selling is they lost interest. Remember, they come apart a lot quicker/easier than they go back together.

Also having Jeep friends nearby WITH tools is a huge bonus.

When I opened up the console the registration papers were from Ohio. Lots of Ohio salt rust.

I also started working with an ASAP timeline, which made the first year and a half miserable. At this point, I would like to get the engine running before my boy is born at the end of next month. If I could pull that off I will be happy.

I think the whole time I have been looking to make it my daily driver which has driven my pace at a speed faster than comfortable. If I already had one, I think I could definitely work without a timeline, if the household was okay with a garage full of jeep parts at that point.

 

[walkerhoundvm]

Congrats on the newborn on the way, and can't wait to see more of what's gone on over the past year.5!

 

[FlagJeep]

Congrats on the newborn on the way, and can't wait to see more of what's gone on over the past year.5!

Thanks. Consolidating and resizing pics from the 50 different places I have saved them. Will try to keep this thread rolling with some more pics

 

[FlagJeep]

As I mentioned before, heat and PB blaster were used many times over, but they were not all that successful given the worthless torx bits I started with.

I have been surprised at how much my daughters have enjoyed the overall project. They are not really big enough to contribute, but they have spent a lot of time with me out in the garage. They especially like trips to the parts store or going out to buy bolts.

This instance I remember her saying "This is really hard work"

I knew long term I wanted a full length hardtop for the winters. We average over 90 inches of snow per winter here and this is to be a 4 season vehicle. My father in law ended up making a trip north and picked up this hard top from Bugman.

I also found a custom scrambler roll cage on craigslist. It had been cut into two pieces, so it needed welded back together. Also, it managed to be about 3/4" too tall for the roll cage, so it had to be shortened. Other than that, it works pretty nicely. The dome light and sun roof handle on the hard top even manage to line up exactly with the gap in between the two middle bars.

The half hard top I had was not really going to be compatible with the new roll cage so I listed it on craigslist. Some guy in Florida really wanted it, and I found on the forum here that Greyhound would ship them, and since the bus station was only about a mile and a half from my house it worked out well. Really slow shipping for like $80 if I remember correctly, a ride across America in the bottom of some buses.

 

[FlagJeep]

Pulling the engine, frame issues

First time I have ever pulled an engine. At the time we pulled it, I fully intended on re-using it. As scope creep would have it, the nice compression numbers I got when I ran the engine after purchase somehow did not indicate to me that the cylinders had significant wear. The engine had a lot of gunk in it, so I ended up taking it apart, had it solvent cleaned and then the machine shop showed me the significant wear in the cylinders. At a price of $800 additional, the cylinders could be bored and pistons replaced. As it would have it I instead bought a 5.3L Vortec from a crashed vehicle with most of the accessories attached for that.

But the picture shows some enjoyment in getting that engine out. Friends and neighbors were recruited to make sure it didn't somehow damage something on the way out or end up on the floor.

After getting the engine out and the body off the frame, some major rust issues on the frame had to be addressed. I wish I knew how to weld when I started this project. I did not want to learn on the project, figuring I would always have to look at my crappy beginner welds.

Once that was fixed up, took the frame down to the valley and got it sandblasted and I painted the frame with POR-15. In hindsight, I would have been better off to just have powder coated it from a chemical exposure, time and external appearance standpoint (that stuff does not come off your skin, even your face).

Painting the frame in Phoenix in January was not the worst thing in the world, sun, warm temps. So this was the progress as of Jan-2011. The first 15 months went pretty slow, do to my lack of skills and the demotivation of taking a vehicle apart. Every bit of progress up to this point had actually made the project look worse. Now with the start of the build, that would change a bit.

 

[FlagJeep]

Trans

So I knew the T-176 that was in the Scrambler was not in good shape. I had at first thought rebuild, and actually ended up getting it rebuilt (and then sold it). While it was in the shop getting rebuilt I started looking at 5-speed options.

I found one craigslist listing for $1600 for a NV4500. I noticed it didn't sell, so I emailed the guy after the listing expired to see if it was still there. It was, and we eventually agreed on a price of $800 for the transmission, advanced adapter kit to a Dana 20 transfer case, including the transfer case, drive shafts from a CJ7 or CJ5 with CV joints, and a new in box clutch set from auto zone. I thought it was a pretty good deal. As the guy negotiated on price with me, he mentioned he needed the money to get his wife back from China. I thought, well if I can help him out great. When I asked if she was stuck there after doing missionary work or what had happened, he mentioned he met her online, took one trip over, met her in person and married her. He seemed pretty smitten, I thought it was an interesting experience, we loaded up the goods and I took off, paying part of what it costs to import a wife to the United States.

As it turned out, I think when he bought the setup someone had not been overly truthful with him (I am convinced the guy was as honest as they come), and the NV4500 needed rebuilt, with a bud light box being used as a gasket on the side access.

Getting two transmissions rebuilt did get me to know the guy at the transmission shop pretty well though, especially with the adapter kits to marry the transmission to the transfer case and the new input shaft needed for the rebuild/and to connect to the Vortec engine.

I think that was definitely the most interesting story I have on the acquiring/selling parts side of things.

This project has allowed me to get pretty familiar with craigslist/ebay and online parts sources (Tellico 4x4, Quadratec, etc...)

 

[FlagJeep]

Body work and Paint

My brother-in-law had previously restored a 57 Chevy. Throughout the project, I have bounced many ideas off of him, and when it came to painting the Scrambler he played a big role. Living in Tucson, doing the body work and paint down there meant that my family and I would be making a lot of trips down from Flagstaff. Fortunately, the kids love hanging out and I drive well even when pretty tired on a Sunday night.

The body work was farmed out to a low cost provider on the south side of Tucson. For the price of the body work compared to its original shape, it worked out okay.

After a lot more body work and paint prep, the long road of getting the thing painted was traveled. First, I coated the bottom of the body with POR-15.

Soon after, my brother-in-law helped me get a coating of spray in bedliner on the bottom of the body.

The toughest part of the body was the paint. Oxford white with many layers of clear coat.

I was pretty glad the day this was done.

 

[FlagJeep]

Rear Axle and Rolling Chassis

I figured that doing this much work, I should not put the thing back together with the stock two piece axle. After some research, it looked like there were some options. Single piece axles are popular, but I am thinking that we could flat tow this Scrambler to Colorado for family vacations so the kids can watch the DVD player on the way and we can have two vehicles when we get there (and mine can be on a trail).

This lead me to the Warn Full Float conversion kit. It took a bunch of work to get this pieced together, and I still have most of the parts to a 86 Dana 44 kit as leftovers, but it came together nicely. The trials and tribulations of putting the warn kit are in a bunch of postings on the forum from me, but this is the result.

In looking at lift kits, the Rubicon Express 4.5" kit seemed pretty comprehensive and seemed to get pretty good reviews, so I went with that.

The rolling chassis was loaded on a trailer, taken down to tucson and the painted body was attached and pulled back up to Flagstaff. On the way up I met up in Phoenix with mysunnshine from this forum and bought the 20 gallon fuel tank he was parting ways with.

 

[FlagJeep]

Engine trans transfer case

So the engine I ended up with was from a 2004 GMC Sierra 1500. The 5.3L Vortec is fuel injected and a significant power upgrade. The NV4500 should be able to handle the power. An advanced adapters kit connecting to the dana 300 tcase should make my driveshafts or differentials the weak link in the drivetrain.

The next day I was happy that I did not have the project complete and sitting in the driveway. It was quite a hailstorm for 6am.

 

[FlagJeep]

Body and Engine

Now it is starting to look like it is coming together. It was a good feeling to get to this point.

 

[FlagJeep]

Tcase Linkage

So with this many adapter kits and changes from stock, I knew something had to not match up.

In this case it was the Tcase linkage. The stock setup no longer cleared the dome.

Overall, the transmission and tcase fit like a glove, just needed to fix the tcase linkage.

The mod seems like it will work out nicely. We will see once the vehicle is driveable.

 

[FlagJeep]

Rocker guards, Tire Size and Anniversary Present

Added on the Poison Spyder Rocker Guards, looks nice in my opinion.

Tried on a 35" tire on a 16" rim. Not sure what size I should go with for tire or rim. Any ideas?

On the occasion of my 10th wedding anniversary, my wife was very nice to me.

 

[craveman85]

sweet buildup so far. im doing my first rebuild also and learning a lot along the way. ive done some other auto work before like swapping gears in a rear end and changing cylinder heads and other little things like that. hopefully mine will turn out somewhat as nice as yours looks. even though im doing a very limited rebuild to get it back on the road soon and will be collecting stuff for a full frame off resto in the future.

 

[Bad Karma]

Awesome build! I'm collecting parts to do the exact same drive train swap...

 

[FlagJeep]

Awesome build! I'm collecting parts to do the exact same drive train swap...

Thanks!

Let me know if you have any questions on adapter kits I used or anything. I think this drivetrain helped keep advanced adapters in business.
Headers, engine mounts, clutch set (LS engines have a .400 greater crank recess than regular SBC), Bellhousing, Adapter between trans and transfer case. I think that was it?

 

[FlagJeep]

Paint

Painting was a big learning experience. That is a lot of work.

The body alone was a lot of work. The piece parts seem like a lot more work. As of today, everything but the top of the hood has the painting finished.

Since the painting was all done down in Tucson, transporting the parts back to Flagstaff with no impact of the paint was interesting. Fortunately it was warm enough at low elevations to have the window cracked to minimize the paint fumes.

I am installing an A/C system from Nostalgic Air Parts (www.jeepair.com). Once I get the condenser mounted, the grille is ready to be mounted.

I talked to NAP and after a few questions from me they agreed I no longer need the heater duct/heater core/squirrel cage setup. I will be blanking off the hole in the firewall for the blower and probably will use the extra space under the dash for the PCM for my engine. This will be a big part of the project over the next few weeks, so we will see how that works out. I think with one mounting plate for the vent on the passenger side I should be okay.

 

[FlagJeep]

Headers

The stock exhaust manifold that came with the engine was not going to work with the engine mounts that I bought from Advance Adapters. So I went with the headers they sell also, and then got them ceramic powder coated in a chrome like finish.

Unfortunately, somehow, the header on the driver side touches the engine mount, both purchased from advance adapters. I notched a groove in the engine mount (not my preference, but couldn't figure out another solution I liked more).

The engine is starting to take shape. It was a take out from a crashed pickup, so the harmonic dampener, power steering pump, power steering pulley and tensioner pulley had to be replaced due to collateral damage.

Just recently got the sway bar powder coated and the sway bar disconnects from the lift kit installed, as shown sort of in the pic above.

The vehicle is starting to look like a scrambler.

Especially after getting the emblem on the side (did this last week).