Taking body off of Bessie

[over2land]

Hey, another brief update. Here is 'Bessie' with body off. Tonight I worked on reinforcing the doors to prevent future cracks at the vent window area and took the final bits and pieces off the tub. Hopefully, in the next weekend or two I will rent an industrial sandblaster and bring the bed and other large rust areas to bare metal. Can anyone tell me why the front rollbar mounts in the bed have a drain hole in the center? What I mean is that there is a 4-bolt pattern for the roll bar with a filleted hole in the center of them. It seems to be for drainage but both of mine have bad rust in that area. The rear rollbar mounts do not have these drain holes on mine and do not have the excessive rust. I will have to weld a patch into the rusted areas and I want to know if the drain is really needed or not. Thanks for any insight.

Sincerely,

That sure is a big step... welcome to my world of having more than one huge project going at a time. I don't have anything to say towards the "drain" holes, sorry.

But, while you have the body off, would you mind running a tape measure around and checking some dimensions for me?

https://www.cj-8.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21707

 

[valkster]

Sure thing, Over2land. Just let me know which ones you want.

-Mark

 

[valkster]

Oops, overlooked your link...let me read your other thread again.


Sincerely,

 

[over2land]

Oops, overlooked your link...let me read your other thread again.


Sincerely,

Hopefully I'll get it drawn up and have more questions before you put the body back on Bessie too.

Thanks.

 

[rreed]

Hey would you mind please posting up a few pics of the rear section of the frame/chassis? From about the axle humps back is what I'm trying to reproduce from scratch on mine.

 

[valkster]

Sorry for the delay...the holidays mostly kept me away from Bessie. I will try to post some pics of the rear frame by the end of the weekend. It is outside in the rain at the moment, but I am hoping to roll it in this weekend.

Sincerely,

 

[valkster]

Hello, all, an update. The holidays did not help much with my Jeep restore, but I can't complain. It was nice to have the whole family together. A friend has been helping me out and we got "some" things done in recent weeks. The interior door cracks are fixed and most of the undercoating has been removed from the underbelly of the tub (what a job). The doors have been primed on both sides and the interior surfaces have already been painted. The same goes for the hood, tailgate and front grill. I have cut a fist-sized hole in the driver side of the tub, below the rear of the door jam. What I had thought was rust due to poor paint turned out to be rust from within. The internal cavity (looks like a small glovebox) that was exposed after cutting is a little rusted so I plan to sand blast it clean and seal before welding the patch back in. The windshield frame had three pin holes from rust that have been cleaned and welded shut. I found it odd that I actually had one pin hole in the top of the frame, where the windshield gasket met the frame.
I decided to go with a DIY bedliner kit for my restore...I went with SEM's Pro-Tex tintable kits and I think I got enough to line the bed, the cab and the whole underside. I figure on shooting the bed floor and fenderwells with a thick buildup. The cab, bed walls and remainder of the belly will be a thinner buildup since they see less abuse. I hope the tinting works well and the brand I chose is worth my effort.
We have had a lot of rain lately on the weekends so my rental of a commercial sandblaster for the rusted bed has been put off for now. Still, progress is happening and the fresh Jamaica Beige on the interior surfaces looks great so far and keeps me itching to finish. I am still hoping to take a drive by the beginning of spring.

Sincerely,