Ellie - '81 CJ-7 Laredo Rebuild

Figured I might as well post a build thread on my CJ, as I've been systematically tearing apart what was a good running Jeep earlier this year. AKA my LaREDO project.


Bought it off of craigslist 2 years ago for a pretty good price, in fairly good shape, original paint (mostly), fairly rust free, mostly straight, relatively un-messed with, etc. And I got the guy to throw in a decent M416 trailer for his asking price! :gigem:

Here it is as I got it:
http://i.imgur.com/GfOl45Tl.jpg

Specs:
1981 CJ-7 Laredo Edition (LE -> Ellie)
Stock D30/AMC20 narrow track axles, with awful 2.73 gearing
258 engine, supposedly rebuilt
T-176/D300, leaky
4" lift of some sort, Rusted old Rancho RS5000s
Chinese 31x10.50s
Sweet sweet homemade bumpers with umpteen Cat tractor lights


My intentions were, and are to use this as just a mild wheeler/backcountry rig for hunting/fishing/etc. So nothing super crazy, stock axles with upgrades, new gears, either 33s or 35s, probably eventually do the 4.0 Head and MPFI swap on the 4.2 to bring it into this century for reliability. But, I really wanted to tear through it and fix/repair everything wrong with it to give me the best base to work with. So, this may be a fairly boring build thread for those of you who don't get off on pictures of POR15'd clutch pedal brackets. :flipoff2:

First things were I sold the hard top, and tore into it to figure out why it liked to die at every. single. stop.


Determined it was something to do with the idle circuit in the carb, so rather than screw with the Carter BBD, I bought a rebuilt Motorcraft 2150 off of eBay and slapped it on. Instant improvement.


Also did a little horse trading and swapped a pair of old FSJ rims for a set of 5 33x12.50 TSLs that all had varying stages of wear from bald to basically new. Hell of a lot better than Chinese ATs. Also cut off the stupid home made brush guard, and bolted on an LED light bar courtesy of the TAMOR group buy.

http://i.imgur.com/IZtVUWKl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3BJP38ll.jpg


And pretty much just rolled with the Jeep like this for the next year, camping, fishing, etc. Good times were had. Only other major upgrade was the TFI swap, which I have no pictures of.


After a fairly decent bonus early this year I bought a bunch of new parts for the Jeep, including a new "painless" harness. And the teardown begun...


http://i.imgur.com/PvKCLqWl.jpg

Probably one of the worst parts about the Jeep was the floor was coated with this epoxy? bedlinerish coating. It sucked, was pretty brittle in some areas and just was a general pain in the ass..


Removing it was one of the crappiest jobs I've done so far, used a mixture of aircraft paint stripper, wire wheels, scrapers, and paint stripping discs. Pretty sure my lifespan was shortened by a few years even using a respirator..

http://i.imgur.com/sRadGSRl.jpg

Plus, it hid some super classy floor pan repair by one of the POs..

http://i.imgur.com/v91uU1cl.jpg


This actually took me a few months to finally power through...but it gave me a good idea of the tub's true condition once it was done. Other than the typical CJ areas (floor pans, body support near front floor pans, and some slight pitting under the roll bars and rear tub floor), it's actually pretty damn solid.

http://i.imgur.com/BZr8XD0l.jpg

While taking breaks recovering from the black lung, I rebuilt my heater box. All of the original foam gaskets were rotted, and the flaps inside were starting to rust.

So, using a combination of neoprene and other closed cell foam, I redid all the gaskets and POR15'd the flaps and back cover. Also took this time to upgrade to the Blazer blower motor.
http://i.imgur.com/XJOpiKql.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/mxBRb7Jl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KBX8bC8l.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/lbdT2GVl.jpg

Had to get creative and make some new flanged bushings for the flaps to ride on, as the originals were broken or missing.
http://i.imgur.com/bKRfavQl.jpg
First try bushings were too large.
http://i.imgur.com/qRB8vPZl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Q9gkszol.jpg



Also let my OCD run wild with POR15 and the dash/firewall bracketry. And rebuilt my steering column/shafts.

http://i.imgur.com/1Lzo7zFl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/0nxL5Pgl.jpg

In the meantime also picked up a set of widetrack axles(and pre-81 6 bolt hubs to upgrade for a little extra strength). The rear already has 4.10s and the front has 4.56s but they're in rough shape, so I'll be getting the front gears replaced. Also picked up a professionally built CJ style sport cage for cheap while I was at it.


Bringing this up to more recent events, I've been working on cutting out the rust and figuring out how to patch it. I've never welded sheet metal so any tips or "your welds are ****" comments in the future are welcome.

Trimming floor pans to fit:
http://i.imgur.com/6g3T4Y4.jpg

Rocker rust:
http://i.imgur.com/Zs9UPz3l.jpg

What's behind door number one? Rust.
http://i.imgur.com/4Uu25id.jpg

Dash support patch panel
http://i.imgur.com/ckjuTLjl.jpg



I'm getting ready to do some practice welds for this, the patch panel is 16ga. I've got a Hobart 190 with .030 solid wire and 75/25 mix gas. I've read some people recommend using .023 wire for sheet, and others just say roll with what you've got. Suggestions? I'll probably post some pics of my ****ty trial welds soon. Like I said I've never welded sheet before, only bigger plate and even then only limited experience...so this'll be fun. :gigem:

I used .030 for all the sheet metal work on my '56 chevy (16 and 18 gauge). It is do-able but you can still get burn through if you aren't careful or get impatient. I say start with what you have and see how it does. If you're just making a mess of it then you might want to think about switching out to the .023. I believe you will need a new gun liner and drive wheel, in addition to the wire of course.

For sheet metal you are basically overlaying tack welds instead of running a continuous bead. Make a single tack weld every 3 to 4 inches around the entire panel. Flatten the patch panel with a body hammer by running the hammer over your tack welds with a few good solid whacks. Then place another tack weld next to the previous one with 50% overlap or so. Repeat until you make your way around the entire patch. If in doubt about the amount of heat you are putting into the panel, slow down. There is nothing worse than warping a body panel, it'll ruin your day and add a ton of work to the body filler/pre-paint steps.

I like the build. Keep up the progress pics.

Some other mild upgrades you can look into, if you're not aware of them already. Is replacing the shorter, narrow-track, front upper shock towers with the taller wide-track versions. These used to be easy to find and allows you to run longer shocks (if you need the suspension travel). You also used to be able to get tie rod flip kits that came with a tapered reamer and tapered cone inserts that tapped into your steering knuckles. This allows you to move the tie rod to the top of the knuckle which gives you better offroad clearance and allows you to remove a dropped pitman arm (which I assume you have since you said it has a 4 inch lift). It's been a while since I had stock drivetrain in my '85 CJ7 so I haven't thought about some of those simpler upgrades in a while but if I think of any more I'll post up.

Cool, thanks for the info. There's an '85 in the local yard I've been meaning to swing by and grab the towers off of. As far as I know, the NT towers won't work with the WT D30 I bought anyways. I've also looked a little into the Ford towers everybody likes to use as well, but think I may just stick with the Jeep towers if I can grab them.

Have a link on rebuilding and upgrayedding the heater box?

Definitely run .023 wire. I started doing the body work on my CJ with .030 and then tried .023 on Ryno's recommendation, it makes a world of difference. You're supposed to change the liner but I didn't and haven't had any trouble. Just need new rollers, tips and the wire.

I used this for reference pics. It's fairly easy, I just bought a roll of 1/4" or so thick neoprene off of Amazon and used the old foam as templates for the new gaskets. Unfortunately I apparently didn't take any pics of my fancy neoprene gaskets, only the ones I built with regular window weatherstripping foam.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f8/cj...-heavy-975999/

For the blazer motor upgrade there's a ton of links on google. Jeeptech.com has one, and there's this one too. It's pretty straight forward.

http://www.4x4wire.com/jeep/tech/interior/cjheater/


Also, this pic is awesome for reference on where all the dang cables re-attach to.

http://i.imgur.com/oqxdtMn.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TexTJ209

Cool, thanks for the info. There's an '85 in the local yard I've been meaning to swing by and grab the towers off of. As far as I know, the NT towers won't work with the WT D30 I bought anyways. I've also looked a little into the Ford towers everybody likes to use as well, but think I may just stick with the Jeep towers if I can grab them.

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I have the ford shock towers all the way around but didn't need them when I was sprung under and a 4" lift. I would stick with the stock wide track towers if you can find them easy enough. It'll make for a cleaner look......

sweet keep it going. i'm almost done with a cj7 stockish build and i'll see what parts i have left over if your interested. I know i have a set of shock towers and a set of all side marker lights that are new among other things.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sharpe

Have a link on rebuilding and upgrayedding the heater

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Heater is completely different starting in 78. that gm fan motor wont fit an older jeep

Good stuff.

Sheet metal welding sucks. Finally got the welder tuned in with .024 to where it's not just burning through every time I look at it though.

I screwed up in one spot trimming my floor pans and now I've got a maybe 1/4-1/2 gap between the panels I need to fill. Any suggestions on bridging that gap other than just making a tiny patch piece?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TexTJ209

Sheet metal welding sucks. Finally got the welder tuned in with .024 to where it's not just burning through every time I look at it though.

I screwed up in one spot trimming my floor pans and now I've got a maybe 1/4-1/2 gap between the panels I need to fill. Any suggestions on bridging that gap other than just making a tiny patch piece?

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You could buy a copper spoon if you have access to the back of it and try filling it with that? I used one for the first time doing some body work the other day and it worked well.

I've got one, played around with it a little tonight. Still trying to get the hang out it, but thanks for the tip!

I'd cut a strip. I had a similar gap on my CJ floor and warped the **** out of it trying to fill it in with wire.