Finish Stripping

With the body off I hand a couple of things left to do before I can really start work on the frame.

1)  Pull the brake lines

2)  Pull the fuel lines

3)  Pull the engine, transmission, and transfer case

4)  Remove the fuel tank

5)  Remove the shocks

Fuel Lines, Fuel Tank:

As I've mention before I'm currently lacking in the number of pictures I wish I had taken.  But I do have a few of how the fuel lines run.  

 

  

  

The pictures are a little hard to follow, so I did some labeling. In the first two photos you can see two fuel lines running down the frame.  One is the fuel return line and the other is my mystery line (which isn't such a mystery anymore).  I don't have a picture of the fuel line that goes to the pump. The next to photos are labeled to make following them a bit easier.  A fuel line runs from the tank to the fuel pump.  From there a line runs to the fuel filter.  The filter has two lines coming off of it.  One runs to the carburetor, the other returns excess fuel to the gas tank.  

The fuel tank was removed with no photos to show for it.  Hopefully that doesn't bite me.

Brake Lines:

When I took the body off I didn't have the master cylinder disconnected from the brake lines yet so I decided to duct tape it to my air filter so the lines wouldn't break.  

  

For those that are unaware, the master cylinder (well modern ones) have two chambers.  One holds the brake fluid for the front brakes, the other holds the fluid for the rear brakes.  They're kept separate to reduce the chance of both frot and rear brakes failing simultaneously.  I.E. a hole in your rear brake lines will only prevent the rear brakes from working.  If the master cylinder only had 1 chamber that both front and rear brakes shared then a hole in the rear brake lines would mean that both front and rear brakes do not work.

 

I pulled all the brake lines and had to cut them in several places.  I'm going to have to run all new brake lines.  I know they make kits with pre-bent line and everything else need to run new lines, but they're quite a bit more expensive than just buying some line and running it.  Not sure which way I'll go.  I've read about people having issues with their brakes after running the wrong size line.

The Engine:

I had a couple friends, Miller Time and Ginger Brew, help me pull the engine out.  We used a cheap 1 ton cherry picker I bough off of ebay.  It was an interesting experience as none of us had ever pulled an engine before.  Instead of chains we used 3 ratchet straps all rated at 1000lbs.  We pulled the engine, transmission, and transfer case all out as one piece.

  

 

After the engine we pull the shock off.  They all came off pretty easily except for the font driver side one.  I think the mount on the frame might be just a little bit bent.  You can't really tell by looking at it, but I don't have any other explanation for why that one was such a pain.

Stripping Down

I think my biggest regret so far with this project is the fact that I waited so long to start this blog.  I took a lot of pictures along the way, but it seems like I could have taken a lot more.  I think if I had started this blog earlier I would have better documentation of the disassembly thus making my reassembly easier.  For example -  I took the steering wheel, steering shaft and steering column all out of Kara and of that whole process this is the only photo I have:

One of my close friends was kind enough to let me use his two stall garage for this project.  I'm really pretty baffled by that kind of generosity, especially now that this project has been taking up the whole garage for over a year and he still doesn't mind at all.   At the time this project began I lived 30 minutes away, and 8 months ago  I moved in.  Thanks for being awesome Miller Time.

Stripping Down

First thing I did when Kara arrived at her new home was take the soft top off and pull the roll bar out.  I'm pretty sure I started with the roll bar because it was the least intimidating thing.  Shortly after that it was the fender, and then the grill, next thing you know you're 50% the way there...er well in hind sight like .05% the way there ...

 

 

To take the grill off I had to cut one of the wires in the harness.  I don't believe this harness is completely originally anymore...for one thing harnesses from 35 years ago tend to be all kinds of corroded.  Secondly the wire went from the body, into the frame, out of the frame, and then into the grill where it connected to my high beams.  So I cut it.

  

Once I had the front apart I just started taking pictures.  I didn't know what a lot of the stuff on the engine was (well...still don't in some cases) but I was pretty sure that I need to know exactly where it was when I put it back.

 

   

 

 

 

It's at this point in the blog that anyone reading with any mechanical knowledge might ask "Why is he taking so many pictures of things that don't matter?  Does he have any idea what he is doing?"  So please let me reassure you:  I have no clue about anything.  And I can prove it with more pictures that may or may not matter.

   

 

The above four pictures are of the carburetor.  As I needed to disconnected anything connected to the body (since I'm taking it off)  I figured a few good pictures of throttle and choke cables would probably be prudent.  

Once everything was disconnected from the body I had a handful of friends helped me pick it up off the frame.  I really appreciate the help from everyone.  I'd thank you by name, but I've decided to keep real names out of the this blog.  You'll all be named after a beer as you appear in the blog later.  I wish I had gotten a picture of everyone that helped that day.

One last thing before I end this post that takes months of work and compresses it into an 8 minute read;  Below is a picture of my gas tank.  The round thing is the sending unit.  It measure how much fuel is in the tank.  You can see two fuel lines coming into the tank right on top of the sending unit and then two breather lines down and a bit to the left.  There is also a third gas line that doesn't connect to the tank.  I have literally no idea why it is there.  I'm not sure if it is an old line that started leaking so the previous own ran a new line and didn't remove the old one, or if it actually serves a purpose.  If you know why please comment below and let me know.  

 

Money turns to Rust

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog!  This blog will follow my CJ7 as I restore, technically rebuild, her.  I'm using this blog mainly as a way to keep track of everything.  This is my first time doing a restoration project so I will make many mistakes along the way.  Please feel free to call me out at any point.  I've had the jeep for over a year now so my first 3 to 5 posts will probably just be bringing the blog up to speed.

Person Background
I'm a 26 year old software engineer.  Growing up I always helped my dad around the house including fixing our cars.  So I know the basics about cars:  oil change, alternator swaps, what a spark plug is, etc.  I've always liked jeeps and enjoyed the outdoors.  This will undoubtedly be a great learning experience and I am very much looking forward to it.

The Jeep
I bought my 1979 CJ7 in Feb of 2015.   It was my second jeep, the first being a 2004 Grand Cherokee.  I don't have the GC anymore and I wanted a toy for off road.  I couldn't afford something new and in great shape, plus I thought that getting some old would be easier to work on.  Mostly, I thought it'd be cheaper... I realize now that it won't be cheaper....  Lucky for me I have been really enjoying working on the jeep even if my progress is slow at best.

   

My CJ, which will be referred as Kara from here on out, has a 258 straight 6 and a three speed manual transmission.  According to the vin number she originally had a four speed transmission.  The Odometer is stuck right around 95k miles, so I have no idea how many miles are actually on her.   Dana 30 in the front and a one piece AMC 20 in the rear.  Since the AMC 20 is a one piece I'll probably leave it in and truss it. 

 

The engine ran when I bought her, but I didn't think to do a compression test before I pulled it out to start my work on the frame.  The frame is in, well, shit shape.  I thought it was a lot better when I purchased her a year ago, but it turns out I was mistaken.  Not the last mistake I'll on the project.  In one of the upcoming posts I'll completely document the condition of the frame and what I intend to do to fix it,  

Here are a couple of before pictures of the interior.  

 

Jeep Wish List

My first major priority is going to be restoring the frame.  I figure no matter how nice a jeep is, if the frame is in shit condition the jeep is worthless.  The following is a list of things I plan to do to the jeep.  Most of the are going to be long term,  Things I hope to do in the next 5 years.  Some of them are things I hope to do just to get it back together.  In no particular order:  

1. Engine Work
1. Rebuild the block
2. 4.0 head swap  
3. Add fuel injection
2. Completely restore the frame -- priority #1
1. Sandblast
2. Weld in fixes
3. POR15 outside, Eastwood internal Frame Coating inside
3. Body work.  
1. Grind out rust, weld in new metal
2. Paint - probably going with the fabled $50 paint job
4. Ax15 transmission swap
5. Truss the AMC 20 and weld the tubes
6. Dana 44 front axle swap 
7. YJ OME spring conversion.  --  short term.
1. 2.5 inch heavy duty springs front and rear
2. New heavy duty shackle hangers
8. Fix all the gauges -- short term
9. Run new brake line -- short term
10. Run new fuel line -- short term  
11. Replace all wire harnesses.  -- I seriously cannot decide if I should just do this and get it over with or put it off.  Either way, I'll probably make the harness myself instead of buying them.