Starting the Build
I decided I would dismantle the Jeep after the August trail ride in Chadwick (well I had to have one last hurrah), so that I would have plenty of warmer weather to do the undercoating to protect the new tub from rot for as long as I can. (click this image -->) The before and after pictures are pretty dramatic , but as you already know the process is never ending.
Here is the tub the day I brought it home from the junkyard, after saving it from the crusher!
It is hard to imagine just two days prior to the photo below, I drove that thing home for a trip to a local trail! Believe me it took nearly three hours of pressure washing to get it clean enough for the next part of the teardown.
The rusted out frame waiting to be stripped completely.
In preperation for replacing the frame it needed to be completely stripped Then I thought why not kill two birds with one stone. Yep the body and frame were both totally shot. I know, why not just buy a new one. Well I have one answer for that, "Jeeps are built not bought".
Trial fitment to relocate body mounts on different frame to match YJ tub.
After taking the rest of the parts off of the frame that would be saved and recycling the remains of the frame. On a side not the amount of mud inside frame was astonishing. You could look at the layers and count the number of trips it had in its past. The last few were the best, only because they were mine. Now I was ready for a trial fit of the YJ tub onto the CJ frame. I am sure that you pretty much know the routine for that, so I won't bore you with the details. The short version: move two sets of body mounts and change the vent for windshield.
Hurculined the bottom of the tub to try to prevent the rust demon from returning.
After the body mounts were modified on the frame I could go to work on the rust prevention. I realize that you can not stop rust completely but I think I did a pretty good job of slowing it down a bit. To do this I coated the bottom of the tub with Hurculiner and had the frame galvanized at a local galvanizing shop for a small fee.
Update 8/11/11: If I had to start over I would definately do the galvanize again, but I would then have it power coated to make it look pretty. The fence post look gets old!
I galvanized frame to prevent rust.
After the tub dried and I got the frame back I started the long process of reassembling the now hundreds of pieces of my Jeep back into one unit. While I have it apart I will be doing some stuff that I have been wanting to do but didn't want to take the time to do before.
Getting the roll cage started.
Here I am fitting up the front of the cage so that I can drill the holes for the tie ins that go under the tub.
Just needs a little more work. Oh, ok a lot more work .