1984 CJ-7 resto-mod

[cnmcalpi]

A friend of mine picked this CJ up about 6 months ago and left it in my back yard, intending on restoring it. After some contemplation he decided that it was too much for him to tackle with other things going on. And thus, I have acquired Le Jeep.

It is a CJ-7 with 100k on the odometer and minimal rust from what I have experienced with CJ's. (Last one I bought was a total loss and ended up getting my butt beat on it.) I restored cars of all sorts throughout college as I was a body technician before I went to engineering school. I have a shop and pretty much everything necessary to resto mod this thing.

1984 CJ-7 ~100k miles, new soft top, decently new seats, bikini top, hard doors, some sort of spring lift (?? how much ??) - stolen for $2700 bucks.

I won't be going all crazy modding like I see alot of these threads, This will be somewhat of a budget build with most everything fabbed in house. I would like it to end up a clean dailyable CJ on 33's with some fender work and bumper work done so that I can do some light foot trail running/camping down at Uwharrie. It really doesn't need alot of money thrown at it to get it back driving around and hitting the trails as its obviously had the trans rebuilt(receipt found in glovebox) and probably the engine too (just runs too good to have been sitting around) I will be picking up the dana 300 from Steve at Tarheel in the next month or so and am currently working on the sheetmetal.

Dawgs luv jeeps...

Started picking around with a pinging hammer looking for rust.

Found more than I thought, but not too bad. Some old patch panels that were brazed in.

Cut out the old crap on the left side.

14 gauge cold roll from race city steel. Going to stiffen this body up a bit with a little heavier gauge material than factory.


To be continued.....

 

[catfishblues]

I'll be watching this.

 

[paradisePWoffrd]

Ill be watching this also, but just curious, what about it are you taking modern?

 

[cnmcalpi]

I won't be going all crazy modding like I see alot of these threads,

I'm assuming "taking modern" is smartphone autocorrect-speak for "crazy modding" in the quote above.

If that is the case, I'm talking about all of the long armed-comp cut-twin stick-turbo LS non street legal buggy things that I see in these build threads. This will be much more low brow, weekend wheeler, street to trail kind of build.

 

[paradisePWoffrd]

You just said you were doing a restomod. Typically restomod is termed when taking an older vehicle and retrofitting newer drivetrains and technologies into it. You mentioned you were planning to reuse the stock engine and trans, just curious what you were making more modern.


This looks like a good project and will likely have a nice CJ for a decent price when finished. I have wanted to do something similar for a DD, so Ill be watching.

 

[cnmcalpi]

Ahhh, I understand. My understanding of the term "restomod" from the circles I have frequented is a restoration that is not going back to factory condition. So a Restored and modified vehicle, like maybe restoring an old first gen camaro but at the same time installing a cowl hood, hot engine and trans mods. For an off road vehicle, restored but lifted, lights, fabwork etc...If they called something a "custom" it would be literally custom, like a hacked up half of this and half of that and the engine and trans out of something I found in the junkyard with fabbed mounts, tucked, frenched and chopped. At least this is how the term was used by the old guys that surrounded myself. Old hot rod dudes are cool.

Thanks for watching!

 

[cnmcalpi]

***UPDATE***

Front rocker section and floor cut out

Fabbing floor piece

This was interesting, not to mention time consuming.

Welded in

Fabbing lower rocker patch

 

[cnmcalpi]

Lower rocker welded in, still have to weld back side and probably beat on it a bit.

That lower support was rusted out and had to be fabbed up too.

Rocker is getting there.


Now for the roll bar areas while I have the quarter off and can get to them well.

 

[cnmcalpi]

Update.

Trying to keep this spacing correct so that when I install a body lift it wont get all wonky on me....

This will need some grinding and seam sealer.

I finished the seat belt mounting weld nuts and started on the rear roll bar mount on the drivers side, ran out of argon. Going to have to go get a bottle and a new MIG liner for my lead (its binding up and irritating the hell out of me) once I get paid. 4 more hours or so I will have the sheetmetal done on this side. 25 hours per side. I estimate about 60 hours to have it in primer. Maybe a little more, depending on how straight I want to get it before priming it. I dont plan to paint until spring so It doesn't really have to be all that straight.

 

[cnmcalpi]

Update.

Left quarter, upper and lower roll bar supports, front and rear floors and rocker panel is all welded in for left side.
Now for the right side and a few extraneous rusty spots on the rear panel and the cowl area.

 

[OnlyOneDR]

Lots of work! Looks great so far!

 

[cnmcalpi]

Thanks, it is alot of work. Almost halfway done with the sheetmetal stuff. Then on to body filler and primer. Good thing is, it doesn't need a whole lot of mechanical work. Once I get it in primer and back together + install the transfer case after the rebuild it should be ready to drive around.