My First Jeep CJ

Also had some time to work on the brakes.
Did some research...
Found MBM out of Asheville that makes a disc/disc MC kit for the CJ

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The kit comes with a MC with a 1.125" piston, a disc/disc proportioning valve, 8" double brake booster, bracket, plunger rod, and hardware.
Install was straight forward.

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Need to finish installing the brake lines, make up some new lines to go to the MC as the proportioning valve will be under the MC.
 
I've installed an mbm kit (and rear disc conversion) on an old Ford (73? 68-69? Can't remember) and the kit was pretty straight forward. Are their prices reasonable?
 
The kit was around $200 direct from MBM

The only thing that I could fault was the piston arm where it connects to the brake pedal.

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The arm has a white plastic insert on the end that connects to the brake pedal
Figure the insert would not last too long, so I welled up the hole and drilled it to just over 1/2"

Also, when I was taking off the old arm from the brake pedal, found out there was no cotter pin holding the arm to the brake pedal.
Lucky the old piston arm never came off...
 
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Made a little progress with the MC & front brake lines.

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When install the rear brake lines, found something interesting...
More on this later.
 
Since the brakes were at a stand still, waiting on more parts...

Time to work on the traction bar.
Ruff Stuff has a nice kit.

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The kit comes with or w/o the two long pieces of DOM tubing

After sourcing some DOM tubing, the welding process begins.

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Still a long way to go.
To attach the cross member that goes under the drive shaft, the hope is to weld two 2"x3" angles onto two pieces of flat steel.
Then weld the flat steel pieces to the jeep's frame
The angle iron will act as a mounting plate for the cross member.
That way if the cross member for the traction bar ever needs to come out, it can be unbolted.
 
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Worked on the anti-wrap bar (AWB) this weekend.
Never made one of these before, so a lot of time was spend thinking and measuring...

The first thing was to make some pockets for the AWB's cross bar to mount onto the frame rails.
Also made some back plates to weld onto the frame

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Next the cross bar was made so that it could be bolted to the back plates

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With the crossbar in place, next was to make the AWB

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The dawgs approved of the work.
Still have to make the center piece to stiffen up the AWB

Next was to see how the AWB would fit.
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The angle of the drive shaft and the angle of the bottom bracket are within one degree of each other.
The bottom of bar of the AWB is about the same height as the drive shaft.
Next will be to weld the back bracket to the axle.
 

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Had a little time this evening to make up the center section and weld it into place

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Hopefully, the AWB will be welded onto the axle soon
 
I hope the bracket gets welded on to the axle and not the bar itself :p

Looks like it will serve the purpose well. You will want to tack the bracket in place while the driveshaft is at the desired angle with the other end of the AWB attached, so it works as planned. Looking good.
 
The CJ's floor board had bed liner material installed.
Of course like all things Jeep, there was a surprise.
The liner did not stick to well to the floor board on the drivers side and some moisture was trapped
This led to what a_kelly calls the "iron oxide reduction" process

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Just a little to much iron reduction for me, IMHO.

So, picked up a nice replacement pan

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Question is how much should be cut out?

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At this point, the floorboard is relatively solid.
I can stop cutting here, or take out more metal
Recommendations?
 
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Depends on if you are just going for repair or restoration.. what's good enough for you? Are you happy with it being a patch or would you rather replace the whole panel so it's not seamed outside the normal places?

It's the "Iron oxide weight reduction package" ;)
 
a_kelley said:
Depends on if you are just going for repair or restoration.. what's good enough for you? Are you happy with it being a patch or would you rather replace the whole panel so it's not seamed outside the normal places?

It's the "Iron oxide weight reduction package" ;)
Click to expand...
Or, whatever is easy for you to work with? Access with the welder might be a deciding factor, if looks are not.
 
Removed some more of the old floor board on the drivers side.

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With the drivers floor pan removed, access to the square nut for one of the body/frame bushing was revealed that is under the pedal cluster.
The sheet metal that holds the square nut in place was a casualty of a_kelly's iron reduction package.
However, a large adj wrench works to hold the nut to remove the bolt for the body/suspension mount.
Since all the body/frame bushings appear to be original and are well past their prime, a good time to replace those items.
Anyway, a bit more iron reduction, bracket making, welding, etc., will be needed to replace body/frame bushings.
 
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With the drivers pan out of the way, the inspection of the other body/frame bushing revealed they were in ruff shape.
Had to make some brackets and fab up some parts to get the new bushings installed.

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Here is a shot of the rear bushing.

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A bunch of work metal work was needed to get that bushing installed.
One more to bushing/body mount to complete and the drivers side will be done.
Then the passenger side body mounts.
 
Been working on getting the bushings/body mounts ready on the drivers side
A_Kelly's iron reduction package sometimes takes a bunch of time to address.
The bushing kit did not include new fasteners and washers.
Most bolts were long 3/8" with the rear bolt being 7/16", which are not a problem to source from the local bolt house.
However, the fender washers are unusual.
Most washers are thick 3/8" ID with a 2.5" in OD and were not available from any local sources.

The only places that had the correct fender washers were CJ parts retailers and they were like $60 for 8 washers (Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot?).
Since I don't have a plasma cutter, out comes the cutoff wheel to make some washers out of 1/8" thick steel stock (yea, I am cheap).
A bushing assembly is shown below:

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In the above picture, the old washer is on the right and the new washer is in the middle.

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Anyway, a few more washers to make and the drivers side will be done.
Next, the passenger side bushings.
 
There's nothing wrong with an octagonal washer. Looks good. (Though personally I might have elected to go thicker on the washer, being mild steel vs possibly hardened with a standard washer, depending on grade).. last time I bought a (one) body mount (for a tj) it included everything but it was about $30..
 
Been working to finish up the body mounts on the drivers side
The body mount on the pedal cluster took a little more work to complete.

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Since the one under the drivers pedal uses a different bottom bushing, a larger washer was used using 1/4" stock.
A hole saw was used in the mfr of the washer to avoid the octagon effect.

All the body mounts now done on the drivers side...
Onto the drivers floor board
 
Been working on the drivers front floor board.
After cutting out the old rust metal, the CJ was now a true Flintstones mobile

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The area was prepped and weld through primer was applied.
The new floorboard was cut to fit and primed.
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Started the welding process.
A bottle jack was used to keep things in place
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Still some more welding to do...
This is the progress so far
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Maybe one day, I will get ahead of A_Kelly's iron reduction package.
 
Had some time to work on to finish welding in the new drivers floorboard

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A five pound hammer is great tool to get the floor board to sit flush with the original floor pan.
After about 10 minutes of welding and an hour of grinding...
Time to prep the new floor board by removing most of the factory paint.
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With the paint remove, time for some etching primer

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After the primer dried, time to paint on some POR 15.
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Good thing semi-gloss was used, that stuff shines...
Letting it dry overnight and then another coat tomorrow.

While the paint was drying, the bushings on the passenger side were inspected.
Looks like some more of a_kelly's iron oxide weight reduction package will need to be addressed.
Going to drop the gas tank just to be safe...
 
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Are you going to put something over that por15? It isn't UV friendly and will get ashy after awhile.
 
Currently, the interior of the tub has a coating of bed liner that is not sticking well to the steel of the tub.
I hope to peel up the bed liner, address any surface rust, put down some POR 15.
After all that, then new bed liner stuff goes over the POR 15.
Not sure which bed liner stuff is best.
Any ideas?
 
Line-x, rhino liner, herculiner. There was/is a linex installer on the forum. Herculiner can be rolled on. I think there was another one that if you bought the sprayer, it was spray on and two part but my memory is not helping at the moment.
 
Paint on Herculiner. You can buy it in either a 1 quart tub or an entire gallon. A whole gallon is pushing a hundred bucks almost. Quart-size I want to say is between 25 and 30, but it's not really enough to get far.
I bought a small quart size and did both of the floor pans in my YJ and was able to cover at least halfway up under the seats and that was it. As far as how well it holds up, it almost holds up to well. Heaven forbid you ever get any on your hands.
 
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