Rescued: 76 Cherokee

[jongreve]

Nice mat! Where from and what application did you order your bedliner mat for?

The place I work at manufactures some of those fancy-dancy ridiculously expensive custom fit floor mats, and I more or less just stuffed an unformed sheet of that material in my lunchbox one day and trimmed it to fit.

Depending on how well my door/wall panels look after I cnc them out this weekend, I could possibly consider wrapping them in that material as well, but that's getting a little ahead of myself at this moment in time.


I do appreciate the encouragement here, I've been second guessing myself quite a bit on some of this stuff.

[jongreve]

Finally a free weekend to do some damage!

Need to make some patterns



I'm not sure what kind of seats will be used, so that area is getting passed over for now



Moving right along on the insulation front, no more floor pan mess


...and on to the bed covering


I'll be wanting to do something with that steering wheel soon. I'm told that it was pulled from an old Chevy truck. If I can fix the flop and repair/replace the blinker wiring harness I might be inclined to keep it, provided I can come up with some way to make it look a little better. Any ideas would be welcome.

[jongreve]

My to-do list for the weekend was longer than the weekend itself. The headliner will have to be put off for a little bit longer.

This does not feel good on one's knees



Some replacement panels



installed



And a functioning glove box!



I won't have a ton of free time until after the holiday to get any big projects done so I think I'll try to get it under the carport so I can jack it up and start replacing the rubber sections of the fuel lines and start making a parts list for the breaks.

[pcoplin]

Excellent work! Two questions: WHy are you adding rails back onto the floor? And what material did you use for the panels? I need to make some panels myself...

[jongreve]

Excellent work! Two questions: WHy are you adding rails back onto the floor? And what material did you use for the panels? I need to make some panels myself...

Panels are just ABS, 0.125" thick, probably very similar to what Men In Black sells on here in the vendor's section, I used "pearl gray" color because it was available to me and I liked it better than the other colors that I had to choose from.

The floor mat material has poor bonding properties, I do not know of any adhesives that would stick to it very well for any length of time, especially considering the wide range of temperatures that occur within vehicles throughout the various seasons. So the rails are my attempt to keep the material in place. I'd speculate that they will also help keep it from becoming torn in the event of transporting heavy objects, the material itself is only 0.075" thick.

[jongreve]

September has been a slow month. I spent some time on the front driver's brakes and bearings as well as the steering column which aren't quite all back together yet.

I did get the thing moved under the carport


and the back seat returns


Spent days upon days using a sander, maybe I should have chosen something with less surface area


After a week of body work and more sanding I can finally start painting


This side has a few coats on it already, it's not turning out as nice as I had dreamed, but I'll trudge forth and see where it goes. No matter what, it'll still be an improvement over what I started with.

[wewillsurvive]

Wow, you've come along way and it's looking good. I really like those panels in that color.

[Mars]

Wanna trade?

[jaber]

This side has a few coats on it already, it's not turning out as nice as I had dreamed, but I'll trudge forth and see where it goes. No matter what, it'll still be an improvement over what I started with.

It might come out better if you keep the kids from leaning their bikes against it...

Looks great, keep up the good work.

[ShayneThill]

What is the sound blocker you mean? sound proofing thing or audio recording jammer?

[jaber]

What is the sound blocker you mean? sound proofing thing or audio recording jammer?

Its the silver layer he put down first. It deadens the road/ engine noise.

[jongreve]

ON HOLD:

The holidays are upon us, the daylight hours are getting short, and my window of opportunity has closed.

I had hoped to have the Cherokee up and running already, but the project has been in hibernation for nearly a month, and will most likely have to wait until late winter/early spring; for my time and money have other priorities now that the season has changed.

I have made some plexiglass replacement lenses for the gauge cluster, and finally got the steering column rebuilt. I will still fiddle with small tasks as time allows, but will not be around here much for the next month or two.

Happy Holidays, may all of you enjoy the season of food and family,
-Jon

[jaber]

All the best to you Jon, we'll be here when you come back...

[serehill]

Really great thread with some innovative processes. I don't know where you get you're not a good fabricator unless you're fishing for compliments.

[jongreve]

Here is the new lenses I made. I "splashed" both sides of an original yellowed lens with body filler to make male and female molds. I used a heat gun on some clear polycarbonate and sandwiched it between the molds.




The warm weather this week has been fantastic. I finally had enough time to get all my front wheel bearings replaced, new calipers installed, and all new hard lines ran. This had about drug on too long and I'm so relieved to be finished with the front end. (or so I think, lol)




I finally unpacked my drive-shaft that I bought on ebay, it fits nicely and would have been installed today if I were lucky enough to have received the correct parts from the local parts store.

Next I have one rubber brake hose to replace on the rear, and I'll have to figure out how to get the parking brake back together. Then I believe I'll be ready to find some tires and begin road testing to see just what I really have.

[benjclark]

Here is the new lenses I made. I "splashed" both sides of an original yellowed lens with body filler to make male and female molds. I used a heat gun on some clear polycarbonate and sandwiched it between the molds.

Cool! Can you post more details on this process?

[jongreve]

Here is the new lenses I made. I "splashed" both sides of an original yellowed lens with body filler to make male and female molds. I used a heat gun on some clear polycarbonate and sandwiched it between the molds.

<snipped image>

Cool! Can you post more details on this process?

It certainly isn't perfect, but I think I still have the molds laying around at work, I'll try to get some pics and do a write-up in a new thread some time this week.

Done, link follows
http://fsjnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5149

[jongreve]

Getting the door panels buttoned up with new speakers




Got some new lenses from BJ's





Working on a headliner




Visors back in




And the first time I've had it out of the yard It was only a couple block jaunt to work and back, but it's still further than it has traveled yet

[msh227]

Sweet, it is looking good.

Maybe I missed it but is that rattle can paint for the exterior? Paint looks good, I definitely need to re-paint my J10.

[jongreve]

Sweet, it is looking good.

Maybe I missed it but is that rattle can paint for the exterior? Paint looks good, I definitely need to re-paint my J10.

Rustoleum Smoke Grey, thinned and rolled. I still need to wet sand it and put on a couple more coats; and if I had it to do all over again I would not do it this way. I've seen how it can work and look good, but it requires more time, patience, and work than any sane person would ever think about doing. Whatever amount of time and work you're thinking in your head right now, multiply it by at least 3 and you'll be close. If you do all the body work yourself, you are far, far ahead of the game just to have somebody spray it. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have taken it to Maaco or something similar, but as is, I have to finish what I started