Full Size Jeep Network

My bed sold and now I have no choice but to fix the other bed. Forced motivation



After laying under my truck all morning fighting 36 year old bolts I figured I would work on the winch some more... More yuck, but the gears all look good with no signs of wear. The motor shaft bearing is not wanting to come out so I am going to hit it with the press later.

I got it mobile again. I need to run it outside and pressure wash and paint the frame when its not snowing.



Two of the cross members are in bad shape. I am trying to decide if I want to have some new ones bent up or if I want to just use some angle/channel to recreate them.




I am wondering if the regular J10 fuel hoses will fit this as well. Mine is already gone so I can't check but it looks similar.



Also hoping the sending unit will work as I am sure this one is toast as bad a shape the rest of the bed is in.



One strap will have to be fabricated/fixed.



I want the whole thing dustless blasted if the guy will ever get back with me.

Pressure washed the frame, tank, and skid plate. I have a gallon of marhyde rust converter so I will use it when it warms up.




Found what I didn't want to find on the fuel tank.....

I found a place today that says they can bend up my two bed floor stiffeners. I dropped off a little piece and the best one of the angle fender mounts. I am awaiting their quote (scared). I cut all the remaining fender hanger brackets off today. None of the holes in the bed were square. They used carriage bolts and slotted holes. I'm probably going to go back with a carriage style bolt with an Allen head so I can remove the fenders if I need to. Lots of patching needs to be done. I have an appointment with the dustless blasting guys on Saturday and I am going to wait and tackle that after its nice clean bare metal. I have lots of spot welds to cut and I figure they will be easier to locate once its blasted.






My bed skirts are a mess... I am not sure how exactly to tackle those but I guess I can cross that bridge when I come to it. The tops of some of my stake pockets are rotted off and I am pretty sure the ones for the willys beds are the same. I just have a hard time stomaching the price. Going to have to figure out something. BJ's is working on a quote for freight for two new hand laid fiberglass bed fenders

Shiny as a new formally rusted penny

Good side







I had them do the back of the cab and the rockers and clean up some surface rust on the bottom of the doors.

Awesome. Thanks for the update

I got 1.75 hat channels removed. Grandfathers 90th birthday party tonight so couldn't finish.

I got all the old hat channel off today. I figured something out cutting out all those spot welds. If you drill a little pilot hole it helps keep the cutter from walking.



Grinded all the little dimples off and wanted to start patching holes in the bed today but it was raining and I didn't want to pull the truck out to get the welder in since the back of the cab is bare metal.... Tiny garage


New hat channel looks great. Place that bent it did a nice job.

Finally got a 401. Won an eBay auction for one in Kentucky. Going to pick it up next weekend. Woot

600 miles in my Cherokee today... On my last fuel stop my debit card didn't work anymore. I stopped so many times at gas stations out of state I guess they thought my card was stolen.


I see amc blue in the motor mount holes and the freeze plug that was covered by the motor mount. Hoping that means it's not been cracked open yet.

Nice! Gratz on the 401 When does the rebuild start?

Going to pull it apart and see if it's stock, probably in the evenings this week after work. I've got a lot of work to do on the bed and the 304 runs so the 401 will probably my not get any machine work until the bottom of the bed is finished and I get it mounted back on the frame.

New tailgate, chains, and hinges from Walck's 4wd. They are the best I have used for old jeep parts. Just so happens the Willys truck and the Sportside tailgate are pretty close to the same.

Got a lot done today. Patched all the bad spots in the bed except one. I'll have to do it from the top.





The back panel was 1/8th and I only had 2" strips so I had to add two together....

Then I carried the whole thing outside and washed it for 30 minutes (still didn't get all the sand out) and slathered it down with mastercoat metal prep. Supposed to keep it from rusting for a year. I am ready to install the hat channels and I wanted to coat and seal the hat channels and the area under them.

Looking good

Had a couple big boxes show up today from BJ's off-road. I jumped the gun a tad on ordering these as the bed is far from ready to hang them.



They seem to be built better than the originals. They also have a lip/overlap that won't require the rusted out angle iron. I'm thinking of getting some aluminum plate and using it like a washer on the inside of the fenders lip for the mounting bolts.

Wow! An awesome project and a lot of work. I'll have those small bed parts pulled off today from my part-out and post up some pictures

Got the new hat channel welded on in the original spots and the holes drilled for the bolts. Put the bed on the truck and moved it into the attached garage where I have room to work on it and walk around it.

Finally made a tiny bit of progress on the bed....


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Only 6 more patch panels to go and the bed sides will be ablle to hold up fenders.