Full Size Jeep Network

Hey Folks - Here is my shot at pulling together a build thread. My project started a year ago with a 1990 GW from Florida that was very tired at 145k miles. The sun had taken it's toll on the wood grain, but the rust worm had been "relatively" limited aside from the rear floor (broken rear window), the windshield area and the quarter window area. Big shout out to my father Jim - a former body shop owner - who is doing most of the heavy lifting.

Here are the "before" pics

Here we are "de-wooded" and "de-nosed"



The world's best engine puller



body off chassis



under side power washed



not bad, huh?

patched and sanded the floors





primer (brushed on two part epoxy auto primer)



sandblasting and primer for the chassis



no rust behind the gas tank (despite 5 gallon bucket of florida crud)

spot sand blasting, primer, and sprayed Monstaliner for the under carriage



Monstaliner "pass the bubbly" rolled on for the interior floors. I am not planning on using the carpeting as this will be a bit of a beach rig.



dashboard crack repair (just used ace plastic epoxy)



SEM color coat



and a bit of satin black for the metal dash

5.3/4L60E/NP261 (with ECU) sourced from a 99 Silverado



frame painted and 4in Rusty's Lift kit installed. kept the rear drums. new rotors. new brake lines.



cleaning up the 5.3. the transmission went to rebuild shop.

I decided the NP261 rebuild would be a good project for me after i ran into a problem with my transmission rebuild shop. jury still out on that call.





this is how i received my transfer case back from the tranny shop when i balked at them doubling their estimate of the np261 rebuild.



this is why they doubled their estimate. is this a problem?



almost finished but i ordered the wrong spline pump

I asked my dad if the engine should be amc blue or chevy orange. he didn't even want to debate. i think he's a bowtie guy at heart.



My dad's all-time favorite tool in action again.



action shot of dad



and here we sit today....

Some of you might have seen me in some of the other forums looking for shift linkages, soliciting advice on ECU programming and wiring, and discussing an attempt to make a 4dr s-10 blazer tank work in the stock location. That stuff is all going on real time now so I will try to keep my thread current.

Subscribed. Looks fun!

Very nice!

Great tool, I used a front end loader to pull the old 360 and remove the body from the frame too. Looking forward to more updates. Thanks for posting.

Wow, has this all been done recently? I notice the snow on the ground, and I assume it was not last winter.

Turning out very nice!

That is just awesome! Keep up the good work. I am looking forward to seeing the progress.

Stuka wrote:Wow, has this all been done recently? I notice the snow on the ground, and I assume it was not last winter.

Turning out very nice!

No... that snow was from last winter. We started pulling it apart over Thanksgiving 2012. Though my father retired from the body shop, he still works full time so the project is proceeding slowly but surely. I live about an hour and a half away from them so I travel back to help when I can and bring projects (transfer case rebuild, interior cleaning, small part painting, dashboard repair) back to my house. My father also adapted a boat trailer to carry the body down the Mass Pike so that I could Monstaliner the floor this summer. I asked for a project and he showed up with THAT! Thank God it made it back in one piece.

I should have mentioned my mother's contribution to this build... she donated her garage space and suffered through a winter with a cold Subaru. I built her a dining room table as payment, but truth be told she's getting a bad deal because her garage is still in use a year later.

Here's a pic of my body on the boat trailer in my garage. I don't think she'd float.

very nice build!

Needham is about 25 minutes from me (minus the ridiculous 128 traffic).

I'm doing a similar swap, different tcase, in a 78 wag. Not going as in depth with the body/frame but I'm impressed & appreciate all the work going in.

Maybe we can compare/contrast as they get rolling...

G'luck & keep it up.

I think that would be one of MY favorite tools, too, if I had one!!!

Nice project!

Wow, thats going to be one awesome GW. Nice work.

I use my wrecker like your dads favorite tool...

I feel so inadequate...

Nice job so far, looking forward to the rest of the build!

Nice work!

I'm currently saving pennies for the same type of project on mine...can't wait!

Looking forward to your progress.