About 2 months ago my son and I started rebuilding a Jeep I have kept specifically with the plan of it being his first. I purchased this in 2004 up in New England and it served as my primary driver from 2004 thru 2018. It sat in the driveway from 2018 until 2021. The jeep is pretty much fully stock with just a wheel and tire upgrade. The jeep had developed a few spots of rust. Some of it was significant enough that it had rusted right thru the body. So first order of business was to get it into the Bead Blasting shop so we could see what we were dealing with. We had the noticeable spots and the undercarriage of the body and frame blasted. Frame was in good order and the body spots were just going to require a few patches. Nothing was structurally compromised.
After that we started to tear it down and get the body work done. We had to replace the drivers side Fender. The part we received was of good quality but had gotten nicked up in transit. So we actually took it apart and cut the outer fender to fit a custom patch. The passenger Rocker Panel was a little more complicated. The part we received was not that great from a quality standpoint and we decided to cut and replace only what we actually needed. We were able to save the original jeep embossed logo and the door frame had not lost its integrity so we just custom fit a piece of it. We did the same thing with the damaged area under the rear portion of the door near the rear wheel well.
The Jeep is basically stripped at this point. The hood, doors, and cowl are painted. Our focus over the next few weeks is to finish the body paint and get it assembled. Huge parts order arrives tomorrow. All new seals, hinges, fender flares, bumpers, door handles, hood kit, and a ton of other things to dress it up a bit.
After we get this all taken care of our attention will shift to steering (replacing everything) because of a death wobble issue, and suspension. We are planning to combine a body lift/level with a suspension lift. We want to run 35" 12.5" tires.
Feedback, comments, and suggestions for suspension and tire specs are welcome.
Having a ton of fun doing this rebuild.
After that we started to tear it down and get the body work done. We had to replace the drivers side Fender. The part we received was of good quality but had gotten nicked up in transit. So we actually took it apart and cut the outer fender to fit a custom patch. The passenger Rocker Panel was a little more complicated. The part we received was not that great from a quality standpoint and we decided to cut and replace only what we actually needed. We were able to save the original jeep embossed logo and the door frame had not lost its integrity so we just custom fit a piece of it. We did the same thing with the damaged area under the rear portion of the door near the rear wheel well.
The Jeep is basically stripped at this point. The hood, doors, and cowl are painted. Our focus over the next few weeks is to finish the body paint and get it assembled. Huge parts order arrives tomorrow. All new seals, hinges, fender flares, bumpers, door handles, hood kit, and a ton of other things to dress it up a bit.
After we get this all taken care of our attention will shift to steering (replacing everything) because of a death wobble issue, and suspension. We are planning to combine a body lift/level with a suspension lift. We want to run 35" 12.5" tires.
Feedback, comments, and suggestions for suspension and tire specs are welcome.
Having a ton of fun doing this rebuild.
