98 TJ that hasn't moved since 2012

mwarren

New Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2022
Messages
10
Location
Huntington, VT
I just acquired a 98 TJ (with the 2.5, 4cyl) from a neighbor. The jeep was his first car when he turned 16 and although he hasn't driven it since 2012, it has been sitting in his garage with the hopes of one day getting it back on the road. He finally decided he wasn't going to do anything with it and GAVE it to me for free.... He told me that I was the best chance the Jeep had to ever see the road again. I told him that once it was fixed back up, I'd let him take it for a ride whenever he wants.

My plan is to fix it up, make it solid and driveable and only use it in the summer for banging around back roads up here in Vermont. There is too much salt loaded on the roads for me to want to drive this in the winter. I will not be off-roading the jeep since I have other toys for that (snowmobile, side by side, motocross bikes, etc...). I just want to clean it up, and put a few thousand miles on it a year.

I have started tearing into it over the last three weeks and here is what I've done so far:

Replaced the power steering pump and high pressure hose (it was leaking and ran dry...)
Replaced the rear shocks (I put some cheap ones on until I know if I want to lift it or not...)
Replaced the Battery
Removed the transfer case linkage (it was frozen, need to replace it!)
Replaced the fuel tank skid plate pan (the old one was basically non-existent and the tank was half falling out...)
Removed the oil pan (i'm in the process of ordering a new one as the old one was leaking and rusty)
Removed the exhaust (had to get to the oil pan and want to replace the manifold anyway)
Removed the front fenders (they were rusty and need to be replaced so figured it was easier to work on the frame with them removed)

I'm thinking about having the frame repaired with Safe-T-Caps by Autorust in Rhode Island. I have two thoughts on this, one is just patch it up myslef and POR-15 it (for the amount of driving I'm going to do) or bring it to Auto Rust and have them sandblast everything, replace anything that needs it and undercoat the entire underneath of the jeep. This would last the longest and since I didn't pay anything for the jeep, I still wouldn't have much invested to have a jeep that is fully functional and solid for many years to come. If anyone has used Auto Rust in Rhode Island, let me know what you thought of the work they did and how it has held up over time.

Here are a few pics of the progress so far.

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Ooof...she's a salty girl. AutoRust is the place that invented the safety cap, so I'm sure they can do a great job repairing that frame. Gonna be spendy though...I bet you're looking at 3500 bucks or so to have it done.

Good Luck!
 
What a nice gesture from your neighbor! Congrats.
I'd be skipping the safe-t-caps and go for a complete frame donor.
 
Ooof...she's a salty girl. AutoRust is the place that invented the safety cap, so I'm sure they can do a great job repairing that frame. Gonna be spendy though...I bet you're looking at 3500 bucks or so to have it done.

Good Luck!
At that point I would think it's better to find a donor frame??
 
I have been slowly working on the jeep the last few weeks. This week I decided to take vacation since it's going to be beautiful here the entire week (Almost like mid summer in VT- It's been almost 80 the last two days and is going to be 90 by Friday). In the last few weeks I have done the following:
New Oil Pan gasket
New Valve cover gasket (the old one was just a bunch of silicone, no actual gasket was under the cover...)
Replaced the Transfer case linkage (with some factory stuff from the south west that was very clean and still had factory paint on it)
Replaced the exhaust Manifold (had to drill out a broken stud but was able to get it out without messing up the threads)
New Muffler and tailpipe
cleaned and de-greased the intake manifold, fuel rail, and all associated brackets

Today I started to wire wheel the frame and clean all the scale off the outside of the frame. It actually came off and cleaned up fairly well. I took my time and cleaned the frame with acetone and put on a coat of POR-15. I am doing the front half of the frame so I can get new fenders mounted in the next week or so. I am painting a coat of satin black topcoat over the POR-15 to protect it and give it less of a shiny look. I haven't done the inside of the shock tower or where the spring mounts but I'll be able to get at those fairly easily with the fenders installed. I want to be able to take the shock and spring out to make sure I get it all cleaned up nicely before I put any paint on it. I'm going to replace the shocks and springs so when I do that, it'll be easy enough to do it then.

I know the perfect scenario would be to do a frame swap but I don't have the space to do it inside and the weather in Vermont in not good enough to do it outside. Since I won't be driving the jeep a ton, I'll fix the center sections of the frame with Safe-T-Caps so the skid plate is nice and sturdy and that should work well for what I need.

Here are a few pics of my progress

Mike
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Time for an update. I have only been working on the jeep a bit the last week. I've had so many other things going on. After replacing the exhaust manifold and complete exhaust, the jeep had a very high idle. Turns out the intake manifold was slightly out on the bottom due to the dowel pins preventing the manifold from sitting flush. Once I took that all apart again, the problem was fixed. Jeep idles perfectly and the exhaust is nice and quiet now!
I replaced the oil pan with a new one along with a new gasket. That was successful in stopping my oil leak that was leaking directly onto the exhaust. I also replaced the valve cover gasket. There was no gasket on it, just a TON of silicone....What a mess that was to get clean! I have to replace the water pump and the heater pipe that comes out of the top of the water pump (It started leaking BAD). While I'm at it I'll replace the thermostat and clean everything up nicely. Seems like as I fix something, I find other things that need to be replaced. I suppose that's what happens when a vehicle sits for a really long time...It's probably better for it to be driven and have high miles, than to sit with low miles. It's still a fun project, I'm learning a ton about TJ's (I've never had a wrangler) and hoping that it'll be a decent driver when I'm done.

I'll try to get some updated pics in the next few days. I received my new fenders and I need to start thinking about painting them. That will be a two day job that I'll need to be prepared for ahead of time.
 
Got the new fenders primed and painted. Painted them outside in the yard. Had to battle a variety of conditions but was able to get them done and they turned out pretty good considering they weren't done in a paint booth and I've never painted basecoat/clearcoat before.... Here are a few pics of the progress.

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Made a little bit of progress in the last few weeks. Between High School Graduation (my oldest son) as well as a bunch of other commitments, the jeep has been on the back burner until this weekend. I was able to get some used springs (much lest rusty) and some new shocks installed. I also installed new brake calipers, pads and rotors as well as a new set of sway bar end links. The front end is shaping up fairly nicely. I'm sure I will be replacing other front end components but I'm trying to just get it back on the road for now and the things I can easily get to may have to be done a bit later. I also got one of the new front fenders mounted. The color is off slightly (my guess is the rest of the jeep is faded...) but it looks pretty good for a backyard paint job...


The next step is to install the frame caps for the center section that holds up the transmission pan. I'm hoping to get that all set in the next few days. Here are some pics of my progress the last few days.

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