A time to break down, and a time to build (the LJ) up

I’ve found the heat gun to be a tremendous help. I haven’t stripped any of the torx heads I’ve tackled, even on 1997 half-door hinges. The breaker bar is great for applying controlled force with one hand while the other hand keeps the bit firmly in the bolt head.
 
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That A-bracket that ties the upper hinge to the roll bar is genius.
 
It was a long process with the half doors, but they’re finally coming together. I decided to repaint them completely. I have essentially no experience prepping and painting but the results are… satisfactory.

Lots of Parts had to be replaced, but fortunately the latches were good.
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I acquired an OEM Dark Khaki soft top and it is time to get rid of the old damaged pocket flares I'd painted tan. The tan experiment paid off: the SEM Color Coat held up quite well, but I couldn't get a soft top to match.

I went with standard width flares, which means my tires are going to stick out an inch or two, but I'm ok with that for now. Eventually I'd like to go to 33x10.5s and ditch my wheel spacers.

First is scrubbing the new flare with Simple Green and a gray scuff pad.

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Next, the adhesion promoter. 5-10 minutes to dry then apply the Color Coat. This is their version of the Chrysler J3 Khaki interior color that came on the '06's.


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I like the color; it goes well with the red and should match the dark khaki top fairly well.
 
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Painting the first half door left red mist dusted over nearly everything in my garage. Not fun to clean up. So for the second door I enclosed my power rack with drapes to contain the spray.

I don't have time to clear coat tonight, so I'll let the base coat dry, do a bit of wet sanding, then clear another day.

Slowly they're coming together!

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Squat rack paint booth…. That is awesome.. great job on the build.
 
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I want to see it with the khaki top. 👍🏼
I wasn’t able to install it immediately because the pin brackets on the door surrounds were incompatible. It took a few weeks to get the correct brackets, but by then I’d taken the Jeep to Texas and left the top in Colorado. I will reunite them in July, but until then I have to use my imagination.
 
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Update on the half-doors: they came without outer door handle gaskets, and I couldn't locate any replacements, so I bought some gasket material from Summit Racing and made my own. They're not beautiful but should do the job.

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The old 7" pocket flares are officially gone, 2-1/2 years after I bought the jeep. The tan color I'd painted them was fine, but since there are no soft tops available in a similar shade, I went with a light khaki color for painting the new OEM style flares. I think it will look ok with the dark khaki soft top I bought... I hope.

I also had the local paint shop color match a 1K paint to the dark khaki soft top (I have one window with me for the moment), and used it to repaint the Rubicon rock rails I got last year from @rasband . It's a decent color, but I would never have called it 'khaki.' It's a dark gray with a dark olive hue. My wife says it still goes with the Flame Red, but it'll still be a few months before I can assemble the whole package.

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I installed the driver-side rock rail last week. I attached the rubber gasket to the rail with 2 long strips of 1/4" double-sided automotive tape from 3M. The paint is a 1K and will scratch easily, so I put a 3" strip of XPEL film over the top of the rail that I use as a step. We'll see how long it holds up.

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Half-door saga, continued…

I discovered that even though the new weatherstripping fit into the plastic track of the older doors, it was too bulky to allow the doors to close. I could have raised the striker I suppose, but then it would be out of alignment with my full doors.

I ended up removing the old track completely. Since I didn’t have the paper template others have mentioned for drilling new holes, I decided to use the holes that were already there, about 6 total, and used Scotch mounting tape to anchor the strip in between

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We’ll see how long it lasts. I can always go with a Permatex-type adhesive in the future. So far so good with the no-drill option!
 
I acquired a set of door panels from a forum member and have been using them for a few months. While I like the tan color, it doesn't match the the other shades of khaki/tan I've already got, so I decided to paint them. SEM Color Coat again; it's good stuff.

BEFORE:

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AFTER:
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I finally reunited the OEM Khaki top with the LJ. I think it matched the color on the rock rails pretty well and I like the overall look.

The hardware isn’t compatible where it anchors to the door surround. The old top is Rugged Ridge and apparently it has it’s own surrounds and header. So I may be reaching out to Bestop for those replacement plastic parts…
 
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After a bit more looking, it seems I’m dealing with the fact that Jeep redesigned the LJ Sunrider feature halfway through 2005. While my old windows are Rugged Ridge, the frame itself is almost certainly Factory, are are the surrounds. The door surrounds are the later design; the frame that came with the khaki top is the older design.

For now I’m going to leave the brackets/pins disconnected. It seems they’re only needed for the sunrider configuration, which I tried a few times and didn’t particularly like.
 
The Jeep’s been sitting since October, and when I started it today it made a LOUD squealing/grinding noise. I thought alternator or idler pulleys (the tensioner was replaced last year).

I started searching the forum for info on pinpointing the source when I cane across the “laughing monkey” OPDA threads.

I took off the drive belt and started the engine, and the noise continued unabated.




I’m pretty convinced it’s the OPDA so I’m searching for the Crown part.
What do you think?
 
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I looked for the Crown OPDA, but it was out of stock in a few places. I’m in a hurry to get it fixed because I have only a week here in CO, so I located a Dorman part at a nearby O’Reilly’s this evening and got it installed.

Really not too difficult a job; I did it solo except for having one of my kids watch the rotating cap to line up the holes and check the tick mark on the harmonic balancer for the TDC position while I turned the crankshaft from below.

Before I reinstalled the accessory belt, I started the engine and was quite relieved to find that the laughing monkeys had departed!


 
The 13mm bolt on the assembly hold-down bracket was a bit difficult; all I had available was a set of stubby wrenches but two together worked great.

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