I have a 1982 CJ-7 that's in okay shape, but starting to show its age. I'd like to replace all the body bushings, generally clean the body up, have someone smooth out a couple of rough spots, and get a really good paint job.
Has anyone written up a good way to approach removing & reinstalling the body on a CJ?
Thanks, Heath
I did a body swap on my CJ-7 early this year. Pretty straight forward. It was my first time for anything like it.
Somethings I found were; remove wiring harness from firewall-NOT from back of dash!!! leave the gauges connected remove axle, transmission, gas tank vents BEFORE you have the body lifted. it's best to use 5 people to move body. 4 to lift and one with light to keep an eye on things under body. now is the time to do frame repair, exhaust and suspension work. use POR 15 everywhere to stop rust dead. air tools are a must in advance, liberally douse all bolts with PB blaster, its great at cutting rust get Sears Craftsman torx bit set and be ready to hit the store for replacements when you round them off. replace body mounts, motor mounts, and transmission mounts- lots of room to work now use all new bolts everywhere- not worth compromising with stressed worn bolts. digital cameras are great-use them for reassembly and bragging rights about what you have done. take your time and enjoy what you will have when finished
Good Luck
-- HAV-A-GOOD 1
Chuck
Asking for divine intervention comes to mind.... ;-)
I can dig around and see if I can find a diagram someone sent me where to drill the holes to start soaking all the nutserts or spot welded nuts inside the tub rails two or three weeks before you want to try the job. I guess most would be obvious, drill a hole in the tub rail side just above the center of the mount from the bottom or measure carefully up top and drill and spray the crap out of it with a 'good' penetrating oil like PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench or pick your favorite...
Same for the fender and grill bolts, start soaking everything every day for a while before starting.
If you don't need to drill to just spray through a rust hole on the body mounts, have serious second or third thoughts about doing that job easily....
When I removed my 86 tub, not one bolt came out. I got lucky and snapped a bunch, but had to grind the heads off the ones that spun the nut inside the body frame. A SawsAll wouldn't even just cut through the mount, it has a center tube that 'acted' like stainless to a saw blade and the rubber started it to overheat and smoke out before it would cut.
Most of the ones I see around here would need new tub channel rails here and there with new nuts welded in and/or a new floor pan. One friend got a new front floor pan new I think for $65.00, but that didn't have rails for the mounts on it.
CJ bodies weren't galvanized like YJ ones, so I see YJ ones just a year newer that still are almost fine to unbolt. Only one or two go bad, not all of them.
Other than that, it is a fairly easy job. You take it apart from the front. Grill and rad all together, just undo the hoses and unplug the lights, then the inner and outer fenders just unbolt as a unit, leave everything on them, the wires and hoses unplug easy from the front of the tub and there you go.
Don't disconnect or unplug anything that you don't have to unless you are thinking on cleaning up and replacing connections, vacuum hoses, etc. They won't break or mess up if you don't touch them, unplug stuff, and, well, I did and ended up replacing most of the plugs and sockets, vacuum hoses, etc. Mine were rotten. Just as well I checked them.... A friend stripped a couple GM vans down and gave me one of the harnesses for a bit of work for him. All my stock CJ7 wiring parts/plugs are GM except the coil and starter which are Ford.
If you are going to do that much work I would tackle under the windshield hinges too, that is a high rot area.
The fuse panel back has a center bolt, undo that and pull the two plugs off and 99% of the wiring is disconnected from the tub. The engine and fenders/grill have independent harnesses that plug into the back of the fuse panel there.
Use masking or cloth tape and label every freaking thing you unplug! Believe me, even if you know where everything is supposed to go having labels is just 'sooo' much easier, saves having to bust your brains when putting it back.
I couldn't find the power line for the freaking heater blower motor when I put my fiberglass body on!!!
There was an extension wire on the old motor I had tossed in the junk pile I didn't know about, the new GM monster blower motor I put in didn't have it....
I used a 3" wide snatch strap and ran it length wise down the center under and up and tied it solid to the top center of the roll bar. I then used a hand cable winch up to a tree in my driveway and winched it up and off. I rolled the chassis out of the way and dropped it down onto a 4 wheeled metal frame to roll it around. Sort of anyway....
The floor fell out, back tailgate door fell off, the front cowl bent forward and I was left with the fenders and cowl flopping around on the roll bar mounts... Good thing the strap was there.
The center of gravity on mine for a nice straight lift was about a foot in front of the roll bar with the windshield off.
Meanwhile, 4 guys will have no real trouble lifting the tub off. If you just want to replace mounts, undo the front center mount, then one side at a time, jack it up, replace and do the other side, then the center last.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT'sHeath Roberts wrote:
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