87Warrior

It is at the body shop. The body shop guy was pretty disappointed in the fit and finish of the C2C floor pans, but he said he will massage them into place. Last Wednesday he had the driver side rear pan installed. He has a rust free '86 MJ in his paint booth that he is working on. I hope to get down there sometime to take some progress pictures. I did get the Warn VR8000 delivered. I will start test fitting it on the donor to get started on the hidden winch plate. Warn VR8000. Warn's first entry level winch...meaning reasonably priced, but backed by the Warn warranty. I will start fitting the Hidden Winch design on my donor XJ before pulling the motor. Have to verify clearances.

I would like to thank the 'Club for the opportunity to be a part of MJOTM. It is such an honor to be a part of the 'elite' group of MJ's. Thanks! Yeah, I know I am slow :rotfl2: Luckily I am not under a huge time constraint to get it done, so I can take my time. Thank you for all the kind words as I continue this build. I desperately want to sit behind the steering wheel and drive it.

I am on vacation assistance duty with my grandparents in Asheville, NC but am sickened that I can't make the short drive south the help out the tornado ravished communities. I do know that several of the tree crews I work with at Kansas City Power and Light have gone down to clear trees from the downed power lines. Don, good luck keeping the beer cold. I hope the best for you, your family and community.

It is nice to see more MJ love across the internet. Unfortunately, I suspect many of those 'other' forums will end up spreading false MJ 'facts' without backing up the facts as many locate here do. I've got no beef with NAXJA besides it size.

What a terrible loss. From the sounds of it, he was nothing short of being a hero and was a loving father. He did what any father would have done.

I have found that I do not desire to own another MJ. But I want to save them all from the scrap yards. My hands are full keeping my TJ maintained and working on my MJ. I did enjoy driving the MJ more than the TJ back when it was running. I have a sinking suspicion I may desire to sell my beloved TJ once my MJ gets all built up. Only time will tell.

Found my MJ D44 by searching 'commanche'. Guy said he hadn't had a call in weeks about it and kept dropping the price. I just smiled and handed over the money. :hmm:

:clapping: Its a cool car to start with. Add the sentimental value to it and it is plain awesome. I love stories like that!

Good looking AMX you have there... Does it run?

Good call avoiding the soda blasting. It does not etch the metal like other medias. POR loves etched metal. I am looking forward to see what you do with this truck. It should be very nice :thumbsup:

Your best bet would be to get the vehicle weight on the axle with the trackbar/drag link disconnected. Center the axle then measure.

Yes. Twice according to the carfax. I bought the truck with no bumper, I suspect it was pretzel-ed. The rear frame is going to be repaired along with the front frame rail around the bumper as it is also deformed. One of the previous owners must have had no clue where the passenger side of the truck was. The body shop has the tools to fix it properly. He did say I might need to re-treat those areas with POR if a lot of heat is needed to get it pushed/pulled into shape.

I have a set of UCA's and LCA's with 30K miles on them. Came off a Rubi. I was going to use them on my truck, but I will now be lifting it too high to use the stock CA's. Shipping might be a killer though, unless you can wait until August 1st when I come to CO for some wheeling.

That is a clean truck

Yeah... but at least the MJ has a BOX! AMC did not cap the XJ behind the seats and call it a truck. The whole JK8 seems very silly to me. Unless we are talking about the Egyptian drivetrain.

I really like the Ranger 3rd brake light. Any idea what year truck it came from? I would like to add one when I start installing my interior.

Awhile :rotf: I don't really know how long it will take to be complete. I do know the guy doing the work is pretty slow but does expectational work. I figure a few weeks to get the floors, rockers and cab corners done then a month or so to get the paint done. But, a slow paint job won't slow me down. Now I need to work on pulling the motor out of the donor and rebuild, rebuild the axles, gather suspension components and get my hidden winch built.

Thanks Trevor! It is far from show quality, but its turning out far better than I ever imagined. If you start at the beginning of my build you will notice I initially did not plan on doing this much work to the truck.... It got a little out of hand :rotfl2: You've got it. I stuck the spray wand into every opening along the frame, at least 3 times, to try and coat everything inside the rails. Before I sprayed the POR, I sprayed Marine Clean and Metal Ready in there with the gun since it was not sand blasted.

The Warn VR8000 is en route! :brows: Ordered it on Monday and got shipping confirmation Wednesday.

Figured I should post some pre-paint pictures. When I hung the doors I simply installed the 97+ striker using one bolt through the factory MJ location. It held the doors shut, but was spaced to far out and was only 1/2 installed. I looked into the B-Pillar and wiggled my Dremel tool in there with a cut off wheel to remove the factory nut plate. If you are familiar with the B-Pillar there is not much room back there. I gave up on trying to cut the nut plate out. Instead I drilled out the 4 spot weld that hold the nut plate AND backing plate in there. I will let the body shop guy position the striker pin after the hinges are repaired so it fits and closes perfectly. While searching for a Dakota bench seat to use in the truck, I accidentally came across an ad for a 22 gallon (87-95?) OBDI Dakota fuel tank. Did lots and lots of sanding and scuffing on the uni-frame's POR15 and Tie-Coat so I could apply Chassis Black. Got two coats of Chassis Black on the uni-frame. If you have been following my build, you know I sprayed the inside of my frame with POR15. Here is a picture inside the driver rear frame rail... :brows: And a shot of the cab's frame rails with the cap and floor removed: (its dusty...) Located MORE rust!!!! This is the upper portion of the driver side A-pillar/kick panel and bottom of the Cowl. For those of you who solely blame the clutch MC or fuse panel, you better peel back the seam sealer and double check. I have confirmation that I can drop the truck off at the body shop this weekend :clapping: He was ready for me last week, but then had an emergency paint project to do..... a horse carriage. :rotf: He will start with the rockers, cab corners and floors. Then only to be followed by paint! Whoo hoo!

:wrench: Neat. He has more patience than I do. I feel like I should work on my Comanche now. I have been in the process of repainting it.

The JK conversion is neat but I still can't call it a pickup. Pickup trucks must have a gap between the cab and bed. Plus, I think the MJ looks much better!

Am I the only one bothered by the axle and wheel well not being centered? That was the first thing I noticed about that truck. The bed looks like an old military trailer.

Get an engine leveler so you can balance it while it comes out. Napa, ORiely, Autozone should sell them maybe rent them too. I pulled with the transmission and transfercase attached. Pointers? - make sure the tcase linkage is disconnected, completely - pull radiator, header and hood - unbolt the motor mount from the frame instead of from the motor. The mount will get in the way - I chained it at the AC/alternator bracket up front then crossed the head to the back head stud and fastened the chain with grade 8 hardware. I removed the valve cover since there was slight pressure on it from the chain.

I only removed the tank and parking brake junction. Its not much work. Tank: - Spray J hooks with PB Blaster - Disconnect fuel lines and wiring from pump - unbolt J hooks and let tank down slowly - while down there trace bed harness to a junction point and disconnect Parking brake block: - spray bolts going into bottom of bed with PB Blater - Remove bolts and let block assembly hang Spare tire winch and exhaust hanger are bolted to the frame.