Hillbilly Deluxe (Rye Guy's ol' black n tan)

[89 MJ]

Glad you’re back! 

[MancheKid86]

thanks!

I ended up prepping the inner doors andfenders with por 15, took a little bit to find the right dillution of the correct thinner  to por15

Once the por-15 was good and setup I started on sound deadening.
I picked up one box, which by my calculations... there should have been more to spare. yeah, I was wrong.
two more boxes later....

 

 

even inside the doors and pillars with it







let me tell you, papercuts aint got nothing on this stuff. its impressive how just a little piece can be so sharp!

[MancheKid86]

So there I was...

searching through amazon and there it was...
A deal too good to be true


Internal hub conversion for the scout II for about 500 canadian pesos
-Front axle is a scout II spicer 44 (tubed, sleeved, pumpkin swapped to drivers)
They even sent harddcore hubwith it FOR FREE!!! 

amazon messed up big time and saved me atleast a grand... or so I thought.





As this is a deal too good to be true, thats exactly what it is
-The hardcore hubs require 30 spline shafts
-Scout II outer shafts are 27 spline
-I have RCV's


My good deal is starting to seem like It wasnt really at all
now two 30 spline shafts had been sent, for more than the cost of the previous package


They arrive and as eager as I was, I went straight to work installing them

Well, With my luck thats it right? just assemble the rest and good to go
That is not the case


stub shafts no longer fit the OEM spindle

 

 

 

 

 

at this rate you can see, my good deal... may have been in the beginning been infact good.
but it wasn't in the end.


so back to yukon gear to get their spindles as well lmao






the rest of the process went as you would expect,
drive new races into hubs, hand pack the bearings
install seals  and suck studs through rotor/hub then install per yukon gears installation literature










I am excited for the interal hubs. as the external are inferior and broke all the time

hindsight, if I had known how much I would have to buy to get it all working right. 

I would have just did a big bearing/knuckle conversion from another vehicle which would have given me everything
except the hardcore hubs (obvious answer would be just to invest in 1 tons lmao)

but it's done

 

[Salvagedcircuit]

What an update! Excellent work!

[MancheKid86]

I had a friend who wanted a 90 cherokee Country HO swaped
in return I could have everything, and I mean everything renix.







so in all the goodies I have acquired an entire Renix XJ Country wiring harness this includes
-power locks/mirriors/window actuators
-power seat harness (sadly the powere drivers seat  wasnt there)
-ambient air temp sensor
-over head unit
 

 

 

would you believe, the 90 xj harness even though its renix is not directly compatible with the mj?

I've spent multiple hours and countless wiring diagrams to build a hybrid harness and combine the two, end to end
everysingle wire had been labeled, and followed to each termination. 

any wire that had to be replaced, has been depinned from the fuse box and the full length has been placed in the harness. no splices all OEM. you can't even tell it's been heavily modified



excuse the mess. but this multple harnesses astrewn. I mean they were even hanging from the ceiling (not pictured, but i assure you they are)
and basically the only picture I have of the wiring

besides cleaning up these tailight sockets

the wiring is complete like I said end to end.
there are a few things I need to tie in still but I need to wait till its in the truck to finish those.


 

 

[MancheKid86]

I had been asking a friend about some rockslider material for well over a year
finally he delivered 14 feet of 2x6 3/16th rectangular tubing

originally was going to use them as air tanks as well, but after some research 1/4 wall thickness was the minimum recomended ( wouldnt that be nice to turn these into cylindrical shapes and the doors not open )

this is what ties the ENTIRE truck together. In order to have them installed its needed to fit every panel to the truck since they all intersect







In order to fit the sliders a siginificant amount of rocker repairs were needed.
thus I was tasked with removing my first attemps of sheet metal repairs on the truck (man they were SO BAD)
both the drivers and passenger rockers were in the same state. 
So I was tasked with removing the crude repairs which included removing some of my sound deading I worked so hard on

once the crude repairs were removed. I was able to proceed on making the rest of the new peices for the upper and lower rockers









The Drivers side wasn't In any better condition

 

 

Finally, I had enough material to weld in the rock sliders
but first I needed to fit the box to the truck, ( rear bumper is intergral to the frame and has sliders in the way of box corners)
 

I had cut lower than the needed dimensions because I wanted to roll edges on the material to maintain rigidity
the pie cuts will be welded once the box is off again 

 

and just like that It fits!

 

 

 

 

[MancheKid86]

Now I think we are caught up to the final photo on page 4

The truck bed fits and time to finish fitting the sliders
Time to line up where needs to be trimmed







after a cut and fold and removing a pile of bondo on the lower quarter they fit not bad







back to where I picked up the steel to have them trimmed and ends cut at a 45 and capped 





final test fit prior to some rattle can and being welded in

the rockers were siginificantly thinner than the slider material so I wasnt doing any stringers
I mean I could have on the new material, but my bend tests prior to welding them to the truck proved this was adequate penetration. 

once fully welded they became my lifting points for my jacks....

for the next project!

[MancheKid86]

And then....


I started cuttin.

 

 

 

 

after what seemed like eternity I had all the debris removed from the unibody
Let me tell you... I have over 30 hours of grinding in the control arm areas.
the upper control arm mounts have been torn out and off of the unibody so many times there was an obscene amount of weld.

it was like going through the layers of time in your grandparents deep freeze.

after all of it was removed and cleaned up, the new suspension went in!

 

 

yes, there is droop!

tires back on, checking clearances. will have to put in steering stops so the lugs don't contact the control arms. (took them out so long ago, I'm sure they are labeled in a bag haha)

 

suspension will be dialed in last, just need it in to have it rolling for the paintbooth at the end of the month

onto the last of the rust repair!

I have seperated the skin from the wheel wells, today I will cut the affected areas off the box and beadroll some new

[MancheKid86]

both sides removed, reveals the rot inside the well itself
I will be welding the two seams together, instead of the cut and fold. this is why I cut it the way I did

 

afterwards I spent the time to strip all the bondo out of the truck box and weld the piecuts where I cut/folded the taillight corners.

I wish I knew how to read brail because this boxside would tell a story. who ever did the body work just beat all the high spots down with a hammer and bondo'd over top. 






My old fenders went under the knife, removed the frames from them and used them as templates for the new fenders
this is why I was not concerned about the rust on the flares

 

 

I need to make  some sort of tab on the rock sliders for the bottom of the fender to mount 

[MancheKid86]

well after trimming the front fenders an idea popped into my head
why not just use front fenders for the rear arches? 

over the years on CC I have read they are slightly different. So... I cut up some perfecly good fenders and seen how off they were







they are indeed different, the arches are in different spots.
but for me, that doesnt matter. The wheel well is rotten anyways so I can just remake the inners to be bit higher so I can weld the seams together.


 

[neohic]

I love seeing consistent updates on this truck again!! 

[MancheKid86]

On 9/10/2024 at 6:22 PM, neohic said:

I love seeing consistent updates on this truck again!! 

thanks!

 

years ago, my favourite build to follow "mfpdm's wrenches gone wild" just stopped posting... weeks went to months, months went to years.(OG build, pre H3RESQ)

I just couldnt understand why, I thought to myself, could never be me I won't stop for anything.
but... here I am seeing myself now in somewhat of the same circumstance,  it has been almost if not 5 years since I blew the  famous "4.5L Poor Mans Stroker"

Spoiler

to those who do not know, Robert Bryce Aka the OG builder of this truck is infact RYE GUY, and this truck and motor are infact THE truck and motor

and the truck is still sitting there, waiting.... to be finished.

 

well.. anyways while working on the truck box I noticed the front passenger corner was buckled, from seeing how much bondo was in the side of it I can understand why.



I clamped a 2x8 to the box and jused an assortment of hammers and c clamps to straighten it back out
as you can see I was using more of the cherokee fender to patch a little rotten bit on the box



just like that no more crease


added some extra metal inside the wheel well, here you can see I have trimmed the inner seam, it has been fully welded to the outer skin

and then slowly tacked it in place and fit the inside of the wheel well.





the seams are now fully welded, just need to weld the pie cuts where I needed to stretch the metal into the arch, since the front fender arch is about 1" higher than what was there previously
afterwards trim the remaning lip  to match the rest of the wheel well

Cut and fold would have been alot simpler, but the upper arch was just not there and this should hold up a bit longer . 

[MancheKid86]

There is a bit of a valley in the middle of the panels I need to address, nothing a bit of stud gun action won't fix.
its getting body filler regardless, as you can see the passenger side is textured like a golfball,  so it's okay. 

I am happy with the end results, the arches turned out fairly decent.

just waiting on a few simple things to be machined, but now moving onto prepping for the paint booth at the end of the month.


 

[MancheKid86]

I had a few pinholes I needed to address prior to paint
then afterwards I started paint stripping.

all exterior paint/bodyfiller is being removed for a fresh start
so far I have done both doors and fenders, half the roof, hood and box

B pillars have alot of filler I need to remove tomorrow
but its coming along nicely







everything will be neutralized with more chemicals afterwards, gunwash then metal prep and then wax and grease remover. 

getting closer to having it ready for paint/filler

[MiNi Beast]

Almost have me inspired to take on such a project myself. Almost almost.  

Keep up the great progress. 

[MancheKid86]

12 hours ago, MiNi Beast said:

Almost have me inspired to take on such a project myself. Almost almost.  

Keep up the great progress. 

100% not going into this much detail again.

I have a tracker that is built on tons and a smallblock in it.
when it gets the 46's put on and the new links made its not going to be pretty, just functional.

I feel like this truck deserves this much of a restoration though, regardless on how  its going to look after a few night wheels. since afterall it is a piece of 4wd history. 





another day of stripping yeilded good results.  after I finish the driver side of the box I just need to tackle the intake plenum, A pillars and then decide if I am stripping the two surfaces between the cab and box, since  not much can ever access them. 






and here Is my paint collection. about 95% of the old paint made it in the bucket.

 

 

[MiNi Beast]

don't eat the paint chips. 

[A-man930]

Sorry if you've mentioned it, but how are you stripping the paint? 

[MancheKid86]

On 9/25/2024 at 6:41 AM, A-man930 said:

Sorry if you've mentioned it, but how are you stripping the paint? 

I am using a methylene chloride base paint stripping gel.
brush it on and let it do the work, scrape it off and re apply.
once the gel flashes off from the chips I just swept it up off the plywood into a dust pan and in the bucket.
its nasty stuff but if you don't get any on you its not so bad




The panels have now been chemically etched and have a  zinc phosphate coating, this includes the cab


applying the metal prep
 


and the end results















I submit my paint order tomorrow
it will be epoxied, body filler then hi build

final color will be metallic cyber grey

 

 

 

[MancheKid86]

still working away

paint has arrived


 

 

 

 

realized I didn't have a tailgate for the truck
the rest of my collection just had too much rust and other defects to deal with time wise,
so I picked the best one and stripped it down.

currently adding the bondo back into the truck. then it will be epoxied and hibuilt 

and then comes the lipstick lmao


 

[MancheKid86]

Let me tell you, is it hard to find a half decent priced paintbooth for "rent" around these parts.

eventually found one but it took a few weeks to line up a time I could get in
I was just going to prime it outside if the weather allowed me too but it ended up getting too cold sooner than I had hoped


I spent three and a half days tediously razorblading all the paint off of the wiper cowl. this was a very miserable process.
if your thinking doing all the paint prep yourself and if there is reman of these I would 100% buy the raw unpainted version of this cowl.



the hood, drivers fender and front clip I spent my time prepping were NFG. so I went and sourced some new to me pannels and stripped them down





new to me front clip had the classic rotten fasteners
so I drilled them all out and refibreglassed them





test fit of the new  chrome and lenses. I think they are going to look great





tow truck blew me off last week (I wish I had my own trailer lmao) so I had to rebook booth time and finally got in today!









all epoxied and between coats of hibuild primer!



you can't even tell that the box has been bobbed!

 

 

there are a few small dents I missed when doing the bodywork so I will have to address them when I block the primer. but finally some real progress. 
 

[JZLAJeep]

Looks good!