Gjeep Posted September 30, 2020 Author Share Posted September 30, 2020 Au naturale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjeep Posted October 12, 2020 Author Share Posted October 12, 2020 Labor of love continues...Been spending most of my spare time/ weekends over the past 2 weeks getting the MJ's body perfect for paint. And was surprised to find even NOS doors and hood have dents! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiNi Beast Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 you would have fun on my mj with black marker. sheer beauty project. I'm anxious to see how the paint goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Mistress Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Door gaps are perfect ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiatslug87 Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 2 hours ago, Red Mistress said: Door gaps are perfect ! We expect nothing less from G. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjeep Posted October 13, 2020 Author Share Posted October 13, 2020 Appreciate the kudos -- I'm all for sanding by hand. Takes longer but more controlled results. As the body gets ship-shape I've also been working on the seats in the wee-hours. As many of you are familiar, these old AMC-era seats are a chore to take the seat skins off. Disassembly is far from fun -- removing the roll pins that holds the little tumble knob on takes an insane amount of patience so not to do damage the knob. The skins did put up a good fight but I finally got them off. There are 2 small rubber 'bumpers' mounted on the bottom of the topside of the seatback on 2-dr XJ/ MJ seats. These were either completely gone or mostly flat. Though I do have NOS of these for my '89 MJ project, they were no longer available anywhere so I've source some similar hardware store replacements. I cleaned, degreased, sanded and then painted (satin black) the seat frames. Cushions and side bolsters have been gone through and replaced accordingly. For the most part, the driver's seat bottom was mush and the outside facing bolsters both driver and passenger side needed replacing. Tomorrow morning the NOS '87 vintage upholstery (XJ & YJ variants) will be brought to the upholstery shop and stitched together as the crude sketch/colored notes I provided. XJ Limited style stitching, but with matching black piping (a la Laredo style seats). I prefer this vintage Jeep to have piping on the seats -- it just looks right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted October 13, 2020 Share Posted October 13, 2020 If you don't mind me asking, what did you end up with for your door gap along the top of the door frame? On both of my trucks, I've had problems getting that gap to look nice while also properly compressing the door seal - getting it to properly compress the seal makes the top of the door sink in too far AND makes the rest of the door compress the seal so much that the door becomes very hard to close. I figure if anyone spent the time to get it right, it'd be you. If only I could get a factory fresh MJ to take measurements and reference pics from... The XJ Limited style seat covers are my all time favorite seat design of any vehicle ever. I'm sure it'll look great. As someone who's taken apart more of these AMC seats than I can remember, I try to leave stuff in its factory condition, but I've got my limits - I just drilled that stupid roll pin hole through the other side of the tilt knob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjeep Posted October 15, 2020 Author Share Posted October 15, 2020 I found black M4 allen heads that fit perfectly into the rubber bushing for the underside of the top half of the seat frame from where it touches the bottom seat frame (latching area). The issue with the factory bushings from my perspective is they have about 1/8" of 'air' (not solid rubber) between the top surface and the bolt which fastens them to the seat frame. (Photo below on a spare seat frame I have.) What ends up happening (even with a low mileage MJ/XJ) is the top of that bolt tears through the rubber and cuts the bottom of the seat vinyl. Same as the bottom of the seat chrome latch sound mounting screws cuts through the top of the seat vinyl in the in between area. These rubber bushings I got are solid and the allen round will help them keep their shape. For the chrome latch area simple black velcro fuzzy side dots will be used at the contact point on the vinyl in between topside. Jeep upholstery has been dropped off for stitching with and ETA of 2-3 weeks. I'm going to check out their progress next Friday once all is cut-up. Looking forward to seeing the seats come together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Mistress Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 Dang I'm going to have check on the XJ Chief see if it's not too late save. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjeep Posted October 18, 2020 Author Share Posted October 18, 2020 Taking a break from body work on the weekend and took some time to dissect the unique only to 1990 XJ/MJ vanity visor (which has the black mirror assembly inside...probably only important to me as I'm converting my '92 to a black interior...and '90+ is when the shorter sun visors came into being). First off, this one year only part is hard to come by -- so I heat up the thin plastic clips that hold the two plastic visor sides together. There's a total of nine that need to be carefully pried apart (and not broken) as these are how the 'teeth' on the inside area of this assembly holds the foam backed material into place. Two small flat screwdrivers are used in tandem at each clip location to carefully pry things apart. This was the first time I actually disassembled this years sun visor, and as seen in the photo below, this one year only item is quite different from the '91-'01 XJ visor assemblies. The '90 visor has the bulbs and copper runs as in and as part of the main visor. The newer style (at right) is a vanity mirror concealed unit. As far as replacing light bulbs goes, the first gen style I prefer. It's a hell of a lot easier to pop-out that mirror unit, than it is to pop-out just the clear lens of the newer style. I've cracked a lens both times I needed to change a vanity bulb on my '01 XJ. It's maddening, as I am very careful. The final challenging step of disassembly is pulling out the sun visor clip that retains in in place in the vehicle. the dual plastic hoops the hold the thick plastic pin in place need to be carefully pinched together while carefully pulling in out. This insures the visor sides can be full opened and new material put into place. and since the XJ I pulled this from had a Cordovan color interior, I need to paint the 3 screw mounting metal bracket black. Again, this was unique to 1990 -- that the mounting bracket is painted the vehicles interior color. All other years, this bracket is a generic black. Final step is swapping the vanity mirror lid with the Ford units that I found were similar a couple months back, as the XJ units again were the color of their given interior. I have several more of these visors to pull apart successfully (for both the '89 and current '92 MJ build). Good times! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjeep Posted October 23, 2020 Author Share Posted October 23, 2020 I stopped by the upholstery shop working on my MJ's seats this afternoon to see how things were coming along...Happy to seat the one of two seats is about 60% together and looking great! Couldn't be happier with his work and how the upholstery looks together! Supposed to be done in a about a week. Then I'm going to turn him to updating some factory door panels along the same lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiNi Beast Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 oh nice. i like it with the piping. good details. admiration good sir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joeyv12503 Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 I just went through the build thread. You’re attention to detail is impressive and I love the build. Those seats are gunna look killer. Great touch in my opinion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjeep Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 It's block sand Wednesday. Hoping to get it all done today and redo any issue areas/ low spots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjeep Posted October 31, 2020 Author Share Posted October 31, 2020 Super excited with the results on the MJ's seats. Just picked these up tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMO413 Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 Beautiful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiNi Beast Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 ill take a set please. very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjeep Posted November 9, 2020 Author Share Posted November 9, 2020 Busy end of week/ weekend -- Painted the MJ inside and out...jambs, cab, bed, etc. Done! Masked like hell so not to get any overspray! Will see how successful that was once I tear the masking off. Polishing all the parts and pieces, and aiming for completed (shell) re-assembly this weekend then back home it comes. (Bed photo work-in-progress polish.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89 MJ Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 Looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiatslug87 Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 Which grey did you end up spraying? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjeep Posted November 9, 2020 Author Share Posted November 9, 2020 1992 MJ/ XJ factory silver, but the paint code pulled 2 versions of the silver -- when I shot test panels I went with the one that had a bit smokey-er hue. Matched the "Jeep" logo'd upholstery lettering perfectly. The other factory silver was a bit darker and more gray. Anyway, simple answer... I went with factory 'Silver Star Metallic'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kryptronic Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 15 hours ago, Gjeep said: Anyway, simple answer... I went with factory 'Silver Star Metallic'. Looks beautiful, G. My 91 is Silver Star Metallic and seeing yours in progress makes me want to start on mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMO413 Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 That looks amazing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjeep Posted November 13, 2020 Author Share Posted November 13, 2020 The MJ's home and I'm exhausted... Showroom shiny. Seems like forever to get to this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse J Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 I would never want to put anything in that bed. too shiny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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