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1991 YJ Restoration and build up project begins

8K views 21 replies 7 participants last post by  SwatCop 
#1 ·
It has been 10yrs since I had my daughter was born and I had to sell my old YJ and last Saturday I finally bought another one!!! :punk: I just bought a 1991 YJ with a Renegade body, hardtop, huge 17" of lift, 40" mud tires, V8 5.2 Magnum, Auto trans, blah, blah, blah you get the idea.... I originally bought to keep at my other home in FL and to be a toy and an occasional driver/ badazz toy at the same time.... I was going to do just some necessary modifications to make it more streetable and stable and over time I was going to fix it up and build it up but now since I live in Maryland most of the time and I have a lot of time on my hands my buddy has talked me into us doing a body off restoration and buildup and since I have nothing but time (semi-medically retired) I decided that it will be a fun project and keep me busy. So now my goals to get this YJ in good shape and to clean it up, fix any problems with it, paint it and get this thing looking like the badazz YJ it is supposed to be.

I just got back down to Florida on 11/22 and my YJ is back in Maryland and this is killing me but I am getting plenty of ideas while I am down here and I have been ordering parts to get ready for the project. Initial work is going to begin on 12/2 when I get back. I plan on taking tons of pics during this project, I will have many questions and I would like to hear advice from people on here along the way. :confused: In fact my very next post on here will have the first few of many questions to come along with some of my current plans and parts that I have ordered, hope everyone follows me on my new project!!! :pop: I am hoping that this thread will help others, help me, share a few ideas, show my progress, exploit any pitfalls of a project like this as well as the benefits…

Keep posted!!!
 

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#2 ·
First things first, planning stage!!!

- To start with I have never been a fan of the Renegade bodies so I have already got some steel front fenders coming!

- I am planning on a full body off restoration. Surprisingly I am working with a solid chassis and body with no rust except for right around the windshield I can see some blisters.

- (PROBLEM) This jeep was lifted so high and with such large tires it is right down dangerous on the road since there are no stabilizers on the front steering linkages and there is no ladder bar to keep the axle wrap in control so every rut and grove on the road you are gone and every time you start to accelerate harder than a gentle start you can hear the U-joints binding and you can feel the axle torque out and twist. (FIX) I have already ordered the Rancho dual steering stabilizer with additional stabilizer to control the main linkage that should take care of the steering play, then I am going to be fabricating a single ladder bar to keep the axle wrap under control while allowing articulation (I’ll add a pics of my plan later) I am using my plan and ideas from Skyjackers 4th link for YJ’s to develop something that is perfect for my application.

- When I first got the YJ home I realized that the radiator core was a mess and had a decent size leak so I have ordered a new 4 tube billet aluminum radiator and a new trans cooler

- Brake lights don’t work (I have to figure this one out later but in the scheme of things this is going to be a simple fix, lol)

- Planning out my paint scheme now!!! (FOR THE BODY) I think I am going to go with an orange base with a orange/ copper candy pearl and a gold ghost pearl finish (FOR THE CHASSIS) I want it to be glossy black with a orange or gold metallic flake (FOR THE REST OF THE SUSPENSION AND AXLES) Glossy black

- I’m keeping the 318 Magnum as is without a rebuild at this point it runs strong and only has 40K miles on it but it will get a black paint job and some new dress up accessories

- I’m replacing the exhaust manifolds with headers and 3” duals into Flowmaster mufflers to hear it purr

- I’m fabricating custom skid plates to protect the vitals

- The inside of the Jeep is going to be Linex coated all black

- The front seats are going to be racing buckets with 5 point harnesses

- Rear seat will be upholstered to match front seats

That is all of my ideas so far, time for pen to paper on my fabrication designs while I have the time to do it.
 
#4 ·
I would consider swaping the np249 to a 231 or a 242. That way you get a part time case vs the full time case you have now. Also 95 and older 249's didn't have a center lock diff feature.
 
#5 ·
I should add that the NP249 is out of a 96 Jeep Cherokee so it is a newer unit... I am researching the other transfer case options, I have never really been a fan of the full time 4 wheel drive transfers. I should have a little bit of time to figure out which one I'm going to go with.
 
#8 ·
The issue you may have with the 249 is after a while the viscous coupling fluid go's bad and will start to lock the front into awd mod on slow turns, almost to the point you will not be able to steer. New part is about $400. In AWD mod there is no power to the front wheels, only when it feels the slipping does it go into awd mod.. Other than its a good t-case.
 
#6 ·
Oh yeah and the Superman "S" is coming off also. The guy I bought it from was a Superman fan so he Rhino lined it on the doors. That is going to be fun to get off!!! There is also some Rhino lining in the door jams that is going to get removed before the final paint job!!!

Anyone have and ideas of the easiest removal method of Rhino lining?
 
#13 ·
So I have decided on my chassis paint and I hade decided that I am going to go with Eastwoods 2K Ceramic Chassis Gloss Black. This is much cheaper than the other systems out on the market and from what I am hearing it is one of the toughest coatings as well.

I spoke to an Eastwoods Tech and was asking about the product and if I would be able to paint the leaf springs and other suspension parts and axles and they said that it should hold up well and it is very flexible.(We shall see, I don't like painting leaf springs with anything that hardens due to the possible cracking, so I think before I spray my entire suspension with it I will test the flexibility of it)
 
#16 ·
Okay. So it all started! Of course my computer is acting stupid right now and the USB ports are not working so I will post pics as soon as I can.

Today before me and my buddy started ripping the YJ apart we had to test it out to see what it had! Took it in some crazy terrain in his back 40 and put it thru the test. I must say it is a BEAST!!!

Of course when you play hard you start to break things but that is why I am going thru this YJ piece by piece and building it right. I broke the welds in the shortened rear driveshaft while at the very bottom of the trail trying to get back to the garage (So I put the new winch to use and had to winch myself all the way up because front wheel drive just wasn't cutting it.

Apparently the guy who lifted the Jeep to the sky and did all the work on it had cut the rear driveshaft to shorten it and when he welded it back together he must have used a mig welder and by doing so he ended up with a cold weld joint causing it to break under the stress. Welding mild steel to a hard alloy steel just doesn't work with a mig welder so that is on the list now too. No real biggie!!!

On another note we faught with the Renegade body package today and we were able to get it off 3.5hrs later man they really go crazy bolting that stuff on and then the rattle can Rhino lining job on the interior played hell on getting the bolts off. So we had to ratchet, beat, pry, bang, torch, grind kick and scream to get it all off but we managed to get it off in 1 piece. After all the fenders were off exposing the engine more and wiring I realizd that I am going to clean up that engine compartment and strip out the unneeded BS that is running all over the place in there.

Tomorrow morning we are going to get the body off and yank the engine and tranny out. That will take a few hours to finish then the work can begin!

Monday the plan is to take off the brake lines and stuff to get this bad boy ready to start blasting down the chassis and suspension. Then I have some cutting and welding to get done to the chassis and some misc nit picking items to take care of on the suspension and axles (Don't worry I'll send pics of the stuff with explinations as soon as I get the USB's working).

I'll post more tomorrow evening on the tear down!
 
#17 ·
Oh, I almost forgot to mention. After January 4th I am going to unfortunately have to take a break on the build project for a few months (3-4 months) because I have to get a back surgery (L5-S1 spinal fusion). It will take me out of the game for a little bit but I should make a full recovery in about a year but I will be working on my project as soon as I can get around better. Sucks!!! I thought it was going to be in May but good ol' Workers Comp moved it up to January 4th.
 
#18 ·
So here is where we are right now. As you see from the first pic we had to take it out and play with it before we tore it apart of course :punk:...

My USB's are still messed up so these were from my cell camera and emailed to myself so sorry if the quality isn't the best but I will get the oter ones uploaded soon that shows more of our work.

So the other pics you can see that we lifted the body off and of the chassis with the 2 post car lift (worked great. I didn't show it in the pic but we drove a flat bed traler up under the body and set it on blocks until I get the chassis done.

So right now as of today I have a bare chassis with only the drive train left in. All of the fuel lines, brake lines electrical have all been stripped off of the chassis. After I yank the engine today it will go outside and I will start blasting the chassis and suspension. Then I am going to strip the suspension and front and rearend off and blast the spots on them that I didnt get as it was connected. I should be farther along but I have been slacking the last 3 days!!!

I wend with Eastwood's Ceramic Chassis Gloss Black paint and epoxy primer system for the chassis and suspension. It is supposed to have a very hard durable finish. I'll send update pics here soon of everything.


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#19 ·
So, it has been a long time since my last post. This week will be my last week to get to a stopping point on the build. I was going to have the entire chassis blasted and painted by now but I ran into some "change of heart" on some of the aspects of the build. So there are going to be some major changes now in design...

I have cut out the motor mounts for the 318 that was in here. This whole engine and drivetrain is getting scrapped now and I am opting for a GM engine and tranny paired with an NP231 transfer...

To be exact I am going to be dropping my freshly built GM 383 Stroker motor with a TH400 Tranny. I had built this engine a few years ago and never dropped it in my old Trans Am so now it will be in the Jeep. I just hope it is not "OVERKILL" in HP I built that thing up pretty good when I did it and it was putting out 450HP and I forgot the torque rate but it was over 600. This should be a monster in here.

I'll update the pics this week after the primer is on the chassis. Then I will be out of the game for the next few months until I can heal up a bit.
 
#21 ·
Yes.... The keyword here now is "HAD" 17 inches of lift (3" body lift, 2" shackles, 8" leafs spring lift, 2" lift blocks, and spring over axle setup) So all and all it was about 17 maybe even 18" of lift sitting on 40" tires.

The reason I said HAD is because I decided I didn't like a lot of things that had been done to this YJ so I am now converting this into a major build project now. So I am selling pretty much everything except the body, chassis and axles. I am linking the front and rear and going to use coil overs for my suspension Also I decided to use a Chevy 383 Stroker motor I built a few years ago and never used with a TH 400 tranny, an NP203/ NP205 doubler transfer (I am building that as we speak actually since my back surgery was postponed to Jan 25th).

I got lucky the other day finding some parts for my build. I needed the transfer cases and a tranny. I was able to find the TH 400 already mated with a GM NP203 case and a Ford NP205 case all in working condition (I'm still going to rebuild them all). For all of the parts I only paid $400.

So as you can see I have decided to go all in on this project. I want to build a really mean machine!!! :punk:
 
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