I hope that this helps someone. Over the next day or so, I will post pictures and information on my Frame Swap. A little premature, but I bought this Jeep to be my daughters when she turns 16. I bought the Jeep from a friend knowing that the frame had to be swapped. Other then that, I knew the Jeep to be in good shape.
I used several internet search engines to find the frame. I found it on Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market. I am in Nashville, TN and the frame was in Columbia, MO. I bought over the phone without seeing it fist. I bought it from Sorrell's Salvage. I dealt with Stacey over the phone. I am from MO, so I was able find some common ground with him. This lead me to trusting him enough to by blind. I paid $750 for the frame and $250 for shipping. My nephew's work has a loading dock, and they allowed me ship it to their address. Had it not been for this, shipping to my house would have been $500. My frame shipped Tuesday and arrived Thursday. I am pleased. Stacey even sent it to a body shop to confirm that it wasn't bent before he shipped it.
The frame was in good shape, but it did have some surface dust inside of it. For three days when I got home from work, I got out in the evenings and flushed the frame out with water get all of the rust, mud, curd, etc. out of the frame. Turning the frame on its side worked the best. I would flush water front to back and then back to front. The larger holes where the upper control arms connect to the frame was where I got everything out. I then wire brushed the outside of the frame using a high speed drill.
I done a lot of research on what to use to treat the inside of the frame and the outside. I decided on Eastwood Internal Frame Coating and Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. The Internal Frame Coating comes with a tube that you run up into the frame and spray. I was very pleased with the outcome. You can see Videos of it in use on You Tube. On Ebay, I found a special for $99. I got free shipping, 3 cans of the Internal Frame Coating, and 3 cans of the Rust Encapsulator.
I done a lot of research on what to use to treat the inside of the frame and the outside. I decided on Eastwood Internal Frame Coating and Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. The Internal Frame Coating comes with a tube that you run up into the frame and spray. I was very pleased with the outcome. You can see Videos of it in use on You Tube. On Ebay, I found a special for $99. I got free shipping, 3 cans of the Internal Frame Coating, and 3 cans of the Rust Encapsulator.
I created a paint room in my 2 car garage using plastic and drop cloths. By the way, I am not a painter nor mechanic. I let the frame set for two days to be sure that everything was dry. I placed the frame upside down on jack stands. I then blew the inside of the frame out with an air hose. My thought in placing upside down was that of there was anything loose, I wanted it stuck to the top of the frame. I have never heard of rust starting in the top of the frame. I used one can of the Internal Frame Coating and done the whole frame. After drying for about 4 hours, I turned it over and coated the inisde again.mm this time, I used one can in each side. I then used the Rust Encapsulator on the outside of the frame. I allowed to dry and and gave a second coat. The next day I gave the outside two coats of a high gloss spray paint. Again, I was happy with the outcome. It took me a week to prep and paint my frame. I have two girls playing softball, a son playing baseball, and I work a full time job where I put in at least 50 hours a week. I was doing all of this in my spare time.
I went back and forth on whether or not to drill to holes in the bottom of the frame. After reading many threads on here, I choose to go ahead. I am happy that I did. I placed a hole in from for the rear lower control arm mount and one behind the front lower control arm mount. I will hose the frame out at least once every two months. Based on information obtained on here, I went with a 1/2" drill bit.
I highly suggest cataloguing things as you take them off of your Jeep. I bought a box of Zip Lock Freezer Bags, Sandwich Bags, Blue Painters Tape, and a couple of sharpies. As we took things apart, we bagged it and marked, we then had a bit we kept things in. We then put it all together in one location. A dead or low traffic corner.
I decide that I wanted to remove my Tub Whole. First thing, we pulled the battery. To make tub removal easier, we pulled the Radiator. We disconnected everything in the engine compartment first. We zip tied the compressor the tub so wouldn't have to charge it later. We used painters tape to make different wires to help when we started putting back together. We then disconnected wires under the jeep: O2 Sensors, Speed Cable to the transfer ace, Tow Wiring, Fuel Pump, etc. we had to disconnect the Emergency Brake which is in the center just in front of the rear axle. We pulled the slave cylinder from the clutch.
We also had to unhook the fuel spout, this is done from where you fill with gas. It is 8 screws. I actually let me 8 year old son do this. We then took out the body bolts. You have 11 Body Bolts: 1 under Radiator, 3 down each side of frame to make 6, 2 near rear corner of body, and 2 in front of fuel tank. I expected these to be hard to get out, but they were easy. We had to remove the center console to get to 4 wheel drive shifter and to get a better view to ensure that we had everything. At this point, we had yet to break a bolt. We left gear shifter in, but decided to remove when we put it back on.
I should mention that my Brother In Law helped with the frame swap. By trade he is not a mechanic, but he has done some projects similar to this in the past. I went to Harbor Freight and bought a 1 or 1.5 to Portable Crane. It was regularly $249, but it was on sale for $179 and I used one of their 20% off coupons. I think this brought it down to $145. I will now sell it on Craigslist for $150.
We used straps to run under the tub. We then lifted from the center near the gear shifter. My Jeep had body molding, so I removed the body molding and placed a 2x4 on the edge of the tub to help distribute the weight and hopefully not vend anything.
We lifted the tub and pulled the crane out from under the chassis. We pushed the chassis into the garage and backed a trailer in where the chassis had been p. we then pushed the crane legs under the trailer and lowered the tub on to the trailer for storage.
I took a weeks vacation to try and get everything swapped. Thursday I finished painting the frame. That was my first day of vacation and my first full day. I had received the frame the Thursday before. Friday morning after dropping the kids at school, my oldest daughter who will get the Jeep played hooky and went with me to get the portable crane. By the time that we got home and got it put together, it was noon. My brother in law came over and we started the disconnect process that I have walked you through. We had the tub off by 3:30PM. This was much faster and easier then I had expected. We done with two grown men and a 12 year old girl. I would suggest having 4 grown men there. This would have made it less stressful. I had my crane too far back, so the front of the tub tilted down as you can see.
With the tub secured, I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning. I put all of the tools away so we could get a fresh start the next morning. I rolled the chassis out into the drive way and used a pressure washer, oven cleaner, engine degreaser, and purple power to get the engine, transmission, skid plate, etc. as clean as possible.
Body and Suspension Bushings: I went with Hyper Flex Performance Polyurethane. I found the best price at Auto Zone. I think $325
Complete Brake Line Kit: Best price and in stock Summit Racing $99.
Clutch Kit
Valve Cover Gasket, it had been leaking.
Water Pump
Rear Main Seal
Rear Input Seal
Distributor Cap
Plugs and Plug Wires
The water pump was the original that had come on the jeep. While we had it apart, it didn't make sense to not go ahead and replace it. The same with distributor cap and plug wires. The throw out bearing had been making a noise, so we went ahead with the clutch kit.
My first trip to Auto Zone was right at $700. Jokingly I asked if I would get a discount for buying so much and with out hesitation he gave me a 10% discount.
Saturday and Sunday we moved the axles, took the transmission part, moved the engine, installed the clutch kit, replaced the rear main seal, rear in pit seal, replaced the head cover gasket, replaced the water pump, and reinstalled the transmission. This all went quick and easy. This could have went a lot quicker had we not been doing the extras and cleaning and doing a little painting as we went. Saturday I removed the fuel tank and fuel tank skid plate, but painted the fuel paint skid plate. Pretty sure this picture was taken Sunday evening.
The rear Axle was the first thing that we swapped over. We unhooked drive shaft, the lower and upper arms from the frame, and the shocks from the frame and rolled it over. We put the rear of the old frame at this time on jack stands and front of the new frame on jack stands.
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