1500 dollar CJ7 “Uncle Joe”

[CJKnoll96]

New to this forum but I was around when pirate was a thing (although I was a kid then) but anyway let me start this build off with a story. Few months ago I got laid off for my ironworking job and with my free time I decided I’d help my grandfather out but dragging his 86 CJ7 golden eagle from Prescott AZ to Conroe Tx so he can start restoring it. Now I live in Reno Nv so it's a long trip and typical Ford owner I lost a wheel bearing just outside of Vegas and had to rebuild the whole front end in a family members driveway.

While I'm there my buddy who was on the last job comes to help out and asks me if I know anyone that wants to buy a jeep for $1500 bucks..... Uh oh yeah! Me! Get me more details! So I go back and forth with him on the way to texas (at this point I've seen one picture of this thing from the real state add for the house it's been parked at for the past 10+ years) I know it's an early 80’s and supposedly it has a title. After talking with the owner I say screw it ill head home from texas a little early and drag that thing home can't lose for 1500 dollars on a CJ7 with a title!

I get there and well it's a project that's for sure! Apparently, he bought it for a foreign exchange student some years back and he started building it when he wasn’t at school. ok it’s got roached seats the been rhino liners(but not the good kind the roll on kind) came with a bunch of junk in buckets cool don’t care I see a pink slip and it’s 1500 bucks no way I can lose worst case I drag this junk back to Reno and double my money! But I’m not gunna do that me and my chick just split up so my weekends are freed up 🖕😁🖕

step one wash the years of dust off of it clean it out and get it running!

It surprising didn’t take much to get it running! Had to replace the tank a few fuel and vacuum lines bypassed the battery kill switch that was rotted and put a new fuel pump in the old iron duke motor and she fired up. Bleed the brakes and a new slave cylinder and she was moving under her own power but just to be sure I did a full tune up. New plugs oil change with some marvel mystery oil cleaner made this old girl run like a top!

 

[CJKnoll96]

Well it runs! But now what to do with it can’t stand the rhino liner or the black so I guess I’ll do the body work and paint it while my parents are willing to let me store it at their place! (I travel for work so I don’t have shop space of my own) step one sand it down and take of the body armor to find out what’s hiding under it(hint it’s rust)

after filling up a few holes and doing some serious bondo work I had the tub looking good enough for a wheeling rig so I started off with just some self etching primer before laying on some high build primer

at this point I need to start picking a direction for this project. When I was growing up my dad had a few badass jeeps the influences me quite a bit bit also hung around some cool builders like the guys from Fat City if anyone remembers there style of building

dads old CJ7 from the late 90’s

a later CJ7 of my dads called the bomb pop

early 2000’s fat city Jeep
So here we are I know I want it low fairly decent sized tires a Campbell hood and a wicked cage and eventually a V8 so I ordered a Campbell CJ7 hood and moved forward with paint!

 

[CJKnoll96]

Hammered out some filler panels down at Trent fab build a template out of card board then used that to draw what I wanted on cad and cut them out using a torchmate table at work! They needed a little fine tuning but I’m pleased with the results

I’ve decided to swap the axles to wagoneer 44’s although I still don’t have them in my possession a buddy of mine happens to be selling some 35’s on KMC bead locks with the right bolt pattern so why not see how it looks

ohh yeah muchhh better! Decided to go with a gun metal gray color for the paint

but it is a CJ so might as well spice it up a bit

any guesses where I got the inspiration from?

 

[CJKnoll96]

Paints finally done and I'm slowly starting to put this thing back together so here's some more photos of the finished paint work!

I know doing paint first is totally bass ackwards but it’s the cards I was dealt at the time I could live withthe rhino liner and start throwing parts and tube at it and pay someone to paint it down the line or I could do it myself while I still have the space to do it. In a few weeks this junk will be going to Trent fab to get the major fab work done (when I’m not working badass race cars and actually doing my job)

 

[Sandy Johnson]

Damn that looks good! I'm at the point in my build where I need to figure out paint, and it's something I know nothing about. Where did you spray yours? Outside? In a booth? Cobbled together tarp setup?

 

[CJKnoll96]

Damn that looks good! I'm at the point in my build where I need to figure out paint, and it's something I know nothing about. Where did you spray yours? Outside? In a booth? Cobbled together tarp setup?

Outside had to time the weather just right and add more thinner to the mixture. It’s still not perfect you can see where some bugs and dust got into it but I’m happy with the results. A good pint gun is key

 

[1Sinner]

Very nice work

 

[CJKnoll96]

Been slowly collecting parts the last few weeks finally decided on a set of axles and came across some good deals

traded some RC stuff and a little cash this bad boy d44 with an ARB chrome shafts and his gh steer knuckles planning to shorten the short side to waggy width using a different housing and swapping in all the good parts. Next up the mysterious ford axle swap!

I had a really wide big bearing 9inch with a truss laying around but didn’t want to deal with the pinion angle and I’m not about to pay for a hi9 diff so I put it up for sale and this guy my age said he had a 60 he would like to trade plus 100 bucks for the truss ok screw it! Well it wasn’t a Dana 60 it’s a dana61 apparently there’s a lot of easy fixes for these things now days so I’ll run it bought some 8.8 disk brake parts for it this weekend at pick an pull since it was 50% off! Welll when your at a junk yard you tend to do a little shopping and I’ve been debating on when I should do the motor swap. I knew all along I was going to put a 5.3l or a 6.0 in this thing eventually but wasn’t sure if I’d do it while doing the axles for 50% off junk yard prices how could I say no...

 

[Levigarrett76]

Getting interesting!

 

[pennsylvaniaboy]

Good luck on the d44's. I know everyone says go tons...but my dad has a truggy that we polished teh dana44, from 38-to 40's and i wasnt impressed.

 

[csutton7]

subscribed...awesome body/paint work...

 

[jhama78]

Following along, cool to see an old school cj7 build with a few modern touches.

 

[CJKnoll96]

Took the Jeep to its new home at Trent Fab today (AKA work) I don’t think it will end up being quite as cool as the rig behind it but soon it will be getting the fabrication treatment it needs!

Good luck on the d44's. I know everyone says go tons...but my dad has a truggy that we polished teh dana44, from 38-to 40's and i wasnt impressed.

I would have gone with a Dana 60 up front if I could find one for less then I paid for the whole jeep😂 37’s should keep this axle alive... hopefully

Following along, cool to see an old school cj7 build with a few modern touches.

Thanks! That’s what I’m going for with this Thing should be a ton of fun on the rubicon

 

[CJKnoll96]

Been sitting on this project for over a year now saving up money and collecting parts and I'm finally starting to make progress again. First, the junkyard 5.3l went through a full top-end rebuild. Initially, we planned to do a cam, valve springs, an oil pump, and timing chain but after further inspection, it was clear the heads needed to come off to clean out the cylinders. While we were in there we surfaced the head to bump up the compression and did a valve job. Without DSI Dave Schneider’s Help this part of the project would be possible along with the transmission.

 

[CJKnoll96]

Also started work on trussing my rear axle housing this week as well loving the progress so far!

 

[Safe Dude]

Well it runs! But now what to do with it can’t stand the rhino liner or the black so I guess I’ll do the body work and paint it while my parents are willing to let me store it at their place! (I travel for work so I don’t have shop space of my own) step one sand it down and take of the body armor to find out what’s hiding under it(hint it’s rust)

after filling up a few holes and doing some serious bondo work I had the tub looking good enough for a wheeling rig so I started off with just some self etching primer before laying on some high build primer

at this point I need to start picking a direction for this project. When I was growing up my dad had a few badass jeeps the influences me quite a bit bit also hung around some cool builders like the guys from Fat City if anyone remembers there style of building

dads old CJ7 from the late 90’s

a later CJ7 of my dads called the bomb pop

early 2000’s fat city Jeep
So here we are I know I want it low fairly decent sized tires a Campbell hood and a wicked cage and eventually a V8 so I ordered a Campbell CJ7 hood and moved forward with paint!

Was your dad named Kevin Flaith ? or did your dad buy it from him ? i think i remember that jeep but was named " Grape Nuts " i use to hang out with Eric and Ryan at the shop.

 

[CJKnoll96]

Was your dad named Kevin Flaith ? or did your dad buy it from him ? i think i remember that jeep but was named " Grape Nuts " i use to hang out with Eric and Ryan at the shop.

My dad didn’t own that Jeep I stole that photo off the internet. he had Eric and Ryan turn his CJ7 into the “StoneCrawler” Jeff Knoll’s my dad

 

[intense]

The one from king of the hammers?

 

[89Breaker]

I used a needle gun and air chisel to remove rhino liner from my YJ tub. Took a couple hours but came out good. Just go slow and listen for metal on metal sound to avoid damaging tub.

 

[CJKnoll96]

I used a needle gun and air chisel to remove rhino liner from my YJ tub. Took a couple hours but came out good. Just go slow and listen for metal on metal sound to avoid damaging tub.

Thankfully it wasn’t that thick so the palm sander and some elbow grease got the job done

 

[CJKnoll96]

Made some progress today first time welding a cast housing so it was a learning process.

 

[CJKnoll96]

The one from king of the hammers?

Yep and I work at Trent fab as a fabricator also do a bit of co driving

 

[CJKnoll96]

Next project! I’m keeping my Dana 300 cause I’m cheap and I want an atlas. That being said I couldn't turn down the price on this 2003 super duty 60. So I sold the d44 and I’m going to turn this into a passenger drop axle

 

[CJKnoll96]

About time to call it a day and enjoy the holiday weekend but made some good progress after spending the last few afternoons peeling the short side C off.

I’ve decided to try and go with Chevy length axle shafts for strength and since that’s the common passenger drop swap anyway maybe I’ll save myself some headache down the rod with suspension set up.

 

[Dan]

Nice fab work, I like where this is heading

 

[CJKnoll96]

Still working away today I want to get the C tacked on along with the new long side tube before I go on vacation next weekend so when I get back I can start working on the frame. Started off machining down a piece of 3inch .500 wall tubing to work inside the stock super duty 60 which has an inside diameter of 2 13/16. After that I cut my short side length to match a Chevy length short side. Because I cut a little too deep while shortening up the cast I had to get fancy with the tig and decided to weld the tubes into the cast with some nickel 55 rod and some heat.

 

[CJKnoll96]

That’s a wrap for tonight! I think I have everything lined up where I want it. I’m going to put an alignment bar in it before I tack and have more experienced eyes double check my measurements.

 

[CJKnoll96]

Next time I decide to be cheap and not sand blast a frame someone smack me😂 it was cheap though only two days of my life grinding so far

Also pulled the Jeep out of storage. Little fuel and a jump she came right back to life almost a shame to tear it apart.. but next week it’s off to the dmv before I get to far into this project might be a good idea to get it put into my name😂

 

[CJKnoll96]

Friday it drove into the shop under its own power today it should roll out of the shop with a new frame under it... sold the frame and cage for 850 bucks and decided to pull the trigger on an Atlas which should be here in about 6 months

Decided since I was going to keep the stock YJ body mounts I would beef them up a little bit with some quality welds

 

[CJKnoll96]

Spent almost of the day pressure washing the bottom of the tub got most of the grime and anti rush coating off. Then put the new frame under the body for the first time