mYJ

[plym49.2]

Been piddling around with my '90 YJ for well over a dozen years. Got it for $175 - it had been abandoned in a parking garage for 2 years and I was able to get it for cheap. Garage had the ***le! Opened the hood, fan belts were gone. Replaced them and the battery had enough charge for it to start, and I drove it home.

Anyway, it's been a DD since then, with a lot of maintenance and some mods along the way. Has done several cross-country trips pulling my M416 trailer with the original tires.

258, AX15, 231, 31s, 2" BL is how it came.

Starting this thread 'cuz I have been accumulating the parts I need to 'finish' it, including a Gen 1 SBC/SM420 swap. I hope to have this final round of work done in a year. Engine is a 60's 283 block with a 327 crank, so a 307.

Goal is to use as many OG parts as I can. Use case is for a nimble, dependable DD with decent off-road capability. Not gonna be a crawler. No electronics for anything required to make it drive.

Some pix of how it sits recently:

The above is soft wheeling in TX.

The above is at Billy Joel's house in Florida.

 

[plym49.2]

Much of this thread initially will be out of sequence. Will get caught up on a few things before the new. This was done last week: houd louvers.

The louvers are from the inner fender of a Deuce and a Half. Cut them out, cut a hole in the hood, fastened them down. Did this in a rush so have not yet painted them and used temporary fasteners. The Deuce louvers flexed perfectly to match the curve of the hood.

This was a quick job on account it was well over 100. Too hot to touch the sheet metal; the Sharpie was drying out as I was scribing the lines.

 

[plym49.2]

This thread is gonna be all over the map on account that I tend to do 'whatever' 'whenever'.

Back in the 60s a relative had a neat '61 Caddy, so of course I used to collect '61 Caddy accesories from stolen and abandoned cars (there were plenty of them in Brooklyn at the time). I built a nice stash; a power seat mechanism went into the SBC/Super T10/Camaro rear '50 Plymouth I built at 16 (my first car) and so on.

Anyway, I still had a '61 Caddy dash clock. It had been poorly stored - was rusty and crusty. Took it apart, cleaned the case with Evaporust, blew out the movement with brake cleaner, hit it with RemOil spray, and hooked it up to 12 volts. It runs and keeps time! Seems accurate so far. Not bad for a 60+ year old relic!

Now that I know it works I can address the cosmetics. Lens to be polished (outer side only - inside is mint.) Rust Reformer on the case and then paint. The bezel (chrome plated pot metal) came out mint in the Evaporust. It has some 'pimples' but to me they are battle scars.

Why am I doing this? Have a new dash in the works that will incorporate gauges I've had in various vehicles over the years. More on that eventually.

 

[Drillsmoke]

Cool! You gonna keep the axles stock?

 

[plym49.2]

Cool! You gonna keep the axles stock?

That's the plan. I don't want to widen the track, and I can't even afford a 9". Gonna stick with 31s or 32s plus it's lighter than stock. Since I don't hammer it the stock axles should be fine.