rang-a-stang's summer project/build

[Kaiserjeeps]

Dang that is as sharp as it gets. I absolutely love those seat patterns. If that were mine I would catch myself going to take another look after dinner and before bed. Just to look...

[63J200atLSU]

my guy.

That interior looks phenomenal. Great job. Keep it going!

[rang-a-stang]

Thanks everyone! I really do love the patterns. So in light of that, the doors are next.
***************************
I have my doors off to weld these holes shut from my old black elephant ear mirrors.


Step one was remove and disassemble the doors. Of course once they were off I had to take my truck on a ride with no doors. This is the only Jeep I have ever owned so this was my first experience with driving with no doors. It's kind of cool and I kinda enjoyed it.

While they are sitting and waiting on me to weld them up, I started on the door panels. Here is what I am starting with. Some things to notice:
A) They are pretty darn filthy. Hopefully I can get as dramatic result on these as I did the seats
B) They are super faded but they are as equally faded as the seats so they match and I am OK with it.
C) there are no tears or cracks. I really hope I can keep it that way.


Flip it over and look how awful these are!


Look here and you can see how much they have faded.

I thought this was interesting when I removed the vinyl from the door card; I think AMC pressed the pattern into the vinyl after they assembled the vinyl onto the card because all the areas where a pattern was pressed into the vinyl or the vinyl was bonded to the tweed, it was also bonded to the card.

I ordered a set of ABS door cards from Men-in-black a few months ago (maybe a year ago now?) and have started fitting them. I need to drill the holes for the chrome strips and intentionally did not get the speaker holes cut because I may go slight bigger, or maybe 6x9's here. For now I am going to just get it back together and stereo will come later.

My plan to clean the vinyls is to use the same stuff I used on the seat covers but will only use my pressure washer hooked to my hot water heater. I don't think they will survive a washing machine.

[mwood65]

Man I love those seat covers! Would kill for a pair of those....no, seriously I would. You got anyone causing you problems man, we could work out a deal...

[SOLSAKS]

I think they will come clean.

I always liked the way the used pattern from seats on door panels.

I would have never thought the emoting came after the panels were assembled.

coming along great rang !

dave in NC

[Wagoneer Taylor]

Awesome stuff Rang, great to see someone still making progress hahaha!

Also you could always try a steam cleaner/water vacuum whatever they are called on the door panels rather then risk the washing machine?

[rang-a-stang]

Man I love those seat covers! Would kill for a pair of those....no, seriously I would. You got anyone causing you problems man, we could work out a deal...

PM sent... LOL!

I think they will come clean.
I always liked the way the used pattern from seats on door panels.
I would have never thought the emoting came after the panels were assembled.
coming along great rang !
dave in NC

I agree! I think it looks really cool going up the door.

Awesome stuff Rang, great to see someone still making progress hahaha!

Also you could always try a steam cleaner/water vacuum whatever they are called on the door panels rather then risk the washing machine?

Ha! You're getting a house! No matter how much work I put into this turd, it's not a house.

I gottem clean and have them sitting aside while I work on other things. I am happy with how they came out though.
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Took the doors off and rebuilt the drivers side hinge. That was WAY too easy. Maybe I made it out to be more than it is in my head because I expected it to take a while but it was super easy. No juicy pictures; They were worn but not shockingly worn or anything.

Then I set about getting the doors apart. I got the holes from my old elephant ear mirrors all welded up.

I will rattle can them for now just to seal it up but I do not plan to spend much time smoothing it out.

Next I pulled out my vent window so I can replace the runner. look how bad this thing was compared to my new one.


I also chiseled the old window seal out. It was ROCK hard, like working with charcoal. This is what came out. Notice all the sharp edges and also notice there is not much there. A lot had already fallen out over the last few years.


Under the window scrapers and the vent window seal there was still some original Cherokee Chief sticker left over. I thought that was kind of cool.


Last part of disassembly, I removed the door handle and lock cylinder so I could put a gasket on there. Of all the gasket that should be there (you can see the new ones there), what I have circled in red is all that was left!


Last thing I did was wash out the interior of the door with warm soapy water. I ordered some cheap sound deadener from Amazon to put in the doors and I want to make sure it is clean so the sound deadener will stick.

So between the worn bushings on the hinges, the rattling door handles/Lock cylinder, the rock hard window seal that rattled inside the door frame, the almost missing window scrapers that allowed the window to rattle, and the runner with no fuzz that also allowed the window to rattle, my door sounded like World War 3. I hope with all these new rubber parts and sound deadener, it should be MUCH better. I plan to get my driver door hung back up and mostly put back together and will repeat all this (other than the runner and the hinges) to the passenger side. Then I'll get my vinyls back on, too.

I've also been working on my tailgate a little.
Tailgate Thread

[ddversatile]

My window wipes werent as rotten as yours, but they fought tooth and nail to come out. I put new lock cylinder grommets from Bj's but they were a bit big and fell off, the door handle ones are great though.

Looking fantastic!

[63J200atLSU]

My window wipes werent as rotten as yours, but they fought tooth and nail to come out. I put new lock cylinder grommets from Bj's but they were a bit big and fell off, the door handle ones are great though.

Looking fantastic!

So I encountered the same problem with the door lock cylinger gaskets. I ended up modeling the gasket in solidworks and then 3d printed it in PLU filament, which has the consistency of an accessory belt when it prints. Very tough with just enough flexibility. I still have the files if you'd like to take a stab at it. I may also have another couple of the gaskets on my desk, I'll check and see.

[Wagoneer Taylor]

Great stuff Marc! Loved the comment about "rattling like World War 3"!

Can't wait to get to all this stuff on my rig, especially cuz you guys have all done it already and i have step by step instructions

[SOLSAKS]

nice work rang,...it will make a big difference for sure.

on door handle gaskets

for my wagoner project I had an NOS set and BJ set

the BJ set was much better than NOS,...go figure.

dave in NC

[bluehwy]

My wipes were as bad, worse to nonexistent... and I'm just the opposite on the mirrors. I want big aftermarket mirrors.

[63J200atLSU]

nice work rang,...it will make a big difference for sure.

on door handle gaskets

for my wagoner project I had an NOS set and BJ set

the BJ set was much better than NOS,...go figure.

dave in NC

I think the issue is just the flange of the lock cylinder must have changed at some point because the ID of the gasket flange is about the ae as the OD of the lock cylinder flange on the old rigs. Definitely not interchangable across the entire year range, which is a bummer...

[63J200atLSU]

nice work rang,...it will make a big difference for sure.

on door handle gaskets

for my wagoner project I had an NOS set and BJ set

the BJ set was much better than NOS,...go figure.

dave in NC

I think the issue is just the flange of the lock cylinder must have changed at some point because the ID of the gasket flange is about the ae as the OD of the lock cylinder flange on the old rigs. Definitely not interchangable across the entire year range, which is a bummer...

[rang-a-stang]

My window wipes werent as rotten as yours, but they fought tooth and nail to come out. I put new lock cylinder grommets from Bj's but they were a bit big and fell off, the door handle ones are great though.
...

Hm. When I mocked the door lock cylinder gasket it fit like a glove but the door handle ones looked sloppy. We'll see how they fit (hopefully) tonight.

So I encountered the same problem with the door lock cylinger gaskets. I ended up modeling the gasket in solidworks and then 3d printed it in PLU filament, which has the consistency of an accessory belt when it prints. Very tough with just enough flexibility. I still have the files if you'd like to take a stab at it. I may also have another couple of the gaskets on my desk, I'll check and see.

Thanks for the offer, Greg. I think this one will fit. I'll take a good picture of them all when they are together and we'll see if I have the same tumbler as you.

Great stuff Marc! Loved the comment about "rattling like World War 3"!
Can't wait to get to all this stuff on my rig, especially cuz you guys have all done it already and i have step by step instructions

Don't take ANYTHING as step by step unless you want to have to do things over and over because you did it wrong the first time! Hhahaha!

nice work rang,...it will make a big difference for sure.
on door handle gaskets
for my wagoner project I had an NOS set and BJ set
the BJ set was much better than NOS,...go figure.
dave in NC

Haha! Figures! I bet if it was NOS from the 60's it would be really nice, NOS from the 80's not so much. hahaha! I was reading Towtruck's thread about painting his truck and he says:

... Again, the left half is original '81, and the right half is from an early 70's truck. The early metal stampings are much nicer than the later ones, by the way...

I wonder if your gaskets are similiar?

My wipes were as bad, worse to nonexistent... and I'm just the opposite on the mirrors. I want big aftermarket mirrors.

I didn't have a problem with the way the mirrors looked and I like bigger mirrors, too. Mine were just useless. You can see them in the early parts of this thread.

I think the issue is just the flange of the lock cylinder must have changed at some point because the ID of the gasket flange is about the ae as the OD of the lock cylinder flange on the old rigs. Definitely not interchangable across the entire year range, which is a bummer...

Possibly! I'll do a better job of checking mine out tonight when I get home.