rang-a-stang's summer project/build

[oregonphil]

Not had that happen in my Jeeps (yet). But it happen with my old VW van (it was the left rear also, very strange) many years ago on the Ventura Freeway while going to work. Hell of a shock seeing it roll past you, just hoping it does not hit some other car. Luckily it did not.

[rang-a-stang]

I have had the left rear tire on my GW pass me on two occasions. The first time to whole shaft came out so it was kind of a tripod flipping down the road.
Unhappy times those were. Dang, those chrome wagon wheels look dandy! I like the hella out of those lights. Good to see you have the Cherk back on 4 feet!

HOLY SCARY DAY!!

hahahahahaha (hella comment)! Me tooooo!

Not had that happen in my Jeeps (yet). But it happen with my old VW van (it was the left rear also, very strange) many years ago on the Ventura Freeway while going to work. Hell of a shock seeing it roll past you, just hoping it does not hit some other car. Luckily it did not.

Ventura Freeway... Right around the corner from me. Probably a lot scarier in a VW van than a big heavy FSJ.

Funny related story: in the late 90's I was in the Navy in San Diego and was on my way home from work at 3am in the morning. Heading north on the 125 I watched a Nissan driving south on the 125 on 3 wheels, sparks flying. "What an idiot!" I thought as I watched him drive by. After I passed him, I looked forward and saw his missing wheel bounce over the center divider and slam into the side of my truck (I had my cruise set at 70mph and that tire was probably still doing 50'ish). I heard the bang of it hitting my truck, then I bounced up, swerved left, and the truck started thumping. I pulled over to see my cab dented, bed folded under, and my rear wheel taco'ed. Dude in the Nissan was unlicensed, uninsured, unregistered, and not supposed to be here. $1800 in 1997'ish dollars worth damage to my truck. I was super mad at the time. When Highway Patrol brought me over for my statement the Nissan driver was still there. I was ready to let him know how happy I was with him customizing my truck when I saw he had (what I assume is) his wife and 2 small kids with him. "Small" as in a baby and a baby that was almost a toddler. I then realized my truck will get fixed, and I was glad no one was hurt (especially those little kids).
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I don't touch my Cherk much these days. It is running well and I don't want to mess that up. I have been wrenching on my son's Ranger more. He had Homecoming last weekend and insisted on driving my Cherk. I was SUUUPER nervous I was gonna get a call that is was broken down somewhere but I didn't! Yeesssssss.....

(for the record he is making faces at my better half in this picture)

[cu4whln]

Dang.. wish you were closer. I have a nice set of 33 x 12.50 MT/Rs I am replacing with BFG A/Ts. We could work out a smoking deal.
Rims too.... I have a set of the original chrome wheels as well.

[/IMG]

I too need that grill rubber isolator part.
Is there a part number of it we can order it?
BJs should carry it me thinks !

Cool your son loves the Jeep!

[rang-a-stang]

Dang.. wish you were closer. I have a nice set of 33 x 12.50 MT/Rs I am replacing with BFG A/Ts. We could work out a smoking deal.
Rims too.... I have a set of the original chrome wheels as well.

[/IMG]

I too need that grill rubber isolator part.
Is there a part number of it we can order it?
BJs should carry it me thinks !

Cool your son loves the Jeep!

DANGIT!! I would love to buy those tires off you! Those would be PERFECT!!! I really like the raised white/Outline White letters. I think they look super classy on black rims like ours.

I am not sure if BJs has it and I am not sure where SOLSAKS got it. I wish I did, though.
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Drove my truck the other day on an errand. Wincher asked for a video of my idle. I do think it sounds pretty mean.
Cold start up

My son's Ranger is running/driving at this point (plan to smog it today) so next task is to prep/sell our XJ. Then I will be back to Chief work.

[Heep-J4000]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234092731155?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D2eee378af6834d0da42c9da12110faa3%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D234092731155%26itm%3D234092731155%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Af4517d3c-22ec-11ec-8c7d-8a597a6a29d9%7Cparentrq%3A3d4f127617c0a7447889a3d5ffffce0c%7Ciid%3A1

The rubber trim for the grill could be some rubber trim like the old number plates had back in the day.

Rang a stang , that's a cool looking ranger you son has!

[rang-a-stang]

The rubber trim for the grill could be some rubber trim like the old number plates had back in the day.

Rang a stang , that's a cool looking ranger you son has!

That one looks a little different than what I have. The one I used is more square. I think you could use that one but it might be kind of hard to get it to sit up against the body correctly.

Thank you, sir! This truck (Ranger) has owned me for 3.5 months and we are now $2500 into repairs and upgrades trying to get it through smog and road worthy.
It is a cool truck but it still has Oregon plates and is not titled in CA, yet. grrrr... Hopefully tomorrow it will finally pass smog so I can title it Thursday and finally have CA plates.
************************************************** *******
Has it really been 3 months since I posted here?!

So. Life happens. Unfortunately my Chief will be on Craigslist in the next few weeks. Fear not as I have a tentative deal for a 71 J4000 in Idaho that will (hopefully) be in my (Boise) garage by the end of this summer. I am starting to prep my Chief for sale.

This weekend I had some time to kill (waiting on Ranger parts) so I decided to tackle this:

Notice:
1) no carpet on tailgate
2) the mess on the floor.

No carpet on the tailgate was because it was absolutely rotten. A few years back I had removed the cardboard backer and sent it to men-in-black so he could copy it in ABS. I kept all the original stuff so it would go back together better.

cu4wheelin gave me his old tailgate and trunk carpet because it was the same color as my factory set and was in much better shape than mine. I spent about an hour trimming the ABS tailgate backer to fit the used tailgate carpet over it, gluing the carpet, straightening my chrome strips, and ended up with this.

Next up, I cleared out all my tools and spare parts and pulled out the old house carpet the previous owner installed to see my original carpet. SOOoooo gross!

I removed the chrome strips, threw out the original carpet remnants, pulled up the rubber mates, and check this out; that white thing is a piece of wax paper.

It is EXACTLY the size of the lower Chief stripe behind the rear wheel well:

I don't know if that is from when the factory installed the stripes or from a repaint at some point (my truck does have more than one coat of paint) but I am going to hope it was from the factory.
Anyway, mopped up the floor and was EXTREMELY happy to see pretty much NO rust (not even surface rust), no repair work, no abnormal creasing, and just the original paint back there:

Scrubbed the rubber mats (which are in AMAZING shape), took some steel wool to the Chrome strips, and installed the used carpet. I am SUPER happy with how it all came out! The carpet is definitely used and this picture makes it look better than it actually is but it looks original to my truck, is in lightyears better shape, and generally, I could not be happier! Notice my wheel well carpet IS original and how faded and old it looks.


Next up I am going to install some front axle U-Joint plates I got from Rocklaurence (hoping to do that Thursday after work) and then pulling the windshield in prep to install the one I got from Artisan. If my windshield pillars are rust free or low rust I will be ecstatic!

[SJTD]

Did you the rubber mat that fit the corrugations and was flat on top? Looks like it since there's those dark lines in the low grooves.

[drcom]

Good work on the carpet. I love these old beasts.

[SOLSAKS]

Looks great
the cargo area with metal rub strips
is one of my favorite parts of these jeeps.

great job !!!

dave in NC

[Wagoneer Taylor]

Sad to hear you will be selling the Chief, but excited for your future truck and move to Idaho!

Looks great Rang!

[Heep-J4000]

Rang-a-stang , that's wicked cool your owning a 70 J-4000 truck.
I purchased a 70/71 (have to figure out) almost three years ago from the CA area
and just picked it up from the harbour overhere in Holland today!
Well the most of it , have to get the bed and extra utility bed next Friday because all together was to much total weight to have transported without having a chance for a ticket or worse.

Why not keep the chief till you finish the new J-4000 !?
In that case you still can drive a jeep to keep the spirit alive!

[rang-a-stang]

Did you have the rubber mat that fit the corrugations and was flat on top? Looks like it since there's those dark lines in the low grooves.

Yep! That is the exact rubber mat. It's actually 2 pieces, split down the middle.

Good work on the carpet. I love these old beasts.

Thank you, sir! I am pretty stoked on it, too.

Looks great
the cargo area with metal rub strips
is one of my favorite parts of these jeeps.

great job !!!

dave in NC

I agree, Dave. I have always wanted my rub strips out but the carpet was so horrendous. It's nice to have it all out, now.

Sad to hear you will be selling the Chief, but excited for your future truck and move to Idaho!

Looks great Rang!

Thank you, sir! My truck is going to be epic! Big (but much more reasonable) plans for it. It's hard to stay motivated on this one when I have that one waiting.

Rang-a-stang , that's wicked cool your owning a 70 J-4000 truck.
I purchased a 70/71 (have to figure out) almost three years ago from the CA area
and just picked it up from the harbour overhere in Holland today!
Well the most of it , have to get the bed and extra utility bed next Friday because all together was to much total weight to have transported without having a chance for a ticket or worse.

Why not keep the chief till you finish the new J-4000 !?
In that case you still can drive a jeep to keep the spirit alive!

AWESOME! 3 years to get there, eh? That's a long trip!
We are are trying to shed as much extra stuff as we can prior to the move. This will go with a ton of extra parts and stuff too so it will clear out a ton of space. The tires on my chief are beyond trash and I do not have the $$ to replace them so it gets sold down here.
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Busy day today and got tons of things done but not much picture worthy.
1) verified all my QT switch vacuum lines hold vacuum and the switch works.
2) swapped 2 heater switch vacuum lines (because they were backwards)
3) I painted my gas cap and moved the handle so when the cap is closed the black part is parallel to the ground.

4) Glued the flipper window gaskets up. They had begun to sag and every time I wanted to close the window, I had to push the gasket up so the window would not pinch it. Here it is after the glue is on the gasket but all the crap I needed to hold it in place. I used the window itself to hold the gasket in place while the glue dried.

After the glue dried, I used a green scrubby to clean the channel out, put some rubber treatment on it, and now my window looks and works like new (except for the crusty hinge). The arrows are pointing to the part of the gasket that was nasty crusty'est part.

5) put an inline fuse in for the power seats, labeled it, and tested it; all good. The passenger seat bottom blows fuses so it's unhooked. Not sure if I will fix that before the sale.

6) Rocklaurence sells these SWEET U-bolt plates. I would list the link here but I can't find it (Rocky, you want to reply with the link?) They tuck your U-bolt nuts up and out of the way and really help with ground clearance. Here is stock:

Here is the plate all installed. It tucked the nuts up so high, my deep socket bottomed out twice. What I mean is, I drove the nut on as far as I could with my impact wrench, then had to cut about 2" off the U-Bolt, then could finish tightening the U-Bolt.

7) I installed 4 Harbor Freight padeyes in the trunk so I could tie stuff down to keep it from rolling around. 2 pad eyes on either side.

8) removed both door switches and cleaned them really well so the lights will come on when I open the door.

Tomorrow or Monday I hope to fix a gnarly rattle in the passenger door and redo some of the wiring in my glove box area so it is neat, tidy, and reliable. Knocking out my list...

[rang-a-stang]

Rattle fixed. For once it was stupid easy. The door lock door plastic bushing popped out. Put it in it's place and I am golden. I'll tell you what, that was a seriously annoying rattle. Gone.

Then I spent about 4 hours turning this dumpster fire:

into this:

The harness over the radio is for my new cruise control (to be installed soon). Notice the glove box light works now, too. Computer is tucked behind the dash on the passenger side. That little black box on the bottom is my speed sensor translator for the computer and cruise control. QT switch works as designed. The chrome switch is for my bumper lights. Light next to the switch is the alternator charge lamp. There is also a green wire hanging down next to the glove box lamp that goes to the A/C signal and tells my computer when the A/C is on (my A/C does not work but is complete). I op-tested my A/C compressor yesterday and it works well.

Knocking out my list...

[rang-a-stang]

I had a minor engine fire a few years ago and it singed the bag holding the wires for my cruise control. That bag looks like this:

So tonight I mounted a cruise control box I got from babywag a few years back. This box is from his 90's Caprice wagon and I mentioned it (and how to wire it) in this thread a few years ago. I used the existing AMC Jeep switch and wiring, added wires to my Vehicle speed control translator, a couple others wires, and now have cruise control. Sort of. I need to weld an arm onto my TBI to attach the servo cable. Then I will really have Cruise Control. Notice the box with the UPC code on it.


knocking out my list.

[cu4whln]

Nice work!

Getting the details wrapped up is always a BIG job.