74 Chief Restore

[bkilby]

Hi folks. I bought this Cherokee Chief on 1-7-2016 as a project vehicle. The PO had the engine rebuilt, put it in the Jeep and stopped. The trans and tcase were out of the vehicle when I bought it. I decided to pull the engine back out, go through it a little and clean it up (paint). I got to a point that I needed to order a couple of parts so I decided it was a good idea to pull the body and get the frame sand blasted and that's where I'm at now. I just got it back from sand blast today. What started off as a "put it together quickly" plan turned into a frame off project. Lol! Anyways, just thought I'd share some pics and info of our progress.

[bkilby]

[bkilby]

The frame as it came back from sand blast. I chose a self etching primer, just happened to be green. Looks cool now but will be satin black when done.
I found a crack in the frame just behind the DS front spring hanger that will get fixed tomorrow. All in all, besides the previous owner snot welds, the frame is in great shape.

[Auburnmark]

Nice shop.. nice lift.. no reason not to do frame off Looks good so far, great progress. I'll be watching. Smog exempt 401?? Lucky guy!

[Heavy_Metal_Thunder_81]

Looking great! Wish I had the resources to do mine like this.

Originally Posted by bkilby

I found a crack in the frame just behind the DS front spring hanger that will get fixed tomorrow.

Pretty common on these FSJs, my frame has cracks all over it as well. I just bought a welder to repair them.

Originally Posted by bkilby

All in all, besides the previous owner snot welds, the frame is in great shape.

Funny, but those booger welds are more than likely factory. Quality control at AMC was pretty terrible. The welds that are supposed to hold the seam together on the front passenger section of my frame don't even cover the seam so it's literally just loosely held together by the front shackle mount.

[Strode]

Nice !

[bkilby]

Originally Posted by Auburnmark

Nice shop.. nice lift.. no reason not to do frame off Looks good so far, great progress. I'll be watching. Smog exempt 401?? Lucky guy!

No such luck here. It is an original 401 Jeep but the 401 is gone and a 360 took its place. I have no idea where the original engine is.

[bkilby]

Originally Posted by Heavy_Metal_Thunder_81

Funny, but those booger welds are more than likely factory. Quality control at AMC was pretty terrible. The welds that are supposed to hold the seam together on the front passenger section of my frame don't even cover the seam so it's literally just loosely held together by the front shackle mount.

I was wondering if some of that was factory welds. They (or someone) used a real splatter box. Lol! I know things like the shackles, spring hangers etc are not only riveted but welded too. Some not so good. I'll be fixing that up soon.

So, I need new bushings for the springs and shackles. Anyone know where to get Urethane? It seems the rear springs are a bit funky on their size of bushings.

[Auburnmark]

Originally Posted by bkilby

No such luck here. It is an original 401 Jeep but the 401 is gone and a 360 took its place. I have no idea where the original engine is.

Ahh.. oh well nice rig anyway. Surprised to see the stress crack in frame. Now I know why they beefed up these frames around year 77 (I think).
BJ's should have the bushings you need.
http://www.bjsoffroad.com/Poly-Rear-...91_p_1341.html

[bkilby]

Thanks for the link! I'll have to call them to see if it's the correct size. If the pic is accurate, i don't think it'll work.

[bkilby]

So as it turns out, BJ's doesn't have the Urethane bushing I want. Seems nobody does. Looks like I might have to buy the stock rubber replacements. I have the Prothane body bushings ordered but it looks like they're going to be wrong too. Oh the joy. Frame has been painted, just waiting to figure out the bushings so we can put the body back on the frame.


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[cu4whln]

Stop slacking off Brad!

Get to work !!

[bkilby]

Originally Posted by cu4whln

Stop slacking off Brad!

Get to work !!

Yeah yeah. Am I not moving fast enough for you? Lol!

[bkilby]

Great news for me. I found a local shop that ordered all the suspension bushings that I need. I should see them in a couple of days. As I was on the phone, I'm Googling part numbers and came across a thread on this site where someone already posted all the part numbers with dimensions that I need! Doh! Lol! Oh well, I book marked the thread for future reference although I've solved the problem already. Buying suspension and body bushings for a '74 is not easy.

[SJTD]

Doesn't BJ's have the body mounts?

I thought the only difference was the number of mounts and the kit came with enough for the earlier bodies.

[bkilby]

I'm not sure. I called BJ's again today but they were closed. I did get the Prothane kit in today and there's nothing in that box that will work on this Jeep unless mods come into play. Everyone of their bushings require a 1.375" hole for the bushing to slip through. My frame has 1", 1.125" and .875 holes. Besides that, I know of 3 mounts (per side) that probably couldn't use them anyhow even if I did open the holes up. Which I might have to do.....

Today brought us to hang brake tubing, install steering gear box, bump stops etc. A lot of bead blasting and painting parts today. Oh and those suspension bushings I ordered yesterday came in today. Burned the bushings out of the rear shackles and pressed in the new ones. The front shackles are quite a bit thinner in material than the rear although the overall dimensions appear to be the same so I'm going to look for another set of the rear shackles for the front before putting new bushings in. Tomorrow is junk yard shopping for parts.

[cu4whln]

I love junkyard hunting... have fun !

[bkilby]

Had lots of fun! Bought a tailgate to rob for the regulators and swap to electric. Hopefully.... Bought a gas tank skid that doesn't fit and picked up a York mount, PS mount and some other odd balls. I had the York and PS mount but mine were repaired with JB weld, figured clean stuff is better.

They do have a nice clean dash in a J truck that needs to be purchased before the sun kills it. No cracks that I can see. Pics coming!

[bkilby]

Dash pics. Anyone need a clean dash?

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[SJTD]

That isn't a "pull your own" type of place is it.

Only one left in the Valley that I know of is on Pendleton and I've never seen a FSJ there.