A makeover story

[fsj1979]

I just thought I should share the story of how my Jeep got to it's current cosmetic condition. It started out as my step dad's ride to get back and forth to work at the copper mine in Bagdad, until he got himself a little Tracker. After that, the Jeep just kind of sat in his yard.
One day I asked if he would be interested in selling it to me as a project. He said, "No, but you can have it." SAY WHAT!?! He even took the time to take care of an electrical issue it had before he gave it to me. Thank you again Scott!! The tires were starting to dry rot a bit and it had no power steering. It also had the horrible Quadra-Trac clunk. I took care of some of those things first and then got to work on the body. It was actually very straight to begin with. The fender flares were the only real issue. The rears both had started to rust through from the salt on the mine roads. I couldn't get a hold of any replacements that wouldn't break the bank at the time, so I decided they just had to go, along with the big tree-catching and jacking your doors up mirrors.
[IMG]file:///Users/Holmes91/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG]

Then came the stripping of two layers of paint and a little body work.


Homemade paint booth, complete with exhast fan and filters. Worked amazingly well.




The finishing touches of black paint around the rear windows and sprayed-on Herculiner around the bottom.


Updated pics with some new shoes 3/5/13

[austinaubinoe]

How much you want for it? HAHA that thing looks better then new. Dang it I want a 2 door cherokee now. I like the smaller mirrors. Are you gonna put the indian head badges back on?


EDIT: wait a sec, you painted that yourself.... in your own garage! WOW. What brand liner did you use on the rockers?

[fsj1979]

Originally Posted by austinaubinoe

How much you want for it? HAHA that thing looks better then new. Dang it I want a 2 door cherokee now. I like the smaller mirrors. Are you gonna put the indian head badges back on?


EDIT: wait a sec, you painted that yourself.... in your own garage! WOW. What brand liner did you use on the rockers?

Ha, ha, after all the work I'm putting into this baby, I'm going to be buried in it! Thanks for the compliments. I used Herculiner for the rockers and I got the spray gun for it. The spray gun was $50.00 at Napa and it's the Dupli-Color brand sprayer, but worked fine with the Herculiner. I still have some left over that I plan to do the cargo area with. As far as the indians go, I think I like it better without them.

[Dr. Marneaus]

gorgeous! I love that color with the fresh paint.

[ProTouring442]

Nice!!!

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

[Tad]

Very Nice!
Decent tire clearance now too.

[The Colonel]

Looks great!

What kind of paint did you use? Was it base/clear?

[fireman91186]

That look's awesome!

What did you do for a fan? I am hopefully going to be painting my own some day and would like not to run my wife out of the house like I have in the past.

[Mars]

Lookd great! I love that color combo

[fsj1979]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Looks great!

What kind of paint did you use? Was it base/clear?

Thanks! I used a single stage urethane.

[GI-John]

VERY nice job!

[fsj1979]

Originally Posted by fireman91186

That look's awesome!

What did you do for a fan? I am hopefully going to be painting my own some day and would like not to run my wife out of the house like I have in the past.

Thanks a lot! I just used one of those 20" Patton, high velocity shop fans that I mounted inside a 20" furnace return air box. Then I cut a piece of plywood to cover the side door in the garage and cut a 20" hole in it for the air box to fit through and mounted it with some screws. If you have a window opposite your door you would be all set for your intake air. Just get some cheap furnace filters to cover the window opening. Use the cheap ones so they let a lot of air through, but catch the big stuff. After a while it still got a little bit foggy in the garage, but nothing like without it and it would clear out minutes after I stop spraying. It's no shop booth, but it still worked great and it kept the smell out of the house completely because there was actually negative pressure in the garage. I would also think a step better could be to find an old squirrel cage fan from a furnace or something of the like. Those will move some air. Hope this helps.

[fulsizjeep]

That looks mighty fine Jeff! That is one of the any shades of blue I like about the best. Bet that paint cures up pretty quick there in the summer. I would like mine to be all one color some day but think I will be satisfied with the color dirty for now. How long before you take it to the trails?

[fsj1979]

Originally Posted by fulsizjeep

That looks mighty fine Jeff! That is one of the any shades of blue I like about the best. Bet that paint cures up pretty quick there in the summer. I would like mine to be all one color some day but think I will be satisfied with the color dirty for now. How long before you take it to the trails?

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with it. I'm still trying to finish up my 5.3 swap right now, but I'm hoping to be trail ready real soon and hey, there's nothing wrong with the color dirty.

[EBCIII]

Very Sweet!! You did a great job and deserve to be proud, Beale.

[billyj7175]

Nice looking work!

I dig the "spray booth"...my garage isn't near wide enough...if I paint mine, it's gonna have to get sprayed outside...

[710 Burner]

Looking good. I like the black "rock guard" area. I used to have a friend that would tack plastic to the ceiling of the garage and just let it hang to do painting.

[Brizio]

Nice job done!!! I like the spray booth!

[fsj1979]

Originally Posted by Tad

Very Nice!
Decent tire clearance now too.

Thanks! Yeah, tire clearance is not an issue at all anymore. Mud flying from the front tires onto the windshield and everything else is a bit more of an issue though. Oh well, getting dirty is half the fun anyway....right?

[fsj1979]

Originally Posted by billyj7175

Nice looking work!

I dig the "spray booth"...my garage isn't near wide enough...if I paint mine, it's gonna have to get sprayed outside...

Thanks! Be careful if you paint it outside. The only vehicle I ever sprayed outside was a demolition derby car and something about paint is apparently some kind of aphrodisiac for gnats. The thing looked like it grew hair.