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Project "Leftie" - part #12
 
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(12.28.14) It has been spotty at best to get stuff done outside. "Vacation" from work entitled doing a whole lot of new bedroom setting up, breaking down baby stuff and getting it out... so in with the new and out with the old. Lots of work. Lots of things broken too that got fixed, which is all great, but just chews up a ton of time.

I got all the u-bolts off the leaf springs, all the main spring eye bolts out, re-did the transmission/transfer case cross member so it will work correctly and use 6 bolts instead of 2.5 which is what was holding it on. I got out the 8 broken bolts out of the frame and the one out of the body for the rear seat mount. I got all the parts and pieces off the frame and finally started to cut out the cancer on the frame to repair it so it can get sandblasted and start to paint it up and put it back together!
 
 
I saw a few things during the 6-7 hours I had to work on the Jeep that really shocked me. First, the transmission/transfer case mounting. There is a monster 360 in this thing. There were only provisions for 5 bolts holes and one was snapped off. 3 were the proper size 3/8" bolt holes, but only 2 were 3/8" and one was I think 5/16" or metric, but was so worn, it just spun in the bolt hole. The other one had a different bolt head size. When I tried to get a bolt down the hole, it was not of a size that I had, so I tapped it ofr 7/16" thus the different color bolt.
 
 
I am more of a 6 bolt guy then the 2.5 that were in there, this is a much safer design. I also couldn't belive how many broken bolts were on the frame. 8 in total. 3 were bump stops, 3 were from the from shackle mounts, 1 was the brake junction, one was the tranny pan and the last one pictured actually makes for 9 bolts, but that one was in the body... a TON of heat, time and patience got them out.

Up next is really getting the frame fixed up and sandblasted and painted for reassembly, we will see if we can do that in the coming weeks. This is the last week of holiday stuff, so I hope to get back to a "normal" schedule.

cb (12.28.14)
 
 
(01.02.15) Preparing for sandblasting and sandblasting and going to and fro made up the majority of the week. It has been very cold at night working in the garage. We have had a very mild winter up until this week and it only is fixing to get colder from here on out. I broke down all the parts and pieces and got them loaded up for the blaster and headed out on New Years's Day to get it done. It was 15 when I got up, so seeing 23 when I headed out was a bit better... got up to a balmy 30 with wind speeds of 15 mph, was freezing!!

The parts came out great and got it home and started to play around with what I am going to do. I wanted to try different spots with different finishes with differnt paint as the texture is rough after the sandblasting. I got a bit of paint down on the trans cross member as I had some left in 2 cans. I also found the date of the frame, not the VIN yet, but the frame date is 12.14.82 A 34 F from what I can see and that makes sense since it as a 1983 Jeep. Nothing important, but good to confirm.

Next Up is to fix the 2 spots on the frame by welding and grinding and then paint it, flip it, paint it, treat the inside rails and get it back to a roller... stab the motor in, run the lines, hook up the gas tank, etc. etc. etc.

cb (01.02.15)
 
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