Starting the Build

I decided I would dismantle the Jeep after the August trail ride in Chadwick (well I had to have one last hurrah),so that I would have plenty of warmer weather to do the undercoating to protect the new tub from rot for as long as I can. The before and after pictures are pretty dramatic, but as you already know the process is never ending.

It is hard to imagine just two days prior to the photo below, I drove that thing home for a trip to a local trail! Believe me it took nearly three hours of pressure washing to get it clean enough for the next part of the teardown.

The rusted out frame waiting to be stripped completely in preparation for the other frame to be put in its place, (kill two birds with one stone) Yep the body and frame were both totally shot. I know, why not just buy a new one. Well I have one answer for that, "Jeeps are built not bought".

After taking the rest of the parts off of the frame that would be saved and recycling the remains of the frame I was ready for a trial fit of the YJ tub onto the CJ frame. I am sure that you pretty much know the routine for that, so I won't bore you with the details.

After the body mounts were modified on the frame I could go to work on the rust prevention. I realize that you can not stop rust completely but I think I did a pretty good job of slowing it down a bit. To do this I coated the bottom of the tub with Hurculiner and had the frame galvanized at a local galvanizing shop for a small fee.

After the tub dried and I got the frame back I started the long process of reassembling the now hundreds of pieces of my Jeep back into one unit. While I have it apart I will be doing some stuff that I have been wanting to do but didn't want to take the time to do before.

Here I am fitting up the front of the cage so that I can drill the holes for the tie ins that go under the tub.