Just another old truck.

[Clarance J]

Next was getting cart screwed together and lifting the clip onto the cart. So now that I have it off the ground and able to roll it around I can finish some things I'd like to do. I can put the bracing under the hood and square it all up to fit the cab. The back half of the fenders are bolted to the cab. Fall is on the way and that means cooler temps so I need to get it epoxy primered in the next couple of weeks. At least that's the plan.

[Kim57]

Pretty slick cart.
Kim

[RockinKees]

Nice cart!
Good work height also, I think?

[Clarance J]

Thanks Kim. Surprising what can be put together to help a project along.

Thanks RockinKees. I measured my work bench and then figured out how much room I would need to crawl underneath to work without folding myself in half. The sides are open for this.

Earl

[Advanced Design]

Very nice cart Earl. Really like your ingenuity!

[oldman3]

Great work on the cart...Jim

[Clarance J]

AD and oldman3 Thank you.


Ok now. I've got some pictures of how I solved my door hinge missing/broken captive nut problem. These go back to 2008.

Also I found A problem I did not know I had on the drivers door. At sometime before I owned the truck he was in some sort of accident on the drivers side. Nothing serious but the drivers door never shut quite right. I replaced the door years ago. That helped but did not solve the problem completely. Pass side was good. What I found when I took the hinges off to rebuild them was at one time someone had used a torch to remove the bottom hinge bolt. On the top hinge I could see where the door had been pulled open past the stop point so it sprung the cab just a little bit. I was able to tweak it back into place but that still left me with missing captive nuts.
Material used was 1/4" hot rolled plate 3x4 in. Cost was just a few dollars from local steel supply.
Even though I did weld nuts on the back of the plates this could be a no-weld solution for broken captive nuts in a pinch.

[Clarance J]

Two more pictures. Just another idea to save those hinge pocket areas that doesn't cost much.

Earl

[Kim57]

Nice fix on the hinges.
Kim

[Baldeagle SR]

Nice work on the hinges. Rich

[RockinKees]

Great idea Earl!

[samples45]

Hey earl! Just read through your whole build! Im a younger guy (24) and i really think its neat to read the history of the truck and the changes you have made over so many years.. Its a nice looking truck and cant wait to see you have it on the road! just know you help shape the minds of america youth! well this youth anyways!

cameron

[Baldeagle SR]

Nice fix on the hinges.
Rich

[Clarance J]

Well heck , looks like I've got some catching up to do. I just got lazy. First thing is a thank you to Kim, Rich, Kees and Cameron.
I have been working on CJ every chance I get. Got the front clip on and pretty much have that figured out. Pulling the bumper back was one of the many little projects I wanted to get done.

[Clarance J]

Next was the bumper. It has to tilt with the front clip so the brackets had to be moved to the out side of the frame. I was toying with the idea of smoothing out the bumper but I just like the look of the bolt heads showing on the bumper. So that's done. The two outer most bolts are dummy bolts because they do nothing but fill up the holes. Can't use the bumper to frame brace. You don't even notice that the four bolts in the center have been moved.

[Clarance J]

And finally the bumper is on. There won't be much chrome on CJ when he is finished but I do like shiny stuff. What I've seen before at a car show somewhere was the bumper that was polished steel and then clear coated. I liked the way it looked so that's what I'm aiming for. We shall see. To get it back on the truck so I can drive him some this winter, for now I put a couple of coats of Rustoleum clear to slow down the surface rust. For some reason I think I'm doing this backwards. Take CJ apart during good driving weather to work on him and then put him back together at winter time to drive him.

Earl

[RockinKees]

Looks great again Earl!

Did you by chance mounted your hinges already?
I'd like to know how that turned out.

[Advanced Design]

Nice work well detailed Earl. The bumper fitment is very good. I've never seen a steel bumper left bare, polished and clear coated before and it will be a good looking accent.

[oldman3]

Nice job again...Jim

[Kim57]

Looks real good.
Kim

[Clarance J]

Thank you Kim and Jim.

Kees, I don't have any pictures of them installed because they are hidden but I can tell you that they work very well.

AD, I stole the idea of polishing the bumper from someone else. Its one of those ideas that hide right in plain sight. It looks very close to chrome and your eyes just go right pass it. I like stuff like that.

OK, here is an idea that I came up with on my own. When I put the power steering on CJ it was suggested that you should put a larger tie rod bar on at the same time to help the tie rod from bending. I looked at what they had in the catalogue and didn't like the prices I was seeing. So this is what I came up with.

Earl

[Clarance J]

Well back again. Its been awhile since last post. I had to go look for myself. Ended up on the top of page six.
Been busy getting the fire wall cleaned up after I moved the battery box out of the way. Filled in a bunch of holes and moved the two nuts for the interior dash support to the inside.
Also since I filled in the cowl vent I cut out the vent boxes and patched all the vent holes to the interior and the rust out areas at the bottom on both sides.
Smoothed out the area of the upper fender mounts because they were no longer going to be used.

[Clarance J]

After the firewall was done the spot welds over the top seam really showed up. I removed the paint and filled those in.

[Clarance J]

Next after all the grinding, filling, sanding, more filling, more sanding it was ready for the epoxy primer and then paint. I'm hoping that by the time I finish this truck I will be a fair painter. We shall see. Either way its been fun.

Now I can start concentrating on the front clip sheet metal and tilt stuff.
Earl

[Baldeagle SR]

Very nice work. The firewall came out very nice. Rich