|
83 CJ-7 Mods and Features:
31x10x15 Futura Enforcer M/T's
4 KC Daylighter 200,000 candle power spot lights
2 Pep
Boys driving lights
Karr Lightbar
Pionner CD head unit
2 Pionner 3" in dash speakers
2 Pionner miniboxes
on rear top of rear wheelwells (one pizo tweeter, one 2" and one 4" in each box)
2 3x5 Realistic horn tweeters
2 Audiovox 6" mids
2 Jensen Nitro series 12" subs
Rockwood 400 watt amplifier
(total of 14 speakers
in one jeep :), it bumped )
Factory glass hard top and hard doors
Fatory soft top and one piece soft doors
Factory
tow package
Renagade package
Steel Horse center console
Full aftermarket carpet kit
140 amp alternator
1983 Jeep CJ-7 Renegade 4x4
Here is the tale of a 16 year old boy and his first vehicle. Its long so get comfy.
I bought my Jeep in april or may
of 1997. I paid $2,800 for it and it was in pretty sad shape when I got it. I had looked at a few other Jeeps and I knew I
really wanted a Jeep as my first vehicle. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. When I picked up my Jeep I barely
knew what a piston was. When I sold it, I could have rebuilt the whole vehicle by myself in a month. Well back to the story....the
jeep was tan and rust. It was powered by a mighty Pontiac 151ci 85hp 4 banger backed by a T-5 and a Dana 300 transfer case.
My dad asked my a few times if i thought it had enough power, well of course it did, right? Oh how wrong I was. It seemed
like a great deal to me cause I had $3,000 to spend, it ran, it was a jeep, and it had both hard and soft tops. Good deal
I though. So anyway, we bring it home and I was ecstatic. I drove it around for a few months in as purchased condition. When
summer rolled around though, me and my dad decided it was time to restore the Jeeps body. I cant remember exactly what spurred
this moment of creative genius, but once it was into full gear, we weren't stopping. We tore the Jeep down to basically the
body tub on the frame. All the drive train was left in place for now, this was to be cosmetic project. Well, over a period
of 4 months, the CJ-7 slowly transformed from a tan rustbucket with holes you could see through to a 96 wrangler moss green
pearl coated beast. All the original sheetmetal was retained except for the windshield frame which was so badly rusted it
fell off the car when we removed the duct tape holding it on. We welded in new floors, new metal under the rollbar, and fixed
two big holes in the rear quarters. And we did all of this by ourselves (cept for the welding) and we did it in our garage.
I do have to give a lot of credit to my buddy Jeremy who was there every day we were working right along side of us and doing
the majority of the sandblasting. Finally we it got time to paint it. My dad had painted a few cars before back in the early
70's with lacquer based single stage paints, but we were using a two stage basecoat clearcoat system that none of us had any
knowledge of. So anyway, we painted the whole thing and got back to the job of putting it all back together. After it was
finally all back together it looked really good and if you didn't know better you would never have guessed it was put together
by two 16 year old kids and a 40 something year old guy who had little knowledge going into the project. We were very happy
with ourselves. So that is the story of the first summer with the CJ.
Well, the year after that (told you it was a long
story) we decided to do the engine. We pulled it, sent it off to the machine shop, got it back and reinstalled it. As soon
as the engine is fired for the first time, it starts leaking oil out of the rear main like a hose. Turns out the machine shop
guy (who claimed to build insane HP camaros and stuff) forgot to cut the crank and sleeve it where the seal sits. So when
the new seal was installed it just leaked. Well, before my dad figured out what to do I was under the Jeep pulling the trans.
The next day we sleeved the crank, put a new rear main in, and drove the Jeep to a 4x4 show about 50 miles away. That was
the break in for the engine :)
So those were the too big projects in the life of the Jeep, but the story is far from
complete. All along the jeep had been breaking this that and the other, and most of the time the broken parts where things
we had already replaced at least once, if not multiple times. This lead me to my motto of "fuck rebuilt parts".
Ill never put one in any of my vehicles ever again unless its absolutely necessary. In the 4 years I owned the jeep it went
through: 3 clutches, 4 brake masters, 2 clutch masters, 3 clutch slave cylinders, a steering box and pump, and two sets of
subwoofers (crappy alternator killed them). So there is just the tip of the Jeep story. There are many other untold nights
of work and toil that I cannot or wish not to remember. I do have tons of pics of the whole body and engine rebuild so i will
post them as soon as possible. Thanks for reading this :) I put my heart into this vehicle and it killed me to sell it, but
I am very happy with the IROC, plus i always have my dads TJ to drive.
p.s. Thanks a ton dad, mom, and Jeremy for
helping me make that Jeep live. I owe you guys a lot
|
