Project MJ CRD is born:

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:16 am

Started pulling the interior panels out of the MJ, ripped out the carpet tonight, more rust than I was expecting given the outside condition of the vehicle, guess it was that wet carpet syndrome that got to it.

Lucky none of it is through the body, and none of it is even soft, went around and tapped on all the rusty spots with welding hammer, all if it is good and solid, and basically appears just to be a heavily pitted surface rust.

So right now the plan is to wire brush everything with rust on it, then get some POR15 and coat everything well(after I make modifications to the floor for the newer seats to bolt in), then the POR15 will get covered with the sound deadening material.

Anyone have anything else to consider for rust abatement?

Here you can see a VERY quick pass(not even 30 secs worth) of wire brush, compared to what it looked like before. I think the wire brush will work well on the surfaces I can get to, its the seam where I cannot get between, or the channel that I cannot get between, that worries me.

Of course, if this is as bad as it is after 22 years, another 22 years of equally bad rust wouldn't be the end of the world. Who knows, I somehow doubt I will still own the Jeep in 22 years(maybe, thats a long ways off)

I also found a flash suppressor under the carpet, LOL

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:36 am

Just like cancer in the human body, if you don’t capsulate it, then it will spread like wildfire. :shock:

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Mon Jan 19, 2009 3:32 am

Ok did some more work, got the steering column, dash, and a few other things out of the way.
You can see where the front of the newer seat sits here:

And so this is about where the front of the new seat will sit in the commanche, that little bit of bracket will be cutoff and the Xj seat bracket welded a little further back than that existing one. Basically the new XJ seat will sit exactly where the XJ seat would sit in a 97+ XJ.

Dash pulled, engine next so I can get the heater box out easier:

My dog helping:

Seat forward:

Seat back:

Still some space to store stuff when the seat is back:

Pulled the windshield trim, need to buy an extractor for the windshield so I can remove it. I will then cut the little studs off that hold on the old style trim so a newer rubber seal can be used. My neighbor works for safelight so I can get him to reinstall it for me for the cost of beer. This will allow me to weld some of the mounts that the newer dash/steering column needs easier with the windshield out

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:10 pm

What happened to the heated leather seats?

jinstall · **Posted:** Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:21 pm

BTW I found another CRD engine on ebay. Looks good and nice helping dog.

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Mon Jan 19, 2009 9:21 pm

Jeepjeepster wrote:

What happened to the heated leather seats?

They are in the back of the garage, these are considerably lighter for mockup purposes.

jinstall wrote:

BTW I found another CRD engine on ebay. Looks good and nice helping dog.

Yes I've been seeing several on ebay for awhile now. Problem is, none of us needs a longblock, everyone wants swap packages, so seperate out the wiring harness ecu, etc and pretty soon no one can work with it. Becomes worthless.

At least if I ever blow my engine I know there will be cheap replacements out there.

clackclack · **Posted:** Tue Jan 20, 2009 8:46 pm

Sir Sam wrote:

Anyone have anything else to consider for rust abatement?

I've had some luck with chemicals, e.g.: naval jelly (and others)... strip what you can with a wire brush on a grinder... brush on chemical... wait.... then wire brush on grinder again (repeat if necessary). I've also used a sand blaster with good results but you end up with sand everywhere. There are also mobile soda blasters who will come to your shop. I'm not sure what that cost, but soda blasting is gaining popularity fast.

On more than one occasion, by the time I got the result I wanted, I could have cut and welded in new metal in about half the time. I also know folks who have had whole cars chemical stripped in a giant tub. That works great but pretty $$ and labor intensive... mostly for collector cars.

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:01 pm

clackclack wrote:

Sir Sam wrote:

Anyone have anything else to consider for rust abatement?

I've had some luck with chemicals, e.g.: naval jelly (and others)... strip what you can with a wire brush on a grinder... brush on chemical... wait.... then wire brush on grinder again (repeat if necessary). I've also used a sand blaster with good results but you end up with sand everywhere. There are also mobile soda blasters who will come to your shop. I'm not sure what that cost, but soda blasting is gaining popularity fast.

On more than one occasion, by the time I got the result I wanted, I could have cut and welded in new metal in about half the time. I also know folks who have had whole cars chemical stripped in a giant tub. That works great but pretty $$ and labor intensive... mostly for collector cars.

When I used naval jelly the cleanup always required lots of wash down, not really what I want here.

nursecosmo · **Posted:** Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:05 pm

I used to use Phos for rust remediation when doing restorations in the body shop. I think that it is basically Phosphoric acid but don't know if it has other chemicals in it. I'm not sure but I think that naval jelly is the same thing with a thickener added, at least it smelled the same. Both products worked extremely well at stopping rust progression.

bugnout · **Posted:** Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:38 pm

POR 15 will do the trick.

Clean it up with a wire brush and then spray on Metal-Ready to prep the rust, then POR15. Top coat if you want.

Joe Romas · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:49 am

I'm glad the heated leather is still a go for your helper's sake :lol:

All the Mj's that are left around here have the carpet hanging down where the drivers floor used to be :oops:

Then the driver's seats turn into rocking chairs :lol:

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:37 am

In the salt belt, rust is a common occurrence. When you get rid of the rust by wire brush, chemical, or sand blasting; coating the base metal with epoxy primer will put the rust at bay for a very long time, then coat it with truck bed coating. Then you can throw your tools under the seat without chipping up the paint.
We use Tnemec epoxy paint with water and waste water equipment that is made out of carbon steel, it works.

Joe Romas · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2009 1:28 pm

warp2diesel wrote:

In the salt belt, rust is a common occurrence. When you get rid of the rust by wire brush, chemical, or sand blasting; coating the base metal with epoxy primer will put the rust at bay for a very long time, then coat it with truck bed coating. Then you can throw your tools under the seat without chipping up the paint.
We use Tnemec epoxy paint with water and waste water equipment that is made out of carbon steel, it works.

Have you ever tried Por-15 :?:

It's used to restore cars with rust damadge. I used it on a chip tray for one of my lathes. It's very durable and REALLY sticks :oops:

But it will not stand up to UV rays so it needs coated with something. :lol:

clackclack · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2009 3:09 pm

Joe Romas wrote:

It's very durable and REALLY sticks :oops:

But it will not stand up to UV rays so it needs coated with something. :lol:

it really sticks to your skin too (or penetrates)... I use it whenever drilling holes or cutting to prevent rust in places that wont be seen. You will find it takes week+ to come off your skin... regardless of how much you scrub. wear gloves :lol:

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warp2diesel · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:08 pm

Joe Romas wrote:

Have you ever tried Por-15 :?:

It's used to restore cars with rust damadge. I used it on a chip tray for one of my lathes. It's very durable and REALLY sticks :oops:

But it will not stand up to UV rays so it needs coated with something. :lol:

I don't think Sam will have a UV problem under the seats covered with carpet.

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Sun Feb 22, 2009 3:18 am

Well I had been wondering about what to do for a radiator, and the 4cyl 2.5 radiator seems like it was perfect match....unfortunatly no one seems to make a good replacement radiator for it, only single core, plastic aluminum setups. There are some all aluminum radiators on ebay, but they are single core.

Well this was all moot, I was just going to wait untill I came to that bridge to burn it. The thinking was that I would wait untill I knew for certain what I needed to use for a radiator to order one....I have a good 2 core OEM radiator here from a 2001 6 cyl, that I could use, and I have the crappy old radiator from my MJ I could use for mockup. The problem was, the more I looked at it and the more I measured the more certain I became that I would need to use it. Which left me with the problem that if I did need to use it, there would not be a good replacement option.

Now anyone can spend the time to custom mount a custom radiator, or an off the shelf radiator for something like a YJ/TJ, but since I am faced with enough fabrication already here I am hoping for something that will bolt in.

Now that being said I came across something at the junkyard that is either a windfall, or a white elephant, here we have a nearly new, single core(but thicker than a double core) OEM style radiator, $50 is a little pricey in my mind, but if it works out will be a good solution. If it doesn't well crap, I just wasted $50.

Got the windshield removed and safely stored in the basement:

Got some tie downs off of a ford exploder sport track(and a 8.8 with 4.10s and LSD- all ready sold :rock on: )

And of course further probing reveals more rust, what ticked me off about this bit was all the rust was below the seam sealer........ya, the metal rusted out below the seam sealer......grrr, oh well, I got a junk hood that I will raid for patch metal. Fun part is going to be welded in the patch panel with an Arc welder......I got some 1/32" sticks that seem to work OK on sheet metal.

I need to spend a hour or so cleaning up before I move on with work, garage is cluttered with a bunch of parts strewn around.

I got these dollys at harbor freight, they actually work really well for rolling the Jeep back and forth in the garage, I would highly recommend them to anyone who thinks they might be useful.

nescosmo · **Joined:** Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:17 pm **Posts:** 202

You are very fortunet, your wife let you have the garage like that. I wish mine were like yours; I love junk parts. Also your junk yard have a lot of parts and let you go and picked up anything.
Here in florida they think that they are new auto parts with computer and all. they never have what you want and they do not let you in the yard. If you go in they serch you and you have to pay to go in. I am serius, this is like Rusia over here. so I gave up serching for Jeep parts specilly Liberty, First thing they tell you is --We do not have any, isn too new---

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:24 am

nescosmo wrote:

You are very fortunet, your wife let you have the garage like that. I wish mine were like yours; I love junk parts. Also your junk yard have a lot of parts and let you go and picked up anything.
Here in florida they think that they are new auto parts with computer and all. they never have what you want and they do not let you in the yard. If you go in they serch you and you have to pay to go in. I am serius, this is like Rusia over here. so I gave up serching for Jeep parts specilly Liberty, First thing they tell you is --We do not have any, isn too new---

I'm single. Women take up too much time away from the garage.

nescosmo · **Joined:** Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:17 pm **Posts:** 202

What a man

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:34 am

nescosmo wrote:

What a man

I don't shave either.

Project MJ CRD is born:

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