| Thanks for checking in to our new feature...a full restoration of an '83 CJ7. The Jeep is owned by a Shell Valley employee, Roger Reed. Roger has been with Shell Valley for 12 years, and has been building the Jeep bodies since he started. As you can see, the CJ is in dire need of attention. The outer body, floor and fenders are terribly rusted....almost to the point that Roger was out of places to put his feet! Obviously, the first step in this project is to remove the old rotted steel and get the frame ready for the new body. As this project is a weekend only deal, we will be providing updates as we get them. The progress has been kind of slow, but it's gaining steam all the time! Keep checking back to see how Roger is doing! |
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| Welcome back to our ongoing CJ7 restoration project! In this installment, you can see that the frame has been prepped and is ready for the body. The frame was stripped of the engine, transmission and transfer case. It was then sandblasted and repainted gloss black. Then we installed new shocks, suspension bushings, etc. Right after this picture was taken, the engine and transmission were reinstalled using new motor mounts. At this time, it's a good idea to change any bushings or mounts that may need it. (It's a lot simpler now than after the body is back on!) Stay tuned to see the body being replaced and the CJ starting to take shape again! |
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| In this installment, we demonstrate how Roger braced the radiator since he will be using a one piece front end. He re-used the existing radiator-to-cowl braces that were on the Jeep from the factory. The braces were cut down to the length required and attached to the frame with small aluminum angle brackets. | ||
| In this step you can see how the exhaust hangers were moved to the frame. The factory originally hung the exhaust from the body, but Roger wanted to mount the exhaust before he replaced the body. He simply got a couple of standard exhaust hangers and fabricated brackets to attach the hangers to the frame. | ||
| It's been a while, but Roger and the gang are back to the Jeep! Here you can see the frame reinforcement plate that is included with our body mounting kit (part #8005) that connects the number 2 & 3 factory body mounts since some years require a slightly different mounting location. (Not all years of Jeeps will require the extra mounting plates). All that is required is to bolt or weld the new plate between the existing mount perches, and bolt the body in place on the new mount. | ||
| The Jeep continues to take shape....here we see Roger transferring the holes to his new firewall via the template he made off of his existing steel tub. The holes were copied onto a piece of cardboard, trimmed to match the shape of the body, and cut out to allow for marking onto the new body. | ||
| If you look closely at this picture, you can see that all of the holes from the original tub have been cut into the new body. This is the main reason that Shell Valley bodies do not come with the holes precut. Due to varying options on different years, your firewall may have holes in different locations. Even with a Kevlar-reinforced body, there are no special tools required to do any of the cutting on the body. The tools we used were a standard hole saw, a jig saw, and a piece of 80-grit sandpaper to smooth the holes after they were drilled. | ||
| This close-up of the firewall shows the pedal reinforcement plate that we chose to remount to the fiberglass body. The plate was removed from the steel tub with a grinder and a chisel, and bolted back to the new tub with 4 bolts. The plate isn't a necessity, since the firewall in all of our bodies are Kevlar reinforced already. However, the plate was still in good shape, so using it again just adds an extra measure of strength. | ||
| Yes, it's been a while since the last update, but Roger is back at it and will finishing the Jeep in the next few weeks! Here we got a shot of the cockpit with the steering column, brake pedal and shifter cover plate installed. There is a formed area on the floorboard of the Shell Valley body tub that allows for removal of a section and reusing the steel shifter plate. It should also be noted that if you decide to use the pedal reinforcement plate shown in Step #8, you may have to lengthen the pushrod between the brake pedal and the master cylinder. This is due to the increased thickness of the fiberglass firewall and the addition of the steel plate. | ||
