1967 CJ-6: First Build

warloc,could you give me a measurement?i am thinking of streching my cj5 to a cj6.i am looking for the distance from the front fender/tub seam to the back of tub.thanks

 

thanks for the info jim.so if i add 20 and do it right a cj6 soft top should work.thanks steve.also i dont know if i am posting correctly.newbie.also great looking cj6

 

I'm still doing body work. The only wheelin' I get to do is wirewheelin'. The recent rain stopped me for about a week and I've been doing a little bit of maintenance on my YJ...getting ready to sell it. Here's what I've done...
firewall cleaned

primered


floor cleaning

primered


I've started on the other side and have taken a different route...I used primer on the rear half of the jeep. I'm using rustoleum's bare metal primer that is suppose to work on bare metal, painted and very lightly rusted surfaces as well. I cleaned the sides well and the rust encapsulating property of the primer is just a 'just in case'. The passenger side, where I first began painting, is up to 9 coats now. The coats I was applying there were extremely thin. I wasn't satisfied with the overall paint thickness at coat 8.

so far, I think applying a primer is working better than without because it provides a more substantial foundation for the topcoats. The side without the primer, when the paint is chipped, goes all the way to bare metal.


for the hell of it (and for the photo shoot ), I installed the hood and the fenders.


one thing I was wondering about when cleaning the tub was: how clean is clean?
completely removing the paint and exposing bare metal takes a lot of time. assuming there is a total of 2 coats on the surface, it is 1/3 as fast to just remove the outer paint and leave the bottom paint intact. scuffing the paint with sandpaper, in my case, takes just as long as taking the surface to bare metal.

I tried to take the tub floor to bare metal as much as possible but from now on, if the paint doesn't come off after 3-4 passes with the wirewheeling, that means it's tough enough and can stay. rust is another story though...

the three levels of clean...


got the dash and engine side firewall primered, bought a shifter for the sm465, and i'm still waiting for my electric fan from canada...

my sm465 doesn't feel like it's shifting properly. the shifter feels like it's in neutral but I've tried spinning the motor and I can see the yokes spinning. It's not going in the granny gear and it doesn't feel like it's going in gears 2 and 3. reverse and 1st gear works though...

work for this weekend:
finish sanding the hood
sand the fenders
sand the grille
paint them
apply coats on the tub.
sand hardtop, doors, windshield (with some patching to be done)

buy gauges and other dash switches

 

I think as long as the paint has enough time to self-level then the amount of orange peel you will have to sand will be minimized. When I roll the paint, especially if the mix has gotten slightly thicker, the foam roller leaves an orange peel...about 10-15 minutes later they will disappear. Since I'm also thinning the paint to water/milk consistency, 10 minutes after rolling I can see the runs. I wait for the paint to just begin to get tacky and then roll over it with an unloaded roller just lightly to smoothen. The workability has been the best property.

 

That's looking great. Keep us posted.

 

Got the hood cleaned and primered


I'm also trying to narrow my track width a little bit. I will be swapping out the hubs. I had a "what the hell am I doing?" moment when I finished removing these because I just created more work...now I have to match the front.

rear hub


My ebay purchase finally came the other day. It was a month long wait. The guy who sold the electric fan only takes checks and lives in Canada. My check took 2 weeks to get to Canada and another 2 weeks to get the fan to me. It was ok...I got a good deal on it.
14 inch Perma-Cool


I took jayhawkclint's advise and will set up the electric fan as a pusher. I wanted to keep the existing grille shroud because the radiator mounts nicely on it but the fan doesn't fit in there. Not enough top to bottom room. Perma-Cool calls the fan a 14 inch but the fan blades span 16 inches...the 14 inches is the dimension of the mounting. I had to mod the grille to make room for the fan blades. I was trying to decide whether to chop the bottom or the top. The bottom will not free up enough space because the bottom part of the shroud sits on the crossmember...the crossmember would've been in the way.

cut

I agree, booger welds always happen at the most visible spots...

cleaned it




now I just have to extend the mounting tabs...

 

Man, this looks awesome! Makes me want to work on my 6! Keep up the good work!

 

Nice fab work!

To me it looks like the fan is a puller fan. Is it reversible?

 

yeah, in the picture the fan is still set up to be a puller. it's reversible and i looked at the fan blades briefly and haven't figured out yet how to flip the fan without destroying any pins or rivets. the fan motor can be wired to run the opposite way also.

 

got the fenders cleaned and primered...



same with the grille...


will do this next with just wet sanding instead of wirewheeling to bare metal, which i know will take 16 hours...


for the first time, i've begun messing with the wires. i'm trying to separate the engine electrical from part of the donor's chassis electrical that are still bundled ...

got most of the engine sensors and etc. labeled with only a couple of mystery plugs and connectors...

 

I wouldn't have patience to mess with that many wires, kudos to you man...

 

Nice work. That 4.3 doesn't look like an '89 to me, looks more like a 92-93 and up. I could be wrong. :? All the Astros I've seen '89 to '91 had steel valve covers. My '94 has those plastic ones.

 

After removing all the tape and plastic, I just started with the components that are the easiest and most recognizable to me: injectors, o2 sensor, knock sensor, TPS, etc. I saved the mysterious ones for the end. I'm using a haynes manual for the diagram and downloaded a painless wiring installation manual as a guide for locating the components on the engine.

A later model would make me feel better...I just looked at the pink slip that the seller gave to me and it says an '88. I've always thought it was an '89 (must've confused it with my 89 Wrangler). I haven't checked the stampings. The seller also gave me some extra parts (amounted to a short block...year unknown) and included in those are the steel valve covers so it's possible that he swapped those. The dust and grime on the engine makes it look like the motor has been running with the plastic valve covers for some time.

 

I used the autozone wiring diagrams, very simple. Here's the list for the Astro's.


http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/11/91/01/0900823d80119101/repairInfoPages.htm

A quick way to tell the year besides the numbers is the EGR valve. Up to at least '91 maybe '92 they used a vacuum EGR, my 94 has an electric EGR. EGR is behind the throttle body, vacuum has line, no wires, electric has wires.

You will end up with about 6 wires when you're done, besides the ALDL connector.

 

Thanks for the link...Looks much simpler than the Haynes diagrams. I'm noticing they have the injector wire colors accurate also (white & red instead of white & white on Haynes).

I just checked and I have the vacuum EGR.

 

Probably is '88 with plastic valve covers, or the heads were changed.

Those wiring diagrams are like they are made for swapping, the ones you need are labelled.

 

Got the wiring removed and passed through the firewall. I couldn't find any large grommets specifically for wiring but found a rubber grommet that was made for an oil filler tube, which had the correct measurements. I just had to cut a notch centered along the outside so it sandwiches the firewall sheet metal.



One of the hubs was delivered by the postman today. Suppose to pull the rims in by 2 inches (per hub). I found someone from pirate4x4 wanting to trade hubs. The guy was from Missouri.
Here it is installed.


I also just finished recentering one rim. Scribed a line first.


I did ECJ5's Howard Eisenhauer, bkap, and BrianP's suggestion of just BFHing it instead of my original idea of making some fancy jaw puller/jig. I was a little worried of bending the center though while hammering. After the grinding wheel, I used a cutoff wheel to make sure all the welds are cut so I don't have to bang on it that much.

I just cut a piece of cardboard to use as a gauge. I added an extra 1.5 inch to the backspacing.

tack welded...

test fitted...I placed a piece measuring stick on the leaf spring and had the other end touching the rim's lip. I saw maybe a 3/32 of an inch movement from the lip while spinning the tire. I think the lip is bent anyways so that test wasn't reliable. maybe I should've done it on an inside surface of the rim.

welded...since this is behind the wheel and not visible, of course, my welds then look amazing...I seriously hope they hold because I used 110v...

done...success!


all that work for 3 and a half inches

 

Again . . . . Wow!

You make it look simple!