Barbie Jeep For My Uncle......

He purchased the Arb, Trutrac, and lots of smaller items before he brought the jeep down to me.
I have a bill here for a little over $4K in parts I have bought and installed that he is reimbursing me for.
Now if I could bill him for my nearly 80 hrs of labor...... He would probably just sign the title over

The house is a slow build. Last Saturday I trenched and installed 1000' of 1.5" pvc for irrigation.

 

My uncle thought the same thing. He did not consult me before he bought the Jeep. After he bought it he called and said he wanted to go on the Rubicon with us.....
Then he spent another $6k to get the Jeep Rubicon ready....

 

This project is done!
First I cut an old piece of conveyor belting for a road noise insulation.





The strong hold shift boot over the top.

 

I just remembered that I forgot to update this thread.
The Rubicon trip went very well! My Uncle had many nervous moments, but his jeep worked flawless. I really liked how the ARB front and Tru Trac rear differentials worked together.
He attributes the great trip to his driving skill....... I attribute the great trip to the amazing jeep builder.

 

The hammocks sure look inviting!

 

Yes!
That small right front axle leak got worse once he got home. We ended up yanking the right front 2 piece axle shaft and posi lock cable setup out. He installed a set of one piece ten factory axles up front.

 

gonna swap the grille?

 

I have a cj7 clip stashed away for him.

 

good.

 

Its been a few years since this thread was updated.
Uncle Mac's attempt at fitting in with the CJ's for the Rubicon Run.





This vintage steel should fix it right up!






1.5 beers in so far......

 

this should be interesting

 

If you slow down on the work you can drink more beer!

 

Got another 2 beers deeper into the CJ7 conversion last night.

The CJ fenders bolt right up to the YJ tub with the only problem being interference between the shock tower and the inner fender.
Some trimming is required for the inner fender to clear the frame rail and shock tower.



The cut out needs a little smoothing out and fine tuning, but this is the basic shape necessary.





This looks pretty sharp!
I'm still in in disbelief that I am allowing my uncle to have these perfect fenders.





Moving to the drivers side.
The factory cut out on the CJ driver fender is different than the passenger side. I want this swap to look proper when it is complete.....
Drivers side fender with the basic shock cut out......




The big hole in the inner fender that is in front of the shock tower bothered me....
I grabbed a cut off section of inner fender from the passenger side and welded it to the drivers side inner fender.





After some trimming and shaping we have a much better look... and it matches the passenger side.








Opens beer number 2 for the evening.......
Installation of the hood was pretty straight forward once I found a T40 torx bit to remove the YJ hood hinge bolts.
The CJ and YJ share the same hood hinges..... So the CJ hood bolted right on to the YJ tub.










Once we get rid of that wrangler sticker on the rear corner...... we should have something that looks mighty proper!
Sips beer number 2 and admires handy work....

 

Worked on fitting the grille shell last night.
The lower corner of the grill needs to be notched out to clear the power steering hoses.








Fan to radiator clearance is going to be interesting to say the least.......





Opens beer........
Here's the big reveal!





Yup..... looks like a Cj7!
I took the rest of the evening to clean up the coolant drip and explore fan clutch options.

 

How about a set of dual electric fans out of junk yard if you don’t have clearance for a fan clutch.

 

Or clutch fan delete?

 

The Ford Contour/Merc Cougar fan route is tempting, that addition would likely require a higher output alternator.
I really want to keep this simple and reliable for Mac. While he can adjust valves on an old VW, sharpen his mower blades, and change his own headlights...... He isn't the greatest at trouble shooting electrical.

Deleting the fan clutch is probably going to be the fall back if I am unable to find a compact reverse rotation clutch.

Modifying the grill/radiator support is an option as well.

 

Will Mac be calling this his "Why-CJ" Jeep or "See-YJ"?