1992 Jeep YJ, the Wrongler

In reply to CAinCA :

That's fantastic, thanks!  We can thank forum member Psteav for the name and Robbie for the poem :)

This parts jeep came along mostly because I wanted a stock, unhacked roll cage for the Wrongler.

The one that is in it now has been cut, welded, etc.  One of the "spreaders" between the main hoop and windshield is homemade and doesn't fit right. I don't have much desire to to work with what I have.

So I went looking for a parts YJ (again...I occasionally search) and this one popped up and the seller and I hit it off and he brought it right to me.  What's not pictured is a decent stash of extra parts (hood, grille/radiator, seats) and an entire extra wrecked tub (that part I still have to go get from a couple hours away).

So now I have the roll cage I was looking for plus a bunch of other stuff I need now or will in the future.  The engine is supposedly good in this parts Jeep (he sent me a video of when he had it running), it has a 5 speed transmission, most of a transfer case, a horn button, a neat front bumper and winch mount, seat belts, a "sound bar," and lots of little hardware that mine is missing.

Fun times, lol!

Over this summer I decided to do something I had not been very excited about and strip the doors down and paint them red.

I first hosed them down with some primer:

I picked out a stock red I'll call "Kubozke Edition Red Enough"

This is definitely a 50-foot quality paint job.  I don't like it.  I'm really only able to do it and tolerate the results because it's a rough-and-tumble jeep.  That's also why "red enough" was acceptable.  The jeep will become more red-enough as other little projects are tackled on the project.

The doors now have new seals and felts and wipes and such.  That's kinda cool.  This whole process has reminded me why I claim to not be a body/paint guy.  It's not that I couldn't be good at it but I definitely don't have the space, the proper equipment, and most of all the experience to pull off a high quality paint job.  The learning curve is very expensive with high-quality paint.

Hardtop to remain black, or will you make it red too ?

It'll probably just stay black (it gets used in the winter so the heat absorption won't be a problem (rather a good thing, I suppose).

Ideally, I would have liked to paint the window frame and inset of the door black to match the top...  But I wasn't willing to spend the extra money on yet another layer/color of paint at this time, lol.

You might notice in the photos in my post above that the roll bar/cage is not installed.  

Before starting the door project I started thinking about putting some nicer cavalier seats I had into the YJ.  When I did that I was going to need some new seatbelts as well.  The seat belts bolt to the roll bar and the roll bar in the Wrongler was a mess.  I wanted to put the unhacked roll bar from the parts jeep in.  

I was not surprised, when I went looking for the roll bar bolts that the mounting points had been covered up (along with about half of the rest of the floor) with a mess of polyester resin and fiberglass.  Years ago someone must have been thinking, "eh...we'll give this old junker one last go-round."  Obviously they weren't accounting for me to come along years later and pour cubic hours into this thing they had deemed a lost cause.

When I got to digging, and after a LOT of wire wheeling away at the fiberglass covering it up, this is what the base of the roll bar on the driver side looked like...

A large portion of the floor where the driver side seat mounts was rusty along with one of the braces underneath and the vertical portion where the roll bar mounts as well.

I ordered up about $300 worth of patch panels and got to procrastinating.

Once the doors had been enreddened, I decided it was time to start cutting metal and rust out of the floors.

Before long I had most of the metal cut out:

Then it was time to start fitting and welding patch panels. 

To my surprise, I was able to slowly motivate along and eventually I had all the metal welded into place.  (in this photo I still have one patch to make and weld in...but it's close ;)

Tonight I got out the seam sealer and rattle can and made my patchwork floor black

I dragged the parts jeep out of the woods and extracted (with some fuss) all the roll cage bolts.  Here it is ready to donate its cage to the Wrongler:

Whoa. That escalated quickly. 

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

It was quite a puzzle.  Before I made the first cut I took a LONG time overthinking how it should come apart so I could put it back together.

Clem!

I just got a 92 yj myself!   It's a little rough and I have a few small parts I'm looking for.  Any chance I could see if I could buy some from you?   Feel free to email me at my username at yahoo

In reply to jfryjfry :

That's cool!  I'd be interested in hearing how your project goes.  I'll send an email.  I don't know if I'll have much you need for parts...My parts jeep is REALLY rough and somewhat picked over already and I have a stupid idea to maybe build something out of it some day.

Yesterday I painted the roll bar/cage with Rustoleum.  Today I set it and the seats back in the Wrongler.

I painted half the driver side with my new "Kubozke Edition Red-enough" paint after patching the rust down in the "rocker" area.  It sticks out like a sore thumb, but in time I'll try to paint more parts and get it looking more consistent.  I'm not really concerned about the aesthetic details as much as the safety and mechanical ones.

I got the rest of the cage bars and seatbelts bolted in and took if for a quick drive up the road to literally blow the cobwebs out (as well as a bunch of other dusts, etc).

Spray enamel? Or roller? Looks good.

It's an acrylic urethane, I guess.  I applied it with a cheap, purple spray gun from the hammer store.  Kirker brand "Performance Red"  

But I like my name for it better ;)

Time for an operational/ownership update, I guess.  

Seems I forgot to come back and post here that I made myself a hard sunshade out of the busted-up hardtop that came with the parts jeep.  It had fiberglass damage to the sides so I cut the sides off and made some mounts for it to attach to the rollcage at the rear (and it screws to the winsdhield frame at the front).  That's been pretty nice.  It gives the shade I want and doesn't flap around.

I did cut that allthread to length after I took this photo.

That was actually last summer that I did that, I guess.  It's not my idea.  I was inspired when I saw someone selling a cut-down hardtop sunshade on marketplace, lol

Sooooo. Many. SHENANIGANS!!!

I wholeheartedly endorse this build... 

Just caught myself up on this one. My kind of project! 

The Wrongler greatly inspired me to get my own YJ project (a 1994). I've been watching since day 1 of this thread.

I love it when this gets an update. Nice sunshade top solution, that's definitely the worst part of driving topless in the summer. Is it still noisy? Mine is so noisy with the top on. It's like a different vehicle topless.

How did you get the old CJ doors to latch on that body? Most people go the other direction, newer doors on old body. That was such a score on price, though! I paid $600 for just my hardtop. But it is "correct" for my '77. Still looking for doors.

I started to post earlier about doing some off-roading this past weekend.  But first I figured I'd better post about that top project.

Anyway...this past Sunday a friend of mine with a (much newer) Wrangler and a couple other like-minded fools did something new.  We went out to a nearby Off Road park for the day.  

I loaded it up on the trailer for the trip over (mainly because the YJ isn't insured for road duty right now...I'm road-driving other projects currently).  See three things with a build thread here in this photo:

We then had a marvelous time bumping around the woods climbing up hills and generally enjoying ourselves.  I don't think I'm wrong to say that I've now officially done more off-roading in my YJ than the vast majority of jeeps that are around these days.  All on 31" tires and a set of "2 inch" lift springs.  

Mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned.  I'll plan to continue to enjoy some off-roading in this thing and keep fixing some stuff and doing necessary upgrades.  It could use a rear bumper with a tire carrier.  I have collected a '98 Explorer parts donor that has a 3.73:1 8.8 rear end with Limited Slip and Disc brakes.  That's not "necessary" but would be a cool upgrade project some day.

Some thoughts on actually using this thing off road.

There were about two times during the course of the day where I applied more than about 30% throttle, lol.  I spent 99% of the time poking around at 1,500 rpm having a blast.

The 4.0 has more than enough power and the high 3.08:1 axle gearing didn't seem to negatively affect me much when in 4-low.

It's surprising how much ground clearance it has.  I managed to drag a few obstacles ("high-center") but with the short wheelbase, I found myself giggling going over stuff I didn't think I should be able to.

According to guys who rode in my Jeep and the ~2020 that my friend brought...they said mine was notably rougher/bouncier.  I can't say first hand, I was having so much fun in mine, I wasn't about to stop to ride shotgun in the other one, lol.  It's basically exactly what I expected from a leaf-sprung, short wheelbase Jeep.

I put some Cavalier seats in it a while back (not sure if I covered that earlier in the thread).  Two friends commented on how surprisingly supportive they were.  

I intentionally chose to go out when it wasn't incredibly muddy.  The grip was great and I didn't miss the fact that I don't have any sort of limited slip or lockers.  If it were more slick out, I'm sure I'd appreciate a limited slip in the rear and/or something in the front.  I'm still running the "Center Axle Disconnect" which was stock on these YJs.  I can't complain...it works.

Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) said:

The Wrongler greatly inspired me to get my own YJ project (a 1994). I've been watching since day 1 of this thread.

Cool!  I'd love to see it and what you've been doing to/with it :)

llysgennad said:

I love it when this gets an update. Nice sunshade top solution, that's definitely the worst part of driving topless in the summer. Is it still noisy? Mine is so noisy with the top on. It's like a different vehicle topless.

How did you get the old CJ doors to latch on that body? Most people go the other direction, newer doors on old body. That was such a score on price, though! I paid $600 for just my hardtop. But it is "correct" for my '77. Still looking for doors.

I don't actually drive the YJ much so I can't really comment on the noise levels.  I never had a real soft top for it so I only know open and hard top...but it's all jeep, lol (noisy).

Those CJ door latches catch on the inside of the door jamb.  I'd rather have YJ doors but these are functional.  I honestly didn't even put the top or doors on this winter.  I made space for it in the barn so I didn't have to make it weather resistant ;)