CJ7: Classic 1979 Jeep Renegade Rebuild

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Folks here are some pics of the rebuild of my CJ7.

Here she was when I bought her sight unseen in Dec 2005 for $2000. Original 1979 Jeep CJ7 with 130,000 original km's.

The previous owner (girl called Tamara) had purchased it from the original owner and had moved it from Brisbane, to Byron Bay and to Sydney.

I purchased it based on the phone photos and put it on a truck and bought it back to Brisbane. It turned up in the yard one afternoon and I started to tinker with it.

My initial thoughts were that it was in bloody original condition, but the fact that the air cleaner was off and sitting in the back of the jeep was not a good sign.

Also the reason Tamara decided to sell it was that someone had tried to steal it and broke all of the steering column area. It was also not running real well and there was a problem with the brakes.

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So I started to pull it apart and figure out what I had gotten myself into. These pics show that the roof came of pretty fast and then the doors. She was in great condition under the floors but did have some rust in strange places. Also the engine looked ominous.

At this stage I was thinking I'll just get it going and get it registered. It still looked pretty nice and a bit of tidying up would be good enough.

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These pics start to show some of the rust... the left hand cowl panel was a real problem because it was not a flat panel - ie. it is a pressed panel that would be very difficult to make. The right rear panel near the fuel filler was a worry as well.

All in all though I decided I liked the colour and stripes as she looked pretty cool with the top and doors off. Even with the boring tyres!

After an initial assessment I decided I would head off to Gary Hammonds to get some supplies.

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The pic of the rust hole right in the middle of the cowl was depressing as well. When I first bought the jeep, there was a real small bubble of rust there and I did not think it looked too bad.

When I flicked the bubble of rust off with a screwdriver this is what I had left. Not impressed!

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So after I spent the next couple of weeks getting the jeep going again. Turns out all I had to do was rebuild the carby (which was in a real sad state of affairs). I checked compression which was good and finally got the old girl going reliably. All I can say about those old 4.2s is that they are are a bloody smooth old motor - much smoother than the 4.2 in my oldn 84 CJ7.

Another thing I can say is that is sure chewed the juice - I did a few little tests drives around my house in Samford and with the smaller fuel tank (50l I think) you could literally watch the fuel gauge needle move as you went for a drive.

Everything checked out good - the Turbo 400 worked like a treat, the Quadratrac was in excellent order and there were no strange noises or issues. She was a real good old girl - except the rust!

Anyhow I pushed her into the shed and pondered what to do.

I did not really want to spend much $$ at that time so I thought about trying to patch up the rust without pulling it down too far. After about 9 months of deliberations I finally decided to start a full body-off restoration.

So I started by photographically cataloging all the details of this very original Aussie CJ7.

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I wont post too many of these detail pics as I have hundreds but I'll post a few. If anyone is looking for a particular detailed pic then let me know because I will almost surely have it.

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These pics show some more of the rust. The rear rust around the fuel filler actually broke through into the load bay as well. Also the guards on these CJs are hopeless. They always rust out - when I pulled these skins apart there was absolutely no corrosion protection at all. Just two bare sheets of metal spot welded together!