| We did manage a few
sporadic days of reasonably warm weather in January & February of 1998
during which time I tore Jeepskate back down to the bare frame. I started
a new job in February and they were kind enough to give me a full
compliment of vacation days. I used a couple of them to coat the frame
with grey POR-15. During a previous warm spell I had gone over the frame
with a wire wheel and grinder and cleaned and prepped it. Sometime in
March I was able to complete the work and top-coat the frame with
Chassiscoat Black and also refinish the axle housings and skid plates. Finally Spring arrived. I welcomed it by
dragging the tub out of the backyard where I had stored it over the Winter
and putting it in the driveway where I could give it a thorough cleaning.
I re-assembled Jeepskate as a rolling frame and had it towed back down to
Chicagoland 4WD Center. Since I was going to be painting the axle
housings, Pat didn't setup the gears and fill the pumpkins the first time.
On this visit this was finished up, a rebuilt Trac-Loc from a TJ was
installed in the rear (I know it's not hardcore, but this was done with
future upgrades in mind since the pumpkin was already open and the gear
setup was already paid for and a Dana 60 with locker will be going back
there soon), and the brake lines and hoses were run. While that half was
in the shop, I pulled the tub back into the garage and modified it to
accept a CJ tailgate (one of the few original parts of this Jeep left). I
used the nut plates salvaged from a trashed CJ tub and inserted them in
the body channel below the tailgate opening in order to mount the hinges. When Jeepskate came back from the shop, I
bolted up the YJ power steering box and a Currie steering gear brace along
with a BDS drop pitman arm and (for the time being) YJ steering linkage. I
installed a 4-Plus twin-stick kit and u-bolt style yokes and new output
seals on the Dana 300 and bolted it up to the 32RH auto trans which I had
purchased earlier from Olympic 4x4 Supply. Then I borrowed an engine hoist
from a friend and transferred the 4.0 to it from the stand and lowered it
so that I could bolt-up the flex plate and trans. I lowered the whole
setup into position and jockeyed it into the engine mounts, then bolted up
the grill just for chuckles. Somewhere along here I realized that I
hadn't ordered new main eye bushings and that I might be cutting things a
bit close lift-wise with 35's. So I gave MORE a call once again and
ordered up a set of greasable main eye bushings and a 1" body lift
system (includes bolts, washers, and poly body bushings). Somewhere along
the line with my discussion of a YJ body on a CJ frame, I ended up with a
YJ kit instead of CJ. Instead of returning it, I enlarged the holes for
the six side mounts to accommodate the larger bushings. Then I laid some
moving blankets over the frame and basically dragged the tub up over the
rear crossmember and positioned it and removed the blankets. I put all of
the body bushings in place, then went around with my Hi-Lift jack and
installed the body lift. The next order of business involved test
fitting the '94 roll bar and seatbelts. I ended up having to do a small
retro-fit in order the install the front shoulder harnesses which use one
bolt and a tab which locks into the side panel to hold the retractor in. A
little work with a drill and cut-off wheel and they were in. Then I got a
wild hair and decided to install military tail-lights (typically found on
Hummers). I located a set with recessed mounting buckets at Surplus
Enterprizes and ordered them up. I also got a set of diamond plate
semi-corners and a lower tailgate panel from Get Serious! to mask the YJ
light and filler holes. I mounted the tail-lights as high as possible on
the body which involved quite a bit of sheetmetal cutting including a
portion of the tops of the rear wheelhouses. I didn't worry about this
since I have the YJ wheelwell and corner liners to protect against
splashed up water & mud and had plans to tie the roll bar into the
frame. Around this time, I stumbled across J&L Off-Road on the web and
picked up a set of their telescoping rear "outriggers" which are
essentially frame tie-ins for the rear feet of the roll bar that are made
from two pieces of tubing so that they can articulate when the body needs
to flex partially indepedant of the frame. Even though I mounted the tail-lights as
high as I possibly could, there still wasn't much room left in the rear
and I still needed backup lights and a fuel filler. Also, since the
tail-lights were flush mounted I needed to install red side markers. I
bought a set of pre-'81 side markers and mounted them up high on the sides
where the "Wrangler" badges had been, and I installed a TJ
filler surround with a YJ filler neck bolted to it in the driver side
quarter panel as high and far rearward as possible so as to lessen
interference with fender flares. I installed some surface mount
Signal-Stat backup lights in the rear below the tail-lights and put DOT
approved red reflector stickers on the rear bumper. I was never happy with
this and found something nicer in the Fall. Next I ordered up a gallon and an extra
quart of Durabak and picked up some Xylene to prep the tub with. I went
over the tub with 80 grit sandpaper and cleaned up with Xylene and applied
the Durabak with a large paint brush. This gave me two nice, thick,
heavily textured coats. This should give me a nice high traction surface
that can easily be hosed out after a weekend of sloppy wheeling (Midwest =
mud). Finally my buddy who knows how to do body
work showed up to help. I had already tweaked the most heavily damaged
sections of the tub myself using hammers and he fine-tuned my work and did
the filler work on the passenger side while showing me the ropes. Then I
did the filler work on the driver side and hood myself. It's not perfect,
but it's good enough and this isn't a show rig anyway. Then I mounted the
cowl intake ducting, brake pedal, dash and steering column. I had to
modify the brake pedal bracket because it came from a manual brake
equipped CJ (had to drill four holes for the bolts from the booster
bracket) and the travel was too high (had to drill new holes for the pivot
and remount the pedal). This still wasn't enough to get it just right, so
I ordered up an adjustable brake rod from Tri-County and picked up a
rebuilt '79 Firebird master cylinder. I figured since I was pulling
everything apart again, I may as well go on and swap the master cylinders
now instead of waiting to find out for sure that the CJ master cylinder
would be marginal with the 4 wheel discs. Time constraints with Summer visits and
parties and things that needed to be done around the house and at work
kept me away from Jeepskate for much of the Summer, so I was not able to
finish it up to enjoy wheeling it. I was able to attend the Jeep-L
Badlands Run in August riding shotgun and I worked as one of the
Show-N-Shine judges at the Petersen's 4xFun Fest in Sandwich, IL... Onward to Phase
4: | 
