As Close to an AMC as it Gets......

[shaggimo]

So some of you may remember a few months back I acquired a free eagle, the 84 4 door sedan, that car has been stashed away safely until I have time to work on it.....A couple weeks ago I get a phone call from a buddy of mine, letting me know he is going to scrap his 88 XJ Cherokee (legal reasons, not by choice), and wanted to know if I needed anything for mine. I said I'll swing up and take a look at what's left. I get up there to his place, and look it over, well, I had to ask what he wanted for the whole thing, lol. He asks, what would you do with it, I replied, the body of mine is shot, rotten, and battered, my transmission is about to kick the bucket, along with my whiny t-case. He said take it.....Exqueeze me come again? Says if I can and will use it I can have it, lol. So my new project daily driver the FreeKee, lol.


Woohooo!! Solid Rocker panels!!


I honestly have no idea what any of that crap does....



As you can see, it needs some work, lol, It has a little roof damage, shown in the pic above, but is virtually rust free, which is a huge plus in my mind (I hate rust). No engine, but it does have a good t-case, and tranny. I'm going to be swapping my 4.0 into it out of my 97, and probably doing a carburetor conversion, (yes I know bass ackwards from the norm, lol). My main goal is to go simple, if a system is not there, it cannot fail (IE: fuel injection),not to mention, I like carbs (both on my engines and in my meals, hahaha), and enjoy working with them.



Here's what is meant by "as close as it gets". Even though this Cherokee is an 88, it still wears its AMC name with pride, but it was built and sold in 87.

[shaggimo]

grrrrrrrrrrrrrr photobucket is fouling up my pics again! Oh well the basic idea there  .

[shaggimo]

So a little update on this ole gal, after almost two months of work, it's finally getting to the primer/paint stage. I'm not being too picky on this jeep, like I was on the SX/4, so the body work is shotty at best, at least it's not a rotter and will be one color, lol, roof isn't even close to straight but once it's lifted you'd have to be 7+ feet tall to notice, lol.



There it is all stripped down to a rolling chassis (plus a windshield, lol). It was infested with rodents so it was necessary to remove everything for cleaning (just like the SX/4, but this jeep was much worse).


notice to left roof, lol, headliner will hide the mess, it's better than it was so that's all that matters.



 
As of yesterday, the shell now in primer.

[rohnk]

Nice work. Keep it going!

[amc78concord]

AWESOME

[shaggimo]

Thanks guys, gotta keep going otherwise I'll be walking come winter  .

[shaggimo]

After a very long weekend, and over 50 hours of work (no joke, I lack finger prints to prove it, haha), the jeep is painted.

How it all went down.
Friday night, I cleaned prepped, and primed the hatch, hood, and fenders (until about 2am)
 
Saturday 6:45 am, spent a good portion of the day cleaning and prepping all the body jambs, and engine bay for paint, then painted said areas. Pushed the jeep outside, proceeded the block all the doors, hood, hatch, header panel, and fenders. I then found that one of my doors was pretty bad in the looks depot, but it was late so I quit (2am).

Sunday 7:30 am, First thing, re-primer the bad door. Then prep, clean, etch prime and paint the back sides of the hood, fenders, header panel, and hatch. While waiting for that stuff to dry, I started on some wet sanding on the body shell. Once it was safe, fenders, header, and hood were installed (hatch set aside). Next, the back sides of the doors, prepped, cleaned, etched, and painted. A Friend stopped by, so just bs'd until the doors were dry enough to install, thanks to said Friend, lol. Finally the long night of wet sanding the roof, I wanted it done, so it was good and dry when it came time to paint (4am).

Monday, I slept in 8:30 am, Finished wet sanding, with the help of Dad, then proceded to clean, clean, clean, and further clean until I was ready for paint. All said and done, 6:00 PM



One Color Jeep!!!


I still have lots of work to do, tonight will be consumed by wet sanding, in hopes that I can get rid of the some of the orange peel (keep in mind the majority of the paint I used, is over 15 years old, haha). I tried thinning the paint (as in three times the recommended amount), which helped, but it's just not up to my low standards for the jeep, lol. If it doesn't wet sand nice or well enough, I'll just have to clear it. Another step closer though, once I get it all cleaned up, and bring it to a proper shine I'll take some outdoor pics, the color is actually really cool.

[shaggimo]

Finished up the buffing over the weekend, turned out fairly decent, lol, kinda bugs me a bit that this thing turned out having a nicer paint job than my Malibu, hahaha, but it's not nearly as nice as the eagle . Anyway, a few more pics of how it turned out, finally got some daylight photos in there as well.




ooooooooooo shiny lol










yup, even under the hood







So there it be, the time/weather sensitive portion is complete, now comes the part of reassembling, and getting it ready for winter, rat race is still on, haha.

[thereverendbill]

if you are needing any pieces i have started to strip a 1991 cherokee so that my 94 winter beater can get a lift and my 95 can get a motor it really needs

[shaggimo]

Thanks bill, I think I may have most of what I need (I'll be stripping my 97 cherokee for many parts, suspension, engine, axles, interior, lol), unless you may have a pair of chrome door handles you'd like to sell, or maybe a 4bbl intake, and a chevy I6 HEI distributor, lol.

[GRONK]

I have the HEI dizzy and the 4bbl intake if interested.

[rohnk]

Nice work shaggimo! Keep the updates coming!. The color is great and I love seeing nice clean engine compartments. Now you get to fill it up with some muscle! 

[shaggimo]

Nice work shaggimo! Keep the updates coming!. The color is great and I love seeing nice clean engine compartments. Now you get to fill it up with some muscle!  

Thanks rohnk! lol, I do have a 455 laying around, waiting for an engine bay to corrupt  , nah I couldn't, lol, the 4.0 is much more practical at the moment, lol.

[amc78concord]

That's a pretty cool transformation from what it was.  I've gotta do something like this to my Jeep.  But mine is so rusty... 

[thereverendbill]

That's a pretty cool transformation from what it was.  I've gotta do something like this to my Jeep.  But mine is so rusty... 

I know where a great looking unibody is sitting 

Thanks bill, I think I may have most of what I need (I'll be stripping my 97 cherokee for many parts, suspension, engine, axles, interior, lol), unless you may have a pair of chrome door handles you'd like to sell, or maybe a 4bbl intake, and a chevy I6 HEI distributor, lol.

Those would be acual AMC pieces and not too easy to come by, but I believe I know where there is a set that i could get for ya.  Every time I am at that yard the old man keeps saying "you should get these babys to flashen up your cherokee"  my responce "chrome don't get you home"