Building the Car I Never Wanted to Build , Just the Way I Always Wanted to Build it

Luckiest part of the day was when I found that the body dolly for the 1946 Cj2a fit like a charm.

This is a big milepost in the project. All of the major disassembly is done.

Now it is repair, paint and replace.

By the time I'm done, I should have had everything on the car apart at least once. EVERY PART.

By biggest concerns are safety and reliability, and hands on everything is the only way to do that, at least with this car.

The last thing to do was to pull the fuel and brake lines off, and I was right, there are a couple of each that need to be replaced.

I really am happy that I bought that parts car...

Hopefully there are concours points for "not being lazy".

In reply to a_florida_man :

I really should have power-washed mine while I had it apart, yours looks so clean. 

I've been considering what to do with the front of the car.

I think I'm certainly going to open it up, partly for function, and partly for appearance.

To me, the front of a C4 is the part that is the most dated.

I'd like to open it up by removing the entire front bumper assembly..

 creating something like th XP882 look, without the chrome bumper: (add liberal amounts of imagination)

Or possibly open up the existing bumper like this car: (this would be less work...)

Even with this one I'd still like to see the "chin" trimmed back to behind the "nose".

Thoughts?

In reply to a_florida_man :

Thought is it would almost be a back date to the C3 Stingray nose - in a good way.

In reply to akamcfly :

Yes, that is the idea. Like the rear which GM did a much better job on.

The OEM front design just looks rushed and incomplete, in my opinion anyway.

So,

No more take it apart.

However, there is lots of put it together left to do ...

So, more slow progress.

I tore down the front suspension and the rear suspension.

Pressure washed a new batch of parts.

Painted the engine cradle and the frame to cowl braces, and re-installed.

"Installed" two bushings, just to see some "new parts" on the car.

It was a goal, I needed a "win". LOL

This project is almost too big for my small "shop".

However, I learned a long time ago, the value of keeping EVERTHING on wheels, lol.

In reply to a_florida_man :

It's really cleaning up nice!

Pete Gossett said:

In reply to a_florida_man :

It's really cleaning up nice!

Thanks Pete,

Hopefully I’ll be able to keep the detail level up and still make the deadline.

I got a new shirt from the wife, for my birthday.

Endorsement or Warning?

So, I apologize for the flash photos... I stayed pretty busy till the end....

Differential has been opened cleaned, and resealed.

Mounted it with new bushings, and added the spring and tie rods.

On the front I mounted the spring (that was a head scratcher, as it had been modified by the PO).

Mounted the rack and pinion.

Added the cowl support and mounted the misc braces and pedal assemblies.

It's pretty clear that it takes more time and energy to create order, as opposed to disorder.

I"m pretty sure all of this could come apart in like an hour... lol.

Kind of boring, at this phase, I know.

A little farther along and it should get interesting as I add in some custom ideas and modifications.

Right now its just plug and chug.

In reply to a_florida_man :

Wow, that's awesome progress!

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Thanks Pete!

Hopefully I’m coming down from critical mass in the garage, so there will be more room to work and to stage  work. I’ll be happy to keep up the pace.

The goal right no is to get the suspension back under the car and the car back down on the ground.

After that, I’ll install most of the weight that must go back like engine , transmission, brakes, etc and see where the weight is at.

Still plodding along...

Looks great!

Im envious of you progress 

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

Thanks, it's rewarding for a while... this is the easy mechanical clean fix install phase.

Let's see how fast I'm moving when I doing the TPI tune...

I keep having mental sidebars on aerodynamic stuff... todays feature article did not help. lol

Going down that path would end all of this progress talk...

In reply to a_florida_man :

That looks amazing! I wish I'd had the patience and forethought do this thorough of cleaning on mine while it was apart. 

Replaced the fuel lines with the lines from the Gold parts car.

The old ones were rusted and sketchy.

Great thing about the gold parts car is that some one had been throwing parts at it before it was sacrificed.

The tank held a new fuel pump and the fuel filter is like new too.

The Gold car was a Z51 car, so I'll be pulling the front sway bar to use as well.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be installing the rest of the brake hard lines and the fuel tank. 

Fuel tank and rear bumper are in!

You’re insane, possibly in a good way

This is always what I imagined I would do with a Challenge car. Take it all the way down, clean it, and put it back together better. I've never actually done that. My hat's off to you. 

In reply to Patrick :

Possibly.

Depends on the day, lol.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Thanks. 

Its clean, not show car clean but clean to work on, find future leaks etc...

Maybe that’s race car clean.. is that a thing? 

Really just looking for stuff to leave off to save weight and make sure that what’s added back is functional and reliable within the bounds of free labor and a few parts.