Project FreeJ

Well, the free wrangler with the bent frame doffed her body tub today. We only got hung up on one body mount bolt that spun the captured nut at the right side under the firewall. Ended up drilling out the washer, broke it into litte pieces and pulled the tub up hard enough to get it through. For got to bring the camera for shots of the frame, Ill get some next weekend. Still havent come to a conclusion about replacing or repairing the frame. There are two bad spots, one just above the right front bumpstop, where the frame was buckled, and cracked when the shop straigtened the frame. The other spot is just in front of the first bodymount on the same framerail. some small cracks. I also found a spot under one of the grill bumpers where the frame rusted through completely. And theres some flaking at the RR shock mount. Next weekend the Eng/trans/xcase comes out. Working in a garage with a chainfall mounted on a trolley has been a Godsend. I lifted the tub off the frame all by myself! Just hooked it to the rollbar and stood on the back of the tub to balance it, while Sara rolled the chassis out from underneath.

Replacing that one piece of frame was one option that I discused with one of my uncles today. I think the difficult part would be the front crossmember tube on the YJ goes through the frame, so that would have to either be cut out very carefully or cut it in the middle and bring half with the new piece. The other hard part would be finding part of a frame in decent shape. Its really a matter of how much time, effort and money are going into the equation on this repair. Since I can bolt and unbolt things all day long, but cant weld, replacing the frame was my first choice, but the few leads ive found require a decent bit of prep and painting, one more thing, Im not too savvy on. But Ive got plenty of time. No deadlines to get this thing done.

Just an update on this, Im out in Wisconsin and the Wrangler is in Elsemere. I might be bach the weekend of September 18th with a car trailer to haul the wrangler back, but I still havent found a frame yet. I had a couple good almosts that fell through. Anybody with any help would be appreciated. I would most likely not have much time to work this, so it would almost have to be an already stripped frame. Thanks, Jim