1980 CJ7 Crawler Build

BobJob42

Caught the Bug
Bought my first Jeep, follow me on this journey to making it a mild street driven crawler!

Model Information:

1980 CJ7
4.2L 258 I6
T176 transmission
D300 T-case
Power Steering
A/C
Dana 30 front axle
AMC 20 rear axle


Build list:

Engine:

Howell EFI Kit

Electrical:
Yellow top Optima battery
Painless Wiring H4 headlight harness kit w/ KC headlghts
Auxbeam 8 gang switch panel

Suspension:
4" spring under kit (no ID on manufacturer)

Steering:
MORE Offroad HD steering box bracket
MORE Offroad Steering box brace
Borgeson HD steering shaft
BDS steering stabilizer
Rugged Ridge one ton tie rod and draglink kit
GT Performance steering wheel

Drivetrain:
Sierra Gear & Axle one piece rear axle upgrade kit
Detroit rear locker
Unknown front locker (PO install)

Armor/Cage:
Genright full cage kit
Genright rear harness bar kit
Genright C-Pillar harness bar kit
Genright specific Spiderweb Shade mesh top

Recovery:
Warn VR 10K Winch

Interior:
Bestop Trailmax II Pro front seats
Bestop Trailmax II Pro rear bench seat
PRP shoulder harnesses front and rear
Smittybilt center console

Wheels & Tires:
35x12.5R15 Mastercraft MTs
Pacer Daytona steelies 15x8

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I got the interior gutted and the carpet pulled, out of all the bolts only one from the driver seat was rusted, hit it with penetrant, a torch and it’s stuck lol. But hey, not bad for a 45 year old Jeep!!

Now to remove the old cage and prep the floor for Raptor liner. Then onto prepping the Genright cage.
 
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My goal this weekend was to get all the excess carpet and adhesive out and I’ve got about 99% of it gone. Next will be to sand, fix some small surface rust locations and then the Raptor liner.

As soon as the Raptor is applied I will start working on the new cage.
 
Got the Raptor on today. It went on really well and is a very forgiving product, really happy with how it went. Using the roll on was also a plus, allowed me to control the product and get the texture I wanted.

Will it last? I don’t know, maybe, maybe not. I did as best as I could with what I had. I used UPOL’s acid etch and adhesion promoter underneath so only time will tell!

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Just placed an order for a new set of seats to round out the interior. I went with the Bestop Trailmax II Pro front and rear bench in Spice. Tossed around going with a set of PRP seats but I wont be using shoulder harnesses and I tend to prefer the more "OEM" style of seat. One of the seats are on backorder which is fine as I wont be installing them until the cage is done anyways.

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Just placed an order for a new set of seats to round out the interior. I went with the Bestop Trailmax II Pro front and rear bench in Spice. Tossed around going with a set of PRP seats but I wont be using shoulder harnesses and I tend to prefer the more "OEM" style of seat. One of the seats are on backorder which is fine as I wont be installing them until the cage is done anyways.

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I bought those for my TJ I like them a lot
 
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