TOPIC: hello

Realized while I joined a while ago I never posted yet. Bought this 86.5 in 2018 advertised as parts. Wound up catching it up on maintenance (all it actually needed to run was a fuel pump) like fuel lines, timing belt, etc. Over the past 2 1/2 years I've made it run and drive reliably, converted it to a 5 speed, and painted it in my driveway. It's no show car, but looks presentable enough now that the neighbors can't say I'm decreasing their property values anymore (at least not with this car).

2018 when I bought it:


This past summer after I painted it.



It's got 233k miles on it now. Anyone got more than that?

Well Done! How hard was the Auto to 5 Speed conversion?

It honestly wasn't too bad. The only thing that needed modifying was the hole made in the firewall and the hole for the shifter cut out fully. I did have to change the wiring for the reverse lights slightly too. Other than that I was just fortunate to find a parts car in a junkyard within 5 miles that sold me everything I needed to make the conversion for cheap, including the master mount from the firewall.

I was able to cut out the firewall with an air nibbler without removing the brake booster (or throwing sparks which was the main reason for using it). I did file down the cut to be nicer.






Auto shifter hole:

The auto and torque tube came down as a unit.




Clutch and flywheel went in



And the 5 speed went in as a unit.

Sadly the story didn't end there though. After a week of driving I found that there was some bearing noise. Tracked that down to be some moisture that seeped in through the small hole in the input shaft that rusted up the needle bearings inside 5th gear.


Also wound up putting some new bearings in the torque tube.



Also got a used auto lsd diff to throw in the trans while it was out



And a new input shaft bearing because the original was noisy also (not loose though).

Whoa! That’s impressive work. I’m going to have to take my transmission out because of noise in first gear. Your work gives me inspiration! You should start a car profile and put all of your work in there!

And how did you do that paint job in the driveway?

Just tore everything down, sprayed down primer one day, blocked it and sprayed sealer, color, and clear the next day.






The car is far better than it was to begin with, but it's not perfect. The main reasons being that it was hotter than was ideal for the hardener I bought. I also didn't lay the coats of clear down thick enough. Those combined left me with orange peel that needed wetsanded out. Surprisingly I didn't really have issues with bugs.




I've still got some panels that I didn't wetsand (side of front fenders, passenger door, and rear bumper), but unless you look closely you wouldn't know.




It's nice, but not so nice that I'm afraid of driving it. The car has been a learning experience for me. Both learning to do new things, like painting, and stepping outside of my comfort zone of old Mopars and GMs.

That's amazing that you were able to obtain such nice results on your driveway! Well done!

Hey Captain! I continue to be intrigued by your DIY painting. Painting has always been a mystery and seemingly secret art to me. I'm considering starting a Jeep restoration with/for my son, which will definitely require painting. I've seen several DIY efforts with a pronounced (unappealing) orange peel, which has really discouraged me from doing it myself. So is this orange peel always present and every paint job has a wet sanding at the end? If so, is this done on the clear coat or the color? And do you do apply another clear coat after sanding?

Realistically you should be able to get good enough results off the gun to not need to wet sand unless you're really going for a concourse quality paint job. I'm no expert here, but I think the main issues I had here were because it was in the 90s when I painted and really the hardener I used was too fast for that. I also don't think I laid each coat of clear on thick enough. When I repainted the bumpers (those were separate from the car and got caught in a surprise rain storm) I laid the clear on thicker and had much better results.

Either way, in my case after a week or so I wetsanded the clear and didn't put anything else on top of it. Just don't sand the clear too thin or worse, get through it to the color. Otherwise you get to repaint that panel.