Jeep

This project has been my longest standing project and is still being worked on to this day. I have been working on it for over 6 years now and it is amazing to look back and see where I started with it. I alway love the chance to talk about it so feel free to ask. This is a 1975 Jeep Cherokee that I got my sphomore year of highschool. It started as a non functioning vehicle with the engine not running nor the brakes. I knew it was a big project, but I couldn't comprehend the amount of time I would spend on restorng this vehicle over the next few years. There has been so much that I have learned from this project, and more that I continue to learn. As of most recently I am building an onboard computer using a raspberry pi that allows me to do a lot of interesting things, such as knowing the pitch and roll of the vehicle, or more complex things such as having it be a digital signal processor to feed the custom audio system that I have put in the Jeep. This system includes high pass and low pass filters siumilar to what we have built in Electrical Engineering labs. It has also taught me a lot of about protection circuitry as the electrical environment of an old car is very unstable and I am currently learning with how to deal with nose in signals and reduce this as much as possible, while still being affordable.

This is the Jeep right after I got it.

One of the first things I did is removed the frame from the body.

This included rebuilding the axles, welding structural parts of the frame that had cracked or failed over time. We got metal for this by getting te chassis from an f350 in a junkyard which had much thicker steel than what the Jeep had originaly. This is also where the brakes were changed.

The engine was in rough shape. I was able to verify that it would turn over and run on starting fluid by rebuilding the wire harness from the wiring diagram in the service manual I got for it.

After a lot of work, and I mean a lot of work, I was able to sufficientlyt clean the engine to the point where I could paint it. At this point I also added an new intake manifold, water pump and fuel pump. I plan on fuly rebuilding it eventually, but that is a poject for another day.

Next was putting it back on the frame as it was much easier to put the engine on and then the body as opposed to the other way around, it definitely gave an interesting look to the car.

Next I put the body on the frame, but what I then spent a lot of time on was repairing the rear quarter panels. This involved prescisely measuring and cuttiong and then carefully welding and grinding to get good penetrating welds, but not warp the panel due to the heat.

After that was rewiring the electrical almost entirely from scratch, about half the wires in the jeep I put in myself. Then in this photo you can see how I flushed the coolant.

This shows the difference before and after painting. This is really the only thing on the car I didn't do myself, but I found it really interesting, so I hope to do it on another project car some day. It also shows the intrument cluster that I restored from its run down state.

These photos include moresmaller things, but the still made a huge different on how it looks and performs.

This is it first wilth the grill and the first level of sound proofing to help it feel like a nice car to drive.

This was the final layering of sound proofing and you can also see the seats are most certainly not from the original. I was able to create custom brackets to mount in seats from a 2020 Dodge Challenger to give it more comfort and also more safety as I also switched from the lap belts to the shoulder belts that would have been in the challenger.

These show a lot of the electrical work I did on the car in addition to what is required to get it running. I have 2 100 Ah AGM Deep Cycle batteries that are connected throughb a battery isolater when the engine is running. These help to power the sound system as well as the 2000 watt inverter as I plan on running ac electrical throughout the car as well.

I have so much I could talk about that I just can't fit on here, so always feel free to ask about it. I would love to tell you more.

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