Rob's 97, nothing crazy

Have any of you had dealings with or heard of Gunseth's 4x4? I found them on CL. Mark, I think you sent me the link for that. Apparently this guy is making somewhat regular trips south and bringing back a stack of TJ frames and selling them up here for $1000 a piece. A little high, but probably worth it for a straight southern frame. My hangup is he takes a $500 deposit. And that sketches me out a little. Waiting on an answer back regarding whether they have any sort of contract. You know, if it was like $100 bucks I'd maybe throw up the prayer and hope for the best. If I get burned at $500, that's a big hit.

I did not use a rust proofing product in my frame yet, but i will eventually.
I sealed all of the holes in my frame with various size and shape rubber plugs and I used POR 15 and chassis black on the frame exterior.
As far as  frame prices go, 1k is not too much to pay for a frame that is in great shape. I have installed a couple of southern frames and they were basically rust free inside and out.

Maybe try and check out Gunseth's reputation somehow as I do not know him, I just saw the ad. but I believe that they have been around a while.
It's getting harder and harder to find a really good 97- 02 frame as they only made them 6 years.

What is the difference between early and late TJ frames (i.e.- pre/post '02)? What do I need to look for/at to be sure I'm buying a frame that will work?

03 up uses a different steering box,t case skid plate and gas tank skid i believe and some other stuff too.  
You can tell the year by looking at rear cross member where the bumper bolts on and year should be stamped in it, mine was.
Also make sure it has 6 cyl motor mount brackets on it.

So it looks like the 4.0L engine mount brackets are lower profile:



than the 2.5L mounts:



Although it's really freakin' hard to say.

I believe that the passenger side is only difference.

I'm thinking of out boarding the rear shocks in the future. If that happens, it would be a great time to clean out the back half of the frame and coat the inside.

Good idea to clean and rust proof rear frame sections while you are there.
I have yet to install the lower shock mounts that i had got from you, im going to install them on the dana 44 that I got from Kilo Tango / Ken's 05 TJ, i'm sick of breaking the D35!!

Hey Mark you got any other 44s laying around you need to say bye to?   

I have a d44 for a xj that i got from a yj,, housing only but i do have a new tj bracket kit and some superior axles.

A locker and some gears and off you go!

So what's the protocol here; I've taken on a new project. New thread, or continue it here since I've essentially built it with parts from this one?

Fugg it. I'm just going to keep this thread going because it has all the information. And apparently everyone still thinks I drive a blue Jeep. That's probably on me, as I've been mostly quiet about it for no particular reason. Anyways, saw a bunch of you on MaBell a couple weeks ago. The next day, I did this:



And the initial estimate is $2375.

I've acquired some JK turn signals and headlights for free dollars. And I have a set of tube fenders on order because I'm not trying to just replace it with another fender that's going to rot out again. And also because of this:



The tire will stuff up into the fender, if I'm trying.

So I don't have any good updates yet, but should have some coming soon.

Shit! That sucks man. At least the grille looks fine and you can probably bend out the hood with some work right? Maybe get lucky and find a color matched hood on craigslist, they usually go for pretty cheap

Sorry here's a better picture of carnage:



I don't know yet about the grille, for sure. But it looks like it will be salvageable. I'm hopeful. The hood I'm not really even looking to bother with, to be honest. I have one that's straight enough for my purposes already. It just needs paint. The inner fender is munched, but the tube fenders replace that. I'm hopeful everything under the hood is fine; it seems that way. I've been continuing to drive it and all systems seem fine. I'll get a better look when it's apart.

This tire carrier wasn't on the blue one:



But I have put some pictures of it up here already. This one's a little better. A good overall shot also. The carrier is made by OR-FAB. The fuel cans are Rotopax.

And this CB is new-to-this-jeep as well. Here's where I mounted it:



It needs to move up just a hair, as you can see the shift boot hits the knobs. Not a huge deal, just slightly annoying.

Anyway, I just figured if it's going to be a build thread it may as well have some decent photodocumentation.

Damn Rob that sucks but you do get better fenders out of it.

Yeah it's all part of my continuous improvement initiative.

Man, if it's not something it's something else.
That's too bad about the jeep Rob, are you repairing it yourself ?

Nice...what did you go with? You gonna trim the sliders?

Tonellin wrote:Nice...what did you go with? You gonna trim the sliders?

SHIT. I didn't even consider this. I might have to, I'll decide once it's all together. It shouldn't be a big deal if I have to, there's a good bit of extra meat on the leading edge. Good call though.

I got MetalCloaks and I've been working on putting Por15 on all the surfaces as a base coat for when they get scratched, so the inevitable rust won't be able to spread:



Mark, I'm doing the work myself, but the paint (top coat, anyway) will be handled by a body shop. I just don't have the inclination. They'll be painted to more or less match the OEM color scheme with painted fender and textured black flares. You'll see.

Great upgrade.

I decided to go with rubberized undercoating for the understuff, but I'm prepping to go to Bonnaroo for a week so updates will be on hold for a bit. I'm gonna get serious once I'm back, though.

Don't get too serious. It's your lackadaisical attitude we all love so much!

Hahaha awesome. By serious I only meant like "actually do stuff". Or something like that.

Also kicking around the idea of maybe resurrecting the blue one later on. What says NSJ?

Damage is only a reason to upgrade. Trust me on that one.