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beater!

You have done an amazing job making your XJ look new again.

Absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to see it all together.

Do you do body/paint work or is it just a side hobby? You sure seem to know your stuff.
 
Thanks. I've never done body work before, but I figure it has to be pretty straightforward, and for the most part it was. It's just really time consuming--there are no shortcuts to good results, only shortcuts to bad ones. I took a couple of shortcuts and they show. I'm not really concerned about the fenders and hood since I am planning to replace them with other parts later, but the doors and body were keepers so I spent more time on them. Anyways the whole point of going this route is so I can fix any problems easily, and I might do that next week sometime.

Anyway I'm at least a week from being finished and having it reassembled, and I'm not ready to declare victory yet... I might still find that I screwed something up badly and have to sand it all off and start over.
 
I might still find that I screwed something up badly and have to sand it all off and start over.



bro you have some good work there, iv been around body work all my life and it doesnt look bad at all. a few touch ups and youll be golden.
 
A couple of things stand out pretty badly. The hood had a dent where somebody sat on it, and I filled it in pretty well but the seam shows clearly. Like I said that's not a big deal since I plan to get the Reflexxions cowl hood at some point, and I could sand down this one for fixing if I wanted to, but it's definitely bad job. I made a bunch of door repairs and while most came out well a couple didn't, and so I'll definitely have to fix those. Anyways good thing I don't have to remove clearcoat, it's just paint, etc. I'm pretty happy for my first paint job.
 
Thanks guys. I was out of town for the weekend and just got back early today. I went and looked at the parts and they seem to have dried well enough to manhandle, however it looks like we are set for a week of temps in the 30s after tomorrow and I really need to get the rest of the painting done so I plan to paint the inside of the doors and hatch and try to get the bumpers with some flat black tomorrow, then start working on wetsanding and polishing the stuff in the garage over the next few days. I really really hope that everything came out the same color. Right now it does not look like anything is so bad that it needs to be repainted, but if the colors are off I may have to spray a final top coat after reassembly, and if that's the case then I will have to wait at least a week for suitable weather.
 
Your jeep turned out great man, especially for your first paint job...most of the textured spots should probably polish out, just get some 1500 grit sandpaper and a decent buffer/polisher...I use one from harbor freight with some more expensive pads and this polish...works awesome http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SYS-007-1&N=700+115&autoview=sku

I remember when my jeep used to be clean and shiny like that...it was actually my first full paint job too. Here's a pic the day after I painted it..


2v9x4bb.jpg


Can't wait to see pictures of your jeep all back together, for not having even done bodywork before, you did an awesome job. Looks better than most of what I've done and I worked at a body shop for 3 years.
 
Here's what the inside of the doors looked like, they didn't get much paint on them at all

Painted_15.jpg


Now they have paint

Painted_16.jpg


I didn't get much else done today. The temperature started dropping and it got super windy. Tomorrow is supposed to be below freezing so I probably won't mess with anything then either.
 
Since you're not supposed to wetsand around edges and I'm not going to polish hidden areas like jambs, I decided to reassemble the jeep first. This way I can wetsand and polish the flat outer surface, and then spot polish any inner areas that are left.

Here's a poor pic of the fenders, hood, and grille reattached and all aligned. I knicked up one of the fenders putting the hood on, so it looks like I will get to test my easy-to-repair theory pretty soon. Actually I am considering another surface coat after the first pass at wetsanding, just to make sure everything comes out the same color.

Front_End_Reassembly.jpg


This is kind of dorky but it makes me happy. Part of reassembling the front end meant fixing things that were broken. I bought a mechanical fan shroud from a NAXJA part-out, and also painted the radiator and grille header panels.

Radiator_Header.jpg


Tomorrow I will reattach the doors if possible.
 
Got the doors back on and realigned today. It took longer than expected but that was largely my fault. I painted the hinge pieces with Rustoleum dark primer, and then laid on a couple of coats of Krylon satin black, all of which took longer to dry than expected. Also I had to realign the door hinges which was a major PITA. The drivers door had the upper hinge repaired once already (it has a big patch around it), but the hinge itself is still outwards and I will have to use a BFH to get that perfect. The passenger door is also giving me some trouble, but it's not as bad. The other two are in good shape.

Reassembled_2.jpg


A couple of improvements while reinstalling the doors, one is that I replaced all the jamb switches with new parts, and I also pressed the pins from the lower hinges and bought some 2" long 1/4" thick quick-release pins (#98470A140 from McMaster) to make it easier to remove and install the doors.

Hinge_Pin.jpg


Also got the hatch back on--the hinge pieces are like a jigsaw puzzle. It looks level but it got dark so I will have to square it up tomorrow

Reassembled_3.jpg


Tomorrow is supposed to be cold so I will reinstall the latches and stops but won't do anything with water or paint. Wednesday is supposed to be upper 40s so hopefully I can wet-sand the jeep then.
 
Just the lower ones. The crease in the door blocks the top or I would have put it there, and kept a fixed pin in the bottom. The basic idea is to have one pin longer than the other so that it is easier to drop the door on (only have to get one hinge lined up at a time), and the quick release part of the setup only provides an additional release and is not primary means of removing the door.
 
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Just the lower ones. The crease in the door blocks the top or I would have put it there, and kept a fixed pin in the bottom. The basic idea is to have one pin longer than the other so that it is easier to drop the door on (only have to get one hinge lined up at a time), and the quick release part of the setup only provides an additional release and is not primary means of removing the door.

Gotcha. That's a pretty good idea. Your whole project has turned out amazing.
 
It's been cool and rainy so I've been doing stuff inside for the past couple of days. I got the door latches installed, but won't put the handles back on until after wetsanding. The doors are really well aligned and might pop my ears when I close them if there weren't a bunch of other holes in the jeep. BTW, the white spots are rain sprinkles, I had it outside for a bit so I could get the doors fully open.

Reassembled_4.jpg


I didn't have anything else to do on the jeep so I painted the trim pieces. Here are the bumpers. These took three coats of Krylon Fusion black satin with no hassle at all, probably because of the factory primer.

Painted_17.jpg


Here are the fenders. I had to sand these down and repaint them due to some spots and uneven coverage. They have about three finish coats on top of a couple of sanded coats.

Painted_18.jpg


This is the window trim. Look at the fisheyes... these things cannot be painted, since the blackout tape over the aluminum won't hold paint. I have to go to the junkyard and pull replacements.

Painted_19.jpg


Tomorrow is supposed to be clear and upper 40s so I will wet-sand the jeep tomorrow.
 
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