After we rolled the chassis back into "headquarters" (damn I gotta get rid of that sign) out came the 400 turbo and quadra trac. These will be rebuilt and reused, we are firm believers in this set-up. Have it in my J10 with over 200,000 trouble free miles. Reliability is great, you can still get parts and the full time traction is outstanding. Did I mention a 401 is going in this? oh yeh, that's the title of this blog. It was originally a 304 jeep but a previous owner installed a 401 and the "Jeep Shop from Chester Springs" pulled the engine for a customer and sold us the rest for $500.00. I already had a rebuildable 401 core so wasn't worried. In the meantime we stumbled across a 7,000 mile rebuilt one. More on that later. We yanked the rears and leafsprings and was left with a bare frame. Found a couple of rust throughs, but all in the boxing sections, not in the major frame areas. This Jeep came out of Florida so it lead a better life than here in the northeast. We are also going to experiment with the 400 turbo by installing "switch pitch". This was used by G.M. from 1965 to 1967. What it is, is a variable stator torque converter which gives you hi stall, low stall in one unit. In other words hi performance and fuel economy at the flick of a switch. You can also split shift it as you manually run up through the gears. I have a couple of these transmissions laying around so I'll keep you updated. A shackle reversal up front along with YJ springs are also slated for this project. Want to go with wide track (56") axles. The front is no problem but the AMC 20 offset differential rear was never made in wide track version, because wide track wasn't available until they stopped using quadra trac after 1979. I am not crazy about using spacers with 2 piece axles, so we'll see.

See this little critter? That my friends is a catalytic converter. I had the great pleasure of beating it to a pulp then driving over it. You will not see one of these on this Jeep. That's one of the great advantages of building your own vehicle. No smog equipment. How? do you ask. Well it seems in this part of Pa. you need to have originally equipped
smog devices installed, (they don't have to work, just be there) even on a "reconstructed" vehicle. but if you read further you will find that a "specially constructed" vehicle does not, because it is built from various sourced parts and suppliers, not from an existing vehicle as with a reconstructed one. Therefore all you have to do is take your good title and turn it into a salvage title. Now you have parts with proof that you paid your tax on it. Now you take this title along with your other receipts (you did keep them right) and apply for a specially constructed title. No year will get assigned to it and will be "emission exempt" with no mileage restrictions. And it is all legal. It is the same as starting out with no title and going to a junkyard or other sources for your parts, show that you paid tax on those parts and apply for the specially constructed title. And now you have the satisfaction of abiding by "their" rules. Don't you feel better now? True duals baby!!!

Well it just keeps going. Here we are two generations of Jeep building. Jeff senior on top in 1980 building his CJ5 and junior on bottom doing his thing at present. You just can't describe the feeling that comes from building a Jeep. The knowledge, respect, satisfaction, glory and bonding. All I can say is get your kids involved and they will gain all those traits. The memories that come out of something of this magnitude will last a life time. The parts hunting, bartering and trading. The new freinds that you will gain and places you will go that you normally wouldn't have if not for this mechanical wonder. And yes, even computer skills are learned when making up fake I.D.'s to get into those "no one under 18 allowed" u-pull junkyards. These are all life skills that will come in handy later on down the road.

Hooked it up to the J10 and drug it down back in the bush where I just happen to have an old rack from another J10 that made a good cradle for the old body. Hung on to the body for future hole measurements to transfer later to the fiberglass body.

Time for a little R & R. Young Jeff is pretty good at inline hockey so naturally when the roll bar and hood came off he envisioned a goal net. How about that 79 J10 behind him? 250,000 miles and still going. If you look real close you can also see a 79 Cherokee Chief Golden Eagle to the left of the garage. Yeh we like are Jeeps.

And now it's time for lift off. Guess I'll have to put the camera down and give him a hand. It's alot lighter without all those extra parts in there, of course the rusted out floors also help.

Here we are in Ghostbusters Headquarters, (got that sign from Burger King when the kids were younger, I think it's time to put it on Ebay.) Teardown began almost immediately, this is the easy part you really don't have to give a rat's a-- about damaging anything. After we got the front sheetmetal off, it was alot easier accessing the fire wall, wireing and brake stuff. Jeff is starting to get hooked on the smell of WD-40 though, it's like he can't get enough of it. We did tag any useable items and took lots of detailed photos for future reference. Believe me when I say it's easy to forget.

Here we are at home getting ready to unload. The trip was uneventful , which was a good thing. Homer said he hasn't lost one yet.

Here we are the weekend of 4th of July 2004. Now if that isn't a happy face nothing is. Powered by enthusiasm, I'd say. All we had to do to transport was to strap the torque converter in so it wouldn't fall out and load it up. That's Homer from "Moyers Car Care" of Friedensburg. Pa. doing the roll back thing, he's a real car guy that loves his job.

Here it is as we first layed eyes on it in May of 2004 at "The Jeep Shop" in Chester Springs, Pa. http://www.thejeepshop.net/ Originally from Florida, we checked the frame for rust and said ok. The owner would remove the 401 that was presently installed for a customer and we could have the rest for $500.00. The rest being a 400 turbo with quadra-trac. power steering, manual disc brakes and a dana 30 up front and amc 20 in the rear. Along with a tilt column and tac dash, a totally waisted body and a good set of sellable tires and wheels.

1977 QUADRA TRAC JEEP CJ7 BUILD UP

Hi my name is Jeff and if you found this sight you also must be interested in a Jeep CJ7. This project got started in May of 2004 as a ride for my son, also Jeff, when he was 14. He wanted to build a Jeep with a fiberglass body as a cool first ride. I had built a 1963 CJ5 in 1980 with an AJ's fiberglass body using original running gear, read that as a 4 cylinder 3 speed with overdrive, as cheaply as I could. So I figured why not, the kid wants to learn, work his butt off with summer jobs to help finance the project, and hopefully have some respect for the thing when it is done. Also I confess that I had a passion to build another the way I really would have liked to build one. And with the wife's blessing we had a green light. So enjoy the pictures and build up and learning curve process and tag along for the ride.