Saturday, June 18, 2022

 


Stripe kit arrived from Phoenix Graphix. The 1980 to 1984 version was chosen. Packed it all in the CJ and dropped it off at Garys for application. Also while there, two areas of body work had to be addressed. When we originally installed threaded anchors along the beltline for top installation a hardtop was used for locations. The soft top rails use additional anchor points so a separate anchor was installed next to the hardtop location. When installing the soft top rail that area cracked out. It was remedied by cutting both anchors out and replacing with a single one with two threaded holes, one for soft top and one for hardtop. The other location that gave a problem was the drivers

side front door opening where the door stap is located. In full open position the area of the opening that was contacted by the strap crushed that spot due to a void in the fiberglass. That was also cut open and filled with resin to make it solid. Both areas had to then be repainted and as usual Garys did not disappoint. The paint blending can't be seen. Once the body work was done it was handed over to Rick (who owns Garys) to apply the stripe kit. Application went well. Two areas that didn't suite Ricks perfection, and no fault of his was a slight angular mismatch where the rocker stripe meets the rear wheel opening stripe. This was on Phoenixs shoulders, but in all reality would

normally be overlooked. The other area was where the front fenders are fastened to the grille. The fenders at this point should curve down to utilize all mounting bolts. One fender when received from Shell Valley was over trimmed at the bottom and cut straight missing the lower bolt completely. Not knowing how this would affect the stripe kit in the future the opposite fender we trimmed to match. In retrospect the fender should have been returned for a replacement. The stripe kit follows this curvature, therefor it had to be cut and respliced to work. Rick did a fine job in doing so. Again would be overlook unless you knew. The stripe kit also comes with a beltline stripe that extends onto the

full doors if utilized. Since we are using YJ half doors this full door body line does not exist, therefore was not used. We later decided to use that stripe on the body tub wrapping it around the rear corner, and then cutting the straight section off the door stripe and applied it to the tailgate. The rear was a bit plain not having a spare tire mounted, so this stripe accents that area. Next on the to do list is a front end alignment. This will be handled by Manbeck's Alignment in nearby Schuylkill Haven, followed by detailing and paint protection by Boyer's Auto Detailing on Pine Grove.