Overview
This Jeep was in remarkably good condition when I got it, but after eight years of hard wheeling, it looks a bit rough.   It has been flopped on the side three times and has had numerous encounters with trees and boulders (I'm on the second hood and third windshield frame so far).   Earlier this year I added Gen-Right tube fenders in the front and crusher corners with tube flares in the rear to mitigate the effect of these mishaps.   Now that I have made it through 6 wheeling trips with no body damage (knock on wood), I have decided to paint it.

Years ago I went to Maaco and got a quote to paint it, but quickly learned that all of their paint jobs and prep are crap: their pricing is simply based on how long they are willing to stand by the job - the more you pay, the longer the warranty (during which they will just repaint over their previous screw-up).   I went to a couple of different body shops and got quotes, but their pricing was astronomical and I could not see paying that when the odds were good I'd bash it up again.   I tried the rattle-can Rustoleum approach, but the results left a lot to be desired and the color faded fast.

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a thread on a classic Mopar forum, where someone asked where to get a good yet cheap paint job for his '69 GTX (which are mutually exclusive).   A guy posted up describing how he painted his '69 Charger for $50 using Tremclad (Canadian flavor of Rustoleum) and 4" rollers. The technique is rather labor intensive, but he had used it on multiple cars and the results were pretty impressive.

So starts the journey ... You can click on any picture for larger hi-res versions. (+/- 800KB each)

Day 1
The first step was to strip it down.   On Friday I stripped out the interior (removed the seats, seatbelts, console, shifter boots, 20lbs of pine needles and junk from previous sheeling trips).   Then I removed everything from the exterior, including lights, winch, license plates, and hood hardware.   Last item for the day was to unbolt the roll cage for easy removal. The followng is at the end of the first day:

Day 2
The next challenge was to remove the roll cage.   I intentionally designed my shop to that I could hoist out an engine from the beams, so it was simply a matter (or so I thought) of hooking up a come-along and hoisting the cage up, and then driving out from under it.   Easier said than done.   I threw a ratchet strap over the beam, wrapped a tree strap through the cage, and then connected the two with the come-along.   A few measurements told me that this would not do the job: I needed to lift the cage 22" to clear the tub, but the come-along body limited me to only 14" of lift:

After a bit of noodling I came up with a better way: I used used a snatch block at the beam, a 2x4 with hooks at the cage, then attached the come-along to the rear of the CJ and started cranking.   Once I had the cage lifted 23", I used a ratchet strap to hold it up, allowing me to disconnect the come-along and pull the CJ out:

The next step was to get the cage lowered the ground: I hooked the come-along back to the Jeep to lower it back down:

The next shots show it stripped down and ready to be washed (which resulted in 50 lbs of mud creating a mud slide in the driveway):

After washing it and letting it dry in the sun, the final work for the day was to strip the dented areas down to bare metal in preparation for pulling the dents (note the high tech "Tidy Cats" driver's seat in the second photo):

Last shot as I wrapped for the day:

Day 3

I got to try out my new stud welder out today.   Instead of drilling holes and screwing in a dent puller, the stud welder welds pins to the body, which the puller grabs onto.   The first set of pictures shows the first studs welded on.   Once I started pulling, I realized I needed more to smooth it out:

The next few shots show the finished product on the drivers side - pretty smooth and ready for body filler:

The passenger side was caved in much worse ... the following are before shots, then shots with the studs welded on (all were used, some took multiples):

Once the dent had been pulled out (as much as it was going to come), I used JB-Weld to epoxy a patch over the old antenna hole - I put a nail through the patch and used the vise grips and 2x4 to keep the pressure on the patch:

While waiting on the JB-Weld to cure, I started looking and picking at the Herculiner bed liner that I used on the interior of the tub.   I am NOT impressed with this product.   I rolled it in six years ago, following the manufacturer's recommendations to a tee, yet you can see the ease in which I peeled it up and the amount of rust I found under the cage mounting points ...

Day ???

I haven't had much free time to work on the CJ in quite a while; I have spent an hour here and there scraping out the #%@& Herculiner, but not much progress. I found on tip online that Aircraft Stripper will take it up, so I bought a can today and will try it in the morning.

I decided I did not like the way the cowl turned out with the JB Weld, so today I bought a set of body tools (hammers and dollies) and plan to pull out the heater assembly so I can beat the dent out properly.   I also bought a new Hobart MIG welder to weld up the hole (and many other holes around the tub: