Thought I'd do a quick update since I haven't had any good news for progress lately. Turns out it wasn't allergies the other weekend. Things were rough that week and I ended up in the ER last Sunday to get it checked out. Preliminary tests made the Dr put me on treatment for Lyme's disease. Still not feeling great so I'm taking it real easy. I'm only working 1 day next week and I plan to behave for the 4th, so I'm hoping I'll feel better and can get a fair amount of stuff done. Sorry for the lack of progress lately, but hopefully I'll have good news soon.

 

Wow, that sucks. Hope you're feeling better soon and back to wrenching on your '86.

 

Felt good enough to do a little work on the jeep, but not a whole lot. The last time I got to work on it I left some metal bare (didn't want to, but not much choice with how things played out). So most of my work was dealing with that. Took some sanding and wire brushing but things looked good again. Then I primed everything with rust inhibitor and primer so I won't have to deal with that again. Since I had things all prepped for bedlining the exterior I figured I'd give that a shot. Well, looks like I got burned again for not checking packages when they arrived. I ordered 2 gallons of liner, 1 black and 1 tintable with a quart of Midnight Special color. It looks like I got 2 gallons of tintable and I don't see any color... so that's on hold until I can get it corrected with Monstaliner. I think I'm going to try to get my sliders painted and some of the interior stuff back together so I can feel like I've accomplished something on it. If I get any decent pics I'll post. Hope everyone had a good 4th.

 

Looking forward to seeing your Monstaliner job. I am planning this for my Jeep and my girlfriend's car also, and considering the Midnight Special as well. The GF is going with "Road Rash". We are a few rust repairs and bondoism's to be done until we get there. Nice Jeep!

 

one option for an easy engine swap/upgrade is to stick a 3.4 out of a ealy 90's camaro or firebird.

 

Thank you. Hopefully I get things straightened out and the right stuff so I can line it next weekend or sooner. I'll get pictures up as soon as I do.

 

I'll probably check this route out. The 350 idea came from a buddy that did a lot of off-road stuff back in college and said the 350 has great aftermarket support, is bulletproof, and would be a good engine for the Jeep. Since then I've spent a few bucks on another toy (deal I couldn't pass up on a 1975 CJ5) and had some medical bills, so I may explore some cheaper/easier options.

 

Ok. So I finally made some progress. I'm hoping I'm through the worst with the Lymes so I can get back to normal. Since I'm not supposed to be in the sun with the antibiotics I have (and 2 more months of them) it may mean I can get a decent push on things.

I still don't have the black Monstaliner. That is coming on Monday. But I taped things off and did the Midnight Special portion of the exterior. So far I really like the color and it wasn't too bad to put on. One gallon left me with ~1 pint of stuff when I was done. Basically everything that isn't blue is going to be black. I'm going to try to get the mirrors and things too. I figure I should have enough to do that in my 1 gallon black kit. Tomorrow my goal is to finish trimming for the Bushwackers in the rear so once the black is on and dry for a day I can throw them on. Then I think it will be front and rear bumpers (should be kind of easy and gains me back some garage space). Then the lift kit and tires.

 

Looks great so far! Love that midnight special color. In fact, I have no question in my mind about Monstalining my whole Jeep if the paint goes to crap. The colors are great! A few questions..

1. How many coats did you put on?
2. When taping off for it, at what point do you pull the tape off? After the first coat, second coat, etc.?
3. One gallon kit for the Midnight Special?

 

1. I did 2 coats. I probably would have been able to get most of the spots with a 3rd, but didn't have the time for it to set and to hit it again. I think with 2 gallons you could cover most of a Cherokee with 3 coats (just make sure to get the extra rollers, mine were starting to come apart at the end of each coat).

2. I pulled after the 2nd and it came off easy. I will say that I was lazier than I should have been with taping and would have done a lot more if I had to do it again. I had to clean a few things off as I went.

3. I used a 1 gallon Midnight Special kit for this part and I have a 1 gallon black kit coming for the rest.

 

Awesome! Thanks for answering my questions. Can't wait to see it!

 

The black took an extra 2 days due to shipping problem, but I think it was worth it. Got 3 coats on and actually had about 1/3 of the gallon left. Not much difference on using the black other than a little less messing around since you don't have to mix tint. This seemed a bit thinner than the colored, but the end result seemed the same texture/etc. I think it looks real good, hopefully it holds up over time. After looking at things now, I'm extremely happy I went with 2 tone and did the hood like I did. Even though the colors are both pretty dark it seems to have some decent character to it. I'm thinking this will look pretty mean with the flares, bumpers, sliders, and lift/tires all done.

Here are some pics just after the 3rd coat.

 

Lookin' good!

 

Looks great! So what's next? You going to put flares back on or no?

 

Yup. Since I already had the new flares on they went back on pretty easy. Didn't spend much time on things tonight. If I don't have a detour on the way home tomorrow I'm thinking I can get the front bumper on (fought with one bolt a little the other night, if it goes back in easy I shouldn't be in too bad of shape, new is a Smittybilt XRC with winch plate). Then rear bumper and sliders. Then I'll hit the lift kit.

Gotta say, the flares don't look quite right with stock tires. Lifted and 33's should look a hell of a lot better.