Jeep TJ on Steroids Part III

Previously on search and restore a road trip down to Louisiana. Our builders found some spicy cuisine in a tired Jeep with an owner needing a helping hand.

We brought it back, ripped into the body and the frame. Today, the drive train and a color that a few of the guys are questioning. I think it's uh it's bold, bold blue. I think you should call it Strange blue.

In just six months, over 200,000 power block viewers have sent in applications for a makeover project. The hardest part is choosing who gets the call.

We've seen it all hot rods, classics, new cars, muscle cars, motorcycles, even some motor homes. But what we're looking for some really good stories people in need want us to redo their projects for them.

Tim Strange leads up our build team. He's an award winning custom hot rod builder with a unique combination of skill,

meticulous painter, fabricator

and jokester.

We need a hug. We need a hug,

he needs a hug.

See

you ready for your frisking.

The Jeep has really been a blast so far, the entire off road community has stepped up donated parts to give back Jason's gonna hit the trail on this thing and he's gonna be the envy of all of his buddies.

Uh, we're the Smelser family. This is my wife, Jeannie. This is my child Hayley. This is Beth, and this is Karen. We love to go whaling.

Jason asked us to pump up his 01 TJ,

but it was his love of giving. That drew us to his story.

Two hooping hollering the whole way.

He loves riding the rustic wooded trails of his Louisiana homeland, Jason Smelser and his buddies have ridden a TV S for most of their lives.

The most meaningful ride of their lives happens almost every Sunday of the summer. It makes your heart swell up. It, it's a really cool thing and uh

I wouldn't take nothing else in the world for it.

Med camps of Louisiana holds a series of free one week camps for Children facing the challenges of physical and mental disabilities.

Uh This week is designed for Children with cerebral palsy.

They don't have to worry about anybody judging them or as one camper put it. They don't have to worry about anybody laughing at them because they're all in the same boat facing the same challenges.

After Sunday's registration, parents will go back home and the campers will have a whole week to have fun and just be a kid.

And this camp just pulls it all together in one week and allows him to go fishing and canoeing and swimming and riding a TV. S.

You ready to go for a ride

with the counselor riding on the back to ensure safety. Each camper is treated to what is often their first ever a TV adventure.

Jason and all the volunteers make sure it's an adventure full of joy and laughter.

I've seen Jason in tears at med camps

is

unreal. Just uh

what you get out of it is hard to describe.

No doubt. Sacrificing every Sunday afternoon, week after week is a commitment for Jason and his fellow writers.

But you get the feeling that they're the ones who derive the most genuine satisfaction.

Smiles, laughs, smiles, hugs just as long as I know that I made them happy.

You know, that's, that's, that's all I need.

No doubt, Jason will be happy with his Jeeps motor makeover. Thanks in part to bow

and John Shackle's top notch machine work.

It's even better than new after complete machining,

adding new rings and bearings from Rock auto.com made the mission even more complete.

And now all that's needed a couple of horsepower guys that put it all together

back at the booth and all the tub work complete. It's time to lay down some color

first. Some Raptor urethane coating donated by auto body color and supply.

It's not just blue, it's blue,

this thing they're taken out in the woods, the timbers mud trail, all kinds of stuff. They can just pressure wash the thing out top and bottom. Tim loves the bold bigger than life color.

Others aren't quite sure what to think

it's,

I, I

thought you were gonna do it in blue.

Isn't it funny

how janitors think they're color experts?

Mr Strange has a concise answer for anyone who asked him why he chose that particular shape

because I can

next, rebuilding the straight six plus later, just how blue is too blue. Stay tuned.

We're in the middle of week three and the Jeep's progress is about to pick up the pace big time

before the body heads to the paint booth. All the metal work needs to be completed refusing to settle for good enough. Tim chases down the perfect fit, got the hood off still sitting on top of these fenders

and there was like two finger of a gap up here

so that wouldn't be cool.

So we're bringing it down so it looks

more uniform all the way around.

You're rough cutting it.

Then I'm gonna try to roll a little bit of an edge in. So it's not a raw edge.

You thought it was some big rocket science tip.

No, we're just gonna grab power flyers and bend the metal around.

The result is a nice tight gap.

Not only if Tim could do something about that hat, Chris is wearing something like that

over in our engine area. John and Mike prepare for a rebuild.

A stock in line six is quite a departure. For the guys,

but even with two less cylinders than usual, it all starts with the cleaning before the first piece from the rebuild kit,

which will be the rear main seal.

We wanna make sure the big part of the lip is towards the front of the engine

and that the seal isn't put in. Even with the block, we want it offset a little bit to make sure it has a good seal at the back.

By the way, they only had to take 10 thousands off at the machine shop.

What we're doing right now with the silicone is putting a little bit right in between the cap and the block to avoid any leaks.

Now, we're checking the piston ring clearance. Now they're supposed to be pre ft but don't always trust it. Go ahead and double check them just to make sure. So you don't rip the top of the piston off

the rings and pistons were part of a master rebuild kit donated by Rock auto.com.

They also gave us a new oil pump,

flatt tapped camshaft

timing set. Now with proper markings

and of course, flat tappet lifters,

the magnet for the installation. Well, that came from the toolbox,

come on, Hercules.

After a safety clean Sonic cleaner bath,

the stock push rods and rocker arms are like new,

just like the valve cover with fresh paint

and of course the 4 L oil pan

I think, painting this gray to match the body armor would be really subtle when you open the hood. Now, more new paint for a classic engine from a vehicle with over 70 years of American history

born of necessity, hand built in seven days. The first Jeep was the answer to America's military needs for a fast lightweight all terrain reconnaissance vehicle.

The top brass said it had to be four wheel drive with a wheel base of no more than 80 inches.

It had to have a payload capacity of 600 pounds and a cooling capacity for sustained low speeds without overheating

Ford. And Willie's answered, Uncle Sam's call together producing more than 5000 units in 1941.

After the war, a civilian Jeep market was ready and waiting. In fact, the moniker CJ was short for civilian Jeep.

The original 19 forties, Jeep legacy lives on thanks to Wrangler models, traversing the back country trails

with initial names like Y JJ K

and of course TJ.

In recent years, four by four followers have increasingly treated their tough rides to a myriad of modifications

using their skills and aftermarket goodies to give their Jeeps more attitude and even better performance

with the body. Move to the booth and mask. Tim's ready to begin painting.

I am doing base coat clear coat on it just so it looks a little prettier, but I'm not gonna do any priming locking

the sealer can be applied to the original finish

after this step is done. The chief's body is ready for base coat.

We're mixing up some blue base coat here. Some D BC base from PPG.

I like the really bright blue.

Everybody else has given me a hard time for picking this bright of blue.

So you might get beat up at the trail.

I don't think so.

More donated parts and more volunteers. Plus Tim gives the Smelser family a blue preview.

Well, I really like bright colors, especially if they're gonna go out in the woods on the trail. I think you ought to be able to see this baby coming from all the way down the other end. I picked a really bright no metallic, solid blue. So if they scratch it, it's gonna be pretty easy to touch it up. It's gonna be really bright.

The final step,

several layers of clear coat.

Once the clear coat dries, it's time to unmask the body and take a look.

Think it's bright enough

with the masking tape coming off. It's time for the rest of the engine components to go on.

Rugged Ridge supplied us with one of their black ceramic exhaust

headers

and Mike refurbished the original aluminum intake with a shiny black powder coat.

Next on goes the throttle body pulleys and the accessory brackets.

Finally time to drop her back into the frame

and made her up with the trans, which has a freshly installed monster in a box kit from monster transmission

with the base coat down and cleared. Let's see what Mike and Gino from advanced adapters think of the color.

It's bright,

it's blue.

These guys came to replace the stock transfer case with an Atlas too.

The best upgrade for hardcore off roading.

The stock transfer case is 2.7 meaning that every revolution coming into the the transfer case is reduced 2.7 times,

ours is reducing it 3.8 times.

In addition to its brute strength, the Atlas two features separate shift rails for the front and rear axles,

for example, by placing the rear output and neutral and the front and low

power from the engine is diverted from the rear and every bit of it goes to the front axle.

This is how you make those front or rear digs.

When you're done, you just shift the lever to low range and you're back where you started.

The guys will first install the twin stick shifter set up for the Atlas

first, some press in bushings for the shift or sticks

or hammer in in this case,

then after set screws and assembling the cables, time to check the results.

Two, a high

four wheel high,

two w high again,

two wheel, low, four wheel low,

there's a front dig

and back to neutral.

Now the old one comes out twin stick goes in

ready and waiting for the transmission in that new transfer case.

But before we do that, it's time to check in with our Jeep owner from his home in Louisiana.

Hey, Jason, how are you doing today?

Good.

So you remember when we picked this Jeep up and you said we could do anything we wanted?

Remember that?

I don't know if you remember that your Jeep had this thing in it

transfer case.

We decided off roading was way too dangerous. So we're just gonna make it a two wheel drive so you can drive it safely to work. Is that ok?

Actually, we decided that was a little too weak. So we've got some new bigger batter parts sitting over here. You can't see quite yet.

So would you like to see what your Jeep's looking like in its current state?

Bring her in boys

or is that a pink

front?

Hit the brake, hit the brake front there?

So what do you think of this blue? Is it bright enough for you?

That's the

Haley says blue. So it's blue, man.

So it's not gonna be all this color. We've got some other stuff that's gonna go on it. That will be another color. We won't tell you what that is until you see it,

man. I I really appreciate what y'all are doing. The kids have made camps. I know we're gonna love it. Y'all gonna make a lot of people happy, not just me and my family. So, uh man, I really appreciate what y'all are doing. We're gonna get back to work on this thing. We'll see you in a couple weeks. We'll see you later.

Thanks

guys.

Next. Protection for the body and frame. When search and restore continues,

it worked.

I thought it was a roll cage. It was really a

little thing to catch wild animals.

Lots to do to wrap up. Week three on our custom TJ.

We got today

at

the frame. Chris installs a new Flowmaster HP two series muffler higher performance and small enough to make room for the Atlas two T case.

Then more volunteers this week include two west coast Jeep fanatics whose companies cater to the hardcore aftermarket

erald Lee runs Savvy off road

and donated a set of their low profile billet, tail lights, lightweight aluminum skids

and front and rear bumpers

for us. When you have heavy equipment on your Jeep,

it just makes it harder to get over waterfalls and get over obstacles. You know, my

is 3800 pounds while everybody else is Jeep with the steel product will be over 5000 pounds, 1000 pounds of weight to get over to trails is quite an advantage for us.

No problem adding some essential weight in the form of this 9.5 T I winch donated by Warren

manufacturing, specializes in body protection and suspension for TJ S and JKS.

These rock sliders will add 2.5 inches of ground clearance down the side of the body

but Ivo's

owner Mel Wade didn't expect to rock the boat with his boat sides.

I think we got cut on the fresh paint no matter what,

they won't fit flat and flush because of the protruding Jeep logos, which should have been cut out before the paint job. Tim is gonna freak out.

Would he paint something? He

has like an emotional attachment to it. It's quite sick, actually, it's just paint.

What are you doing, Ian?

I'm just cutting on your fresh paint. here. You're taking this way better than I thought.

Here we go.

I'm gonna go away now. OK.

See, even though he's handling it well, he won't watch it.

He won't.

And that was the last thing I wanted to tell was the painter over here that uh hey, dude,

I gotta cut out your paint. So

uh Ian was nice enough to come on over and uh cut it out for me.

It all looks great with the body armor and roll cage on

and Tim feels a little vindicated. Look at that. That looks good, doesn't it?

See, look at all them smiling faces.

Tim's not as big as an idiot as we thought he was still an idiot, but maybe not as big. It's really, really come together. Um Everybody put everything they had into it

um Between the body work and the

Jessi. See, this is a, 100% package that Jason will really enjoy.

Everything on there is brand new. There's nothing that's been reused. Starter alternator compressor belt.

Everything we could replace has been replaced. You'd have to work real hard to break something on this rig.

I hope he does try really hard though. I met the family and I think the little girl Hayley is gonna absolutely freak out because she was all about this, Jeep. This was one of the things she, it was like a jungle gym for her. I think she's gonna thoroughly enjoy it.

This thing is crazy. It's overbuilt. He'll be able to crawl over all kinds of things.

Jason's gonna be totally excited when he gets this thing back

and it won't be long. Now, next time the project wraps up and our deserving family arrives at the tech center to take possession.

What, where has he been for the last two weeks? Why all of a sudden does this guy appear

with that hat, that shirt and no pants,

the last person to be commenting on anything aesthetic. Why are you wearing my wife's hat?

Look at, look at the combo. You got going on here.

I just wish I could look as cool as Ian and Tim

one day maybe.