88 YJ-CJ Transmission Tunnel, Part One and more

Transmission Tunnel, Part One

Some warm weather allowed me to attack the transmission tunnel. I knew it was going to be dirty and not fun, so I've also been procrastinating on this part of the project.

I took most of the undercoating off with an angle grinder with an old 40 grit disc. It's some type of asphalt-based stuff that just wanted to spread around on the sheetmetal and not come off cleanly.

I went over under the passenger side almost to the frame rail, since the exhaust pipe will be under that area. I also plan on wrapping the exhaust pipes, so that should also help with heat.

I followed up the angle grinder with a scratch wheel on a drill.

And then lacquer thinner on a scotchbrite pad.

Then lacquer thinner on a rag.

Finally:

Masked:

Spray Max epoxy primer out of a spray can worked very well.  I'll follow that up with a semi-gloss black top coat. And then probably next weekend, it'll get some of the same insulation that I put on the engine side of the firewall.

More Interior Coating Removal

Another dirty part of the project...more interior coating removal. I scraped off a bunch of the rubberized coating with the oscillating tool, and will follow up later with Citrus Strip. I feel like I'm making good progress on this. I plan to keep toiling away at the interior a little bit at a time.

CJ Tire Carrier

I also picked up a very nice, complete CJ7 tire carrier this weekend.  I've been looking for one for a while, and this one is complete, and very nice, with most of the internal support brackets which are commonly missing.  I may not use it all the time, and I can easily remove it with just two bolts.  Some off-roading events (Jeep Jamboree) require a spare tire, so this will be a good option to have.