While we didn't get any photos of our YJ sitting forlornly in the field, here it is shortly after being rolled in the shop with the frontend and rearend removed.
As we drove through our town of Wellsville, Utah, we kept passing by a lonely '91 Jeep YJ Wrangler sitting in a field. We finally couldn't resist and stopped to speak with the owner, who told us he had purchased it for the transfer case and didn't much care about the Jeep. So, after some negotiating, we traded a .44 Magnum revolver for it and took possession. The body had just a little surface rust, although the windshield frame was pretty far gone. Once we removed the windshield, we found that the steel dash had rusted too. The 4.0-liter six and AX15 five-speed tranny had 150,000 miles on them. Our new/old Wrangler needed some work.
We decided to build this YJ the old-fashioned, "old-school" way - by doing the project ourselves in a friend's shop building behind his house in Wellsville, Utah. That friend is Eric Maughan, who's built many Jeeps, light-duty trucks, and semi tractors for fun over the years. Eric is a great welder and is one of those people who doesn't see obstacles when something needs to be overcome or designed during a project. An example of this is our leaf-spring setup. We wanted to retain the old-school spring-under design on this YJ and went to Deaver Spring for a set of excellent, supple nine-leaf packs. We were thinking of ways to flop the U-bolts to get the threads out of harm's way when Eric came up with a simple, elegant solution (see photo 9).
Lots of parts on our YJ were worn out, ripped, or broken. 4 Wheel Drive Hardware is the one-stop shop for everything we need to build our Wrangler better than it was when new. From weatherstripping to new fenders, hood, and windshield, 4 Wheel Drive Hardware has it. We also plan on installing a pair of 4 Wheel Drive Hardware Super Seats. You're probably familiar with them. They look like an old Recaro design, recline, and have a removable headrest. They're inexpensive too. We sold the hardtop and doors to make way for a Mopar YJ soft top and hard half-doors. We also have a set of soft half-doors and a bikini top from Bestop to use when the weather is nice.
The 4.0-liter six and AX15 worked well, even with 150,000 miles on them. The Toy Shop built our last 4L60E for us and it has worked flawlessly, so we figured we'd install another Toy Shop 4L60E automatic behind the 4.0-liter, courtesy of a new Advance Adapters adapter and a Compushift stand-alone transmission controller, also supplied by Advance Adapters. We were then told by our friends at Mopar Performance about their new 5.7-liter Hemi V8. We told them that trying to put a drive-by-wire Hemi in an old YJ wasn't on our list of must-dos. Then, they told us about their new 5.7 MPI Hemi. This one is designed to run in older, non-computer-controlled vehicles. It has a new, great-looking aluminum intake manifold, and the throttle body for the multipoint fuel injection accepts Mopar air cleaners from earlier days. A normal throttle cable is used. The Hemi is stand-alone and comes with its own computer (ECM). We quickly amended our must-do list and procured one of these new V8s.