That is a good story of a Jeep CJ-7 total frame-off restoration done in our auto body shop at Palm Beach Customs. The customer, Ann, is a really cool girl – she runs her own small business serving Lee County with her own construction company.

Ann is a dedicated CJ fan – so this was going to be a fun project.  We dismantled the Jeep and did a complete assessment of the parts needed for the job, and we ordered all-new sheet metal to get the project started.

Choosing Your Auto Body Shop

When choosing your auto body shop for a project like this, you need to be careful because not every auto body shop is capable of doing a ground-up restoration – it takes a unique mindset to accomplish this.

Then, most of the collision auto body shops are all about the numbers – how fast they can complete a task. That is important at the bottom line. But a much different approach is used when doing a frame-off restoration.  

It’s more about procedures and quality rather than “how soon can we get this done?” I’m sure you get my point.

Everything on the body we prepped, sanded, and replaced with new metal where it was needed. The frame needed new perches, new body mounts, complete stripping, and then undercoating. It’s interesting to see that when we were cutting out and cleaning up any previous work (30 plus years old), you realize how many hands have been in the pudding before you.

Our auto body shop is one of the few that provides a spray-on bedliner service, and we get tons of Jeeps in, as well as the pick-up truck beds, boats, and trailers. 

That was great for this particular jeep because we sprayed the complete underside of the body tub, then flipped it over and sprayed liner into the passenger compartment, which sealed it up nicely. All the body parts were epoxy primed, filled, and block sanded.

We put on an all-new windshield frame with windshield and new gaskets to replace the older parts.

We applied the nova orange ground coat before the tangerine – along with many final coats of high solids. Below you will see the black urethane sealer we have used to give the final auto bodywork a full [lock down ]and seal everything before applying the base coats.

If you have a Jeep, pick-up truck, or classic car, get in contact with us, and we will be glad to discuss your next project from concept to reality.

That is a complete Photo album with 250 pictures taken of the 1983 Jeep cj7 Restoration Click Here.  

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https://palmbeachcustoms.com/jeep-parts-and-customs-in-swfl

https://palmbeachcustoms.com/restoration-paint-and-bedliner-on-jeep

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