1976 J-10 - New Ugliness

[jfowlzj95]

Well it's not a Grand Cherokee, but it's still a Jeep. Plus I like being a part of this forum, great tech and great people to gain advice from.

Since I'm scrapping the ZJ project, http://mallcrawlin.com/forum/showthr...l=1#post348968, I figured I'd get something new and ended up getting this.

1976 J-10
Chevy 350, TH350 and NP205.
Dana 44's front and rear with 4.88's and a Detroit in the rear.
3" lift with 33" BFG All Terrains on black steelies.

It runs pretty good and I was able to get it to Austin, so I should have more motivation to work on it. It's ugly, but it'll just be a trail rig that'll eventually get beat up. The wiring under the hood and in the dash is a mess, it'll need to be cleaned up a bit. Motor runs good (has a little oil leak coming from the pan), transmission shifts good, locker works well, frame is in good shape and the body has some rust but it's no big deal. It has a sunroof that didn't come stock, so of course it leaks, should be a simple fix though. Interior is decent, dash of course is a mess but I'll probably end up building my own dash with functioning gauges. Speedo, fuel and tach seem to be the only ones working right now. There are a few more details but I won't get into that right now.

Current short term plan is to get it back into 4wd, front will need to be regeared to 4.88 and a new front driveshaft made. I'm going to see if the front shaft off the ZJ will work as far as length goes. Can't decide if I want to lock the front though.
I'll need to rig up some sort of tcase linkage, however I may end up ditching the 205 for the 231/300 twin stick doubler that I have.

I also want to clean up the wiring under the hood and the dash, building a custom dash may come sooner than expected as I don't want to end up doing one thing, then changing it later.
Sunroof leak fixed.
Oil leak fixed.
Interior cleaned up.
The stock fuel tank is located in the bed so I may replace it with a fuel cell.
It needs an e-brake.
Just all the little things old projects usually have.

Long term plan is to use what I was planning on using for the ZJ.
D60/14B.
Doubler.
38-40s.
Maybe get rid of the TH350 for the NP435 I have, although I kinda like the TH350.
Coilovers with 3-link front and 4-link rear (might be able to do double triangulation).
Dovetail the bed and possibly shorten it.
Build some sort of cage or roll bar.
Maybe put my dad's LT1 intake on the 350.
I'll think of more ideas as time goes on.

But for now, here's the "New Ugliness" hah.

[Ken L]

Love the J-trucks! Looking forward to seeing the progress.

[scott]

Looks good, I just picked up a j10 project as well

[jsteves]

Only thing that is ugly is the engine wiring...

[jfowlzj95]

The wiring in the dash is pretty bad too, the computer for the 350 is just sitting on the floor. Cleaning up the wiring will be one of the first tasks for this project.

[jfowlzj95]

Welp, ordered some leaf spring perches, u-bolts and other leaf spring stuff. Going to swap in the 60 and 14 bolt and run the 38s sooner than I thought. Figured might as well do it now, I was eventually going to do it later on anyway.