1982 Jeep CJ7 - Ruby Red

Steering and brakes were next. A Jeep that runs as well as this one needs brakes that work well. Stewart ordered a Chevrolet truck 1-ton power brake booster and master cylinder from Chevrolet and installed it, along with four-wheel disc brakes. The rear discs came with a small drum emergency brake that works positively and well (there's no small-caliper brake worries here). Steering in the rocks can get difficult with large tires when you're jammed between a rock and a hard place. Stewart installed a steering system from Howe Performance that included a power steering box, a pump, a bracket, and a hydraulic ram assist. A custom, beefy Drivetrain Unlimited tie-rod and drag link were fabricated so the steering links were as strong as the rest of the Jeep. A steering box brace from Currie Enterprises further strengthens the reinforced steering box mount. You can now easily steer the Jeep in the toughest situations with one hand. An added plus is that the CJ still has steering feel on the road for safety and stability. Stewart ordered a new steering column from Jeep and installed a Grant steering wheel. The new column wasn't really necessary, but in keeping with our everything-new policy, were installed anyway.

Be Cool radiators have become very popular with four-wheelers who swap in larger displacement engines. Advance Adapters supplied our Be Cool CJ model. It fit perfectly in the CJ grill shell. With a little grinding here and there, the stock '82 CJ-7 fan shroud worked OK with the short water pump and stock Chevrolet heavy-duty fan and fan clutch. We will probably be going to Campbell Enterprises for a custom aluminum shroud in the near future. Once on the road, our Jeep had a tendency to run at about 225-230 degrees, which was too hot. Joel Randall told us he found that the coolant was entering at his Be Cool's inlet, going straight down the tank, across the bottom of the radiator, and to the outlet. In other words, the coolant was never going past the radiator's cooling fins. His Jeep was running 225-230 degrees, too. He outlined a fix that worked for him, and that sounded good to us. We cut a slot in the tanks, about a third of the way down from the top inlet and about a third of the way up from the bottom outlet. We then slipped a piece of aluminum sheet into each of these slots and had an aluminum welder weld the sheets in. This forces the coolant to flow across the radiator before it exits. That did it! Our Jeep runs at the 195-degree thermostat temperature no matter what the load.

Joe McArthur of St. George, Utah, was enlisted to build the rollcage, crossmember, and front and rear bumpers. Stewart and Joe were able to get the crossmember flush with the bottom of the frame for easier breakovers. The front and rear bumpers were fabricated using 0.250-wall stock, and the rear bumper features two D-rings for backcountry towing chores. The rollcage allows the useof factory three-point seatbelts, even for the rear seat occupants. A winch mount was fabricated to install a new Warn 9.5ti Thermometric winch. This new 9,500-pound winch is sealed at key points to keep water at bay and provides a shield for the motor and wiring. The 9.5ti features a new Gen II Bosch motor with thermal sensor that relays temperature information to the handheld remote while the winch is in operation. By the time you read this, Warn will have introduced the 9.5si winch. This all-black beauty replaces solenoids with solid-state construction. This is a major leap forward in winch technology. The Warn 9.5ti was the winch of choice when we put this project together, and we're extremely happy with it.

Now that the rollcage was installed, the interior could be finished. Bestop Trailmax Pro seating was installed on the new Jeep seat brackets. The Bestop seats are comfortable and strong, able to take backcountry abuse well. The Bestop fold and tumble rear seat installed easily using factory mounting locations. Not pictured are the Bestop Supertop we'll use if southern Utah ever gets inclement weather again, a Bestop bikini top, and a trail cover for summertime four-wheeling. A Tuffy Super Security console will house an MP3 deck with Sirius Satellite radio if we ever get around to getting one. The MP3s will sound great through the Thor Sound Wedge speaker boxes supplied by 4 Wheel Drive Hardware. A Cobra 75 WX ST CB that houses everything in the microphone is used for CB communications along with a pair of Cobra microTalk PR200WX GMRS/FRS radios for even clearer, better communications. We do wish Cobra would come out with a mobile GMRS/FRS radio we could mount in the Jeep, though.

The Jeep is graced with a Quick Air 3 12-volt air compressor from Sun Performance. All of Sun's compressors work great, and the Quick Air 3 is no exception. We've always liked the Quick Air II, and the Air III is almost twice as powerful! We also use a Power Tank PT10 in the field. The Power Tank is faster than a garage compressor and can be used in our different 4x4s. The only trouble we've found with the Power Tank is from the friends who four-wheel with us. They all want to use it because it's so fast, and they soon empty it. We've found that with our PT-10, we fill about 18 37- to 38-inch tires from 6 to 30 psi.

The Jeep has turned out to be worthy of its name. It's well balanced off-road and able to tackle (and surmount) the toughest obstacles without giving us any worries about drivetrain components breaking. The V-8 runs great at any and all attitudes and altitudes, thanks to Drivetrain Unlimited's work and the Street & Performance Ram Port fuel injection. The 3.0:1 Atlas Highlander transfer case, mated to the 700R4 and 5.13:1 gears in the Tera 60R's has proven to be the perfect ratio for us. We're reminded of Stewart's nitpicking attention to detail and quality and his desire that everything Drivetrain Unlimited turns out will be the best of the best every time we use the CJ. This bright-red, clean, tough Jeep has turned out to be one of our finest projects.