The Jeepster was a rust bucket when I first bought it. Luckly, most of the rust was just surface rust, but it was everywhere. I removed the stock rubber flooring, which was glued to the sheetmetal, to discover that it wasn't too bad. There were only a few spots where daylight came through.
Rust Proofing
The rust proofing involved cleaning, grinding and applying a rust inhibitor, but there was just too much rust. So, my buddy says, "just remove the body and sandblast it", yea sure. It was pretty easy though, but you needed at least four people to help lift the tub, which weights about 250 lbs. Luckily, some have friends have facilities, such as welding, sand blasting and powdercoating, and let me use them. I was able to sand blast the front clip myself, but ended up doing it three times because the rust would reappear before I could prime it with PPG's DP40 bullet-proof primer.
Internal Nerf Bars
Once the tub returned from the sandblaster's, the painting started on the underbody. Luckily again, I have some friends, and with eight guys, we were able to flip the tub so I could paint the underside. One custom fab job you can't see too well is the internal nurf bars. While the tub was upside-down, I cut 2 inches off the rocker panels and inserted a 2 1/2" by 2 1/2" steel tube in the cavity and welded it shut. I now have 1/8" inch steel diamond plate, which was custom bent, to cover the rocker panels and my gas tank.
Body - Interior Painting
The next day, my eight friends helped to flip the tub back over so I could start painting the interior of the Jeepster. Just a few runs (Major runs), but its only the interior. I had my buddy, Andy McGrath, spray the dash and it came out cherry.
Body - Prep work
My buddies helped me to lift the body onto the frame so I could start getting it ready for painting the exterior. Things are starting to come together finally. It only took me a year to get this far.
The Jeepster then went to my painter buddy, where it underwent a week's worth of body work. Because the body and doors were sandblasted, the previous layers of Bondo were removed and had to be reapplied, everywhere.
Here it is before it went into the spray booth. The front-clip and hood were painted off the Jeep and the body was sealed tight so the new interior wouldn't get overspray on it.
Body - Exterior Painting
You can almost tell its a Jeepster in the spray booth. Two thick coats of Dupont Centari Oxford White paint went on (Two gallons all together) and I got a little orange peel on the hood.
Emblems
Here are some shots of the refurbished emblems that everyone asks about. Luckily, my emblems were not too badly pitted, so I was able to have them professional buffed out and then I very carefully hand-painted the detailing of each emblem. Those are repro (plastic) mirrors by the way, which were available at Grand Auto once, but I bought them from Ratner (Jeepsterman INC.)
Fender Flares
This is a shot of the Jeepster with its new Bushwacker Pocket-style fender flares. These are for a YJ Wrangler, so they do not fit a Jeepster perfectly since the Jeepster front fenders are much shorter. Because the YJ fenders are longer, the flares run past the end of the Jeepster fender and into the Jeepster firewall\body area. In order to fit the new 37-inch Goodyear MT/R Mud terrains without having any rubbing, I had to trim the front and rear fender wells to the top of the panel creases. In all, about two inches was trimmed off from both the front and rear fender wells.