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Alaskan Postal Hardtop
The stock Alaskan Postal.
In 1984 Jeep delivered a little over 200 right-hand-drive CJ8 Scramblers to the US Postal Service for use in Alaska. These Jeeps had a panel truck version of the World Cab hardtop installed from the factory. These hardtops are extremely rare in the continental US, but one was found one on eBay. This top was also used (with Windows) on the Australian Overlanders and CJ-8's and CJ-8-length YJ's in Venezuela, and probably other countries.
The one found was in pretty good condition, with only surface rust. The only significant problem was the roof, it appears someone had dragged the top on the ground upside down, scratching the roof and dishing it in at a few places. But nothing too hard to fix.
The first step was to remove the foam insulation. These Jeeps had foam sprayed on the inside, evidently to insulate the interior from the Alaskan cold. And there's no easy way to get it off, it's got to be scraped and chipped off. Once that's off, the top can be disassembled, as it was designed to be shipped flat and assembled at the destination. In the photos below some of the foam is yet to be removed.
The next task was to cut holes for the side windows. The inside wall of the top is indented for a window opening, as shown in the first photo below, cut the outer wall around the inner wall opening, as shown in the second photo.
Then the two sides, the top panel and the rear door went to a local body shop to be refinished.
The top parts looking like new. The rear door and one side panel are shown above.
Install the top in pieces - first the side panels were bolted to the sides of the Jeep's tub, and then the top panel was lowered on.
The factory design for securing the hardtop to the top of the windshield frame was not that good - sheet-metal screws up through holes in the windshield frame into the hardtop, so fabricate the brackets below to pull the top down tight, one for each side of the windshield frame.
The installed top is shown below. The spare tire carrier can be fabed out of a yJ bracket bolted on to this bracket with the hinges on the left hand side.
The only other complication is that I did not get the World Cab doors with my hardtop. These doors are different in that the window frame comes to a point in the upper corner rather than the curved corner of the stock CJ doors. I fabricated corner fillers out of some 1/2" angle iron and some sheet metal; these are shown in the photo below. They actually seal better than the doors did on the stock Scrambler half cab, so they worked out pretty well. Instructions for making the corner fillers are available in PDF.
PART TWO:
The Dash
The Scrambler/Overlander Project:
Dash, Wiring and Electronics
Most of the instruments and the dash lights weren't working, so the task was to replace the whole thing with a new panel made from stainless steel & this is how it turned out.
The finished dash came back exactly as specified. The only problems was that the 5 2 1/16" gauges above the radio interfered with the defroster ductwork, and the location for the "Check Engine" light interfered with the steering column bracket. It wasn't too hard to cut a hole in the steering column bracket to match the location of the light hole, and a new defroster manifold and ductwork had to be fabricated from some supplies from the plumbing store, so the clearance problem was solved also.
A switch was added for the TJ fog lights to the dash, and also a "Check Engine" light for the fuel injection to look stock. Custom dash lights were created on the computer, getting a film transparency made of them, and dissecting some stock dash lights to replace the old labels with my new transparencies and some colored film.
Below is a photo of the dash being assembled and wired on my workbench.
And here's a photo of the "Check Engine" light installed in the dash. It is centered just above the steering column.
The dash is filled with 5 Autometer gauges - fuel, oil pressure, voltage, water temp and a clock. Since I wasn't going to be using the stock gauges in the speedometer cluster, the speedometer is blanked out @ the bottom half of the face of the cluster with black styrene. That modification can be seen in the photo below.
Also visible in the photo above are LED's above and to the right of the temp, oil pressure and fuel gauges. These are "idiot lights", driven by an Autometer "Tri-Alert" gauge warning system.
Thanks Scott for the contribution.
Also, while in the process of removing and replacing the dash, the opportunity came to do the "Blazer heater blower upgrade", which is well worth the time and small investment (about $20). Air output of the heating system is about doubled with this more powerful motor.
Posted 06 June 2007 - 02:14 PM
