THE EUGENE STORY
On striking the deal for the 1980 CJ7 it was driven home to London from Dunmow which is near Harlow, not without concern. After dropping my friend at his car and heading our separate ways Eugene then decided to cause me some concern by deciding to just STOP for no apparent reason. His fuel tank had been filled at Dunmow and the gauge was reading fine. I rolled into aside turning, pulled over, turned the key and he immediately started again. Off we went.
This happened 2 or 3 times during remainder of journey home. It seemed as if Eugene knew that we had parted company with my friend and it was time for him to have some fun. We did make it home without too many four letter words.
Work had to start as soon as possible as Jeep required floors and bulkhead welding as well as 2 rear shocks, 2 rear lights to British spec and proper exit of exhaust pipe, as at this time it finished under vehicle. I completed these jobs but not without wondering whether it would all be worth it.
Well it is now May of '96 and I am hoping to get use of the Jeep throughout the summer even though it doesn't look a million dollars.
Summer past without too many glitches. A new ignition module put paid to unforeseen and embarrassing engine cut outs.
It's May '96 and it is time to get working on the Jeep. I had a lucky break whilst speaking to a guy on the phone about a pair of doors that he had already sold, he directed me to a breakers yard where he had seen various body panels and parts. When I located the breakers yard a few days later I struck a deal for a complete front end including lights, also a tail gate, sports bar, tilt steering column and 5 original Jeep wheels, all for £105.00. I then took wheels and spare wheel carrier to be stove enameled at a cost of £214.00.
Next I started searching the adds, all parts seemed to be around the Doncaster area, so off we go, my girlfriend and I and purchased a pair of locking hubs, fibre glass wind shield frame, complete with glass and wiper motor, heater cables and a steering wheel for the sum of £300.00 from the late Stewart Kennington , well known in the Jeep fraternity. The deal was washed down with a few cups of tea and a good couple of hours of interesting Jeep talk .
I find myself spending most of my time stripping Jeep to get it ready for re-spray. When not doing this I am running around for bits and pieces. Next major outlay is with John of "Just Jeeps" for a second hand dash pad, new bonnet hooks, gear stick knob, set of new wheel nuts and center caps, door handles, wiper arms and blades at a cost of another £200.00.
At this point I find I have gone as far as I can with body work preparation so leave it to the body shop to complete during re-spray process. It is now August 25th '98. Obviously in this condition Jeep has to be transported to and from body shop at a cost of £40.00 each way. The actual body work and re-spray cost a total of £300.00, not a bad job for the price considering the price of paint today and the work that I left for the shop to do. (it took 4 days for re-spray process).
On getting Jeep back home I gave myself a week to complete re-fit of all parts. I actually surprised myself and completed this in 2 days. Obviously after all this time stood it was time to get him an M.O.T. it passed its M.O.T but I was instructed that new track rod ends had to be fitted. This I did, but at this point I would like to say I found it cheaper to buy my parts direct from suppliers in the USA (on the net). Jeep did not get too much use for the rest of this year as I had previously parted with the hard top and still had to purchase a soft top.
On one occasion it seemed a nice sunny day so decided to take Jeep for a trip to a pub beside the river. Before being able to drink our first drink the heavens opened and the only cover I had for the Jeep was a bikini top and some shelter from trees. After a while the rain ceased and we decided it was time to head home , but on thinking, thought maybe take a different route to avoid rain which worked out fine, we managed to stay dry.
Summer of '99, it's great being able to now use Jeep as we are having some decent weather. No major problems until Jeep starts idling rough and cutting out when stationary. I had previously purchased a carb re-build kit but felt it would be quicker to have a mechanic friend fit the kit rather than do it myself. For what ever reason on replacing carb I find it will not idle as slow as it should, but put up with it for a while. During this time I contacted a number of Carburetor Re-build Specialists and decided on using "Daytona Parts Co." as they had a web site with good photos and descriptions of works they carried out.
Old Carb as removed
Refurbished Carb as delivered
As you can see by photo an impressive job was carried out, carburetor looks as if it is brand-new, it even has new electronic choke attached. All this for the sum of £188.00 inclusive of shipping. (shipping only took 4 days). After fitting Jeep fired up after a couple of turns of the key and after a little bit of tweaking, idled and ran great and noticeably fuel consumption dropped.
