Interview: Practical Yet Capable 1983 Jeep CJ7

welcome to civilian Jeeps I'm Jake and today we're in beautiful horse Creek Tennessee with an interview with Donnie and his 1983 Jeep CJ7 now this Jeep is really cool I'm excited to show you show it to you so stick around and this is all you need to know about this [Music] CJ7 [Music] all right Donnie so this is your 1983 CJ7 tell us a little bit about it where did you get it from and how long have you owned it uh I bought this Jeep 2 years ago uh actually never saw the Jeep in person just saw pictures of it uh I had a friend of mine work the deal up and like I said about two years ago ended up dragging it home Jeep had actually been rolled when I bought it so uh it's been two years of hard work yeah I'd say so now this is a beautiful Jeep and we'll get to the exterior of this Jeep here in a minute but let's go ahead and talk about the drivetrain let's pop the hood on it see what's underneath what's power in this thing all right so tell us a little bit about the drivetrain setup here with your engine so the Jeep still has the 42 in it uh it's had a few upgrades to it though it's got the Clifford 6 equal 8 intake on it it's got a 6 into1 header it's got the hii conversion on it so uh rest of the drivetrain it's still the T4 transmission uh still The Dana 300 still has the AMC 20 and the Dana 30 in it uh with some upgrades of course but all right what uh transmission are you running under this uh running the T4 four speeed T4 forspeed what about the transfer case it's Dana 300 it is a Dana 300 what uh axles you got on here it's the AMC 20 in the back and the Dana 30 in the front all right what gears are in these uh it's running 14 gears 41 lockers uh it's got Grizzly Lockers in it uh it's got uh chromolly axles front and rear uh notice in your engine bit here you got a uh power brake booster here you got power steering on this thing tell me a little bit about the wiring is this factory wiring no the the wiring is not Factory the the wiring actually looked like a uh House of wraps had been a hold of it and made a nest out of it uh it was hanging out everywhere wires cut everywhere so this is actually a painless horness that I ended up putting in okay was it pretty painless for you it was pretty painless I mean if if if you're patient enough to read the directions with it then then and follow what they say then it's pretty simple to to put in and use that's good tell me about your distributor uh distributor is a t distributor uh it's a hii conversion for the for the uh 42s so hii Gives You More Voltage out of the coil than Old Stock uh stock top setup does so so is that a flex aite f that is a flex aot fan is the alternator the just the stock alternator you upgraded that's a that's a upgraded it's a one wire alternator okay yeah GM style yep all right Donnie so going to this suspension what are we running on this so on this one we've got it's all BDS except for the shocks uh it's about 3 and 1/2 in of lift total uh the shocks are the new Rancho RS 7s so the shackles the factory front shackle no reversal on it it it's no reverse but it is I'm running Boomerang shackles front and rear okay Boomerang shackles what about on your actual axles on the AMC 20 and the Dana 30 you're running any special shafts in there uh I run the 10 Factory 10 Factory shafts yeah all right uh as far as suspension goes what size tires are these uh these are 35s 35 1250s and how do those do with the 410 gears uh it would be better with 33s but the 35s do well because I daily drive this thing so okay one of those people daily drive them that's awesome all right Donnie so on this 35in rubber here what kind of Wheels do we have it's the American racing uh it's the outlaw twos Outlaw twos okay on the exhaust what kind of exhaust is on this juk uh it's a 6 into one header and then basically it's a stock replacement Muffler and tail poop so okay got a good little Grumble to it it does not too obnoxious but just loud enough let's go ahead and start it up and let the viewers hear it a little bit all right Donnie what what paint job have we got here uh that is a Lowe's special that's $40 worth of Rustoleum for a low special that looks really good I like the paint on it I like the matte black look especially on Jeeps that get used so rust wise is there any rust on this Jeep uh the only rust on that jeep is right behind the windshield hinge on the driver's side there's one hole about the size of your pinky and that's the only rust in the entire Jeep so so not much very very minimal so what's the bumpers let's let's go ahead and go into the bumpers uh the bumpers are from from Rugged Ridge uh the front and rear front and rear Rugged Ridge bumpers um you running any type of slider or no there's that okay so no slider Rugged Ridge front and rear bumpers what kind of winch is that you got M uh that's a super winch that's your sx10 so 10,000 10,000 lb winch synthetic synthetic line Y comes with the monster Hook when you buy them so yeah I like that that's nice lighting wise let's go ahead and dive into the lighting uh the lighting the lights on the front are the 6in rigid uh 360s there some Bright Lights uh they they are plus they have the uh the little uh running Halo if you don't have them on full you can run the little running Halo that's in behind them so the headlights the headlights are the KC replacements uh for the for the CJs it's same lot that would go on a TJ or an LJ so okay um the tail lights tail lights you running tail lights are rugged red or the LEDs okay uh any more lighting or do that pretty much take care of it uh basically that's it other than you know every light on it pretty much is Led except for the except for the front marker lights okay Donnie so tell us a little bit about the interior what kind of gauges do we have we have uh the gator gauges for the autometer uh Jeep branded gauges uh other than the speedometer uh cluster and that is the original cluster in it so and the fuel gauge works fuel gauge look that's a big one coolant gauge that's the Jeep one down here yeah coolant gauge don't work in the original one so I've got the Jeep one down there from autometer question for you these the vertically driven sound enclosures y I'd say that helps with the audio a lot it does got the vertical driven front and then the behind the seats on each side as well it's got poke audio uh speakers and all four of them so what about the steering wheel there uh steering wheel actually column and steering wheel both are Flaming River so that's the Flaming River column for the CJ and then the steering wheel is as well the only difference with the steering wheel from what you normally get is I took and it's a Polish and I took and brushed it okay it looks good so what kind of seats do we have uh we we've got the coros uh the adjustables uh probably one of the best investments I've ever put in a jeep so say so I like the bolstering on them Y is that for the rear as well uh the rear is actually a Best Stop best stop my grand kids love riding in this thing as much as I do so we got to have him a place to sit to I see so what about the cage here uh cage was in it when I got it uh it's a full cage uh I've not had a chance to test it but the previous owner had tested it so it does work yeah tied to the frame uh tied to the floor oh tied to the floor okay so I see that you have a soft top on this Jeep and it looks to be in excellent condition and that you're running the soft doors do you have a hard top uh no the previous owner uh had rolled the Jeep and they had the hard toop on it so it busted it uh pretty bad yeah pretty beat up yeah the doors I see you're running soft doors do you have hard doors no I do not uh I had the door hard doors with it but I would don't have the doors on unless it's winter time so basically I sold the doors true CJ man yes the top how old is the top uh the Top's about 2 years old okay it's in great shape what kind of carpet is this uh this is the bed rug uh for the CJ they make them for tjs and stuff as well uh but it it's good because I can take it out and will it and pull the pieces out and wash them off and put them back in they clean it up yep yeah it really has a nice fit and finish in this Jeep it does good to deaden some of the the squeaks and rattles so yeah old CJ you're going to have those yes so what would be your favorite upgrade of this Jeep uh probably my favorite upgrade is probably the Coro seats coros uh I've got bik issues and I can go out and be on the trail all day long and and come out with no issues so I've had some other brand seats that after a couple hours I'm ready to be done so ready get out of yeah these things are awesome so what about future upgrades for this G uh future upgrades uh we'll eventually look at putting a a V8 in it uh the 42 is fine but I I'm I've got a racing backr and I like power so I got to have more power everybody needs more power yeah okay so I heard you mention earlier that you do daily drive this Jeep now with you daily driving it how often do you have does an issue occur uh I've done so much work to it that it's not often but it still has issues I mean just a week ago I replaced the entire wiper system on it pretty much because of I mean it's 41 years old so linkage failure linkage failure when linkage failed it fried the motor so okay so there is some things that do pop up from time to time with your daily driving it I mean it's it's like I said it's a 41y old vehicle so you're you're going to have you're going to have a few things pop up well there you have it that was Donnie's 1983 Jeep CJ7 I think this is the awesome Jeep it's the perfect you know go to a show will whatever you want to do with it this would be the Jeep for you now I really appreciate Donnie doing this interview for us and if you've liked this please let me know and if you got a comment or something want to know more about this leave it down below Donnie has a YouTube he will comment back and answer any question you might have and you know when it comes to Jeeps keep it classic

Channel: Civilian Jeeps

Views: 8,283

Keywords: jeep, cj, cj2a, cj3a, cj3b, cj5, cj6, cj7, cj8, cj10, scrambler, renegade, limited, base, laredo, golden eagle, golden hawk, 35s, lifted, bestop, corbeau, autometer, rigid, chromoly, off road, off roading, trail rated, trail recon, stock, classic, modified, restomod, rugged ridge, superwinch, American Racing, 4.2, t4, dana 300, amc 20, dana 30, yukon grizzly, lockers

Id: 3elo-akjP0w

Length: 11min 34sec (694 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2024