The CJ had an ugly spot on the dashboard left by an old factory sticker, so I decided to remove and repaint the dashboard. Usually I don't fancy taking out dashboards, but this one seemed easy enough.
The patch sanded and filled with primer. Of course you can't just paint the patch.
No surprise I was left with some spaghetti wiring. I tried to tidy it up, but as everything was working fine decided not to tear it all out, but generally remove some unused wires and tuck it in a bit.
The dashboard sanded, primed and painted. I like this shade of blue. The easy part is done, now the dashboard needs to be refitted and the controls and dials reconnected.
The dashboard refitted. I'd seen this 4 wheel drive script on the back of some earlier Jeeps and decided to put one on the dashboard. I used a template to paint the correct image.
To my surprise all the switches worked after I reconnected the wiring. I replaced a few connectors at the back of the wiper switch, but the rest were fine.
After this I changed the oil and checked the brakes.
It is always useful to check a car regularly. I found the fuel filler hose had deteriorated and was leaking fuel. Here I've cut the bad part off to be able to measure the attachment to the fuel tank.
There's a ventilation hose connected to the filler hose. The filler hose actually has a hole to connect the ventilation hose.
Of course things were rusted and I had some trouble getting this connector free, but I succeeded and ordered a replacement.
The new hose arrived after a few days. I managed to fit the connector for the ventilation hose, but the filler hose was very tight, so I could not fit it to the tank and filler. I used a pipe expander to stretch the hose a little and left it overnight.
The next day I could fit the new hose. It was a snug fit, but that means there' s less risk of leakage. So the repair is a success!
Officially the 4 wheel drive script was intended to be used on the tailgate, so it seemed logical to add it to the tail gate of our Jeep. A test drive showed that the choke and carburetor did not work as intended. The Jeep had not been used for a while and some linkages were stuck. After freeing these everything worked well and there were no electrical problems behind the dashboard and no leak from the tank. I think I need to get this Jeep out more!
