Monogram 1/20 Off-Road Jeep CJ-7

[Street Rod]

I built a couple of these back in the day and wanted to try another one. I decided to do a WIP on this one because I plan to do several improvements on some areas to add detail to the kit, and I thought it might be helpful to others to see the process. I’ve already started working on it a little bit, but haven’t gotten too far along, mostly just gluing a few parts together and sanding some glue seams and mold lines down. Also started some fill work on the frame, which I’ll go into in more detail later. I’ll try to get some progress made and posted tomorrow. Thanks for looking, questions and comments are always welcome!

The progress so far:

 

Edited March 27 by Street Rod

[NOBLNG]

Nice!👍 I’ve built a Revell CJ-7.

[Street Rod]

13 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

Nice!👍 I’ve built a Revell CJ-7.

Thanks, Greg! Fun to revisit a kit from the past.

[Street Rod]

Got a little bit more progress made today. When I glued the seat backs on, they were inset more than I liked and had some gaps at the tops, so I filled them flush. This is the second coat of filler, hopefully it will be good when I sand it down. All three seats got this treatment.

 The frame had sunken rails inside and out that I thought would look better smoothed out. I had already done the outside.

Got the insides filled.

Also added some styrene strips to the angled gussets on the roll cage cross bar, they had gaps when I dry fitted them in place. I’ll sand until they fit correctly.

Not much but moving forward. Stay tuned…….

[DJMar]

Wow, I haven't seen this kit in decades. That green plastic is awesome. And all those sink marks! Looks like you have your work cut out for you.

I remember building one back in the very early 80s. It was the Renegade version with the hardtop, and I think I saved my after school job money for a whole month to get it.

[slusher]

Nice start on your Jeep, I can’t remember this kit..

[Street Rod]

On 3/27/2025 at 10:34 PM, DJMar said:

Wow, I haven't seen this kit in decades. That green plastic is awesome. And all those sink marks! Looks like you have your work cut out for you.

I remember building one back in the very early 80s. It was the Renegade version with the hardtop, and I think I saved my after school job money for a whole month to get it.

Yeah, the frame had ‘em all the way around but it’s not too bad a job to fix. Will look much better when painted. If you’re talking about the red Jeep with the tan top, I would like to build one of those to go with this one sometime, but it’s hard to find and pricey if you do find a good one.

48 minutes ago, slusher said:

Nice start on your Jeep, I can’t remember this kit..

Thanks Carl! Still got a ways to go. It’s from the early 80’s.

[DJMar]

15 hours ago, slusher said:

Nice start on your Jeep, I can’t remember this kit..

Monogram released two of these 1:20 Jeep CJ-7s in the very early 80s. One was the green plastic, off-road version seen here, with no top, a custom rollbar and a bunch of cool off-road goodies. The other was a Renegade version, molded in red, with a full hardtop and doors and stock 1979-80 Renegade markings.

I'm just guessing here, but I think these were scaled up from their 1:24 CJ-7, which had been released a few years prior.

I know a lot of modelers aren't too keen on the weird scale, but it would be cool to see these released again, if the molds are still around.

[Street Rod]

Finally got a little more work done. Got the roll cage assembled and joints filled. I broke a drill bit off in the kit cross bar drilling the ends for pins and had to make a new one from Evergreen round stock. I cut the kit spare tire mount off and attached it to the new cross bar.

 

Got the frame filled and sanded.

 

Also got the seat backs filled and sanded. I drilled a slot into the back seat to add seat belts later.

 

These parts are ready for primer which I will do tomorrow, that’ll show any touch ups I need to do.

Once that’s done I’ll be ready to move on to getting going with a quick fitment mock up and start working on some mods to some of the kit parts. Stay tuned and thanks for checking in! 

[DJMar]

It's cool to see this one back under construction. I like the work on the cage. I can only imagine how much time you spent sanding down mold lines!

 

[Street Rod]

Thanks DJ! Yeah, that cage took a while.