CJ5 Resto-Mod Project

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The cooling fan also needed a custom mount. Sure, I could have used those push in plastic things to mount the fan directly to the radiator core, but those are stupid, and I like an OEM appearance.





Then the sending unit for the fan controller needed a home. Again, I could have used a push in probe, but no, I wanted a screw in sender. There wasn't any place on the engine to put one, so a trip to my local radiator shop (Service Center Radiator in Auburn) got me what I needed. We deliberated over where to put the sender, and we opted for putting it in the top tank, but near the controller. The best place to put it would have been right near the inlet, but I didn't want to have wires running all over the place. We decided that since the controller is adjustable, we could adjust it to work just fine.

 

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Tailgate Conversion

After driving it around for a few days, it was time to get it back into the shop.

The tailgate conversion should have taken a day... It didn't.

If any of you are considering this job, first you must understand that Jeep, at this time in their life, was cutting a lot of corners. The measurements before cutting revealed a body that was almost 3/8" taller (from top of the tub to bottom of the tub) on the right side than on the left. Obviously that wasn't going to work. So I basically "blueprinted" the body tub to bring it to "as designed" spec.

First, cut out the old one.





And then peel back all the layers of unusable material.

 

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Once the door jamb was cleaned up, the lower apron had to be repaired. I could have bought a new panel, but I decided to make my own.

 

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Removal of the old solid rear tub.





Cutting the tops of the tub off was the only way to bring everything back to square. It wasn't damaged, it was built that way. Go figure. The driver's side only needed a pie cut, but the passenger side neede the whole thing removed and raised up.

 

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Time to plug weld everything, grind it smooth and finish it off with a file for a no-body-filler surface.

 

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Final fitment of the hinges and tailgate.

 

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Distributor Upgrades

During the engine tuning process, I noticed that the timing was flopping all over the place. Also, the points would wear inside of one minute, then I'd adjust them again and the same thing would happen. Instead of beating my head against the wall, I purchased a Pertronix Ignitor to replace the points. The whole conversion took less than an hour.

 

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My regular paying jobs have been keeping me busy, but when I get a free moment, I spend some time trying to get this Jeep finished. I had a free moment the other day, so I decided to build the floor/trans cover.

If you are a vintage Jeep guy, you may well know that the "72-'75 years are unique and therefore hard to source certain parts for. I scoured the web as well as the specialty Jeep wreckers for a '74 floor cover, but to no avail. I did, however, find a nice '66 cover that I thought would work. I was wrong. The top of the cover, where it meets the firewall had a profile change obviously made to clear the transmission bellhousing, and the older cover would not work. Luckily, the '74 cover that i did have had enough good metal left on it, and in the right places, to make one out of two.

Here is what I had to start with. There are two '66 covers there, the original '74 unit (white) and the upper piece and shifter console.



Start cutting and grafting.

 

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I have no intentions of making this Jeep a nut and bolt original, so liberties are taken to clean up some of the oddities. There was an un-needed access hole in the cover, probably for when the CJ5's had the pedals mounted to the frame. I decided to cover that up and eliminate an additional piece. It's the hole on the left.



Here's the finished unit, all fit together and ready for install.





This cover is going to be painted in place, so before the body goes off to the blasters, I will spot blast the two mating surfaces, paint them and install the cover with new hardware and a thick bead of seam sealer, just like the factory did. The finished product will have painted hardware and look just as it left the factory. The shifter console will be painted separately and installed during final assembly.

 

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Back on the Jeep project again. So many things keeping me busy in the shop, these personal jobs take a serious back seat.

The time came for the body to come off so the remaining body work could be done. I took many pics during disassembly and logged and bagged all the small parts and then the body tub went down to American Stripping in Sacramento for blasting.









Part of the disassembly process included identifying all the holes and such that needed to be filled. Lots of tape and sharpie markings to keep track.

 

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Getting the tub back from the blasters. They always want to apply the sealer, and I understand why, but it really makes the repairs impossible, so here it is in bare metal.







And then I brought it home and put it up on the rotisserie.

 

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The body was in pretty good shape overall, but there was some rust in the floors and body supports, plus a few cracks and a lot of holes drilled over the years.

Here's the front passenger side body mount. The whole thing needed to be replaced so I bent one up and removed the old one. Before I could weld it in place, I had a patch in the floor to do which would be easier to replace with the mount out of the way.









The small mount right next to it was cracked, so I made a strengthening patch to go over it, but I cut out the crack completely first.







All of the parts I removed or repaired were coated inside before welding up. It's the right thing to do and it doesn't add that much time to the process.

 

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Then I started on the floor patch.











After that patch was welded up and ground smooth, the body mount went on. I strategically make the cuts for the patch panels directly over the strengthening rib flanges to help keep things nice and tidy.

 

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Repairing some of the tears in the metal, it's easier to cut out the section and fab up a new patch. This door pin hole in the jamb is a good example.

 

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More floor patch, this time under the storage compartment.













Here's the whole passenger side complete with repairs.