MD Juan Tub Kit 1969 CJ5 4CLY (7/2016)

looks good . wouldn't look right without it

 

Yea, you're so right. I'm embarrassed I almost walked away from the offer.



Here it is finished early today with filler and primer. This is the good side. The other cowl side had a curve through the logo and the flange was pressed in a bit too deep... it didn't blend in as well but we are calling it acceptable.

So, doing the logo finished all body work. We then did a 400 grit sanding prep on all remaining primered but unfinished parts: tub, fenders, tailgate, dash, grill and windshield frame. Then we hung them all for painting but with the tub remaining in the rotesserie.

The US NAVY haze grey is so close to the color of our primer that we forgot the dash was finished and we accidently sanded it and must paint it again.

Everything primered, hung, and ready for final painting (Wednesday). Joe's garage with plastic sheet walls looks like a scene from DEXTER.







'Just kidding with the paintbrush, but Joe keeps telling me the Navy paint could have been brushed on with little difference. Also, "the primer Jeep" has already been mentioned a time or two.

After getting everything set up and ready to go, we quit a bit early. 'No time to finish painting in less than half a day.

 

It's another (Haze) grey day in Pittsburgh.





You can see a hint of the unevenness of the fill blending in the "JEEP" logo in the finished product. We... err... don't want it to offend the JEEP gods by making it too perfect.

We ran out of paint before getting two coats on everything. I originally bought a gallon which Joe said would have been plenty with his HVLP gun but he felt more comfortable with his older siphon gun.

So we are stopped until another gallon arrives. We'll recoat everything you see here so everything matches.

It feels good to get a few extra top coats on it anyway (for durability). It should arrive Friday or Saturday.

I was reminded I offered to show how the hood looked finished:



Not too shabby! The damaged vertical flats where the tie down hooks attach were the most difficult part of the job. Once again I'm showing you the best side. ...No fear of upsetting the JEEP gods with the threat of perfection, but nothing I'm ashamed of either.

 

Last (Haze) Grey day in Pittsburgh. Painting finished. Wednesday address brake linkage question, engine oil leaks, all fluids and lubrication... and begin assembly!

I beat up my tub so badly in this post, l told Joe I doubted anyone would value it very much. It took about 30 seconds to come up with the idea of creating a trailer out of it. We had some fun kicking around some ideas this past weekend and even bought a Craig's List Harbor Freight trailer frame as a possible base. Joe will have his own post as we take that on. He even wants to hold off on the 1933 Pontiac until the cj5 tub trailer is done!!! I know!! He has been bitten by the "JEEP" bug!

 

Today we rolled up the plastic walls, set aside the painted parts, and pulled the chassis out from under its protective cover... assembly has begun!!!

A few residual mechanical items had to be disposed of first. When we tried to depress the brake peddle, the master cylinder shaft wouldn't enter its housing. When we removed the shaft rubber boot, we found that a cap on the end of the shaft was running into a slotted (horseshoe shaped) washer attached to the face of the cylinder hole. The cap on the shaft was supposed to be inside the washer to keep the shaft from be becomming dislodged from the assembly. But somehow the shaft cap was on the outside of the washer, retained only by the rubber boot! Pushing on the shaft only ran the cap up against the washer and stopped it cold... no brakes!

So we took out its retaining screw, pulled up the washer while still depressing the piston, slipped the horseshoe over the shaft with its cap towards the inside, and screwed the washer back in place. Problem fixed!

So then we bled the brakes and adjusted them, and adjusted the transmission brake. We were surprised to find two brake line leaks at each of the two bolt-on connections to the new master brake cylinder housing wall. The brass plate bushings should have sealed easily but took a little too much torque (in my opinion) to finally seal them... but... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Then we greased every fitting and every moving part we could see.

Then we hit any remaining grey primer parts on the chassis with flat black chassis paint.

Since this is a NAVY jeep, it gets rear bumperettes and a pintle hook. We added them next since the inside of the rear bumper is harder to reach once the body is on. I left the draw bar on since it didn't interfere with anything.



These were actually added before the tub body, but this is the only photo I have of this detail.

And Joe had a spare trailer electrical connection, so he used a knock out to enlarge an existing bumper hole and installed it. You can almost see Joe's black trailer electrical connection centered in the picture above.

While Joe did the trailer hook up, I worked on two oil leaks at the engine valve adjustment cover attachment bolts. They had no gaskets so I cut two from rubber sheet. We still have one more oil leak at the edge of the top engine rocker cover, so I need to buy a gasket for that.

Today I couldn't deal with the tiny coolant leak at an engine crack repair site above the distributer, but we'll droll a hole and JP Weld it maybe Friday.



I still have to strip the Presidential Red paint from the radiator's flanges and get its fill nozzle joint re-braised to cure a leak there... hopefully Friday.

So having finished anything preventing mounting the body tub, we picked it up off the rotisserie and lowered it onto the frame. We reconfirmed the absence of any rubbing, cut a dozen rubber isolation pads, and began to attachment. We very quickly realized we had failed to move 2x holes in the center rear of the frame, and failed to drill two more holes through the rear tub deck and its support channel. In ten minutes we were caught back up and reattaching the tub.



We attached our lift hardware to the seat belt bolt holes (really, really good idea Joe!!) but it was a bit behind the tub's center of gravity so after this picture was shot we added another light weight strap through the front tunnel. We could have handled it without the extra strap, but it would have been more difficult without a third guy. Edit... we also could have bolted a weight via the rear seat seatbelt holes to shift the CG back (between our existing straps).

Finally, we touched up all the new holes and bolt heads and nuts and called it a day.



Since the paint is "lusterless" Haze Grey, we did our touch up with a brush. You can see some wet (light) spots on the rear deck seat belt bolt heads. I'll try to catch it again Friday, when dry, for comparison. Other touch up done earlier is invisible.

We say good bye to the rotisserie Friday when we take it apart!

We're going to hold off on further assembly for now. Joe next intends to work on the fuel lines while I begin the wiring. I expect to start on the dash wiring while Joe focuses on the rear lights and chassis wiring. We think this all will begin Friday, but Friday tends to be a shorter "work" ...err... "play" day, so we'll see.

 

Wirework,

Job well done. Thank you for sharing with us your adventure, I have enjoyed following it. There is one thing however, will the tailgate clear the pintel hook when opening the tailgate?

Again, Thank you for sharing,

Frank

 

Yikes!
I don't know. The Jeep is in Joe's garage (about 20 mi from me). If Joe sees your note he may check earlier, otherwise we'll have to check Friday... I forgot that military Jeeps had no tailgate.

'Not sure if/how to resolve it if it interferes. Given the overall project's intent, it might not matter... until the first time I want the tailgate all the way down... hmmmmm.

Thanks for the question (before we tripped over it

Edit: Joe saw your note and ran down to the garage to check. (Thanks, Joe!!!) Here are the photos he just sent me:






It clears... just. Tell me that isn't a collision just waiting to happen!!

But... it might be ok... we'll look again Friday.

Thanks again for the question.

Edit 2:



I pulled out the parts book and took a look at the pintle hook attachment it shows. It only has a diagram for 1972 (gas tank in rear). Mine is a 1969 (gas tank under the driver's seat) and the example we are (almost) following is 1958.



The 1972 drawbar hardware shows 3x rows of bolts where the pintle hook attaches, and shows the pintle attached to the bottom two rows of holes.

If you blow up Joe's end-on photo of my 1969, you see only two rows of holes in my vertical drawbar hardware. We could certainly drill two more holes if we had to but we double nutted it to make it especially difficult to remove (to resist theft).

One advantage I see to our arrangement... we have room for the addition of a standard hitch ball, while the 1972 pintle height placement recommendation seems to take that away, and the 1958 example loses it too.

So.. instead of lemons, we get lemonade!

 

Just another note to say thanks to Mike for the "JEEP" logo embossed cowl side stampings he donated to the project. Just look how much it adds!







We both looked back at it at the end of the day today as we turned out the lights and remarked about how glad we were we had stopped the job and spent a few extra days to put them into the MDJ tub sides... It wouldn't have happened if Mike had not sent us that note.

 

Those letters came from the 55 cj5 I learned to drive on - I am thrilled to see them live on. My replacement tub had the JEEP stampings so I would not be using them. My father was Navy man so I could not imagine a better place to see them used. Thank You!

 

Wireworks,

Whew, glad it all worked out okay and you have some clearance for the tailgate.

Frank

 

Yep, but boy... not much. I see in his picture, Joe stuck a piece of rubber shim between the tailgate and the pintile hook, so it's likely less than 1/4" when the tailgate is flat. I guess that's enough if the tailgate chain lengths are EXACTLY "right". It might be easier to just move it down and drill two new holes... We'll see Friday.

Thanks again for the heads-up!

 

Wireworks,

I went out and looked at my 6t6 CJ5 and there are six total holes in the cross piece. Guess I never paid attention to that before this discussion, nor have I mounted a pintle hook.

 

Maybe a middle row is hidden under the pintile hook base and I missed it.

We'll only find out if we decide to lower it!

 

Ok. Good day, today.

Joe pulled the rotesserie apart before I showed up, making his 3 bay garage look a LOT bigger for the first time in nine (?) months.

Joe attached the roll bar, mostly to get it out of the way, while I wire brushed the radiator so we could get it solder repaired. 'Sorry... No shot of the roll bar installed.

Then he went to work on the gas tank... I'm just reminded we did not test the fuel level signal yet. I hear it fails as easily as the cluster gages.



Joe's nice work disappears when the seats go in.

Then he installed a new fuel line w/ filter...




...while I started on the dash wiring:



The cowl depth behind the extreme left dash edge is about 1/2 inch less than original on the MDJ tub because an internal trough/flange sticks reward a bit more than the standard tub. We thought at first it might interfere with the last component stacked in the light switch assembly, but we were able to turn that component 90 degrees, which should solve the problem. You can see the turned light switch assembly component in the far left of the back-of-dash photo above. (Those light switch terminals are scary close to the cowl.)

Yes, the bird egg blue is a non standard color for the exterior of the speedometer cluster housing. I made the interior that color to get a blue interior glow when lighted and figured "what the hell, paint it all, it's hidden behind the dash anyway..." I forgot I'd be showing it to all of you guys.

And the heater:



I have not worked out the heater's under dash conduit routing or vent locations yet. I'm only sure of the defroster location at the moment. We deliberately located the heater coolant hoses all outside the cabin. Imagine how crowded it would be if the heater unit were under the dash.

Then Joe went to work on the rear lights. Only the left side are new, ...but I found cracks in both right side lenses today



We did a bit of touch-up, and catch-up painting and called it a day. I see a bit of grey paint dripped on the black draw bar... We'll get it before we are done.



My wife said this evening, "Wow! How simple that layout was!" Boy, no kidding... Bare bones. The dash will get a grab bar, a glove box door, a few tags (for shifting and hubs), and the windshield wiper motor wiring...And that's about it. And, yea, we'll get that hole plug the same color as the dash; the PO had installed a dash mounted horn button when his stock horn button failed... say bye, bye to that. I think I used that hole for my heater control.

Since the gages in the speedometer cluster had failed, the PO placed an aftermarket gage in the dash in that open space between the row of controls, but we cut out a sheet metal disk matching the hole size and Joe stitch welded it in. Look how nice it turned out; great I think! 'Nice work, Joe!

Dash wiring still not done, but making good progress. We did our own wiring harness so it will take a while to piece it back together. We were able to save nearly all of the original dash wiring harness which really helps. I will add a few fuses and an audible oil and coolant temp alarm... maybe a relay for the dual horns.

Within limits, I had to SWAG the dash control sequence (I used my original dash with all it's remaining holes, some with indexing slots or shapes.) If you have any knowledge of stock dash control locations, it would be a big help. The headlamp and wiper switch shapes probably dictate the current order because of their holes are also "D" shaped and dictate their orientation. Any other order and they would bump into each other.

Mine are like this right now (left to right):
Head lights/ wipers/ blank/ choke/ throttle/ heater/ flasher (lower)/ and ignition.

I used the Summit heater's control knob. I intend to etch a "C" (choke) and a "T" (throttle) into their control knob faces with white ...err... Haze Grey...paint fill. Did stock controls have any function marks on them?

There is also a flasher pull knob in the column mount turn signal assembly... the PO must have added the aftermarket one in the dash above the steering wheel. I'll try to get the column mount one working; I already repaired all its wiring so hopefully it will work. I'll have to figure out the proper flasher relay location for it, however. And, I'll have to pull the 2nd 4way flasher knob and plug the extra hole if not needed.

And my ignition switch is small in its hole... 'seems aftermarket or replacement... not sure... but it cleaned up well and it works.

I took a follow-up shot of the rear deck where we touched up with a brush on Wednesday.



Invisible

And we are leaving the pintle hook where it is. It seems ok (not interfering with the down tailgate.)

The horns are still burried deep in our protected "painted parts box" so I couldn't confirm that the mystery brackets belong to them yet. But I'm convinced enough to stop looking for an alternative. Thanks for the help.

Monday and likely all next week will focus on wiring, probably in the following order.
A harness runs to the rear lights (needing to be modified to pick up the trailer hitch.) It also picks up the fuel tank level sensor, the "reverse" switch on the transmission, and the brake switches on the brake line. The steering column and steering wheel needs to be installed to do the horn button wiring. Then the dash can go in. The fenders will be needed to support the two horns, the windshield washer bag and pump, and a busy front lighting terminal strip. The firewall supports a voltage regulator, the heater, and wiring and cable penetrations. The grill supports the front head lights and the combo parking and turn signal lights. Lots to work on!

 

Wireworks,

Do you have spacers between the rear body and the frame ? In the past, I have used pieces of truck mudflaps which I put a hole for the bolt to go through to gain space between the rear body mounting brackets and the frame.

Just a thought for more clearance for the "Hook".

Frank

 

Joe had some sheets of rubber (1/4 - 3/8 thick) which we cut into rectangles and installed between the frame and tub, kind of like your mud flaps. Everything fit like a glove. We didn't want to raise the tub because the pedels fit so well, but I guess we could rake it a bit if we wanted... probably easier to just move the hook, I think.

I think you are right to be a bit concerned about the tight hook/tailgate clearance, but we've decided to go with it for now.

 

I got a chance to page through my parts book tonight (my wife hates when I do that) and I got to answer a few of my own questions about the controls.

The throttle and choke controls are shown in that order, left to right.



And the other controls are shown (for 1973) with function marks, and ordered as follows:

Headlamps/ wipers/ hazard/ ignition/ speedometer cluster/ cigarette lighter/



...so it appears my layout is really close.

I'll try to insert my windshield sprayer button in the existing hole between the wiper switch and the throttle control. And I might rig a defroster damper if I can with a cable control. (It makes me smile every time I talk about a heater in an open Jeep.)

I'm reminded I'll need to install the sprayer nozzle in the hood or cowl top... 'haven't figured that out yet... one or two?

And darn (!) I don't have a hole for a cigarette lighter... I guess I'll need to add one so I have a place to plug in a USB dash cam, GPS, or phone charger...

And, finally, I found a hood safety latch called out in the parts book. Mine didn't have one; only side hood latches... no wonder the PO lost a hood!! I'll need to find a latch on line.

 

My 66 cj5 didn't have a safety latch, fortunately no body was behind me the night I forgot the side latches. My 76 came with both . I noticed that your heater is going to be drawing air in from the engine bay unless there is a cover for it. Great looking assembly. Phil

 

Not having owned a Jeep before and not having an appreciation for issues associated with drawing air from the engine compartment, I take it i'm going to get an unpleasant education... hmmmm.

Funny, the last thing I did today was screw on the donut flange and screen covering the fresh air bypass hole in the left side of the grill. Joe asked me why it was even in there and I told him I thought it fed fresh air to the stock heater inlet.

When we decided to put the heater in the engine compartment, I took only a very short look at how the Summitt heater gets inlet air. Then, and sitting here now, it isn't obvious how I could simply duct fresh air to the inlet without significant contamination unless I cover the whole thing (as I think you are suggesting).

My heater location looks like this:



I deliberately located the heater's coolant hose connections on the engine side. The heater fan's air inlet is right beside its coolant inlet/outlet tubes. I also notice in this photo that there isn't much room between the heater and the engine exhaust or wiring either. The heater could be flipped 180 degrees if that helps.

To get a better look at the fan's air inlet I borrowed a photo from MikeK in an "earlycj5.com" 2012 post about installing this same heater. He located it behind the dash:



The coolant hoses obviously block the heater fan's air inlet, making a direct conduit connection impossible.

That's the way I remembered it.

Rats.

Ok... it appears that second "box" with a height and width matching the existing "box" could be formed with a depth sufficient to enclose the entire motor/fan/coolant hose assemblies. A fresh air inlet could be cut into any of the new box's surfaces. Fresh air could then be ducted without contamination, via a new conduit routed from the grill's screened radiator by-pass hole directly to the heater's new enclosure. I'll have to make sure it don't bump into the Jeep's hood!

Oh, boy.

Does anyone have any suggestions for making the fresh air conduit in the engine compartment? I'm thinking, maybe, 4" solid dryer duct.

Thanks for the heads-up Philp.

 

stock hose from heater box to grill shell . ebay is only place I know now
JEEP CJ5 CJ6 DJ5 DJ6 HEATER FRESH AIR INTAKE HOSE 1957-1971 NICE! NEW! | eBay