74 Cj5 Renegade Restoration... Progress & Pics

I wasn't sure if that bracket had been replaced during repairs to the body or not. On my '74 it had rusted away, a P.O. had replaced it with a piece of bent sheet metal.

A rough morning on the assembly line would explain it.

 

I know it's been a while but was just wondering if you solved your oil leak problem on the rear bearing cap on your D-20.
Just came across something that might interest you. Novak Conversions makes a conversion bearing cap kit that uses an O-Ring to seal the cap and a little different shim pack to adj the bearings. I bought one myself but have not installed it yet
Click the expand link to see a photo. Then click on the photo it's self to expand.

 

I haven't solved it yet. It fell down the priority list a bit. I got back inline on the body shop so moved focus there to get the tub installed. I will definitely look at this from them and will call them. If you get around too installing it feel free to tell me what you think after. Thanks for the info!

 

I'll post up some Pics... Been a fun Christmas break. Nothing to do but work on the jeep. I scored a '74 AM Radio! No speaker though. Needs restored. Drove Christmas Eve 3hrs to Georgia. Guy parting out a '74 CJ5 base model. Rusted completely through. When I got there, big rainstorm and I couldn't figure out how to pull the radio out. If anyone has one and knows, Please give me tips! I'll tackle it soon. While I was getting soaked, owner said why don't you just take the whole dash. Then he said....Why don't you take the whole Cowl. SO a quick 5" cut, the rest rusted all the way across, and I loaded up the Cowl in the truck. Also got a great Tail Gate (Wall Art), windshield, fenders and a lot of small parts. (edit: got the radio out in one piece)

 

Few Build pics...Wired up dash and engine. Just have too wire up the starting circuit, coil / ign module circuit, and battery. Then I think I can start it. No seats yet. But I did finally get my fabric from SMS. Took 6 months and 100 emails/calls. I will never use SMS again. Horrible customer service. Told me 8-wks...charged my credit card on day one. Delivered 6-mnts later. And only after I finally emailed the owner. Granted the Buff Wellington with Embossing looks dead on to factory color and lines. Ordered a roll of non-embossed, and embossed for the back/butts.

 

Chris, I have all original seats in good condition, I will probably just have my front seats reupholstered, rear has just one small tear. It amazes me that your floor pans were saved but your seats were roached. Mine the other way around, floor pans bad, not too bad but need replaced but seats were good, go figure. My question is mine are the black seats and I don’t know where to find the code for the upholstery? Buff Wellington is what color? Jeep looking good by the way.

 

Trim code will tell you. It's on the VIN plate. Before the Levis editions, there were only two colors, black and "buff" (beige). "Wellington" is the embossing pattern, as I recall. Allan, good to put your Jeeps year/model/equipment in your sig or header. I can see your Jeep picture which looks '74ish, or maybe '73.

 

Yep...trim code on Vin plate. 422=Black. 498=Buff. Like Tim said the Wellington is the embossing pattern. My seats had three layers of upholstery and I think that caused the rot and rust to set in. They just never dried out. I asked the widower of the original owner why 3. She couldn't say. Rear and Pass frame was in very bad shape so replaced. All the foam smelled horrible. In fact I have one seat so the upholster can use as a pattern for the foam contour and it stinks up my whole garage a year and a half later!

Here is the Embossing pattern. I had to send it to SMS. But I think they actually have all the patterns. Just was making sure. Like I said above, I'd do ANYTHING to avoid using SMS again in my lifetime. Horrible customer service. But they may be the only game in town. The Embossing comes in these sheets to fit their machine. But the non-embossed comes in a big role. They have the pipping (I think that is what its called) in matching color too. Dropping all this off at the Upholsterer to get on his calendar on Monday.

Working on the jeep now. So I'll post up a pic. Just finished installing steering column and wiring up the Spartan turn signal. That's the reduced diameter steering wheel, 15" but looks like a big factory one.

 

UPS just showed up! Have to give a shout out to Snakeoil in Texas. If you need seat belts restored go there. 3 belts of mine were unsafe, dry rotted at the tub connection point. Plastics and rubber were badly faded. They replaced all the webbing, redyed the plastic and rubber, and rechromed the metal. I got the stickers from Ebay, which aren't the metal ones but close. I'll keep looking for the metal ones. I only had two metal Jeep stickers left and were real faded.

 

Yes, piping. "A narrow tube of fabric, sometimes enclosing a cord, used for trimming seams and edges, as of slipcovers."

The '74 CJ has six different trim codes, including the ones that Chris posted. '75 increases to eight with the addition of two colors of Levis vinyl.

 

I see the interior color code now, what are the other numbers besides the vin? Trying to locate month of build. It looks like mine is number 64,105? Now that must be out of all 74 cj 5s. My understanding is they only made approximately 4300 yellow cj-5 Renagades in 74. Please steer me in the right direction?

 

No build date on the VIN plate.

What year? Your picture is too small to read.



This is from the '74 TSM. There is also discussion in text. If it's a '74, the '74 TSM is free to read and download at the Tom Collins site.

If there is no sticker on the dash, I would look at the engine build date - also described in ... the TSM!

 

And? What more do you want? J4 says it's a '74, so that mystery is resolved.

 

I am looking for the order number it came off the assembly line, is the J200468 the number it was coming off the line? And there is no SSO and O # as is in your example.

 

Did you read the TSM? That is explained there. If you can read these posts, you can read the TSM. You seem very hard to get through to.

Serial numbers were assigned in the order the vehicles came off the line, with no regard to vehicle type. Your Jeep is the 64,105th to come off the line in the 1974 model year. Sales order number is the invoice number from the dealership to the factory. It has no meaning today.

 

Oh, I think I got it now, thanks so much Tim!

 

Glad Allan and Tim could work through things above...
Mine was 5,067 off the line for the '74 model based on the VIN! Damn wish I was number #1. How cool would that be.

Entered my first Jeep show. Gives me motivation to finish things, and get it running! Great Smoky Mountains Jeep Invasion 2021...see ya all in August! Anyone in NC going? Things left to do...Put together the windshield frame/wipers/etc, Wire up and Start, Seats, Gap the front clip, Decals. And what I dread most of all...fixing things in the electrical that don't work on the first go-a-round!

 

Thanks for sharing that info, I find it really interesting if that’s all it is. I checked my valve cover and found that mine was built on April 23, 1974, assuming it’s the original valve cover, I have no reason to believe otherwise I bought this with 60,000 miles on it and everything else seems original. No I would think yours would be a January baby with that low number. Have you checked?

 

Yeah I know exactly when... It was Aug '73 line roll off, #5,067. Frame stamped July '73. Engine tagged Aug 9th, '73. Carb Tagged..forgot how to decipher the tag, but '73 (4DM2-BA / B 3h 1). Original PO bought in Texas February 1974.