64 CJ5 Recession Build

Guess I should start a thread to document my progress. I picked up my 64 this year, mid January. When I got it it had a Konig half cab, some rough spots on the body, and a pretty solid drive train. The cab is off and is going to the new owner this weekend. Despite it being winter in Wisconsin, I've gotten some seat time in. Even drove it to work one day (which required going 60 for about a mile or two) with no windshield...wasn't the greatest idea I've ever had, but it was fun and got lots of thumbs up.

When I got it:



On the way home:



Cab off:



And the windshield even folded right down for the first time in nearly 50 years!



That brings us up to early February. I put two new tail lights on and chased a bunch of wiring gremlins to get the headlights, parking lights, and brake lights all up to snuff. Still haven't gotten the turn signals going. Currently the windshield frame is primed and about to be painted when I get some free time. After that, glass is waiting for me at the glass shop to be put in. The drivers side mirror was missing, so I went back and forth on buying one from quadratec or getting one from John at Midwest Military. I decided to pony up and get the one from John. More on that later (with pictures!), but for now...best decision since getting the jeep. Pure art, made in his factory in Minnesota. Also got the windshield glass seal and cowl seal from him. Definitely recommend him, quick and fairly priced. Ordered the parts Monday on lunch hour and had them by noon on Tuesday.

Body work starts once it warms up. Will also be going through the brakes to see if they are worth salvaging or if I need to bite the bullet and go to 11" drums and changing every fluid in the thing. So far the plan is dark gunmetal on the windshield frame and related parts and orange tractor paint on the rest to make it an unclebill style 100 footer. When I get tired of it, I'll tear it down to the frame and do it up right. Just want to enjoy the thing for a few years first.

 

Thanks! I've gotten so much good info on here, so I'm hoping I can contribute a bit back here. The budget is "beg, borrow, or steal" but I'm a prototype machinist and have access to the shop on nights and weekends, so there might be a bit of bling working it's way in if need be. I'm definitely open to ideas if anyone has neat things they'd like to see done as well.

 

Just got back from meeting up with Adam (Gearhead1985) from here in Waterloo, IA. He bought the half cab, so we met up half way. Was a good trip and it was nice to get a night away from the kids with the wife. Already spent some of that money on the windshield glass and a set of old warn locking hubs on here. Rebuilding those will likely be the next project.

Got the windshield frame painted during cycle times today. It looks really blotchy due to the slightly dented sheetmetal, but it's a jeep so I'm not incredibly worried about perfection. The color is even in person, so I'm happy. I sanded down the whole frame and sprayed it with rust converter to take care of anything I missed. Next came primer and then the Duplicolor graphite wheel paint. I decided to take a slightly different twist on the black frame. The mirror and other minor things will also get that. I had half a can left over from doing the wheels on my tacoma, so I figured I'd throw it on the mirror I got from Midwest Military. It turned out nice, so I grabbed another can for the windshield. Hopefully I'll be bringing it by the glass shop tomorrow after work. Anyway, on with the pictures!

Windshield frame drying:



And the mirror and hood bumpers:




I need to figure out exactly what I want to put on the bumpers for material. My hood welting is also gone, so I may order up enough of that to do the grille top and the bumpers. Any ideas of alternatives are appreciated.

 

Ok, back to the mirror! I can't say enough good about it. The omix-ada mirror runs ~$15 for the whole shebang, but every person I found that ordered it said it was really flimsy and vibrated badly. I also needed to get a new cowl seal, and ran across a few threads saying that John at midwest military was producing his own and it was by far the best on the market. Same price as everyone else, so that was a no brainer. I was surfing around his site and saw the mirror bracket he was producing. It ended up running around $60 for the bracket and mirror head, but this thing is awesome. Heavy gauge metal, seems like it's darn near 1/8" at places. All welding appears to be tig welded and is perfect. Holes lined up perfectly and every bend was right on. Hardware was top notch and he uses some fiber washers at all moving points to allow it to drag without galling up over the years. I think this is definitely one of those "the feeling of quality lasts much longer than the joy of saving a few dollars" type things. I do wish it would have come with the hardware to attach it to the windshield hinge, but a few button head allen bolts are easy to get and will do the job just fine for me.

 

How about getting yourself a can of Master Series for rusted pieces and throw the rust converter away? You want everything to last as long as possible right? It's worth the expense.

 

I'd love some more info on master series, never heard of it before. I'll definitely be needing something a bit more serious for the body. The w/s frame wasn't in bad shape at all, just piece of mind more than anything. I'm not going crazy on the body at this point, but would definitely like to stop whatever is there in it's tracks until I can start replacing steel.

 

Next project:




Warn M2 hubs. Picked these up from Adam (jersey-jeep) on here. They are PURE beef. They definitely don't make hubs like this anymore. Will be disassembling, cleaning, and putting on to replace the drive flanges.

 

Yup, surely is! Fits a family of 4 for tooling around on the lake just fine..haha!

 

Good call on the mirror. I haven't heard any good reports on Omix- ada's parts. Cheap parts are just that. In the long run, your $60 mirror will be cheaper than the junk parts from Omix-ada. Keep the pics coming. We all love build progress reports.

 

Started cleaning the hubs in the parts washer at work yesterday during lunch. Looks like they are going to come out pretty nice. One of the dials is stuck, but I think I'll be able to get it with some persuasion.

 

Might try this for rust cleaning. Less that $2 a bottle.

http://www.earlycj5.com/forums/showthread.php?93492-My-new-BFF-Toilet-Bowl-Cleaner&highlight=toilet


ten minutes later

 

Holy cow Phillip! I will definitely be using that, amazing! Lived in Wisconsin almost my whole life (did a two year stint in the south to get married off before bringing her back home) and didn't know about that.

Newest project: the hubs!

http://www.earlycj5.com/forums/show...feeding-of-Warn-M2-Hubs&p=1008467#post1008467

 

Wheels painted, hubs installed.






Now it's time to decide on color. I'd like to stick with tractor paint and am between Ford blue, Oliver green, and AC orange. Not sure I'm feeling the graphite windshield frame, so it might change as well.

 

I vote orange.

 

Well, day one of commuting to work (Tuesday) didn't go as well as planned. The transmission has always been a little funny first thing in the morning. If I don't have it in neutral, she wants to take off, even with the clutch floored and it takes a bit to get everything sitting still enough to get it into gear. It was getting worse, so before I left work I adjusted the clutch up some. Started it up and it dropped right into gear. Sweet! On the way home, not so sweet. Got to where I could barely change gears. Had to summon my past truck driving skills and float all the gears. I could sit stopped in gear and it wouldn't try to creep at all, so at least it was doing that well. Once I got home, I noticed lots of new leaks. Pulled the transmission fill plug and couldn't find oil with my finger...that's not good. The valves are also getting pretty noisy, either that or I can finally hear it over my shivering while driving it with the warm weather.

I parked it in the garage and am going to start with the valves, then go to fine tuning out the skip under load. It has a fresh ignition system (points, cap, rotor, plugs, and coil), but I don't think the PO set anything past getting it running and idling nicely. If that doesn't get it, on to the carburetor. This is really cutting into my "fix the body" time, but oh well, I'd rather have an ugly jeep that runs well.

Does anyone have a picture of the location of the drain plug on the transmission? Mine is covered under 50 pounds of oily dirt, so I'd at least like to know where to start scraping. I found the t-case drain, looks like a 3/8" square socket. Any suggestions on fluid? Worth going with the syncromesh stuff, or just throw some 80w90 in there?

Also planning on doing the diffs. My rear has either a lincoln locker or a REALLY tight powerloc. Front feels like it has a powerloc as well (both tires go the same direction jacked up, but I can hold one and spin the other with some effort). Think one bottle of the additive would do both axles?

Edit: Found the parts diagram on Novak. Shows it just forward and below the front boss for the side shift model

 

Sounds like your clutch is bad, tranny might be fine. The drain plug is on the left side of the case, #49 in your diagram. You don't need any fancy oil, just plain old-fashioned gear oil.

 

Yup, drained and refilled last night. I pulled the plug and got a little piddle and then three big chunks of goo/tranny junk fell out of the hole. Buttoned it up and re-filled it with fresh 80w90 and it's MUCH better. Still doesn't want to go into gear first thing, but it seems to be getting better as the oil gets flung around in there. I twisted the dizzy around a bit while I was at it. Turned it one way until it started to chug, the other way until it started to rev up, and found to the best of my ear where the mid point was. That helped the skip about 50%. I'm still thinking the carb is a little gummed up. Now it's beautiful at idle, and sounds pretty decent under hard accel. It's that part throttle cruise that does it. Trying to track down a dwell meter to get that nailed in. For now, it's much more drivable. Still amazing to me after sitting in the woods for two years it runs as good as it does.

 

Master Series is a moisture cured primer for panels of various condition. It is primarily used as a "rust pain" as it will attach itself to any material. It creates a moisture barrier where any rust is choked off. It is intended to be topcoated as well, but can be left alone in areas like floors and such that are not seen. It is gray in color. It is awesome.