66 CJ5 Resto-Mod....ish I think...

Hi gang!

I've been lurking for quite awhile trying to get my thoughts straight on what to do with this silly Jeep that followed me home one day.



I just so happens to seem that I fell right smack in the middle of an early CJ5 haven. I haven't posted too much, but have been seeing some awesome projects right in my area of SoCal

I suppose a little intro about myself could help.... so I started with Suzuki Samurai's, about five of them to be more precise. Ranging from stockers to springovers with Toyota axles. My last project was gonna run a Tracker engine and auto tranny, doubled transfer cases, linked Dana 44's and coilovers..... never quite got it done though. Life moved me about some and now that I'm settled here, the wife said...... "let's get a Jeep!" No arguments from me. Three days later we own this thing.

It has alot going for it: excellent running 225 V6 with DUI Ignition and headers, recent rebuilt carb, SM420 tranny, Dana 18 Tcase, saginaw manual steering, decent cage, great tires and wheels, 4" lift, AA clutch linkage, solid body, super comfy retro seats



However as I started to really crawl around it and get to know its undercarriage I started to find the sketchiness. Leaking M/C, cross threaded castle nuts on all the tie rods, cracks in the frame, ugly repaired rear spring hanger (ripped off and booger welded and patched back on) very wierd cutout on the cowl (no JEEP badge left!!!) OH and my front driveshaft came up missing somehow on the tow ride home.... and my crossmember is now bent, wonder how that happened

So I do what I do best...... take the whole thing apart!

Plans are to keep the retro feel and driving experience. Very little bling will go into this little guy but lots of fabrication will happen.

Here goes:

Engine: clean it and maybe go with some inside the frame headers and upgraded alternator.

Axles: Narrowed Chevy front Dana 44, Widetrack width, Ford hubs and brakes (5x5.5 bolt pattern) Spring over, crossover steering. Rear will be Dana 44 (unknown source, CL find) offset to pass side, drum brakes, widetrack width, spring over, limited slip, 4.10 or 4.56 gears.

Suspension: Shackle reversal, spring over with stock YJ springs. Goal is to keep it as low as possible and use a flat or close to flat spring for smooth ride. Extend wheelbase about 4 inches front and back, More details on the keeping it low part later.

Drivetrain: Keep it as is and maybe find an overdrive one day, twin stick the D18, oh yeah and get a front driveshaft.

Frame: Box it and fix all the cracks, new fabricated trans crossmember, new front frame horns and new fabricated motor mounts (driver's side was cut for steering shaft) and some beefy slim bumpers.

Steering: Keep it manual..... maybe.

Brakes: Manual with upgraded dual M/C.

Body: minimal mods, but I'll have to radius out the rear wheel wells for the added wheel base (try to make it look stock, more on that later)

That's about it folks.

I just got my new reg for my new Millermatic 180 in the mail so if you'll excuse me I have some work to do.

 

Nice looking rig, get started and keep us posted. Good luck.

 

Looks like a good start to a great project, with kids already getting some seat time. Good tow/recovery vehicle (93 Ramcharger) with a good neighbor down the street to call if things go bad (yellow Ford). Did you add the family cage?
Wonder where the wipers went?

 

I like it. the more pics the better. That hole in the side is for a crank out vent that someone took off. I have seen a couple pics around of them. There is a cj5 on JP mag site that has one in that same spot. I thought about putting one in mine years ago. Found a vent for a semi that was close. What size tires are you planning on?

 

I did add the family cage. It was one of the first things I did when I got it. I used a stock CJ7 roll bar to match the 5's tube diameter.

 

The PO did throw in some vents, they didn't seem stock, almost FJ40ish. That makes sense now. I wonder why he powder coated them red though.

 

Well I promised some updates. I didn't get too much Jeep time today, but I did finish the new welder cart. I guess some pics of the current state the Jeep is in will help too.

I promise it's all there







And on to the fabrication, Up here is the new front frame horns. I used 2x3x.120 wall rectangle tubing. I still have to box the back and fish plate it.



And here is the section of frame I patched in where the rear spring hanger was ripped off. I will box in the entire length of the frame for rigidity as well.

 

I also have some stuff from the front axle.



Here's the pass side cut and the C pressed back on, the caster hasn't been set yet. I just wanted to see how it fits.

So here's the high tech measurements for cutting

 

Looks like he was installing some postal jeep vents. After driving my Jeep for a few years, I see the appeal.

Nice Jeep.

 

Yeah that could be. I'll snap a photo of the vents tomorrow and show you guys.

 

oops

 

I got a good start on boxing the frame. The easiest way for small intricate stuff for me is duct tape



And the tools for the job.



I'll let the pics show the process I used.

























Test fit



Prep wheel. Picked it up from Harbor Freight, works great to prep metal for welding





And welded in!

 

I started mocking up the front suspension and boxed in the engine area. I used 1/4" plate for this area as my engine mounts and shackle pivots will be tied in here and I wanted a little more strength. The rest of the frame will be 12 ga.

The leaf spring mounts are RUFFSTUFF pieces, very stout and great prices.



As it sits there will be 5 inches of stretch in the front wheelbase.

In keeping with my plan to stay as low as possible, I decided the spring hangars hung down too low. I can get another inch lower....



So lets cut them up.

 

I added in the front crossmember/bumper and tacked up the new notched out spring hangars.





Next up is the shackle side. I'll get those cut in and tacked up today.

 

.

Great write-ups/pics, great foundation for a build, great fab skills, awesome motivation...count me in on following this build thread!

Looking forward to the progress!


.

 

Alright here's the springs mounted so you can see how much closer they are to the frame.





Now I worked on getting the shackle pivot mounted. I used RUFFSTUFF's bushings, they are 2"x.25 wall tubing.



The guy I bought the YJ springs from threw in some lift shackles, they have to be 2 or 3 inch lift!





Yeah, that's not gonna work..... horrible angle and too long. Well the side plates are 3/8" at least. I cut them down re drilled the holes. Mounted up the springs and compressed them to check shackle angles. Looks good.



And now, back on the axle! Yay, visible progress.





Does anyone have an extra set of 4.10 gears laying around?

 

Well I've been busy on the Jeep, but not so good about pics and updates. I finished up the front shackles and welding up the bushings.





That pretty much wraps up the front suspension.

I still have to set the caster with the outer C's on the axle, but I want to wait to put the engine in to add weight, so it will be closer to ride height.

 

Next I started working on the steering box mount. Originally i had planned to use the Saginaw manual box, so I worked up a three hole mount similar to one I seen in the tech section.







I headed to the junkyard the next day and happened to stumble across this gem.





So it was a three hole power Saginaw box and the pump was sitting right next to it. Same bolt pattern. Win in my book! The perks to mounting the box this way is it will be easily removed without damage to the front frame horn if necessary.





Spacers to follow....







I was unable to find the rear piece of the pump bracket, but hopefully it won't be too hard to find.

 

I finished boxing the frame all the way back..... what a pain in the butt!

The rear suspension was next. Once again the spring hangar hung down pretty low, so cut it up, again......



I decided to outboard the springs a little and get creative with the hangar. Basically I welded a 1/4" plate to the inside of the frame rails and cut the RUFFSTUFF hangar in half for the outside rail.








The outboard mount was reinforced and gusseted.








There we go, nice and tight

 

For the rear I used the same bushing setup through the frame. I added some 1/4" angle iron to beef up the outside frame rail and add some surface area to weld the rear bumper to. The bushing lined up nicely through the angle iron too.







I rigged up some boomerang shackles for the rear, I might need to re build them though.... once it has some weight on it, they'll probalbly hit the rear bumper.







Since the hangers were mounted flush. I had to add spacers inside the shackles.





And this shows how the springs align with the frame.



Here is the finished (almost) rear product.