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

I find it interesting to see the battery box lid on the cowl. Did you add this early feature back, or was it part of the new replacement body?
-Donny

 

I added it. I think the new ones include it but mine did not.

 

Still, you did a beautiful job. I hope I can do as well. Thanks so much for the great feedback.

 

I was so tempted to do the same thing, but my daughter has a farm wedding late spring 2017 and asked if I can have the Jeep ready by then... I had to compress my schedule. The MDJ kit made the schedule possible.

 

Hey............. Totally understand , and without being impartial and yet fair..........it will be good for all here to see how / if these Items work out for you be it good or Bad.........

 

I know I saw a key for interpreting the date code, but I can't come up with it.

 

J11 = Oct 2011. My kit is coming up on 5 years old.

 

once upon a time we had a thread . with juan . about his tubs . he seemed to be very interested about the knowledge on this site . and made changes to his kits . but this was only a few years ago . I guess the thread was left behind when we switched back to .com

 

I think the thread purged, was in off topic.
Have a shirt around here somewhere...

 

I think Sparky visited their factory and filed a report on here a few years ago.

 

Yea, I followed an earlier lead and found the list of Juan updates and date key. My Juan tub kit of 10/2011 was manufactured without many of the changes... we'll see in a few months how well it fits.

 

I don't have the heart to cut up my old tub... I can very easily fabricate the missing soft top tube wells and grill rod support angles. I'm sure there are guys out there with great body working skills who will want my original body, etc.. I was on the edge of not going with MD JUAN but just didn't think I had the skill to finish it properly without it.

I might try to acquire the "Jeep" emboss to weld into my two sides... MD JUAN doesn't have them in the cheaper tub kit version I bought. Otherwise I'll all just stencil paint it on.

Thanks for commenting.

 

For anyone wondering what happened to my MD JUAN build...




Since I'm newly retired, I have more time than $$, so I decided to do all the frame prep by hand. I think maybe I screwed up. I've already spent $70 on wire wheels for my drill and grinder, not to mention days and days bent over this frame... and now that I'm done I don"t think it"s good enough for painting.

I did get a very close look at some frame markings I'd have missed otherwise, so, I'm not really complaining.

Before starting, I looked up sand blasting services near Pittsburgh and found prices from $1000 to $500. (Yikes!!) But yesterday I found a company who just did a cj5 for $125... he said since I wire brushed it he'd cut that price a bit further. "Sold!!"

Western PA isn't called the rust belt for nothing. I know I have to primer this thing within 24 hrs of sandblasting. "Epoxy" primers seem to be the top shelf recommendation on a variety of sites online. We're going to paint this ourselves in a garage; we have no experience with "epoxy" primers... Does anyone have any recommendations against using epoxy primers? Have other primers stood the test of time on sandblasted frames?

Thanks.

 

i vote epoxy, read the directions and follow them to the letter, a cheap hf spray gun with the largest tip will do fine for a frame. wear a respirator and vent the space well for a while,and clean the gun as soon as you finish spraying.

 

From the look of your project, invest in some decent epoxy primer. Do it once and do it right.
I have been using a product from Southern Polyurethanes, inc (SPI) in Georgia. The particular product number is 6620 for black, and 6700 activator.
He is supposed to have a UV blocker in the formula, so it doesn't need a topcoat.
I have been really impressed with this product so far, but it does get a few fisheyes easier than other products.
It isn't the cheapest, but I feel is worth it for a project like yours.
-Donny

 

spi is a pleasure to do business with too...

 

My local SPI distributor delivers the product to my front porch within a day. He stops by on his sales rounds. No added charge, and happy to help out with advice and discussion.

I've used their epoxy primer, clear coat, reducer and waterborne wax and grease remover.

 

JMO - if the prep were not perfect, I would not spray epoxy primer. It bonds tightly to a bright steel substrate, but I expect it will fail anywhere you spray over residual rust.. Instead, I would use a moisture-cured urethane for the chassis. These are available under many different brands, including Eastwood Rust Encapsulator, POR-15, Aluthane, Rust Bullet, Hirsch Miracle Paint, and many more. I prefer Aluthane, and I know it would be durable, tough and stable used on the axle you show. It's a great product. Unfortunately its pigment is aluminum powder, and it's silver, so if you wanted black you would have to paint over it. Here is a link to its product page - Aluthane MCU rust corrosion auto restoration coating 603-435-7199 - POR-15, Eastwood and Hirsch are available in black. Eastwood, POR-15 and Hirsch (IIRC) all offer a chassis black that's meant to go over a base of some kind.

If it were mine, I would skip the sandblasting and use a MCU product for the chassis. If you decide to sandblast, paint with SPI black epoxy right away, and you're done.

Realize that epoxy primers continue to set for days, and after about a week they are too hard for a top coat to stick properly. So if I had the body shell sandblasted, I would not shoot epoxy until I were ready to top coat it. If you wait more than the recoat window, you will have to sand/scuff the paint for the next coat to stick.

Depending on what your Jeep body looks like now, you can also chemical strip the original paint, or paint over existing paint (if it is not too many coats and is well adhered). Get this book How to Paint Your Car on a Budget (Cartech): Pat Ganahl: 9781932494228: Amazon.com: Books and read up about ways to strip the paint.

 

I used POR-15 on my frame and I couldn't be happier, definitely worth every penny. It's designed to adhere to rust. In fact, since I had my frame sandblasted, I had to use the POR-15 prep chemical to add surface rust back to the frame before using the POR-15. It sounds counter-intuitive but that's the way it was designed. I opted to brush it on rather than spray it and it has held up excellently. They also sell these special brushes on long wires (sort of like an industrial Q-Tip) for getting the POR-15 inside the frame channels and hard-to-reach places.

I also used POR-15 on things like the tailgate and hood hinges (not the entire hinge but the parts that rub together when the tailgate and hood are opened) and it hasn't chipped or scratched one bit.

Excellent product. Sort of pricey but worth every penny.