The Slow Evolution Of Givemethewillys' Jeep

Today I did some bodywork in preparation for the new tub.


As I suspected, there wasn't much left that's not rotten. Thank you New Hampshire salt!

The most important parts I want to keep from this one are the tub lip along the back half, which I'd use if/when i do a cj-6 stretch (that part would be difficult to replicate without a brake) and the "willys era" tub parts such as the fuel door, top bow pockets, toolbox and faux battery box.

I may or may not use them, but I know I would regret it if I tossed those parts. I have a different plan for my '57 frame, but I'll get to that in another post. It involves a plasma cutter

 

It doesn't look like you had to do much cutting to get the cowl off.

 

Haha I think I cut about 2" total, and then rocked it the rest of the way. I almost jacked up my dash though.... forgot to unclamp the steering column!

 

Well, I got the '70 to the house and tucked into the garage yesterday. It's better and it's worse than I thought it was initially. What I initially thought was solid floors is actually patch panels and 4 or 5 sections of rot straight through. I'm going to need to do hat channels too. The rest of the body is pretty solid, so overall I'm happy. Muuuuuch better than what I was working with previously.

One thing that I wasn't expecting was to see the entire bottom of the windshield turn to dust. There's literally nothing left, as if there wasn't even a bottom panel. Has anyone else seen this? How good are the '70-'75 replacement windshield frames?

I have 2 early CJ-5 top mount frames, so I might combine the two together to make one. Unless, of course, an aftermarket frame is good enough. Is it?

 

Well, as long are you're happy with it; I'm happy with it! So the gas tank is in the back somewhere? As for windshield frames, I get totally bafooned on those even though I've delt with what I have. So ,what are the plans??????We must know

I went with a frame(large windshield), I bought the frame from ebay. 100bucks, but was an oem, not aftermarket. I hear aftermarket frames aren't very good

 

You can see the two early frames in the background near the passenger fender. My original plan (when I was only planning on buying the tub and frame) was to use the red frame and keep the top mounted wipers.

To me, it looks like the outside perimeter of the windshield is exactly the same. I may ne able to plasma out the "new" edge and then graft it into one of the old frames. I guess we'll see.

 

Mine is aftermarket and I had to trim the bottom lip, but I will take it over a rotted one any day. Otherwise it fit well.

 

Can you elaborate on "trim the bottom lip"?

My green windshield there is an aftermarket one, and it never sat securely, but always jiggled back and forth. I ended up making a brace that pressed against my roll cage, which locked it in place.

I bought the red one because everyone said originals are better, but the few rust holes have held me up from ever mounting it, so I don't know if it really is.

 

Tonight I did a little body work. The outside of the tub is pretty rust free, except for a few small spots along the floor seam, and up against the cowl support. By the way, does anyone have any advice on how to stop the cowl support from rusting out? Seems like it would keep moisture and rot.



I made a little patch piece out of some scrap 18 gauge



Aaaaand, it looks much better



I sprayed a bit of self etching primer on it for now to keep the rust away, and will keep working my way around the tub. Unfortunately, I think the passenger side might have been poorly patched in the past, judging by the nasty hunk of rust inside the tool box.

Either way, I'm tickled to death to have such a solid body to work with, as my original was pretty terrible. Some people have the patience to bring it back from the brink, but that's not me.

More progress soon....

 

The inside lip where it meets the dash of the body tub was long on mine. It hung down and would have rubbed the dashboard. I have an Aqualu body but that shouldn't matter. A little grinder work and it was fine. I use Advance Adapters windshield latches. The original ones were always kinda floppy.

 

Thanks for the clarification! I've heard good things about the AA latches, I'll have to give them a try.

 

ok guys, I have a question. This tub is going to need new floors. Is it worth ordering replacement floors from Classic Enterprises, or do y'all think that getting a sheet of cold rolled would be fine?

Also, would there be any benefit at all to going to 16 gauge steel over the stock 18ga?

 

So I've been chipping away at the jeep a little at a time. I pulled the dana 27 out in preparation of putting my freshly rebuilt dana 30 in, and put in some new urethane shackle bushings.



Uh oh.....looks like I'll be replacing the spring hangers on this frame. The bottom span of the frame horn is pretty buggered up too, so I'm trying to decide if the best course of action would be to cut it out and add new metal, or try and replace the entire horn. Any thoughts?

 

Ive made some good progress this week. When I bought the '70 tub/frame, it didn't include the engine or drivetrain. This weekend I took some time to coordinate with my neighbor with a tractor (loader bucket), the engine buyer, and the seller (to give him his tranny/transfer case). With the help of my plasma cutter for some of the rusty bolts, we were easily able to pull the whole drivetrain and set it in the engine buyer's truck.

Progress!



Today, I took a few minutes during my lunch break and pulled out the paint stripping disk. I was super excited to see that most of the sheetmetal was solid, with only 3 spots that need to be replaced. It even had the original wooden support block!

A bit of cleanup to do:



Starting to look pretty good!



I finished the quick workday by spraying some rattle can self etching primer over the bare sheetmetal to protect from flash rust.

Next steps:
1. finish tacking in the rocker panel patch
2. Patch the spare tire panel
3. Patch the passenger taillight panel
4. Build rotisserie. Replace the floors.

Piece of cake.....

 

IMO, you can’t go wrong with going thicker on the floors. I always do. If you have the patience and the means to do it, starting from scratch with some 16g is worth it.

 

I've definitely thought about it, although I don't have a good means of bending sheetmetal. For my spen trailer, I sandwiched the sheetmetal between two pieces of wood and hand formed it. It came out "serviceable".

Definitely something to consider though!

 

Most of the panels on mine were bent over the front bumper with a bunch of clamps.

 

Today was a big day for the Jeep project. I finally set the engine onto the frame! This step has been 9 years in the making, so yo say that I'm psyched is an understatement!

 

Looking great, congrats on your progress, starting to work on my cj again, great feeling.

 

Thanks! I feel like progress is really starting to happen. This week I'll install the flywheel and clutch, and the rest of the drivetrain is ready to be hauled into place!

I've pretty much welded all of the rust spots on the exterior of the tub. I still need to fill some random screw and bolt holes, and then replace the floors. I'm planning on building a rotisserie to make the rest of the bodywork easier. That'll be my next major step.

I'm hoping for a first start soon! I have an hei distributor and a new fuel pump on the way, and will probably order a carb rebuild kit and the stainless pump to carb fuel lines in the next few weeks.