66 CJ5 Rebuild

Not a restoration, (feels like it though) but I don't need to do the wheelhouse notch. One of the first things I did on this Jeep was make custom seat mounts built into the roll cage. I used some really nice suspension type seats that give me more leg room. I believe the seats I got are designed for the Rhino ATVs. As far as the rest of the tub, I have some rust on pass side near the tool box and the rear most body mounts are gone along with some rust.

 

More body work to show. All the big stuff is done. Now I just need to fill the thousands of small (and not so small) holes that plaque this thing

Right rear with new panel


Both sides where the tail lights mount had considerable rust and damage








Next up was the driver side vertical support and a small section of the floor




Before the bendy machine




Lots of new metal on this side


Passenger side near door





Had to replace a large section of the floor panel under the tool box.



Passenger side vertical support.





I saved the best part for last........R) R)

Lincoln 215 MIG welder....great machine. I snagged it from a guy who bought it new and used it three times...$800 with a bottle and full roll of 0.030 wire, ooh yeah baby!

 

Beautiful work! Nice welder, too.

 

Nice work PieLut. Great score on the welder too.

 

Cut out this square to replace some rust and I found some more. It grows!
I also welded EVERY darn hole. Gotta be at least a hundred of em'. It's hard to imagine that anyone would need so many holes....Sooo many holes. The horror.



Then I had to cut out some more.



New section of vertical support.







All buttoned up.



Many hours of grinding.....

 

Thats looking good! I hear you about all the holes that accumulate over the years!

 

Aaaaaaaaaah. . . . I remember those spots well.



I also had to patch the rear panels in the same places you did. Expect rust on both sides of the jeep at those pillars.

PS PieLut, hoping to get your stuff shipped out today, but with the Holiday rush I wouldn't expect to see them before the end of next week.

 

John your cancer looks a lot worse than mine. But much better than the east coast guys. Oddly enough, the other side near the pillar doesn't have any rust...go figure. BTW, no hurry on the parts.

 

Very nice!! I rebuilding my 69 CJ 5, check out my pictures? Here's the link,
http://s1211.photobucket.com/profile/vidjds
John

 

Very nice job!! Some people just like to make holes for other to repair??
John

 

Nice fleet of welders!!
John

 

Thanks John, having a MIG and TIG allows me to cover a wide range of welding jobs. Your build looks great. Have you started a build thread yet?

 

Decided to have the tub soda blasted. For the most part they used a very fine sand. On some of the panels they switched to soda where there was heavy amounts of Bondo.
The tub looks great. I can see all the imperfections in the steel that I would have missed if I didn't have it blasted. Looks like I have some more cancer spots and cracks to weld, but not very much.
They charged $300 for the entire tub inside and out. They even picked it up and dropped it off and completed the job in less than 24 hours.

 

Looks great

 

Clearly lots of time and dedication has been put in! Keep up the good work!

 

Someone make this thread a sticky; that's how you do it right there.

 

Nice to be able to see exactly what you need to do. I started on mine by just trying to fix the obvious, ended up stripping all the paint and old bondo off. You'll be glad you did when it's all said and done. If you are over about 5'9" you might want to do the wheelhouse notch while you are at it.

 

X2...

Mike

 

Not planning to do the notch. I have some shallow seats and a custom seat mount that I built into the roll cage. Before I started this beast of a project, I was
very comfortable with the leg room and I'm 5'10"

 

Body mounts are finished. This was one of the main reasons I started this dang project. Nearly all of the original mounts were rotted, mangled and unusable.

For the rear most location, I had to make custom mounts that would attach to the bumper. The edge of the bumper is an inch away from the tub, so I came up with the following design.
I used Daystar brand poly mounts..part KJ04001BK (14pieces) and they are about 0.700" thick




There is a lot of force applied on these mounts if someone steps in and out from the tailgate, so I added a doubler plate at the mounting location.



Next up were the mounts in the middle of the bed. When the PO placed a fuel tank in the rear, they cut out the mounting locations. I made some mounts that are easy to get to even with the aluminum tank in the way.

Before mounts




Moving along are the mounts that attach to the frame rail and the vertical riser. I planned on drilling a hole that matched up with the frame holes, but the mounting surfaces are not parallel. If I were to put the poly mount on the way it sat, the tub would not sit flush on the mount.
I cut the vertical riser and made some mounts that are durable and match the angle of the frame rail.









Lastly, I improved the three orginal mounts that are located on the floor. The issue with these mounts are that the 1/2" holes become worn from years of body flex. The bolt rides in the holes and causes some enlargement and fatigue of the holes. I cut some pieces of 5/8" diameter by 0.065 thick chromoly tubing. These act as a sleeve for the bolts to ride in. The sleeves are welded to both the top and bottom parts of the tub. These three mounts are the only mounts that have two poly mounts stacked. The other mounts are custom, so I was able to avoid stacking them. I needed a 1.5" body lift to clear the gas tank.