Don's '69 CJ5 rebuild

Thanks for your kind words, Jeff. If you ever get up this way from beautiful San Diego, PM me. We have some of the best wheeling in the country within a couple of hours of here, and maybe mine will be done by summer time.
Quite a few years ago I went through an AA program at the local Jr college in auto body work where I learned the basic skills. I've never worked in the field though, I decided I didn't like breathing bondo dust.

Don

 

Don, how did you replace the hat channels? More less, with what?
Nice progress as well.

 

Sammy, that is still WIP. I just got a sheet metal bending brake from Harbor Freight, will practice with it making up new hat channel sections out of 16 Ga.

Don

 

the jack what a great idea to pull the buckle out i like the way you think!

 

More progress Saturday. I fabbed up the new hat channel I needed.


I invested another $179 in the Chinese economy, went to Harbor Freight and got a 36" bending brake. It will just barely handle the 20" long piece of 16 Ga. metal, I used a couple of additional C-clamps on the clamping bar to keep it from flexing too much.


A picture of fitting and clamping up the new hat channel. Just visible in the background is the next project, a 914 Porsche. That will be on a different forum!


This shows the small test piece I bent up during practice with the brake.


The new hat channel welded in place. The floor under the fuel tank is now good and solid.

 

Thanks, Jim. It has been an interesting learning experience for me as well. The last 11 years I've been working in an engineering lab doing electronics validation testing, my so-called metal fab skills have kind of rusted along with the Jeep body. I haven't taken many pictures of the welds I ground out and reworked!

 

Nice job on the hat channel. I always wondered if that harbour freight brake would be up to this kind of job. Now I know.

 

More work on the driver's side floor this morning...


This is what the floor panel looked like underneath after I removed the hat channel. Swiss cheese.


I formed a patch from new metal (slightly surface rusted) and tacked it into place.


Seen from inside.

 

Nice work
it looks really good

 

Here's an update on the '69's progress. I started a new job a couple of weeks ago, so I haven't had near as much time to work on the Jeep.


I got the patch on the driver's side floor finish welded, did a little better job of controlling the heat distortion and shrinkage this time.


From underneath you can see the hat channels back in place.


The passenger side floor area was pretty bad, the front hat channel was pretty much gone, but the main transverse channels are repairable. The floor panel is full of pinholes and cracks, so I decided to just cut the whole panel out and replace it with new 18 Ga.


Here is a view of the new 18 ga. panel fitted and clamped in place. I also had to repair the triangular brace in front of the footrest area, it was cracked and collapsing.


Here it is after doing the tack welds along the front and next to the center floor hump. I did rosette welds along the side panel and the rear floor riser panel.


Here are the main transverse hat channels back in place. They were pitted and thinned from the rust, so I bent up some new pieces of 18 ga metal into a channel shape narrow enough to fit inside the original hat channels, this strengthened them quite a bit. I sandblasted them clean first, and did a rosette weld every 3 inches or so to hold the new channels in place.
I also put in a patch in the rear riser panel in the area of the frame to body mount hole, reinforced it with a piece of 14 ga. The Harbor Freight brake handled a short piece of 14 ga, but with some effort.


Here is a look at the patch I put in on the side panel in the cowl area, one of these was needed on both sides. The metal hasn't been welded in yet, just fitted.


This is the last of the metal work I plan to do on this Jeep, I'm sure you guys recognize this spot. I already did the passenger side, this is the drivers side of the riser panel. When I was stripping the bedliner material off of the Jeep's floor, this was the first real problem area I found, and will be the last one to fix. The PO had filled the holes in the bed panel with solder before applying the bedliner material. The big hole in the riser panel wasn't apparent until I hit it with a hammer and the rust filling that hole just crumbled out.

 

Nice work Don! :tea:

 

Another update on progress. This project slowed down due to that 4 letter word 'work', and various 'honeydoes'.

A look at the underside of the passenger floor area, and the new hat channel that extends to the front of the tub. You can also see the patch in the side panel.


Another angle of the same area, you can see where the new floor panel joined the old just in front of the angle bend where the footrest area starts. I formed the new hat channel piece from 16 ga sheet bent up with the Harbor Freight sheet metal brake. This tool has been worth the $169 on this one tub repair job alone. The hat channels showing the heat spots down the middle look like that from attaching reinforcing sections of U shaped channels bent up to fit inside, then spot welded to attach. These original hat channels were pitted and thinned from the years of corrosion, and I decided to save them and add the reinforcments


Now back to the rusted out spot in the riser channel between the front floor and the rear bed panel. I cut out around the rusted area with the 4 1/2 inch angle grinder using a cutoff disk. This is another tool that I bought when I started this job, and have used it heavily. I spent the money on a Milwaukee brand instead of a chinese knockoff, and I've put many hours of use on it that I don't think the knockoff brand would have stood up to.


Another look at the hole resulting from that first cut.


I formed a section of channel to fit the cutout section of the riser channel, 16 ga again. The spot welds joining the floor panels to the riser channel are drilled out, and the floor panels were heated and folded back to allow access. The riser channel is just stitch welded in place at the time I took the picture. Later I finish welded and ground the welds smooth, then fabricated a second patch panel to join to the bed panel and lap over the riser channel like the factory did.


A view after finishing the metal work in the area and some sandblasting to remove rust.


A second view of the same area. This is the last of the rustout repairs to make on this tub, now on to finishing the sandblasting and prime the tub with epoxy primer. The weather is dry here, so I can get away with a few days delay between sandblasting and sealing with the epoxy primer.

 

Don, you either really enjoy this hobby, or you're a glutton for punishment, but either way - Keep up the great work and keep posting those pics! Thanks for sharing.

 

Clint,
Maybe I'm a little bit of both. Either way, I'm getting close enough to having a Jeep to drive again that I can just about taste it. My goal here is to have the body tub sound enough to last another 15-20 years, as long I think I'll be able to use it. Rebuilding this one is some cheaper then a new tub built in PI, and there is some satisfaction in getting my hand back in on the bodywork.

Don

 

Don-

Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing your Jeep on the August Rubicon run. -Don

 

OK, an update here. I took a few days off from work and did a lot of sandblasting. I had to go through 4 layers of paint in places, like the cowling panel.


Here is what the tub looks like now, an oblique view from the top. You can see the sandblaster I used. It's a real air hog, needs a little better than 20 cfm when the nozzle gets worn oversize more than 1/8". My old compressor died on me Friday, so I went over to the Air Tool store and got a new 5 HP compressor that almost keeps up with the sandblaster with the worn out nozzle. I need to get a new 3/32 nozzle, that will drop the cfm demand down to 10/15 cfm.


A view from the top. I'm not showing you the bottom yet, that's not quite done. I'm also waiting until I do the priming and painting of the inside of the tool box before I weld it back in.

It's obvious I'm not going to be able to make the August Rubicon run :?. Oh well, progress is a good thing.

 

Wow! Nice metal work!

I think I'll have to get me one of those HF brakes.

Lookin good, keep the pics coming.

 

Don, I think you've saved your patient!

Good work!

 

Update on the project, I got primer on the tub today!

This view gives a good look at the transmission cover piece to fit an SM465 tha I made by sectioning an original from a T90



A look at the new floor and hat channels, fabbed on the HF brake



No plastic fill yet, just epoxy primer over the metalwork



This is the quarter panel area that I started this whole project to fix. About half of it is new steel.



Right above the JEEP stamping I found a surprise when I sandblasted, I think it was a hole for a factory radio antenna. I plan to put a new one back there.



This is the part I'll see the most often, every time I climb in. Still needs some fill to get it straight.



A couple of looks at the inside of the floor.



I plan to put a color coat on it Saturday, it will be the original Spruce Tip Green color. Jerry's Paint and Supply here is Sacramento mixed up a gallon for me based on the Ditzler color code I found on AutoColorLibrary at tcglobal.com. They have the color chip selections for '69 Jeep. I'm going to use a single stage acrylic enamel, relatively inexpensive at $118 per gallon, plus hardener and reducer.