Frame Off 1971 Restomod

14 years ago, my son talked me into buying a decent 1971 CJ 5 ( or so we thought at the time). We had so much fun driving it at the time the restoration never got underway.

Work school and time got in the way, so the Jeep got parked in a barn and basically sat till late this summer when it was removed and the dissemble process started.

We’re going for a very stock, original Jeep, but want to incorporate any Modern upgrades that will add to safety, reliability and drivability.

One of the upgrades I’ve been reading about is the Dana 30 upfront. I like the idea of some additional stability, better turning radious and of course the disk brakes.

My question is how much will the extra three inches detract from the original look of an early CJ? I would use wheel spacers in the back to balance things out. It seems like the wider width will move the tires outside the body?

I will but pictures of the progress up as soon as I figure out how. I really would appreciate all your opinions.

 

There is really no need for wheel spacers when adding a Dana 30. Unless you look from the back of the Jeep it’s not really noticeable. They don’t really stick out of the wheel wells as the factory tires size sits fully inside the wheel wells. This is my 71 with a Dana 30 with factory disk brakes, 31x10.5 tires and 15x8 wheels.

 

Thanks Mike! That is what I’ve been looking for. I understand that you produce and sell certain parts such as shines, steering plates etc. I’d be interested if you’re still producing them.

Our Jeeps are the same color, I’ll upload some shot after I figure out how to resize them

 

Lots of work to do.

 

Well... the frame in the front is had been really bent mangled. The first thing I did when we boathouse the Jeep was to reinforce that and then did the power steering.

I’ve since found a straight frame, and would like to redo the steering so it sits a bit lower. We had used the Advanced Adapter kit, but I think it sits to high.

 

Are you talking wide track dana 30 or narrow track dana 30? I have a wide track in the front of mine and I don't like the width. Building a narrow track now to swap out.

Here's mine with the wide track. Looking forward to getting a NT in there.

 

Your Jeep looks fantastic. I found a NT out of 78 that has disk brakes. Biggest issue is it's geared at 3.54 (I believe) and i'm having it re-geared to 3.73 to match the rear.

 

Keep in mind that body width and 53" D-30 axle width with a 50.5" rear was still in all CJ's up into the 80's until they went wide track at 56" Front and 54.5" rear..........as Mike mentioned hardly noticeable unless you have some deep offset wheels....................If your doing much off road a little wider is better.

 

I really like the look of the 53" width front, 56" like I have now not so much. I'm building an offset flanged D44 at 54" width for the rear. That should go nicely with the 53" NT D30 in front. I was running 2" spacers on the stock rear axle to help match the wide track width of the front, having lived with spacers for a while I've decided I don't like them.

The really nice part about the 56" width is the incredible turning radius you can get, tires turn a long way before hitting the springs. The problem with the 56" if you are using a wide tire, at full stuff the lip of the front fender is right in the middle of the tire so you have to do some bump stop work to avoid damage. My goal at this point is for everything to be inside the fenders at full stuff, which for me is 53" front and 54" rear. Just food for thought.

 

We did the narrow track on the boys 70. Best upgrade behind Saginaw steering.

 

Besides the wheel spacers being a band-aid for width in the rear, what don't you like about them? Have you noticed any maintenance issues with the axle because of them?

 

Better to have the rear axle narrower than the front in solid axle suspensions...........that allows the rear axle to in essence track inside the front axle on turns...