Project Beat Blue

Purchased a 66 CJ5 w a 225. Its had a rough life. I found it local and probably over payed but its mine now. The final plan is probably a stretch into a CJ6ish size rig. Drive line mods will be mild, plan to hotrod the motor a bit. Might update the steering and brake too. Have some disk brakes to swap in for the front.

First order of business is to remove all the nasty body filler and poor quality patch jobs and remove all the wiring, which included an extension cord.

In the photos im posting its already in the disasembly process. I bought it in non-running condition. It has an HEI distributor and I trouble shot it down to a bad pickup coil, replaced that. It fired right up and drove down the street (scary brakes) I turned it around pulled into the garage and started the tear down.

IMG_3921 by Matt Sberal, on Flickr

IMG_3920 by Matt Sberal, on Flickr
IMG_3912 by Matt Sberal, on Flickr
IMG_3909 by Matt Sberal, on Flickr
IMG_3906 by Matt Sberal, on Flickr
IMG_3905 by Matt Sberal, on Flickr

 

Bondo

 

My tub had about 3" of bondo in that corner around the tire carrier as well... must be a jeep thing. Or more than likely a bad driver catching the spare tire on a tree thing

 

bondo makes it strong.....paint makes it pretty.... i dont think that way just a saying in the shop...

 

Yup. That's not an uncommon thing around here. My '71 had a ton of it at the same place, along with a few other spots.

Had a friend back in high school who was a couple years older than me. He was into body work even back then. Ended up running the body shop at a local dealership for a few years. Anyhow, he had a dog he named Bondo. I always got a kick outta that.

 

More fun with metal!!!! I wish I could say Im suprised, but Im not.

IMG_3923 by Matt Sberal, on Flickr


IMG_3936 by Matt Sberal, on Flickr

 

Yes, looks a bit worse than my 3B. I suppose that is why I had to work on my metal working skills to fix things. I hope you knew that the plate was there to hide the really ugly stuff.

 

I did. It has a twin brother on the other side

 

Ditto ! My 62 was the same way . Flashing over rust . I also have that crease on the driver side rear panel .Bondo ,well lets just say it was at least an inch thick ! Looks like a great start to me !

 

When the PO rebuilt the floors they used 3/16 flat plate as hat channel which was a poor choice.

 

Just last week I replaced hat channel in my CJ5 with one from Classic Enterprises. They don't list the hat channels as a separate item but they do use them with entire floor replacements. My floor was OK so they sold me just a hat channel. Very high quality, as with all of the panels and pieces I got from them. You may consider their entire floor.

 

I'm going to use 11 gauge 1x2 rectangular tubing as hat channel and replace the floor and rotten side panels with 18gauge. I'm lucky in that my FIL has a full sheet metal fabrication shop.

 

After a winters worth of sleep the CJ is back from it job as a shelf for kids toys.

Couple things Ive never seen before.





Whats with the pinion snubber deal up front? Snow plow addition?
Ive also never seen a leaf spring like the one shown again some heavy duty option or just some hack?

I posted the wood block transfer case drop because I know its not the first CJ to see such a thoughtful modification