It's Just A Hunting Rig

1st of all I want to say how much all you guys have helped on this build. I've gleaned so much info and how to's from this site that have made this adventure easier than just going about it on my own. I have done most of my own mechanic work on all the different vehicles I've had over the years. Started off with a '67' Honda 160 Scrambler when I was a freshman in high school and have had many different bikes, trucks and cars since then. This is the 1st jeep I've owned but have helped friends and relatives work on theirs over the course of time.
Also, when I started this project a couple of years ago (time and money) I took many pictures and downloaded them on my laptop. But, a few months ago the hard drive gave up the ghost and I lost all the pics (I know, should have backed up). So, I don't have the very beginning of the tear down and build but have enough of newer pics to kind of tell the story. From the title of the thread you can get a sense of the plan I had for this build.
In the small Northern Calif town we live in there was truck hauling business that everyone in town knew. The owner of the business bought a brand new 1957 CJ5 from our local car dealer (I was 4 years old). He only used the jeep once a year for deer hunting in Wyoming. The rest of the time it was stored in a container van. Well, fast forward 45years and as he was getting ready to retire he sold the jeep to one of his drivers who used it for local hunting and put very few miles on it. I happened to hear that he was wanting to get a CJ7and might be selling the '57' so I was able to pick it up. Needless to say it was in decent shape. I drove it a couple of years for deer hunting myself and my 2 boys would borrow it once in awhile for hunting.
Then the bug to do some conversions hit. So, with the thought in my head that it's just going to be a hunting rig I started.



Here's a couple of shots of the only rust damage on the whole rig. You can see the origional blue paint and the red/orange paint the original owner painted over it.






Here's the tub after a little body work and primer.












I put bed liner on the firewall and the inside of the tub (if I did it over I probably wouldn't have) then sealed and painted it.












That's it for tonight, more to come.

 

Now how is that fuel tank held up there?

Black magic, perhaps?

Anyways, looks like a great foundation!!

 

Pretty good trick huh. I guess the wire I used is in camo mode.

 

Well, I got back from a couple of days of scouting up in the northern Sierra's. Here's a couple of pics of a hunting buddy's 1965 Mk IV Tuxedo.
Ran into some snow drifts. He is always adding polished aluminum diamond plate or stainless steel somewhere on his rig. I keep telling him that "Chrome don't get you home" but he just laughs and puts more on. The last one is of his jeep in the local annual parade.

 

I was going to rebuild the F-head and after seeing how much it was going to cost I hunted for a v6 and found one on craig's list in a town not far from where I live and picked up a '78' Buick 231 with bell housing, T-14 and large hole Dana 18 single stick for $300.00. So, I cleaned every thing up and swapped the double stick linkage from the original T-90, Dana 18 small hole for the single stick large hole transfer case linkage and put it on the frame using AA's engine mounts. I was able to mount it using the stock cross member locations and stock drive line lengths. (Sure wish I had the pics of all this that were lost) So, here's some later ones:

 

Found a postal jeep and got the 11" brakes, emergency brake cables, brackets and lever and rear mount fuel tank for free. Also found a good deal on 4 - 1 1/2" aircraft aluminum wheel spacers on ebay, widen the track 3" front and rear. Also, a friend gave me a power brake booster he had laying around.

 

Found saginaw parts and exhaust manifolds on a 70's Buick station wagon at a pick n pull at a neighboring town and got everything for $40.00.
Made up the box bracket from 1/2" steel I had laying around and a AA steering box bracket welded and bolted to the iron plate. The engine I bought had outside the frame headers and I want to make this as quiet as I can, so the stock manifolds and 2 into 1 exhaust with the quietest muffler I can fit.

 

I was able to find an overdrive that had the 10 spline shaft to fit the T-14 transmission for a great price. Found it on Craig's list. A guy ended up with his dad's cj5 who rebuilt the overdrive several years ago and never put it on. So, the son was selling it to get it out of his garage. He had installed an automatic with a different transfer case and didn't need it.

 

I put in a new clutch (pressure plate, disk, throw-out bearing and pilot bearing) and decided to upgrade the stock clutch linkage to Advanced Adapter's chain control assembly. What a difference. I can push the clutch pedal down with my hand now.

 

I forgot to mention in the beginning that this has been over a two year process. Looking for parts for the best deals, working extra jobs to pay for them and getting inspired to work on it and then letting it sit for monthes at a time. But, getting real close to using it for this year's deer season.
I went back and forth on getting some hanging pedals for the brakes and clutch, but, since I already went with AA's clutch chain assembly I went with Herm's dual master cylinder and put in all new brake lines. I got the lines off of ebay and the fittings from the local Napa and borrowed a double flaring tool. I had never done brake lines before but it wasn't too bad after some time and got the flares looking fine.

 

Ended up getting a new '65' 3 core mustang radiator off of ebay. I don't know if you can see it but I cut out 2" of the grill (needed more space between radiator and fan since I put in the long water pump instead of short one) cowling and welded the flange back on the grill so I could mount the radiator like it was stock. Bolted right up after drilling the top holes of the radiator flange to match the cowling. The bottom holes lined up without drilling.

 

Painted the body with urethane enamel. It's a sage green metal flake.

 

Decided to go with black accents. Picked up some polished aluminum diamond plate corner panels and rockers, cut and drill appropriate holes, scrubbed them with a scotch-brite pad and water, primered with an etching primer and then finished with Rustoleum Truck Bed Coating from WalMart (Seen this paint on this site).
Trying to stay away from as much chrome as I can (it's just a huntin jeep).

 

Time to start putting stuff together.

 

Picked up some Land Cruiser windshield rests and put them on. They're quite a bit more substantial than the stock cj one's.

 

Picked up some seats from a jeep restoration place in town not far from us. He only had passenger seats so I got 2 for $50.00 each. The passenger side hooked right to the stock brackets but I had to fab a bracket for the driver's side to go over the fuel tank (I sold the original seats to a local guy that was restoring his cj). I'm a building contractor and kind of a tool junkie. So, always on the lookout for yard sales, craig's list, etc. for good tools.
I found these and next to the wire welder have made life much easier to make stuff.

 

After seeing what someone on this site did with an air intake (couldn't seem to come up with a stock air filter housing) I found a washable foam filter on ebay and the rubber 90 degree that fit on the G2 Carb and pvc pipe and fittings from the local hardware store and made one up.

 

When I was installing the radiator I could see that the fan was going to hit the bottom hose. Took it to a radiator shop and had them change the bottom bung to a 90 degree pointing towards the fender. While I was there the radiator guy said that having the inlet and outlet on the same side made the radiator very ineffiecient and suggested moving the top bung to the opposite side, since it was only going to be a few dollars more and actually lined up with engine inlet better I said go for it. Also put in a universal overflow tank.

 

The stock battery tray that sat down on the frame was pretty beat up and had cracks all over it so I picked up an intermediate CJ universal tray and put it on the firewall. Still have to fab up some braces.

 

Found a '78' Chevy pickup and got the throttle linkage and cable assembly to rig up a way to use on the 231 carb. Didn't like the way the hanging pedal felt so modified the pedal rod to accomodate the stock floor pedal. Had to bend the cable bracket that goes on the engine 180 degrees to be able to get full throttle from the carb butterflies. Also took off of all the auto choke stuff and put in a manual choke cable.