Not as tricked out as some of the rigs here of course, but it's mine and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. My boys enjoy it too!

Are those wheels from a JL?

Always been a XJ guy but got old(er) Jeep fever all of a sudden and have jumped off into a CJ-5 project.

The Jeep-
1976 CJ5 with a 304 V8, T150 3-spd transmission and a D20 Tcase.  It needs some TLC but I've began the process of getting it back into shape.  It does run and drive as of right now but has a little bit of rust in the floor boards and windshield frame and I'm wanting to take it back to a more stock condition vs how it is now.  The brakes are also in poor adjustment resulting in pulling hard left and even locking up the left tire under even moderate braking.  The steering is in need of a refresh, the steering shaft has a lot of play in the upper u-joint and the collar (not sure what it's called) just above the U-joint.  And the carburetor has a pretty bad fuel leak but fuels well.

The POs did some pretty janky wiring on the Jeep as well and modified the stock bumper in various ways.  Including welding supports to the frame which I'm going to have to get creative with a cutting wheel to get loose.

Anywho I'm glad to find this forum and hope to be able to come here for help in the future on this project.

This morning I got up and busted out a few hours of work getting the interior ripped out and a few other odds and ends removed like the home made roll bar and the rotting windshield frame.  One of the POs did some "interesting" wiring on the Jeep.  Should be a fun project and not too much effort to get back into decent shape.  Biggest stuff I think is going to be the rust repair of the floor board and rocker panels.

End goal is to get it back pretty close to stock.

Last night when I shoehorned it into the garage.


Janky previous owner wiring


That's 3 self tappers in the frame to ground a set of LED podlights :(


Lift shackles.  Those are going away and the suspension will get a full rebuild.


Previous owner wiring to make the LEDs work


Windshield frame rot




Most of the interior out.  I pulled the roll bar and wheel well carpet right after this photo.  Roll bar definitely looks home built/welded.


Passenger floorboard rot


Driver's side not as holey but still kind of bad.


Tried to salvage the windshield and botched the removal.


Shedding rust from messing with the windshield frame


It had some diamond plate rocker covers riveted in place.  I drilled the rivets and found what I expected.  Same spot on both sides.


Underhood the wiring is a bit of a mess and the airhorns are going bye bye.   Powertrain is AMC 304 V8, T150 3 spd manual, Dana 20 Transfer case, Dana 44 rear axle and Dana 30 front.  The transmission needs an overhaul, it won't stay in first gear unless you hold the shifter in place.   And the Transfer case has a pretty stout leak from the rear output seal.  I'll probably overhaul it as well while I have the transmission out.


Yesterday I went to Lowes and picked up some Romex and a wall mount 220 outlet. The plasma cutter wasn't cutting it (heh) on 110 so added a 220 outlet to the south side of the garage. Once I got that in place the Plasma cutter was blasting through that mess of a bumper in no time.

Got the winch mess finally removed from the front of the Jeep leaving a few spots that will need to be cut further down and then flap wheeled. Got the grille and fenders off, then got the dash the rest of the way pulled off. The wiring is such a mess that I think I'm going to bite the bullet and pay for the drop in CJ5 wiring harness from Painless Wiring. I went to look at the body mount bolts and to get some PB Blaster on them when I noticed that one of the previous owners, probably the same one that put the winch on, also welded on the side tube steps but instead of welding them into a blank spot in the frame they decided to weld them into the body mount pockets on the frame. I cussed whoever did that shit for about 5 minutes.

This morning I woke up and tackled the side steps. I cut them about half way with the sawsall then used my breaker bar in the tubes to lever them around till they broke off. 2 of them broke off all the way at the frame giving easy access to the body mount bolts the other 2 broke off outside of the body mount pockets so I'm going to have to melt them out with the plasma cutter. Went ahead and pulled off all the soft top mounting hardware as well while I was in there. I may or may not get out there to do more today. It's supposed to be around 100.



















I didn't cut this one.  It broke like that.

Just bought this 69 CJ5 yesterday.  Wonderful condition!

Need a like button for this

Don't think I've posted in this one.

First one, long gone, '65 CJ-5.



This one is stuck in Texas right now. '74 Cherokee.

My tank green 15 Rubicon 2dr, 6 speed. Mopar 2” lift.
Wife’s 18.5 JL four door, auto.
My Gladiator work/commuter with the same Mopar lift, six speed.

Got the tub off and power washed along with the frame.  We though the frame was full of mud.  Was actually full of dirt dauber nests.  Those things are quite resistant to even the power washer but I think i got the frame blasted out.  Got the caked on oil blasted off as well.  Going to roll the frame back into the garage today after everything dries out and going to start pulling the t-case and transmission later this week. Before I do that I'm going to hook the engine back up to the battery and do a compression test.  A few things need to be sealed up on the engine as well.  Still a ways to go but making steady progress.

Some more janky wiring by one of the previous owners.  Pretty sure it was a kill switch of some kind.  It was screwed to the bottom of the steering column.


The master cylinder is so full of gunk I'm not even going to try to salvage it.  Not for the 30 or 40 dollars a new one costs.


Throwing down some paint as well.  Been doing it one piece at a time.  Sanding a body piece one evening and spraying it the next morning before I leave for work.   In another week or so I'll wet sand each piece and bust out the polisher.

06 TJ i picked up a few months ago , 56k miles zero rust , not crazy about the color

Couple of pics and a screenshot of last weeks trip to N GA






Oh, and a short video

Have had an LJ for 8 years...


Decided with 2 kids and wanting a real front locker I picked up this about 6-7 weeks ago.


...and as of this past week.

Do I spy gold under there?

Looks to be a metalcloak lock n load perhaps 4.5

(The rear brackets confused me)

Went out coyote hunting this am. Didn’t call anything up, stopped & had lunch here:
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Added some stuff:





Shrockworks bumper, KC lights, Front Runner bed rack, Warn winch w/synthetic line

Made a trip last weekend to crawl with another big tire rig.  First run of the day we realized I was only turning 3 wheels, the right front hub wouldn't lock.
I skinny pedaled my way up a small hill after winching over some rocks.  We came back to the trailer and pulled the hub to find it full of mud and grit from the last wheeling trip.  
Half hour later we were back on the trail with all 4 turning.  I've got some bearing packing and cleaning to do on the front hubs this week.  

@vanilla_gorlla - What trails did you hit?

Cashes Valley, quite a few in the forest southeast of Blue Ridge and Charlie's Creek and then another that I can't remember, which took us up to a hill called Chestnut Mountain

A doctor I knew in Missouri has one. Great pieces of history!

Want!


Current status of my CJ project.

Burned up a lot of paint and primer today doing the underside and inside of the tub.  

Tore the AMC 20 rear axle down on the CJ.  One of the previous owners apparently did me a favor and put one piece axles in it at some point.  Got a good chunk of the work done.  Got the carrier bearings removed and new ones put on along with the ring gear.  Got the old pinion races out.  Tomorrow I will start going back the other way.  Not looking forward to setting up the pinion depth.  The original setup used a large shim under the bearing race.  All of the rebuild kits come with shims that go under bearing cone.  And none of them are of similar size to the original shim.

Pics from last weekend at the mall

New Raceline wheels went on today (top). It was work swapping out wheels.

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What steering you running there? I dont see a steering stabilizer. Is it a daily driver? Ive replaced damn near all my steering and did the zj upgrade. Now im re replacing the zj upgrade with moog zj stuff. Its got new ball joints on the axles, new steering stabilizer, new timken unit bearings, the last shop measurement was something like 6.5 degrees of caster. Ive been told rock the knuckles back it will steer better. Once the new moog stuff goes on  im going in for another alignment. Maybe ill try tightening the steering box a quarter turn to. Dont have the cash for a currie correctlink right now.

It’s my daily driver, the steering is custom made solid 7075 t6 aluminum drilled and tapped for the tie rod ends. You can bash it on a rock and it flexes but doesn’t take a bend. It uses Chevy rod ends They aren’t 1ton ends, but 1/2 and 3/4 ton I believe, I had to ream the knuckles out to fit the larger taper. No stabilizer needed if everything is set up right and not worn out.

Factory TJ is like 7° of Caster . If its lifted you need more ( roll knuckles forward ) not less . If you have adjustable uppers / lowers run as much Caster as you can without driveshaft bind . I couldn't tell you what my TJ  has for Caster nor do I care . I have Savvy links all around and just played with them until it drove great and the driveshaft didn't bind .
Mines not a daily driver but gets street  driven pretty regularly for the past 9 years . It's never had a Steering Stabilizer on it , and the Moog  ZJ upgrade has been on it for 8 years  , and bounced off rocks etc . Currie Correctlync is in the shop though

I bought this for my Birthday
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The new tire will be 1.1 inches taller, and your speedo will be off by about 2mph at 60mph. If you can live with that, you should be fine.

It’s not too expensive to get a programmer

Aev pro cal

To piggyback on this post, research the Jscan app. Last I checked, you'll be able to recalibrate your stuff for about $50, though I haven't tried any of that. I use the Flashcal for mine.

I use Jscan myself.  It works quite well and lets you configure many settings as well as fine tuning your speedo.

Jscan is by far the best out there. Cheaper than it should be also.

2012 JK just my daily driver
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Added JL hood latches and washed it. Nothing else new, I just love to look at it.

Well, the CJ is still in the garage, but we got a JKUR!

The shocks were blown and one of the front coils was broken. I scored a never-installed RC 2.5 lift on marketplace and put that on along with JKS Fixed front lower control arms. It rides fine to me, but I’m sure I’ll be upgrading the shocks eventually. The headlights were dangerous so we got KC Hilites LED. And then some Pro Comp wheels showed up on marketplace sooo... things have been progressing quickly. Next is going to be a big brake upgrade (it’s due for brakes so why not) and eventually 35’s. I want to do metal fenders and a smaller front bumper... maybe a rear bumper. We’ll see. Brakes first.

I just got that. It’s basically $50 total for the app and the iGate Bluetooth. I disabled TPMS and cleared codes already. Good stuff

Good to hear it works. My girlfriend will be downloading for her Jeep soon.

Put a deposit on this today. 2014 w/ a stick. 57k miles.  I was 17 the last time I had a jeep.  

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Nice!  The manual is awesome in slow and technical stuff.

Not really. But it is more engaging to drive.