What Did You Do To Your Jeep Today?

Hi James
Sticking with stock width springs.
Found that 2 shackle brackets were broken and 3 of the pivot brackets were badly gouged. They just don't make stuff to last more then 70 years back then, LOL. Replacing ALL spring brackets with NOS or USA made stock replacements. Have 1" lift superlift springs with grease able shackle kits and new grease able pivot bolt with a poly bushing.

OK NO WORK------FOOD instead

my build page
MY '47 CJ-2A

 

Figured out where the short was that kept blowing brake light fuse.





and I fixed it.

 

Getting the jeep ready for towing to Colorado, I found that my gaudy Wal-Mart fake KC lights won't let the windshield lay flat.



So I took them off and installed this $19 LED set from Amazon prime.



They are very bright!

 

I was walking by the 68 and I noticed this:



Regular nuts with lock washers. Getting nylocks for all the way around.

 

After the Maryland trip, I am going to do some Jeep changes. The soft top needs to go, just too much noise and no security when parked. I started laying out ideas for a hardtop on paper last night. I have to insulate the floor around the engine and transmission. Also I might go up to 35s to get some more speed out of it. I would like to go to an overdriven transmission and stay on 33s, but nothing appeals to me. Honestly thinking about a 700R4. I know it's sacrilege in an old Jeep, but it would be helpful in the RPM department and much, much quieter than the SM465. I rebuilt that trans, all new bearings, all updates, changed out 1 gear that had small nicks in it, and it's just plain noisy. Probably due to the new gear and no floor insulation. I would love to try out the new Tremec trans recently introduced with low first and overdrive, but I just checked and I still am poor.

 

I painted my '68 cj5 yesterday.

I've been waiting for six months until summer to paint the jeep. My plan was to wait for a weather forecast of a solid week of good weather. Then I'd take a week off of work and paint the jeep in my driveway. That week certainly hasn't been this June because it has rained nearly every day. Then a perfect opportunity came up. A friend bought a property with an old house and a shop. The house and the shop were going to be demolished and he invited me to use his shop before it got demoed. I had about 10 days to accomplish the task. On Monday after work, I flat-towed the jeep to the shop.


I backed the jeep into the shop under its own power and started taking it apart.


The next step was to remove the steering column, the pedals, all of the dash instruments, and the wiring harness. When I wired up the jeep, I knew I was going to eventually take the jeep apart to paint it, so I made sure to use connections and terminals everywhere. That way, I wouldn't have to cut a single wire to remove the harness. My original plan was to take the jeep apart, paint it, then reassemble it and drive it home. At this point, it became clear I wouldn't be reassembling the jeep at the shop. I would need to need to put it back together at home where I had the time and tools to carefully reassemble it, without the pressure of a deadline.


I removed the tub and swung it over to some sawhorses.


My friend's 15 year old son helped me sand all the parts.


"Masked" the wheels.


Another friend came to help sand the tub, wipe down parts with surface wash, and flip the tub around.


Now I'm spraying primer. Hey, wait! The pictures above show that it's already been primered. A couple years ago I had the tub and all the other parts sandblasted in Post Falls, ID. ITLKSEZ picked up the sandblasted parts and primed them so they wouldn't immediately rust. Then I picked up the parts from ITLKSEZ and fixed the rusted out floor pans and the rusted out firewall. That took a year or longer and rust started to set in again. With new metal and bondo, it needed to be primered again before applying the real paint.


Using one of those Harbor Freight ten dollar purple spray guns and a 25 year old compressor, I sprayed two coats of Summit epoxy primer (1:1 mix with catalyst). Then I sprayed three coats of white Summit single stage acrylic urethane paint (4:1 mix with activator). I started yesterday morning at 9 am and finished at 9 pm. The perfect project for the longest day of year.


The wheels turned out ok, too.


I'm looking forward to putting the tub on the chassis, towing it home, and reassembling it.

 

Reconnected the steering wheel linkage, put the steering wheel on and found out the NOS-GPW steering shaft won't accept the CJ steering wheel, at least not if you want to get the nut on. I also cleaned up some of the wiring. Then I pulled it out of the garage to allow the paint to cure a little bit more in the sun. Then my girls just jumped in and gave me that, "Can we drive it look." Soon girls . . .

 

It's looking really good!

 

You have worked on and driven that Jeep so much it is starting to look like you!

All joking aside, that is a nice looking and functional Jeep.

Dave

 

I 'm not an expert , but I got the 700R4 in mine. Pretty cool on the trails & I go 75 on the hiway with the OD.

 

FWIW, I’ve found those 3/16” dies as easy to keep around as a 10mm socket. I bought a 5-pack of them for a couple bucks from Summit and haven’t broken or lost one since.

 

Wasn't sure I could pull this one off at home by myself...



I used several zip ties and some Dbl side mounting tape...

 

I have one of those in my boat!

 

Took it to the beach for a morning swim. (me, not the Jeep )

Mike

 

Nice view Mike!

 

Finished up the motor , and spent the weekend cutting, measuring and welding the frame. TDK frame rails are AWESOME.

 

That looks great! What made you go with the frame rails rather than the whole frame? What did you use for shackle brackets?

 

The original frame rails had alot of pin holes after blasting (PA rust never sleeps) and a really bad scab repair on a crack. Also the front x-member was all hacked up by p.o. Shackle Brackets were plain old repops https://www.summitracing.com/parts/cwa-j0645966/year/1974/make/jeep/model/cj5 , stock Shackles, leaf mounts (stationary ones) were cut off old frame. After assy the frame sits damn near level where the tub sits (about the thickness of the bubble line)

 

Awesome. What I was wondering was why you went with the bare frame rails rather than ordering a complete frame from tdk. It looks pretty straightforward to add crossbraces for far less money ($1000?) than ordering a complete frame.