1969 Cj5 Reassembly/resto/rebuild....?

Howdy,

I bought my CJ back in April of 2020. It was only a $1000 and seemed like an excellent deal. It was "all there"....well sort of. The previous owner had taken apart a lot of the CJ. The T14 transmission was partially disassembled. The Dana 18 was an empty case with its inside bits scattered across several buckets. The 225 V6 had the oil pan removed, along with the intake manifold and various other parts. The tub was off the frame. The front seats were gone. The hood and windshield were victims of catastrophe in the form of a small tree or large branch falling on them. In retrospect, especially now as I write this, I'm thinking this CJ would have been a prime candidate for parting out. Oh well.

The frame was solid though. No scale and hardly any pitting. A glimpse at the body and its clear what happened. The body selflessly sacrificed its own structural integrity to spare the frame. The real prize, however, was all the new parts that came with the Jeep. There was a new complete soft top, a used but in good shape bikini top, headers, new tube bumpers, a new clutch, a new back seat, a rebuild kit for the T14 and the Dana 18 and a new 4'' lift. Of course, I sold the headers cheap because I wanted manifolds (for now) and I'm not a big fan of nerf bar style bumpers. Neither was anybody in my area for several months. They eventually sold for $100. The rebuild kits for the T14 and D18 were OMIX type stuff and seemingly incomplete as well.

So, uh, yeah. Certainly not everything that glitters is gold...

I'm a year into this thing and the engine is rebuilt and running. The transmission and transfer case are rebuilt and ready. I have new front seats, a new gas tank, a new radiator and new Dirtworx bumpers. I'm in deep you might say. The only way out is through.

I will add some pictures in the next post. Hopefully, this build thread will at least encourage someone to keep going on their own project. Thanks.

 

sounds like a bit of a project. good luck.

 

The top picture is what I started with.

The bottom picture is the engine mostly complete. I have a few more odds and ends to finish. All the smart and talented stuff was done by somebody else.

 

Tonight’s work. I need to assemble the E-brake and bolt on the output flange. Perhaps paint the tranny and touch up my the transfer case in the process.

 

White paint. Bold move.

 

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

It is supposed to be some variation of Ford gray, but it is quite a bit lighter than the battleship gray Ford was famous for using on their 9N tractor.