Replica tub advice

JMoto,

If your cowl is good, then rebuilding the body is the best solution. I am having my '65 Tuxedo Park rebuilt right now by my friend, a true Jeep expert, in Mountville, PA (near Lancaster.... where are you?). His name is Henry Welch, call him (717)285-3931 and talk to him about rebuilding it. He only builds Jeeps in his shop and they are as close to perfect as you can get. I watched them today build a 2A body and they duplicated every factory cut, angle, etc... they copied an original unrestored body exactly. The unrestored 2A is mine too. They use crush sleeves in the channels if you don't wish to put the wood back in... it is a good solution to avoid the rust issue.

We just ordered all the panels from Carl Walck today for my '65 Tux, and my cowl and dash will be re-used. So I'm about to begin this process (again) myself. When you call Henry, tell him I sent you ;-)

Bill Reiss

 

Neither the original nor the new dash were welded, they were both bolted. Surprisingly (very surprisingly) the bolt holes lined up perfectly so the original dash went right in place on the new body. The dash on the repli tub was basically a flat piece of steel so it would require significant modifications to make it look like an original. Although, the new one did come with a complete glove box.

For the battery box cover, I guess the proper way to do it would be to cut out a section of the cowl around the cover and weld it into place on the new body after cutting the precise same hole. I cheated a little and cut out the box cover itself, welded on some bolts underneath, and bolted it into place on the new body. I then seam-sealed around it. It looks right, although it doesn't sit up as high as the original but I seriously doubt anybody would ever notice. My welding skills are worse than my dancing so I wasn't about to start cutting out large chunks of metal off my brand new tub.

I don't plan on putting a top on mine.

 

You should apply seam sealer after your first primer. You want the primer down in the joint as much as possible. But the sealer should be there before the wet-on-wet application of epoxy.

 

I bought my tub from that Jay guy at WO too. What you guys said is all true about that body. You will have to weld up the windshield holes and redrill them. They aren't even close to where they are supposed to be. I do like the crush sleeves welded in. I did have to move the holes for the clutch/brake. WO drilled them way off. The biggest problem is the holes on the "L" brackets on the rear panel were no where near where they were supposed to be. Jay advertises these as ready to bolt on......Bu** S***! I called him about that and his answer was, "yea we found out that Willys moved those hole locations depending on the year, so you need to drill them." I said, you mean to tell me that you made all that paperwork talking about the paint and you forgot to mention that? He said he was supposed to add that to the paperwork. You guys tell me; I bought my body at the end of 2009; did he say anything about drilling the rear mounting holes in the paperwork? He is a little of an advertising fraud.

Also, if you call them and inquire about the bodies, that Jay guy gives you this big long info-mercial speal about how his bodies are the end all do all..but if you ask him even the slightest question about mounting holes, etc....he doesn't have clue. He says, "well you have to talk to the shop guy about that, I just sell the bodies." I'm sorry, I've been in sales...shouldn't you have at least a little knowledge about the product if you are trying to sell it?

He also gives you this speech about how the way the bodies are crated like crap in the Phillilpines and he makes a new one that is so much better. Again....Bu** S***! When I got my body, yea it had a 2x4 frame, but it was wrapped in cardboard. When it got to me 90% of the cardboard was gone or hanging loose and was also wet. I got to looking and if he put 10 cheap staples to hold on the cardboard I'd be surprised. No wonder the cardboard came off. At least it wasn't damaged, but I was PO he charged me an additional $100 just for the new crate on top of shipping. It maybe, maybe had $20 worth of material and maybe 30 minutes of labor to build. Months later after I had the body I was down in south Texas at a Jeep show at Brent Mullins Jeep parts and he had several MD Juan army jeep bodies in his warehouse brand new in the Phillipino crates. They were WELDED SQUARE TUBING BOXES with PLYWOOD SKINS that were SCREWED to the frame. The bodies were secured to the metal frame with metal bailing bands. I almost called Jay to give him a good cussing. I asked him before why he couldn't just re-use the crate before I bought it. His answer was, "well the crate falls apart when we take the bodies out" I should have asked him if he used the Jaws of life to get them out....or a cutting torch maybe?

 

Yeah I forgot about that part. The rear mounting brackets were indeed way off, I ended up having to weld them shut and drill new holes once I got the body in place. Fortunately, I discovered this before I painted the underside. Also, the driver's side front mounting hole is off and I had to drill a new hole in my frame ear.

I drove up to get my tub so I didn't see how they were shipped. I did enjoy walking around their warehouse, they have an impressive salvage collection. I was able to find a passenger side seat in remarkable condition. I probably paid way too much for it but I figured it may be a while before I ever find another one and I was already there.

 

Most likely I'll be getting a new tub. Each time I pass the old tub the overwhelming amout of work pushes me in that direction. This project is aproaching 4 years now. I'd like to finish this year. I'll propably purchase from Kaiser Willys, they've been very easy to deal with and have worked with me when I did have a minor issue. I might as well fix problems myself rather than fix a fix.

 

Where u at in pa I have been to Walks 4wd in Bowmanstown PA they sell everything there new and used great people (family Buisness) I just startes to finally rip apart the 62 cj5 hurricane and 66 cj5 dauntless that I have and they are a wealth of knowledge.

 

Correct spelling is "Walcks" sorry

 

I'm only about an hour from Walcks. Kind of embarassing, but I never knew they were that close. On the same token if i purchase from a Pa buisness I have to pay sales tax. However giving a small family run buisness my buisness for a couple hundred bucks extra isn't a bad thing. Great just when I think I've got things figured out.

 

I bought one of those Phillipine bodys for my 67 CJ5 last year form Morris 4x4. They had them on sale and free shipping and a rebate. It seemed a lot easier than fixing the old. Upstate NY not to kind to sheetmetal. It shipped from Atlanta and I was impressed with the crating. I started to open it and noticed a cowl vent. Hmmm. No gas tank hole either. Hmmm. They shipped me a damn AMC! No way. Called them up and they agreed they screwed up and picked it up and shipped it back. Waited for the right one a couple of weeks and then called to find out they sold out of the 60s bodys and were waiting for a shipment. 3 months later I got the body. I haven't uncrated it yet other than to check it was the right one. This thread is interesting as I will be mounting it soon.

 

x2-- great folks to deal with