Where do i even start???

Buy a old jeep, it will be fun they said. So i bought a complete but not running or even rolling '58 CJ5. it has a aftermarket (not home made) hard top with soft doors (well the frame of the soft doors anyway) this jeep has been sitting outside since the '80s . it looks like the po broke a rear leaf spring and parked it. NOTHING moves on it drivetrain wise, none of the shifters, brake pedal, nothing. Well the clutch pedal moves but id bet its not connected to anything. So where do i even start? Now the reason i bought it was the frame is in very good condition, just some scale rust, no holes or anything. the body is very rough but is driveable. wiring is shot, insulation just crumbles when touched. Im thinking i need to pull the tranny and t-case and start there. See if the motor will turn over by hand with no tranny on it then pull diff covers and see if i can get it rolling (then at least i can bring it home) Any suggestions from people who have started with something this bad. I only paid $200 for it so i can scrap it and get my money back but id rather get the old girl going. This is planned as a super long term project and something i could give my kids to drive (there only 2 and 3 now) when its done.

 

Take it down to frame.. Take a zillion pictures and make notes and take your time.. They are 30's tech so nothing too difficult.. Just takes time and lots of $$$

 

When I first got my Jeep, I winched it up on a friends rollback and took it to the car wash with lots of cans of Gunk cleaner. From there it went into the garage, put it up on jack stands, drained all fluids , pulled all four tires and went to work spraying P B blaster on anything that should move. Pulled top of transmission cover and made sure nothing was broken. Pulled spark plugs and shot some oil into the holes , pulled valve cover and lightly oiled all that stuff. This could go on for quite sometime but I hope you get the idea . Lots of things are hopefully just stuck from lack of use. The brakes will need to be repaired , likely frozen up. Keep working on it and don't give up. Get a good repair manual, Let the fun start. You are in the best Jeep forum there is.

 

have you any thoughts of driveline swapping? or are you planning on keeping it near stock?

 

well my ideal setup i think would be a fuel injected 4 cyl and 5 speed but im not sure what works with what. i know axle wise everything i have access to is to wide and front axles have wrong side pumpkin.

 

Might get on JP magazine's web site and check out their green early CJ project build. They did pretty much what you mention here with Wrangler/Cherokee axles iirc. I forget the name of the project but with some poking around should be able to find it. One of the members here who is a staffer there has/had that Jeep for sale in our classifieds section.

 

The article in JP was titled "Ground Up". It was Verne's project that he ran the Rubicon with.

 

Thanks Posimoto. Was having a brain fart trying to remember.


Sent from my iPhone

 

well heres a quick cell pick. looks like a jeep thats been sitting since the 80's

 

Throw 4 tires on it and get it to move. BEFORE trying to turn the motor, pull the plugs and spray a lot of penetrating oil down the cylinders and let it sit for a few days. Many Jeeps far worse then that have been brought around to drivable status for a few hundred dollars. Resist the urge to take it all apart. Far too many projects never get put back together. Try to get it to go and stop as that is the best way to assess the runability of the drivetrain.