75 CJ6 Not Really A "Build"

Nice progress! This is helping motivate me to finish a few projects so I can work on my '6 project.

 

Man... You did the top the hard way. I'm pretty sure the first time the top was ever off mine was Memorial Day weekend 2013. It's been off a lot more now and I put a soft top on last fall so the hardtop isn't used much. Those hardtops are kind of a pain.

 

Looking to make some last minute progress before converting the barn back to a party hall. I have been pretty good at cleaning up at the end of each day which makes it much nicer to start work the next time I get to it.

biggest problem in the firewall area is the rotted battery tray and body mount as wel as the twisted brace between the mount and the edge of the body.

The heads of the tray bolts stripped so I used the impact wrench on a pounded on metric socket. Worked pretty well. One came out, one snapped off.

The T19/D300 setup I want to run is longer than the T15/D20 that was in the Jeep. The frame is already set up with two positions to mount the crossmember. I am guessing it was for Jeeps equipped with the T18.

I moved the crossmember back to the second set of holes.

Set the T19 in place just to see how things line up.

This is how it looks with the transmission mount that was on it when I bought it. Kind of hard to see but it consists of two 1/4 thick pieces of flat stock and a piece of channel. No cushion of any kind. It isn't bolted to the crossmember here.

At this point I pushed the chassis outside and tarped it up. We have finally been getting some rain here.

I needed to get the body out of the barn too so she needed to come off the sawhorses.



Finally got to check out the bottom of the tub in good lighting and without junk falling down into my eyes. The vast majority of the bottom is in good shape. biggest problem areas are around the transmission hump and the hat channels and support on the passenger side. I am sure battery acid over the years contributed to the rot.



Time to get the body out of the barn (into the cluttered breezeway) so I can start working on other things that I am supposed to be getting done.



None of the big parts can be brought back inside until 12/28.

 

nice restauration , cj6 are my favorites!
cant wait to see the finished Pictures

gerald

 

Ha! I've never seen a jeep fit through a doorway before.

 

'76-up battery tray works fine. Omix 11214.01



Needs an extra hole in the firewall, and clamps at the bottom of the battery instead of across the top.

Thanks for posting!

 

Thanks for the tray info Timgr. I will probably go that route.
So, even though I had pushed the Tub and chassis out of the barn, I still found a little spare time before Christmas to get a little work done on the tub. Since it was standing on its side I found it easiest to work on the damaged area below the battery tray.

Cut out the bent section,

cut out the support and attached hat channel as well as the channel that ran toward the door opening as they were both really bad. The strip of metal remaining behind the area where the fender bolts to came out by grabbing the corner with pliers and rolling it up like I was opening a can of sardines. The spot welds gave up really easily. At this point I am not sure how much of the floor and channels will be replaced so I figured I would attack this area slowly as opposed to gutting the entire floor.
Removing the transmission hump by drilling spot welds and working the seam with the putty knife. For those that may not have done this before, sanding off paint in the area helps to show where the spot welds are. Usually leaves little round areas of paint where the weld deformed the metal.

Lacey transmission cover removed.

Had to stop working on the tub for the Holidays. We had something scheduled in three different cities for Christmas and then my middle Daughter's graduation party here on the 27th. This is what the barn looked like on the evening of the 27th...

Luckily, having hosted Thanksgiving in the barn, I was pretty up to speed about setting up tables and such. Here is the barn less than 12 hours later.

I decided to work on the chassis simply because it was easier to get it back inside than the tub would have been.
I found this tab on the passenger side valve cover. Anyone know what it was for?

Pulling engine out...

I don't know if the paint remaining on the engine was the original paint or not. Looks like it to me. I am going to use Chrysler Green engine paint. It is pretty close and readily available. In this picture I painted just the top right corner of the valave cover to see what it looked like. Close enough for me.

Pulled the pilot bushing using the chewed up white bread hydraulic method. Came right out. Found a little oily sponge behind it. Not sure I have seen that before. Here is a photo of the old bushing and sponge next to the new Novak bushing that I have to run with the T19. The Novak is drilled for the smaller Ford input shaft pilot.

Seemed a bit oily just above the crankshaft and also behid it at the pan lip.

I guess I will be replacing a main seal too.
Also, not shown in these photos, but my exhaust manifolds were the smog pump style. Studs were rusty and one broke off of each. I think I am going to price out new ones without the smog pump plumbing as I don't want to spend several hours working on these. Another thing I don't recall seeing on the stuff I usually work on, hollow exhaust manifold bolts.

Did that have something to do with heat?

 

March 4 1975

8 = year
03 = month
H = engine code
4 = day

 

I believe that 1975 is the only year where they weld in that panel. Foreshadows the change in 1976. Typically it has clip nuts and bolts.

Pretty sure there is always an oil-soaked wick behind the pilot bushing in a factory installation. You can use a circular piece of felt soaked in oil to replace the sponge.

At the Jeep dealer, we were next to the 91 freeway in Fullerton (later 57 freeway in Placentia). To remove exhaust manifolds, the mechanic would blast up and down the freeway a few miles to get the manifolds rocket hot. Then the bolts always came out.

Color looks original to me. That tag is the only date mark on the engine.

Hollow bolts are typical factory equipment. I have heard theories but nothing definitive about why they are hollow. Maybe so they expand less when hot?

 

I hate computers. I just spent the better part of 40 minutes updating this thread only to find that I had apparently timed out or something. Entered my password and everything I wrote and pictures I posted were gone. Oh well. I will keep it short this time. I pulled the front and rear axles out...


Got the frame up on horses to finish removing anything that isn't welded on.

Was doing great until I busted a bolt in the power steering box bracket.

I am going to need to buy stock in the easy-out company before I am done with this project.
Discovered the front crossmember which goes over the steering box had cracked through one side and even lost a chunk. You can't see it but it also cracked welds where it attaches inside the frame rails.

I sprayed the front differential with oven cleaner and was happy with the results. There was a ton of thick crud on it and this is how it came out with one application and no scrubbing or brushing.

 

You may have noticed that the front bumper had some bends where the tow hooks had abused the frame and bumper. It was also twisted on the passenger end...



I tried "untwisting" it using long boards clamped to the bumper as long levers. It didn't work. My solution was to cut the short sides of the angle, twist the face back to where it belonged, and then weld the cuts. It ended up needing the bottom cut pinched closed and the top cut spread open.

This is what I ended up with. Not perfect at all but good enough for now.

The next area I am going to tackle are the front spring shackle hangers. The tubes on both sides have rusted almost completely through. No other area on the frame had rot like this. I wonder isf there was some electrolisis issue involved.

I am thinking of cutting out and replacing just the tubes but may replace the whole hangar. I am open to ideas or opinions.

 

I would replace the whole hanger. They look to be 21 bucks each for stock ones. Looks great BTW.

 

Not a lot of progress but got some things sorted out. Decided to take Chris' advice and ordered new hangers. Removed the front bumper to finish welding up the splits I made. Before I did that I straightened the driver''s side in the same fashion. I guess removing it prior to welding it all the way was a mistake. It twisted and bent almost as bad as what I started with.

Its in the scrap pile now. Tired of messing with it. Also bit the bullet and dragged my frame and hood to the sandblaster. It wasn't cheap but it accomplished things that I either couldn't or wasn't willing to spend the time doing. Here they are in all their ready to flash-rust glory.

With the frame stripped down it was easy to see where all the cracks were. The front crossmember has some crack issues.




Prior to fixing the damage I went to the paint store for primer/sealer and paint. That led to looking at paint chips with my daughter. Bought a pint of a green that looked good on the tiny sample. Went home and sprayed it on a spare hood.

It turned out to be too much of something for me. My youngest daughter loved the color but also didn't like it for my project. I realized I wanted a light color and wasn't happy with my skills painting single stage metallic. Went back to the store and bought a pint of the color that was on my 64 El Camino when I was in high school.

I am going to go with the yellow. Not sure if the wheels should be black or white. I really like white wheels but it may be too light with the light body color. Hope to get the hangars on the frame, the cracks welded up, and the chassis sealed and painted in the next few days.

 

make sure you wear gloves when touching the sandblasted parts. They will rust from the moisture in your hands. I like both those colors. Single stage metallics are difficult to paint. Looks like some of those cracks were fixed once before? Keep up the great work.

 

I vote for white wheels. Nice work and really nice barn!

 

im interested in what your doing or what you did for a tranny mount if using the stock cross member...
ran into a similar issue with my T18 conversion

 

I ordered some "after blast" from Eastwood, along with some special paint with a nozzle on a hose to spray the inside of the boxed paortion of the frame. I already got my grimey mitts all over the frame so I figured I should etch/clean the whole thing before sealing it. I wasn't sure if those other welds were factory. There is a 72 here that I can compare it to but the 72 is sitting in a muddy area right now so I won't be checking it until it dries up a bit.

Thanks on the barn. I have a set of 8 inch Ford steelies here with stainless baby moons. I rattled canned two of them white when I was trying to decide what would go best with the original color. I guess when I get the tub back on the frame I can put those on and do a comparison. I am also torn between running the skinnys with the early hubcaps, the Ford 8 inchers with moons, or the Renegade 1's.

I was kind of hopuing to see what you did first. All of your work is much cleaner than mine. I think that the stock crossmember will work with the T19 I have if I sandwhich some sort of "universal" mount between 1/4" plates. Haven't worked out the details yet.

 

I used a combination scout and jeep or scout and universal...
I would have to go back to my build thread and see... I know I drilled and tapped the intermediate plate between the T18/300...

I invented my own wheel.. just wanted to compare notes and see if your wheel might be better...

 

Fesser- Don't get too carried away with Ford wheels. The bolt pattern is right, but the center hole usually is too small for Jeep hubs. Unless you're converting to Ford hubs up front. I've also seen Ford wheels bolted onto the flanged rear axles that don't sit flush due to the end of the axle being larger than the center hole. It leaves the brake drum loose and rattling.

 

The welds look original to me. The factory welding on the frames is notoriously awful. Very often you see chunks of welding wire that have broken off and left behind. The cracks are typical, except for the one in the middle of the cross member. Maybe the semi-circular cracks in each end allow the cross member to bend?

I'd skip the Ford wheels. The center holes will be to small for your hubs. It was common in the day to cut out the centers to clear the hubs, but that leaves the web between the lug holes and the center hub hole too weak. They will crack. Look at the Jeep wheels - they have a reinforcing lip to strengthen the web.

I would wipe down the frame with wax and grease remover and paint it with epoxy primer. Then I could top coat it with chassis black, if I wanted. I'm a big fan of Aluthane - no additional prep required other than a wipe to remove fingerprints - but it woul come out silver... Or just get some rattle cans of cheap enamel and paint it. That will come off with lacquer thinner or reducer if you want to use a different product, and will prevent rusting.