74 Cj5 Renegade Restoration... Progress & Pics

To take your time to rebuild id the good solution. Your neighbor in front can see the evolution

 

I love my neighbors, well almost all of them. . Especially the one neighbor two doors down with a '78 or '79 stock Golden Eagle CJ5 that never and I mean never sees the light of day...and wouldn't sell it to me . Even after I changed his fuel pump for him...just to drive it once every two or three years!

 

Agree... I really was not sure what I'd get. But it feels and looks as close to stock as possible. Having stock power steering, 15" seems the way to go. Can't wait to finish the rebuild!

 

I've hit a road block...would love to hear how others have restored original dash knobs.

Last week was my 'clean the dash switches, knobs, polish, and reassemble' week. It didn't go as planned. I knew this was going to be the most difficult part of the restoration. The knobs are in horrible shape. The name plates were even worse. The pics have the flash on, so they look much better. But the knob icons are barely visible. Long term looking for NOS.

[Update] - Now hunting on Ebay. Found the Lights and Cigarette lighter in great shape. My Hazard is iffy. Just need Wiper/Washer.

Side note, anyone else keep parts in their house that are too nice to get ruined in the garage or when you run out of space while working! Turned my bonus / office room into a Jeep room. Going too reassemble and wire the dash in the comfort of A/C and during my work conference calls.

 

Installed A/C in the garage.It's wonderful.Really don't need it very often with our climate in western Oregon but when you do like today it is going to hit 100 * will be nice. mike

 

Wish I could.. HOA no A/C in front of house. Garage windows face street. Plus Charlotte NC 90s and 90% humidity every day from June to Sept...can't imagine that electric bill. Oh my favorite town in the US is Hood River! Windsurfer here. Been there many times. Love that town. Wish I lived there!

 

Update Pics... It took 9 months for shop to restore it. But my original 74 gauge came back! Looks great. Also I scored a really nice heater control on Ebay. Mine was in bad shape. three holes cracked, and stickers very faded. Plus mine did not have original knobs. This one has all original knobs, and switch (pic missing I was cleaning it but not sure it works). All cables good. Just need to finish cleaning and install cables/switch. Next up finish the dash work, then start tackling dash wiring. Wiring is my achilles heel, worried about it! Putting the dash together on the "bench" in my home office while I work ... Conference calls.

Anyone with an original 74 gauge cluster let me know, is the Hi Beam indicator color yellow/orange or red? Restoration shop put red filter on it. I think it needs to be yellow/orange color. But not sure. Oil and Amp red is right. I'll send it back to get the right color filter, or have them send to me, and I'll switch it out.

And yes...I know the Amps gauge and Oil are not factory. But they are SW. I have the original. But forgot to send to Gauge shop to restore with speedo...Don't have another 9 months to wait. I actually want the Volts instead of Amps, so I matched SW Oil to it. Looks very 'OEM'. Later I'll restore the Amp/Oil and maybe switch them out.

 

I believe the factory Hi Beam indicator light is blue on my 74. I will check it out tomorrow.
All other dash lights are a light green.

 

High beam on my '75 is blue.

Should not matter what the oil and amp light colors are. They are present in the cluster, but not used when the optional oil and amp gauges are present.

That heater panel is quite a prize. Mine was broken, and I repaired both the panel and the cables. The plastic gets brittle with age; gentle handling would seem wise.

I have Autometer gauges in mine. They have a full-sweep mechanical OP gauge and a matching voltmeter. The S-Ws would be a better match except that the Autometer gauges have a red pointer like the originals.

I put a hole in the back wall of my garage for a window AC unit. Not difficult. Lots of online articles about how to build an opening with a header and jack studs. Up to you - just thought I'd mention.

 

<oops - wrong thread>

 

Got my seats back from the powder coater... Came out great. Hope to keep Rust away by coating them! All three seats done. Now off to upholster for foam and then vinyl. Crappy pic I know. Sorry.

 

I did check today. My high beam indicator is blue.

 

My 74 has the optional oil and amp gauge. It also has the oil and amp lights in the cluster. If I remember correctly the oil light never did work from the factory. but the amp light does and is red in color. was just wondering if the oil light should have worked all along. Or maybe the amp light should have not worked at all with the gauge option.
Another interesting thought, back in 74 the front passenger seat was considered optional only the driver seat came with the standard jeep

 

My '75 CJ6 has a blue or maybe aqua high beam indicator.

 

I spent a couple weeks for 5 years in a Row in Hood River windsurfing back in the 80s. Great time.

 

Thanks everyone on the responses for that Hi Beam color. I'm going to call them and have them send me the filter paper. Or just source it myself. I am hesitant to send my gauge back to them...only because it took NINE months to get back. I'd rather drive around with a Red flashing neons then get caught back into their crazy timelines. I'm sure they'd handle this in a day, but who knows. Either color it won't kill me to at all. Funny too. I have a '75 that I pulled myself just in case I needed the parts off it, so 100% verified 75, and it has the yellow/orange-ish color for Hi-Beam. Gotta love jeep, grab anything for intermediates!

 

Funny you say.... I haven't been back to Hood River for probably 6yrs. I use to alternate between Hood, DR, and Maui. But Love Hood...Wind, Bike, Hike! Day trip too the ocean! This year I planned and booked a 10d trip. This IS the week I was suppose to be there. Would be flying home this Sunday. But I canceled due to Covid. And my annual OBX trip...well that also got F'd up cause of Covid. Was suppose to be there in April for OBX-Wind 2020, which was moved to October. SO I moved my house rental there to this Oct, because they wouldn't refunding money. And Now OBX-Wind 2020 has officially been canceled! I still have the house on Island Creek, but I'm sure a hurricane will come through, wipe out Hwy12 and I won't be able to go... At least then the insurance will cover it all, since they wouldn't cover Covid cancellations!

 

Xmas came early. Jeep's got new shoes.... BFG's 31x10.5s Bit too aggressive for this jeep, since it will NEVER see anything but pavement. But had to have 31's which I think are the perfect size for this jeep. Bit funny since all my other jeeps have been 38's / 42's Swampers. These look so small! But awesome. Wheels are going tomorrow to get Ceramic coated. Hear that will last 3-5yrs. So not polishing for a bit. Then I'll mount and balance.

 

Few things got done. Body at the body shop is making good progress, almost ready for paint. Bit more rust then I had thought. The Passenger floor board and the bottom of tool box looked like swiss cheese after blasting. So new floor in that area. Took off both floor supports to treat those inside areas for rust. Sandblasting can't get there....so I wanted to pull them, and grind/treat to prevent future rust.

Dash is coming along nicely. Paint is 510 Renegade Yellow. Plan is to wire the harness so that with removing a few weather packs the dash will come right out. That's the next project while on work conference calls. Note the glove box ... New cardboard liner looks so much like OEM! Found on Ebay.

I created a rear ground distro block and ground wire harness (center of tank on frame). Not the best location for it, but I can still get to it when tub is on, from the underside. Each rear light, fuel sender, and trailer harness will get grounded to the distro block. Plus the actual light's housing/tub ground, so hope no future issues. Will do similar on the front circuits and dash circuits.

Tires and wheels mounted, 31x10.5s. I ceramic coated the wheels after polishing. Not sure how that will last. But wanted to keep them from oxidizing as much as possible. Hope to get 2-3yrs out of it. Who knows...

 

Wired up the dash using a Painless kit. < Edit...it is NOT painless > Used weather packs to be able to remove the dash completely with relative easy. Built in redundancy on all the Grounds....nothing worse than tracking down a loose ground. Ground will tie directly to the tub and a ground distribution block. Bypassed the Fuel 12 to 5v internal workings. Used a 'black box' for running 5v direct to the Fuel/Temp. <Edit That black box lasted 2-seconds. Too cheap I guess. Will look for better 12v to 5v resistor to save the gauges>. Not good at wiring things up, so we'll see if this all works. <Edit...it didn't all work. that "new" hazard switch from Barney -Ebay was junk. And it's critical to things working right on these intermediates. It has to have seperate wires in/out. Can't double up the wires like Barney's. Replaced with OEM and all worked >. Heat shrink and good crimp tool was my friend!

Still have to worry about the Hazard switch. < Edit - Junk > Not 100% sure on the wiring of it yet with Painless kit in the mix. But I'll wait to test it out and rewire if I need too. Figure with the Turn signal, and Hazard I'll have to rework some things at the end. For now...It can wait. <Edit Waved white flag...could not figure out. Sent jeep back to restoration / body shop...thank you Manir and Team! They have more experience in wiring up classic cars then I do. I pinned my Spartan wrong, they re-pinned it correct, and corrected the hazard switch issues. Plus I had the Ignition switch set up for two wire hot (some years use this), which caused fuse to be hot on both sides of the fuse, and it needs only one wire hot >

Giving a quick plug to the Painless "Classic" wire wraps. I ordered the normal wraps, but sent back to get these. They look closer to the 45yr old wraps I took off. Feel more cloth like and just look better. So the whole jeep will get these wraps.