tub for '73 CJ5

New to the forum and I'm starting to look at dumping a bunch of money into my jeep. The tub is going south on me - there's lots of rust holes and the it is pretty much sitting on the frame now. Seems like it would just be too much work to rehab it.. too much time anyway.

I'm looking for a new tub in the western part of the country. I'm up in Alaska so will probably have to ship to a freight expeditor in the Seattle area - so if I can avoid larger shipping costs from places like 4wd.com, I wouldn't mind. Anyone got any sources close to the left coast?

I'm thinking fiberglas, but wouldn't mind keeping the tailgate - though it isn't so important. Metal I hear is a bit quicker because of precut holes, but I do live right on the salt water coast. (within a couple hundred yards).

Also be needing lots of other stuff - suspension (research here points to maybe Bob Supplee), limited slip/lockers for front and rear.. etc.

One more question please? I could use a swing out tire carrier bumper but see most for '76 and newer. What change is there between the '73-75 and '76 years.. would a '76 bumper bolt up?

Have done a bit of welding, but not much.

thanks for looking, Hunky-d

 

The tailgate must be narrower, because I bought a tire carrier that came from a '76+ and it's too narrow on the horizontal measurement by about 2 inches. I considered making it longer by doing some fab work if I can get to look right.

Jim

 

Thanks for the reply!

So what you are saying is with the bumper mounted, the swing away tire mount would be in the way of folding down the tailgate because it is built for a narrower tailgate?

If I go with a fiberglass tub without a tailgate, would a '76 bumper/tire carrier bolt on then no problems?

I tow things with the jeep so I'm also curious if the bumpers just bolt to the rear cross member or if they also have a method to attach to the side rails of the chassis like my towing hitch does. Or if it matters.

I suppose if I have a tub without a tailgate I wouldn't need a swing away.. that would simplify building one a whole bunch I reckon.

cheers

[edit] Hey I took a look at your website and see you rebuilt a tub. It looks like a lot of work - would you do it again or buy the tub? My tub may not be in as bad a condition, but the mount points are all punched through -did you replace your channels under the tub? - and I'm getting a few holes here and there in the floor. The wheel wells? are starting to have holes at edges. But what you did looks like a lot of work.. how was it? [/edit]

 

4wd Hardware has a swingout tire carrier for the earlier CJs that bolts directly to the rear cross member. But they say it should only be used with tires up to 31".


http://www.4wd.com/shop/productdeta...bcat=&division=3&category=228&productsku=5802

Hope this helps.
Good luck.

 

I thought you were refering to the carrier that mounts to the tub like this (sorry I only took pics from the side because I wanted pics of the mounting points)


The work on the tub wasn't really bad at all. I was in no hurry, so I took my time. I did not fix the hat channels because they were not super bad. On the next one I will. I bought a cheap MIG welder and had at it. All of the welding could be completed in a weekend. It goes pretty quick and if your patches fit pretty closely, there really isn't too much bodywork needed. With a grinder and a cutting wheel trimming goes real fast.

I have a '68 waiting to be fixed up, and I'll probably do the same for it, unless once the paint is stripped and I find the tub is too far gone.

Jim

 

thanks for that.

I'm trying to get the weight of the spare off the body. I've got an older mount on the body, but want it off.

For welding up the body, did you use gas with the mig welder or without gas? I haven't researched doing this at all but maybe I should. What gauge sheet metal did you use for patches?

I think I've seen metal parts for replacement - wheel wells, floors, etc somewhere. Just figured too much work.. but looking at shipping a tub up to where I live (Nome) would be pretty expensive.

cheers, Jim

 

I did some with and without gas. Since you grind off most of it, I ended up doing most of it without gas. I think I used 18 or 16 gauge, I can't remember, I just bought pieces when I needed them from Home Depot or Lowes.

I bought a replacement rear deck from Classic Enterprises. It ran about a 100 bucks, but it was a perfect fit, which saved a bunch of time and it came with the hat channels on the underside.

Not counting my time I figured I had around $200 in materials (metal and welding supplies)

Jim

 

TigerShark - looks like you started with a fair amount of body rot. When you patched, did you overlap and hammer down, or patch from inside and fill, or cut patches flush to cutouts and seam-weld? We may try to save the riddled body on my M38A1, but I can't stand the thought of bondo, so I'm going to have to learn to work lead.

 

I seam welded everything. I made a template from a piece of posterboard, then cut out the posterboard, verified fit, then traced the template onto the metal. I used a cut off wheel on the grinder to cut and shape the filler piece. Then I just used welding magnets to hold it in place.

There was only a little bondo needed, less than a 1/16 of an inch for smoothness.

 

That much bondo or spot putty I guess I could learn to live with, but I think I'll still take a shot with lead first. We have some "unfixing" to do on that tub first, anyway. My boy worked on patching up some of the rusted areas several years ago, before he learned to weld (heck - working on that body was one of the ways he learned to weld!). Towards the time he gave it a rest and switched to another project, he got pretty good. He sealed about a million holes in the firewall, which actually looks OK now. Some of his early work was just slapping patches right on top of cleaned up holes though, and that's where we are going to have to give the Makita and air snips a workout.