cj3A progress (picture heavy!! 27 pics)

I'm loving this thread, keep it up! 10 dollars (canadian) says you've spent more on grinding wheels than a brand new tub. You rule.

 

Your floors totally rock, Im going to have to copy your design for our 5.

 

This thread motivates me.

 

Sweet Jeebus. That's a lot of work. I thought I had a lot of time in on mine.

 

Thanks for the encouragement guys! The Lord know I need it sometimes.

I've been neglecting it since the last post. I did get the exhaust back on and finished the gas tank though. The tank got a POR-15 rust preventative coating on the outside and POR-15 gas tank sealant on the inside. I'm trying to work toward getting it running/driving again.

I've used this sealant before on a gas tank that had leaking holes in it before and it still sealed it up. The stuff is fantastic.

Thanks, the only thing that was a bit of an issue was lining the 1x1 sub-frame up with the frame mounts. Because it is a lot skinnier all my frame mounting holes ended up being about 1" off to the side of the tubing. No big deal, I made some offset plates and it bolted up fine.

With the exchange rate these days that is a hefty bet

Surprisingly I only went through 4 discs!

 

Minor update:

The cold has been keeping me out of the garage lately since most of the work I'm doing now requires me to ventilate the garage.

Took the fenders, grill and tub all down to the metal with a couple of flap discs.



I'm about ready to start spreading some Bondo on it. It's never going to be perfectly straight but I don't really care. As long as it's solid. The plan is to paint it a forest green and if it looks to wavy with all the welding and what not I'll go back and paint it OD.


The bottom of my tailgate was trashed. It was held together with bondo and some kind of mesh screen. I cut out the bad section and used 1/2" black pipe to replace it. The diameter is not perfect but it is close. Nobody will notice from 20 feet away moving at 20MPH



I was going to buy a new wiring harness but then I ran across the wiring diagram for the 3A and it looked pretty simple. So I pulled all the old wiring and have so far rewired the ignition/start portion of the Jeep. I tested it out by pouring a drop of fuel in the carb and after coaxing the battery for some time I managed to get it to fire for ~ 3 seconds so it looks like I wired it correctly. It felt good to hear it start up after having not been running for ~8 months now. I had been turning it over by hand every month though. I'd hate to get finished only to realize I have a seized motor.

Anyway, I'm off to the garage. 8)

 

That is looking great. Keep up the good work.

 

I dont know if i would have done it but it looks great.

 

All I can say is WOW! You do nice work!

 

Im just wondering, what were your reasons for rebuilding that whole tub? Are you trying to keep it totaly origional? Why not buy a replacement tub? The work looks great dont get me wrong. You just couldnt pay me to do all that work. You do profesional looking work. Good job.

 

AWESOME job! Nice to see an old tub saved and not tossed out. I thought about putting a replacement tub on one of my CJ5's but then I decided no sense since I would be taking it out wheeling.I'll be welding in new floors like you did....and theres a DJ5 sitting up the road...hmmnn...floorpans!

 

To tell the truth, I really didn't know it was going to be that much work when I started. I would have liked a new tub but it wasn't in the budget. If it was, I probably would have just held out for a better candidate to work on. I can't say I'm upset about keeping the original tub though. I feel guilty trashing original stuff, even when it is toast.

btw, I used to live in the Calgary area. Both Midnapore and Shawnessy. My sister is still out there. Brrr... too cold for me.

 

I know the feeling. Iv learned the hard way. My 2A build is my third build. So Iv learned some hard lessons. I did a 91 XJ build a couple of years ago. Big mistake. I sunk too much money into that thing. Too much rust.

 

Well, time for another update. It's down to the part I hate now... body work. This is on par with drywalling for me, and I really suck at drywalling.

As it sits right now.


I threw some OD primer on this side to see what it would look like. The more I attack the bodywork, the more I think it's going to have to be painted flat








It's getting there but the cowl is giving me a hard time. Whenever I try to sand the dents I've bondod, the metal flexes which makes it hard to get the right curve.

Also, I think my hood is toast. I made attempts to save it by welding supports underneath the take most of the wows out of it. It is still way out there. Someone laid a full bead along the center of the hood at one time and it made it curl up something fierce. I think I'm in the market for a straight replacement hood.

A bit of cleaning up for the tailgate. I'll have to dig out my sandblaster to get at the nook and crannies. I'm not even going to attempt to fix dents and such on the tailgate.


I dragged out the windshield and took a look at that. Removed the window, It will need the seal replaced at any rate. I still need to find whatever latch is used to open close the center vent. Mine was never there.


While I was dragging stuff up from the basement I decided to take apart my seats as well.

Unfortunately the drivers bottom cushion no longer has the spring assembly. I'll keep my eyes open for one. Everything else looks good both seat pans are there and in good shape. It looked like a few critters had made the seats their home for a winter or two.

My lovely wife is going to help me to make new cushion covers for the seats.

 

Keep up the good work, it'd great to see 'ol iron coming back to life.

 

I'm using a body hammer with dolly and a lot of body filler

For sanding I'm using an orbital sander with the 6" stick on discs. That seems to cut/feather the bondo pretty nicely as long as I change the discs regularly. The hard part is getting everything semi straight. In some cases it is just not possible. The body is never going to be perfectly straight.

 

Thanks for the tip. Is this the sander you bought?
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91773