1959 CJ5 Restoration

So in July of 2008 I bought by first vehicle: a RUSTY, scratched, blue, whining, grinding, but awesome 1959 CJ5. I happened to see it on craigslist. I called the guy and it was only 5 mins away fom my house! I went to check it out and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. I drove it arond the block and I knew I was gonna buy it. It grinded when I put it in first gear, the guy had no idea what it was but I knew it was just the clutch misadjusted. Anyway this guy didn't know much about this Jeep or cars in general so I wanted to rescue it. It had brand new Bestop and soft doors along with a bikini top and windsheild frame. I offered the guy $700 bucks and I was on my way. I got it home and couldn't wait to get started. Here are some pics of where it started and where it sits now after about a year of work and maybe $1500 in parts.

Here my dad is helping my take the tranny out for a rebuild. This is the first thing I did before I started the resto.


Then, I started to see bits of rust sitting in the driveway so I decided to start bodywork on it. After grinding here is what I was left with.







That thing was a bondo machine! I mean it was like 3/8" thick in some places. There was a lot more rust than what's in these photos. The floors were gone along with the rear quarters and the bottom of the toolbox.

New metal








I wish I took more pictures during the resto process. I was just too preoccupied I guess.
Here it sits an hour before being painted.


Here's how it sits now.










Me at the wheel


Pulling my racing catamaran


With my other Jeep


I had a blast rebuilding this thing. I learned how to fabricate and weld, prep for paint, paint and rebuild transmissions and transfercases among other things. Thanks for looking!

 

nice!

 

Dude, way to go! I love that color. I was going to paint mine that color but decided to do an army looking jeep complete with star.

Looks good and yours drives!

 

Thanks! I'm really proud of how it came out. I love having something more unique than anything that any of my friends drive. My amp gauge just died on me, I know it's dead because it has a bunch of condensation behind the glass. I was thinking of replacing it with a small tach. How important is an amp gauge? The idiot amp light in the speedo works. I was thinking it was more important to have a tach than an amp gauge. What do you guys think? Does anyone make a 2 inch tach?

 

If it was me, I'd ditch the amp gauge for a voltage gauge. I replaced my amp meter with one of these:



http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ATM-1791/

 

Ah I'm going crazy. I got to school 3 and a half hours away from home which means 3 and half hours away from the CJ. A couple more finals and I can get back to it for a few months. It smokes a little on acceleration and uses a bit of oil. The oil is always black too. No matter what. The PO ran it for a long time without an air filter. I'm thinking it needs new rings. Can anyone chime it?

 

Agree with the rings------hopefully you wont need a bore and new pistons also.

As long as you are doing rings, put in rod bearings, and have the valves done. And, if the rod bearings look bad---drop a main and check them out too.

No air filter is not a good thing:evil:

 

Yeah I mean it runs great it just puffs a little blue smoke when you step on it and uses maybe three quarters of a quart of oil for every gas tank. I would love to swap in a dauntless though...

 

I'm starting to move things along further on this build. I have a line on a new repro tub that I can pick up for cheap to replace this bondo laden unoriginal tub. It'll be nice to get a tailgate back. I'm also going to dive into the motor and hopefully just give it a valve and ring job with a hone and rod bearings. If everything looks good and within spec in the engine, then it shouldn't be too much of a pain. It'd be sweet to eliminate the rust once and for all with a brand new tub.