My Prarie Gold 67' CJ-5

Tilt steering?

 

This jeep is very interesting. It was made to keep the hard-top. I put it on in winter, so I have mirror on the door and mirror and the body.
I suppose that you'll keep the hard-top all the time with this luxury cadillac-looking decor.

 

Yes wheelie,
tilt and telescopic out of an oldsmobile

Alan,
That's quite a similar Jeep you've got there. I do plan on keeping the hardtop on all the time, mine doesn't even have any latches on the dash or the
windshield frame. That would be a lot more enjoyable if I had your fresh air windshield frame.

 

Man I love this Jeep!
Finally warm enough to look it over a little bit. Primed the carb,hit the key and fired it up.hellokitty. Sped up the idle a little,
filled the radiator,blocked the grill to open the thermostat and no leaks. No noises, O/D works, clutch quiet and smooth.
The trans is bad, shifts into all gears but jumps out of 1st and 2nd, so it needs synchros.
Exhaust leak out of 1 header flange.
Tach works, none of the rest of the gauges did though. There's a mechanical and an electric oil pressure gauge played around
and got one of them working, 35 pounds pressure at about 1200 RPM. Fresh oil and filter tomorrow. I didn't notice if the speed-o
worked or not maybe next drive.
This is the ONLY damage underneath, all the hat channel are as new except this one.
Passenger side under the header flange.

 

Cold overnight (3 above) but wanted to do a little work so I toughed it out for a while. Started with a wire brush and a piece of soapstone.
Driver side frame rail (L).



Pass. side(r).



Serial number pass. side between the primary header tubes.



#213968

 

Man, and I turn in the towel at 40!

 

Here's the crack in the frame, top of frame just behind the grill. It starts at the x-member and extends almost to the web.




Bottom of the same area, thru the x-member rivet and some kind of booger weld, w/ a nasty burn thru the web to try to repair it I guess. .




WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN DOING A SAGINAW STEERING CONVERSION.


This is the rear steering box bolt, yes it was loose, just as it looks I had not put a wrench on it yet. That mess to the rear of the bolt head is the remainder of
the plow frame, I'm not ready to remove the front clip so I'm not going to be able to clean this up yet.



Same bolt in the rear mount , you can just see the gap between the mount and the frame. The gap opened up
the same amount the nut was backed off (about 1/2") when the wheel was turned but I couldn't turn the wheel and take a
picture so you have to take my word for it.




This is the front bolt access hole, torched thru the frame rail, so the bolt is only thru the factory boxing plate, a single
piece of steel and the nut only has 3/4 thread engagement!



This is the mount after the steering box was unbolted. 4"x6" piece of 3/8" plate and 3/8" angle on top
of the frame rail.

 

Close up of the rear bolt hole on the mount. Just burned thru, and the ear of the steering box fit partially inside the hole. There would be no way to keep the bolt tight.




This is the bottom of the frame, and shows the gap between the frame and the steering box a little better.
I don't have any explanation for the wad of melted steel piled up here, it looked like some one just started
burning rod and kept burning rod until it built up like this, it's about 3/4" thick. I guess maybe part of the
plow frame was here also. You can see how something was flattening out the melting steel.

 

10 minutes with a cut of wheel and gas axe plus a little gentle persuasion with a couple hammers and chisel and this is the frame.That dingle ball hanging down
is a drip of molten steel coming out of the center of the wad of welding rod from the plow installer.



Top view.



The frame horn moved so much while I was hammering I was afraid it was going to break off, so I hit the cracks
with the flapper and welded it up temporarily until I take the grill/fender off and fix it right.

I cleaned it all up with the flapper and welded the boxing plate in fully top and bottom.
Here the top is done. In this picture where the triangle extends downward the frame had a half inch deep dent down from the top
and in from the side. I built it all back up by cladding and got it to the shape it should be.



The dent extended about half way to the hole in the center of these photo's.







Top done.



I don't know what this hole is for, but it has to go.



And it's gone.



How it looks now.


The final plate/steering box mount will extend from the bumper bolts into the x-member.
Then from part way down the shackle mount to the top of the frame with an ear for the
upper bolt. I'll fix that nasty hole left from the PO's torch work when I cut the plate and
determine exact box position. Then I'll open up the single good hole and sleeve them both
for strength. I would have done a little more but my scrap steel is behind this chair beside
the expanded metal.

 

I forgot to point out it did get up to just above freezing while I was working, 33 or 34 balmy degrees.
Fortunately I have a cleared off spot to work. I'm working where I normally park my oil burning Jeep
hauler, so no snow, but it's a foot deep and crusted everywhere else.

 

Got a little bit done today.Shoveled the snow out of the way and found a scrap of 1/4" to cut for the mount.
Started out chasing the threads on the power box, test fit it and decided not to use it after all. I like the manual
sag. box and the amount of work for the bigger box just doesn't make sense. So on to today's lesson in,

WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN DOING A SAGINAW STEERING CONVERSION.

I didn't point out that the fasteners the steering installer used were 3/8" bolts and nuts even though the steering
box like most I've seen was tapped for 7/16"-14 bolts. First I cut a template out of cardboard.



Then cut the mount out of the 1/4" and drilled 2 of the bolt holes. Here's the mount and three 2" pieces of pipe nipple
that will go thru the frame.



The pipe nipple has an o.d. of 3/4", so I opened the one good hole out to a slip fit. Next I trimmed the other three hole's out to fit
and make sure they were aligned and perpendicular to the frame. Then I bolted everything (mount,box and nipples) all together.



Not a very good shot but here you can see the nipple inside the frame. The black just behind the washer and bolt head.



Now I tacked the nipples in place and carefully unbolted and removed the mount and box from the other side. Then I fully welded
both sides of the frame to the pipe nipples and added a couple small pieces of scrap to fill the two largest gaps. The only one I didn't
fully weld is the rear outer because I still have to clean the frame under the fender/grill. Here's the front bolt hole w/sleeve welded and
ground, and you can still see it's the left rail.



This is the rear sleeve,you can see how close it is to the gusset that was part of the plow frame.



This is the front of the mount welded into the bumper mount area, It was getting dark and cold so all I did was tack the
mount in place. Should finish tomorrow.



The two steering box bolt in place.

 

Got a little more done yesterday, I pulled the fender off and removed all the junk for the snow plow. It looks better already. Shot of the 30,000+ motor.



Then I burned the rivets off and cut the welds on the sides of the upper shock mount. The crack on the left is the one I spotted on my initial inspection.
You can see where I reached in and tacked it temporarily. The other crack comes in at an angle and stops at the rivet, also In this photo you can see the
fish plate from above.



Next I ground the welds all the way around the outside of the fish plate. It has a rosette(plug) in the center that really creates some difficulty.
I cut from top to bottom as close to the center weld as I could without cutting into the frame underneath.



Then started with the chisel and hammer. Here it is starting to peel off.



Almost gone, and oh my! look at that hidden crack.



Cleaned that crack up and welded it along with the rear sleeve for the steering box mount. Then ground everything down on that end.
Next I cut another slot in the remaining piece of the plate and started chiseling. You can see the other crack revealing itself as this piece
breaks free. I thought about just leaving the fish plate, I'm glad now that I cut it off.



Nothing left of the plate but the rosette weld, and all the crack is visible.



I welded the crack and ground it then started chiseling the last of the plate off.



Then a little more welding and grinding and done for the night.

 

Started today cladding the repair area. I'm really glad I removed the fish plate now.



Just to remind myself it's still the left rail.





Then I used the same card board template from the inside and added an extended piece for a new fish plate.
Cut out of a piece of 1/4" and clamped in place ready to mark the bolt holes.



Tacked it all the way around and then bolted the steering box back on for fitment and welded it completely.





Looking down you can see the gap between the box and the upper mount plate, now that the box is in
it's final position and pulled up tight on the bottom.



I cut the upper plates into their final shape and bent the inside one out to sit flush against the box. Then cut the
sleeve to fit in the gap and welded it up.

 

Final shape of the upper mount.



Then I took the last piece of 3/16" x 4" strap that I used to box the frame of my daily driver,and cut it down for the top plate.
It runs back to the center of the shock mount and extends out and ties into the front x-member.




Clamped and bent it into shape, wish I could have removed the grill for this but it was snowing off and on all day
today and I still want to close the hood at the end of the day.



Clamped it as close to the mount as I could and started to tack it into place.



Tacked my way down the frame, clamping it as I went. this shows how far out on the x-member I went to tie it altogether.



Continued clamping and tack welding down to and then over the upper steering box mount.



Got it to here and cut the end off at an angle, flush with the bend for the upper bumper bolt.



Then fully welded the top strap down.



Done, I'm sorry to see that the factory stamp is gone, but I think this is better.



Still snowing so I rattled it up and remounted the steering box for the night.



The steering box mount and new fish plate.



The old fish plate.

 

Last thing on this side, the upper shock mount. It won't sit flat on the frame in the original position
now since I added the 3/16" strap half way thru the mount location. So I cut this piece out of the shock
mount. This is the rear bolt hole in the shock mount.



Folded both sides over and welded it up solid.





Cleaned up the mount area.



And welded it back on.



Done, back in stock location and even looks sort of like original.

 

UPS man came today, he is always welcome just like Santa. New wiring harness.hellokitty




Fuse box mount location. kick panel beside the park brake handle.



Mount, piece of strap with two holes drilled in it and 1/4" nuts welded on the back.



Then welded on top of the joint of the door opening panel and the lower cowl panel.



Bolted the fuse box on so I can start running the wire bundles to their final position. I can see where I'll need to drill holes for
routing and which holes I won't use and can weld up.



Hope to start wiring tomorrow.

 

Been gone awhile, computer crashed. Three weeks to get it back. Still to cold to work too much in that time but, I did get a little done.
If you have been following my other build: Building my future daily driver, I spent some quality time building the PO's intermediate heater
and then dropped it when I was installing it.

This beauty had 2 heaters at some point, 1 under dash and the original 1 I guess. It was obviously taken out to mount the junk for the
snow plow. Each heater had a single 2" hose that ran to separate sides of the defroster, riveted in place under the dash. The pass. side
is all still intact but the hose for the driver side was just hanging around doing nothing.
So I gathered the shattered remains of my 6's heater and went to work.
This is the heater core, fan housing, back panel and the remainder of the broken fiberglass that I sawed off.



This is test fitting a location for the core on whats left of the fan housing, with the back panel on top determining
where to cut it for the new back panel and the removable panel to allow access to the heater core.



Same angle after cutting and welding the 2 new panels and core retainer.



This is the new top panel, the black piece is the remainder of the original back panel welded to a piece of 16 gauge
and bolted in place.The 2 tubes are part of an original 71' diversion box that I cut down and welded on the heater
unit last year.



Underside of the diversion box had 3 vent holes so I folded the sides together and welded one of them shut.
All the rust here happened after I broke it this past summer and kicked it in the junk pile, I had to dig this thing
out of the snow to work on it.



The new front panel marked for the fresh air intake. This used to be part of the 71' heater also, the air intake is the
piece off the side of the grill tunnel of the 6.

 

Then I welded up every hole in the fire wall on the driver side. I cut the big opening for the original heater down to 5.5x 6.5
and added a piece below the park brake opening where it had torn the metal in a couple places.



Now the park brake hole is round again. The 3/8" drilled hole is for the new heater mount, and the threaded hole above the opening is
where the cowl to fire wall mount under the dash is bolted. I'll run a longer bolt thru to use as a stud to mount the heater then put a nut
on to hold the heater in place.



Test fitting and making the rest of the mount, you can just see the 5/16" nut below the grill support rod.




This is the rest of the mount (2) 9" pieces of 1/8 x 1" angle drilled for 3/8" bolts, here they're just tacked in place to mark
the fire wall. They will be fully welded to the heater when done. The bottom one is not welded to the fan housing and (5) 1/8" bolts
still hold the fan in place it will drop right out when un-bolted.



This is all that comes thru the fire wall now, the air box. Inside support comes from 2 more pieces of angle bolted to the heater.
The small lever on the bottom controls air to defrost or floor heat for the driver. Both defrost hoses will run to this unit so I can control
air flow to wind shield, or shut this heater off completely with the switch when the snow is flying.



My home built heater 3 speed fan huge core and sort of original looking. Well at least it's in the original location. All the AMC
steel pieces that were used for strength before are welded solid now so it's plenty strong and with 2 bolt on panels and (6) 1/8"
bolts the core lifts right out the top.



All the removable panels and the core are sealed with foam rubber and silicon so it doesn't have any air leaks. The gap
in the lid here is sealed from inside and I'll clean the whole unit up a little more , but I wanted to get this far so I can start
wiring, and as a bonus it clears the inner fender by 1".

 

More to do before hitting the wiring harness, I'm actually going to try to get all the welding done first. Fortunately there is so little to weld that
after today I should only have the rest of the fire wall, and I'll tackle that once it's nice enough pull the motor.

The driver side foot well only had a couple thin spots, so I hit them with the flapper wheel and welded them up. Then I cut out the floor right along the inside
edges of the hat channel. The hat channel on this side only had a dent in it above the muffler, but of course it was full of mud so I cleaned the 46 years of
mud out and banged the dent out from the inside. After wire brushing the channel I found a couple thin spots, so I cut a 12" piece of 1/8x 1" angle and cut
it every inch or so, halfway thru to make it flexible enough to follow the contour of the channel and welded it in. Then a piece of 1/8" x 1" strap on the inside
and welded this in along with a scrap of 3/4" tube for the body mount.



Here's the passenger side after scraping all the mud off the floor, I cut the floor along the hat channel the same as the driver side,
but since it was worse on this side I lined the hat channel with a piece of 22 gauge to support the angle and welded it the same as the
other side.



After both sides were welded I sprayed them down with muratic acid to take care of the body seams and surface rust overnight.

That completed the days work, unfortunately I forgot to shut of my compressor and the temp dropped to -2 , the comp. kicked on
some time during the night and burned up the thermal switch. So today I had to go back to the gas axe to cut the floor panels. Oh
well.
Pass. side floor panel my goodness I miss the plasma cutter already.



Test fit after an un-godly amount of grinding, and a half dozen holes for rosettes.





All welded along with a 2" strip past the floor bend up towards the fire wall, and the floor drain works as new.
I have always loved the brass thumb screws, and if you don't know keep them slathered with anti-seize for
plier free operation.

 

The driver side panel is the same except it runs right along the forward edge of the body seam in front of the fuel tank.



and then extends past the end of the rib in the floor towards the center of the Jeep.



Time to start wiring, quick shot of virgin Prairie Gold paint up under the cowl.



Never to be seen again. Started with sound and temp. control,this is peel and seal roof flashing from Lowes
when you use a hair dryer to apply this stuff it forms an unbelievable bond. You can also see the cheap y under dash light
I added just above the fuse box mount, it will be wired into the dome light circuit.




Put the fuse box back up and started running the wires, this is the rear harness section running under the driver door
along with the new fuel sending unit wire in the original loom.



Then a couple to show the reason for the new wiring harness,
This is how one of the PO's spliced into a circuit. Strip a one inch section of wire then Strip 3 inches off the end of the
new wire and tie a slip knot in it. Finish with at least a 1/4 roll of electrical tape.



And, Isn't this how every one makes a 10 gauge wire for their alternator (3) 14 gauge wires crammed in a ring terminal and crimped?