'66 Cj5 Tux Resto-mod

i can now. wierd

 

they do look great

shiny!

 

I can see them fine.

 

Great progress on the Jeep it’s looking good. I watch fitzees and love him he is inspirational. Cut and butt technique is really cool.

 

Wow! So awesome

 

Made some progress yesterday with the engine external parts. I have a thread going on the process over in Tech as that seems to get more traffic for Q/A than here.


Everything was going really well until the very last thing I went to do was tighten up the alternator and install the v-belt...I neglected to think about what would happen to the ear on the alternator bracket if I tightened the pivot bolt with no sleeve in the space where the alternator through-hole is....the new Powermaster alternator I got is meant for a 1" wide space and the stock Dauntless bracket is 2"...guess what happens to cast aluminum when you torque it down with no support....yikes!
It was good...

Until it wasn't

So I get to wait until some 4043 Tig rod comes in and try and weld that crack up....or buy a new bracket.

Either way I need to either buy one of these or fabricate a sleeve to take up the space:


Today I'm going to try and install the HEI distributor. The stumbling block on that process is that the housing is larger than the stock one, so it won't pass by the #7 (Front LH) intake manifold bolt. I need to pull the bolt and grind a smidge off the manifold.


Does anyone know if I can safely pull this one bolt out of the intake manifold for a few minutes to install the distributor? What would the threads have been dressed with? Or maybe I should pump the brakes and wait until tomorrow and call the rebuilder and ask his advice?

 

Looking beautiful! I want to trade engines!
You can safely remove that bolt. Use a button head bolt to replace, and it will give enough clearance for the distributor housing. There’s a few good threads on this in here.

 

Beautiful... You won't never use this Jeep, it could become dirty!

 

Thanks!

do you happen to know what length/thread it is? I may have some grade 8 button heads on hand.

 

Heck no! I can’t wait to get her dirty on the trails around my house!!

 

Love the work your doing ! Your doing great. I'm really digging that color. I have two dauntless motors waiting for paint right now. One is cleaned up spotless and the other needs a good electric motor spray down first. Can't wait until they look like yours.

 

Time for an update. I have been cataloguing my engine assembly and install in a thread full of questions that is over in the main Tech forum. Seems like questions get faster answers there....so the following may be a bit duplicitous. Lot's to report on so buckle up!

I got my engine back from the rebuilder, Superior Machine in Sparks, NV, after dropping it off in December 2018. My son wasn't yet born yet when I dropped it off, greasy and in a tire in the back of my pickup, and I told Augie who runs the shop there that I didn't need it back until Alex was ready to drive it to Prom. Apparently Augie believed me because I got it back from him completed in May 2021 and Alex is now 2. The timing actually worked out great because I managed to get lots of other things done on the build project in the time since the end of 2018.



Here's a summary of what Superior Machine did. They hot tanked everything, Magnafluxed the block, bored and honed the cylinders to +0.030, R&Red the pistons with Sealed Power pistons, R&Red cam bearings and freeze plugs, did a valve job, did not replace the seats, resurfaced the heads and flywheel, balanced the crankshaft with a new Luk clutch kit, added new Hastings moly rings, steel freeze plugs, and Engine Pro double timing set, and Comp Cams 63-246-4 camshaft. New intake valves, exhaust valves, valve guides, valve seals, valve springs, and pushrods. New Melling oil pump, and primed to 60 lbs with Maxima break-in oil, and then wrapped everything up by assembling and painting the whole shebang with Duplicolour Alpine Green. Not exactly the right color but close enough. Augie was nice enough to give me about a 50% discount on the assembly since he said I was so patient. As you might imagine all of this was not cheap, but hopefully it was a good investment in the future of the vehicle for a couple generations. I had intended upon starting to do the re-assembly myself, but I just don't have the space, time, tools, or expertise. Maybe on the next project!


As you might imagine I was as happy as a ten year old when it snows on Christmas after all this time waiting for the engine to come back and there it was - in my driveway.



(There are plugs in the spark plug holes and I had just pulled the tape off the thermostat port before I took this picture)

I spent the ensuing weekend asking dumb questions in the aforementioned thread, and bolting everything onto the engine on the stand. I kept getting stuck though trying to get the new HEI down, something just wasn't right and it would not seat. As mentioned previously, I had ground what I thought was enough for the aluminum rotor housing to pass by the intake manifold corner but it still wouldn't seat.......?





Upon further investigation by looking through the distributor shaft port, and the fuel pump port, I came to realize that Augie had inadvertently swapped the position of the distributor gear and the fuel pump eccentric on the camshaft inside the timing cover. No bueno. I shot him a text, and he immediately realized the mistake and offered to make it right that very day. I ended up bringing it back to him, and he carefully peeled back the cork gasket under the oil pan, swapped the distributor gear's spot on the shaft, and buttoned it all back up and delivered the engine back to me in Truckee.

Not an ideal situation, but hopefully that was the only mistake he made. I'm in the uncomfortable position of trusting that the rest of the above work was performed correctly - seems to me to be an honest mistake and we are all human. From my research Superior Machine is one of the best engine builders in the area and I talked to several people who spoke very highly of their work on hot rods and Hot August Nights type show cars. Guess I'll find out!

After I got the engine back the second time, I retraced my steps and bolted all the external parts on again. At this point, I realized that I was out of my depth and it was time to phone a friend. I previously mentioned my buddy Chief who is the fleet mechanic for the local lumberyard, where I am about to start working myself in June, and since he has voluminous experience fixing and even building car, hot rod, and marine engines literally from scratch, I asked him if he could spend Sunday helping me button up the HEI and getting the engine on the chassis and mated to the rest of the driveline.



First I asked him to check my work on the brake lines, as it was my first time, and I was stoked to receive a B+ from him. Would have been an A if I had noticed that the LH front brake line I plumbed form the master cylinder sits nicely in the way of the exhaust manifold exit where the Y pipe will be. So that one needs to be re-done. But the rest of the lines got screwed to the frame since the engine would soon be in the way of drilling the line clamps.

That done, it was time to determine how the HEI distributor would seat. We used a carbide burr instead of a flap wheel to remove more of the button head screw and intake manifold to allow for the cap and rotor to both pass down all the way. Sure enough, @Fireball, @timsresort and @Oldpappy and everyone else were right -- there's only really one way that it goes in - with the plug at ~2 o'clock and the vacuum pointing orthogonally straight to the front of the Jeep. No bueno for the stock fan, but with a 1" fan spacer there's just enough room that a 90 degree elbow on the line might work. It's either that or I'll have to run an electric fan. Punting that decision until later.



First up, we got the engine on the frame engine mounts. Good call on installing new engine mounts, they fit perfectly. Did the RH side first, and then wiggled the LH side in as the oblong hole helped with alignment. Had one question though about the gap on the LH side - does this close up when it's tightened down to 10-12 ft-lbs (after the photo I replaced the nuts with Nylocks)


We went to tackle the flywheel install, which proceeded smoothly with new ARP bolts. Next up was stabbing the transmission into the crankshaft, and I realized that sure enough there's no bushing there. A quick trip to Oreilly's and $10 and I came home with a brass bushing that after freezing for a few hours would fit in the crankshaft bore, but the inner bore of the bushing was too small for the transmission input shaft. I do have a T86-AA case, with a T90C shift tower, and apparently the input shaft is from a T90J...because it measured 0.5625" and the bushing is specced for 0.628". Off to the Roundhouse we went, and we chucked the bushing up on the nice old 1953 Logan lathe and opened it up a bit.


That done and installed, we mated the bellhousing, installed the throwout bearing and new shift fork to the ball post, and the trans/transfer slid right in. By 10pm Sunday, we had successfully gotten the engine in, and then dropped in the and mated the transmission and transfer case to the engine and on the cross member. Only took 11 hours and two people, one of whom is a professional mechanic!

 

I started a thread on tailgate repair, and I am almost done with that portion of the project. Overall it was a good bit of practise for the forthcoming body repairs. The repair patch fit in perfectly, and I successfully dot-welded it back on. The grinding is still in progress, and then I will be doing my first ever attempt at application of Bondo. It still measures 14-7/8" (OK truthfully +/- 1/16"), almost just like it did before we cut out the rot.



I decided to test out a paint shop in Sparks by having them do a few of the panels that I have, which don't require any work. So I had them paint the new dashboard which was fabricated by Daniel Dillner, the grille which was miraculously just fine, and the hood, which to my eye was fine. In prepping the hood, it was discovered by the paint shop that there was some oil canning due to previous sandblasting. I would like to think that it was not done by Arron at Battle Born blasting, as he used crushed glass and was very careful (so he said). While I'm sure this hood is original, I am also pretty confident that it has been repainted at least two or three times in its past. Who knows? I wasn't willing to spend $500 more on having it properly repaired, because at this point I'm not making a show car. The shop doing the painting did an excellent job, and moving forward I think I will be saving up to have them paint the rest of the body whenever I get to that point - hopefully before it snows.





Next up I will be getting the new Waldron's exhaust from Fastenal in Reno in a couple days, and putting that in. And then diving into the Holley Sniper install on the engine.

 

Looking good!

 

Thanks! I honestly could not have gotten this far without the help and advice from you and others mentioned above, thank you!

 

that was a very good summary of what hapened in those other threads. it's getting close, can't wait to see the wholw body nice and shiny like the ones already done.

 

Got to about 95% done with the tailgate seam yesterday:


Still needs some tuning up.

Here's pics of the Dash made by Dan Dillner at D&D Fabricating. He worked with me to customize the holes so they were "correct" for a 1966 Tux (at least as correct as we could get with feedback from other Tux owners).

 

Today I started in on the body surgery. After weeks of staring and fretting and being anxious about doing it wrong and making it worse, I decided that…I can’t make it worse! Yes I should have probably gotten rid of this tub and gotten a new one from a donor, but I paid to have it sandblasted, and then I bought all the replacement panels, and at that point I am in it to win it, no turning back. So all I can do is the best I can do.

I stated by drilling the taillight panels for the original taillights, pursuant to the measurements in this thread.




Started a WTB thread in Classifieds in case anyone has some original Hall 701's they want to hep me put on here instead of these repros from PartsDude....not holding my breath (or opening my wallet!) .

Heres how rusty the inside of the tailgate surround was on the LH side:


(I welded that crack up after I took this picture).

Carefully cutting out the rotted original panels took hours, and I still didn’t quite finish the passenger side yet. I got discouraged by the amount of rot and entertained replacing the tailgate surround, but I think it is salvageable. (I do have a fresh new replacement panel that's under the rotisserie bolts here in the below pic)


The drivers side tail panel fits in nicely. There’s still some rust to remove on the back side of the tailgate surround where it mates with the replacement panel, and tomorrow I will drill the fresh steel for the plug welds. I lost my "square" when I cut out this panel, but if I weld the new steel flush outboard first, then translate the line to the inside, I will be OK.



LH side wheelhouse fold over:

Some serious rot in between the old RH taillight panel and the tailgate surround, luckily most of it was the rotten taillight panel that came out after this pic was taken:


Anyone have any tips/tricks for coating these before I weld the new panels in?

My plan tomorrow is to attack as much of the rust as I can on the tailgate surround so it's as back to bare metal as I can manage, and then hit it with a coat of 3m weld thru primer, then weld the plugs through the holes in the fresh steel, and eventually seam seal. I have a bottle of Locktite rust inhibitor, but I'm guessing I shouldn't weld through that right?

 

Got about a half day in today, and made it to about the same place with the RH tail panel although it was slightly more complicated as I had to include two patches for where the wheelhouse was rotted away. Started with this patch, and added plug weld holes at 7/32" dia.



Treated the tailgate surround with Loctite rust inhibitor, let it dry, and then squirted 3M Weld Thru II on it, and let that dry. Then I marked the holes, and ground back to bare metal there with a wire wheel on a Dremel:
Halfway through:

Not going to win a welding contest:



Added the second 20 ga. patch at the top of the wheelhouse with a 90 degree bend:


And being careful to fit up the tailgate panel first, I then tacked the patch in:


Fits great (and note that I cur away the top of the corner):

Since it was Sunday I didn’t want to blast my compressor and the die grinder sanding disc at my neighbors all day so I stopped short of finishing the prep and welding anything in, but overall I'm stoked with the progress I made this weekend. There's a lot of careful clamping and welding left to go, and I need to get better at vertical rosette welding.



Hope to get that all done after work this week and move on to the spare tire brace and then the corner panels next weekend, followed by the tailgate valence which will be a b*&^h to separate from the tailgate surround as I will have to remove the rear of the rotisserie.

Then rockers and front floors and riser. Should be done by October right!?!? I am I'd say 10% done with the body repair, and if I had to do it over again I would 100% have gone looking for a donor tub in better shape, but that ship has sailed so...cut clean and weld!

 

I finally had time to get caught up. Very nice work. Boy, you're in it now. My advice, don't count your hours, you don't want to know how much you're making. But the payoff will be worth it. X2 on the grinding, pounding, air compressor going on the weekend with neighbors. I hope I don't tick mine off too much.