1972 CJ-5 Almost Restoration

Al - looking great! I had a kind of out of sequence question but was looking over your pics and was wondering - did you use new bolts for the spring to shackle mounts? If so, where did you get them or eitherway what did you use. I need to button down my springs soon and am trying to figure out if I should get new bolts (and where to get them, or if they are something special) or if I should clean up and use the old ones. Same question for you on the U-bolts to mount the spring to the axles- what did you do for those - old or new and where to get if new? Thanks - Brian

 

Hi Brian, thanks.

The bolts for the shackles came as part of the shackle kit and are greasable. Off the top of my head I can't remember who's shackle kit that I bought. But I seem to remember ordering them from Quadratec or 4wd. I also had to order 4 greasable replacement spring bolts separately. And I suspect they were made by our good friends at omix ada, everything is. /sarcasm

If your replacing the springs, bushings or shackle, you might as well replace the bolts. If you don't go with a greasable bolt, you may want to have a look over at McMaster.com or BoltDepot.com. I know I would not have reused my originals... they were a bit.... thin.

As for the U-bolts, they came with my spring kit. Regardless, if you took the old ones off, replace them. I have no personal experience reusing old U-Bolts, but everything I see tells me that they should not be re-used. Like the spring eye bolts this seems like a simple bit of preventative maintenance that should be conducted after 40 years.

 

Thanks Al, all good advice.

 

Lets recap the progress over the last 5 days…

Thursday - Sprained my liver at Jimmy Buffett in Jones Beach

Friday - Recovered from sprained liver, the proper way. Bloody Mary's to the rescue. Then it was on to finishing up the blasting of the inside of the tub.

Saturday - Last bit of blasting in the morning - getting the crap primer off the inside of the tool box was a PITA! Ran some seam seller over all the remaining seams; all around the floor pan, firewall seams, etc. Then sprayed in a good coat of primer. The only place I didn't run seam seller was inside the tool box. I was thinking it would allow it to drain. But in hindsight I think I'd be better off sealing it, and drilling some drain holes. Guess that will be on the list for next weekend.

Tub






Fenders






Sunday - First color cots on the inside of the tub. WOW! That is Orang with a capital "O". Love it.








And sealed to keep the dust from settling.

Inner surfaces of the fenders





Cent weight to see the blue engine sitting next to this!

Not exactly sure if it's the correct orange. The original paint on the tub has succumb to 40 years of neglect and UV deterioration. So it's not the best guide. The color is PPG Ditzler 60690. The old Ditzler book calls the color "Renegade Orange". The Paint mix can calls it "Big Bad Orange". Ether way, I love it.

TCPglobal Reference


2k AMC "Big Bad Orange"




Any thoughts on how accurate it is for an orange '72 Renegade?

 

That should be a safe vehicle when done because with that orange there is no excuse not to see you comin' - I had to dim my monitor and put on my sunglasses sitting at home here. You may have to put that black stuff under your eyes when you drive it (like the football players use) just to keep the shine off the hood from blinding you! Just kidding you, I like it and great pics like usual.

 

what are you doing with the old tub? i'm in new jersey over by philly.

 

Thanks Brian, it is a bit bright. Wonder if I an get a discount on insurance, with it's High Visibility?

Most of it will end up scraped, once I get all the remaining bits out. The firewall, and cowl it's salvageable but the rest if completely rotted away and or covered in plywood and epoxy. I had to cut up the rear of the tub to get the external brace off, so you won't find anything there. All the floors are rotted out and covered with wood - The PO was a big fan of epoxy. As to the firewall, I still need to drill out the welds that hold the clutch cable and remove what is left of the heater. And keep in mind that the "Jeep" stamping has beed cut out so the tub has some large holes.

Are you looking for a particular part?

 

i was just curious because it didn't look in that bad of shape and i though it would be better than my tub but it sounds like it isn't.

 

Nice paint job!

 

Nice.........................

 

I suspect it's not as good as what you have. I don't have any photos of the bottom of the tub, but when I removed the only 2 bolts still holding it on. All of the tub mount points were rusted and crushed. The rockers were completely rotted out, and I suspect there is very little metal under the wood in the floor boards. But the cowl and windshield mount area is in good shape.

 

Thanks Chris, Ross. Lets hope I can make the outside look as good as the inside.

 

Not a lot of progress last weekend. Only had Saturday to work on the jeep, and the rains slowed down the blasting - seems the compressor sucks up a lot of water when it's poring rain out.


Did get the tub flipped, and blasted out most of the seams. The quality of "primer" sprayed on the bottom of the tub is even worse than on the top. I only hope that anyone who ever bought one of these blasted it. I can only imagine that if you paint over this stuff the paint would flake off if you drove over 20 MPH.


The seams are filled with Lord Fusor Metal Bonding Adhesive. The quality of the welds is not such better than the primer. So I'm looking for all the additional strength I can get.

I will put in another good word for Willys Overland, and the work they do on the Reply-Tub. All the tub mount holes are sleeved, welded up and ground smooth. They even used a good quality primer. At least one that didn't flake off then the blaster approached...

Bottom of Tub with seams blasted out


Next weekend will be all blasting. Need to get the bottom of the tub, the fire wall, the grill and the dash board all blast down. The weekend after that touch up the blasting - for any surface rust. Prime and spray on more orange.


Looks like it's going to take 3 1/2 to 4 gallons of primer by the time I'm finished. And about the same in paint. Talk about a lot of surface area to cover...

 

Wow ! The inside turned out great. Nice job.

 

Thanks Rustty! Let's hope I can keep it up and get the rest looking as good.

 

More color tomorrow. Bottom of tub and grill primed today. Shooting color in the morning.

How many gallons did you use?

 

Successful weekend!

Had to do a little blasting on Saturday to knock off some flash rust that popped up over the week. Seems I have a leak…

Primed


Seme Sealed


And Painted


Still loving the ORANGE! Cant weight to get it all painted and on the frame. The AMC blue on the block should looks sweet against the orange.

Now for a host of "it's painted and I'm happy pics…

Primer






ORANGE!












Wonder what it would be like to have a dedicated painting area?


Dusseldorf style Alt Bier - Lived there for a year, love the people and the beer


We were all a bit tired after a long weekend of painting…

 

Man I wish I didn't have a HOA so I could do stuff like this at home... Looking great btw!

 

Thanks Nightstr!

HOAs can be a bit of a PITA!

 

This weekend was another one of those pinnacle moments - finishing the paint on the jeep. I'v still got a couple of parts that need to be blasted, primed and painted. But for the most part the big painting is finished.


I finished prep and painted on Sunday, and ran out of light as I was finishing up. Sat around the office all day wondering how it turned out. Finally could't take it any longer and left the office early to head down to the tent while I still had light to see.


I'll let the photos speak for them selves!


This one is a bit blurry



But these aren't










































I just can't believe I managed to get the paint on that well. Now lets hope I don't screw it up mounting it back on the frame.