1972 CJ-5 Almost Restoration

Looks great! How many top coats is that and how many clear coats? What kind of sanding etc did you do between coats? I'm going to take a stab at painting soon.

 

I'm by no means a professional painter, nor do I pretend to be one on TV. But I'll do my best to explain the process I used, and the products.

First off, I used a single stage paint. Not a 2 stage - color coat with clear top coat. More factory correct for a 1972 and a hell of a lot easier from what I understand.

Preparation is the number one task for a good paint job. As this is a layering process, each layer will exaggerate any "issues" with an underlying layer. So go slow, stand back and pay attention to the little things.

Step 1: The outside of the tub was knocked back to bare metal with a DA and 80 grit paper - only took 2, 6" disks to do the outer tub. This creates a very course surface on the metal. Perfect for your body filler and primer. It also makes it very easy to knock all the current paint, primer, rust and body filler off. If you are going to paint the entire tub, you may as well start from good metal.

Step 1.5: I didn't do this step. I learned about as I was buying paint for step 3. Prime the bare metal with an Epoxy primer. I used an epoxy primer from southernpolyurethanes.com. I highly recommend them. They are friendly and cater to the hobby and specialty market. Give them a call, tell them what you are trying to do and they will tell you the best options. They also provide exceptional technical support - so if you are painting on Sunday afternoon and ring the support line. You will most likely get the owner on his mobile. And he will be happy to help. You also want to use a product to clean and prepare the metal before you prime. SPI turned me on to a product called Water Borne. It is a water based wax and degreaser.

Step 2: I used Evercoat Quantum as my body filler. It's not the cheapest product, but it is easy to sand, and that is key. I suspect I used 2x 2 ltr cans of the stuff, and I'll bet that 3/4 of that ended up on the shop floor as dust. It's was a learning curve to work out how much to put on, and when to stop sanding and apply more to build up the surface. In the end the thickest area of filler is on the back panel. Just thicker than the 16 gage plate that I used on the "tail gage delete". Sanding this stuff is critical, go to Harbor Freight and buy a stiff long sanding board. It will help you get a good flat surface. I use a combination of 120 and 240 grit to work this stage of the body work. You will end up with a lot of little pin holes and scratches. That gets fixed in step 3 and 5.

Step 3: Over the entire outer tub surface I used Quantum Premium Finishing Putty. It's very thin and designed to fill all the small scratches and pin holes. You will end up sanding almost all of it off. And it is also very easy to sand. Pick up a small saving block - I used a 6 inch some sanding block I picked up from autobodytoolmart.com for $4. At this stage I switched to 320 grit paper.

Step 4: Priming! (I should note that I learned from SPI at this stage that I should have primed the bare metal between step 1 and 2. Whoops!) This is where I sprayed 3 coats of epoxy primer on. No sanding between each coat, just give it 30 minutes or so between coats. If you are like me, you will get a degree of orange peal. No worries, you'll sand it out - remember back to the beginning if you have orange peal now, it will just get worse at the paint stage. I sanded the primer with 320 grit until it was mostly smooth - all a uniform shade. If you are like me, you will burn through the epoxy at some points. No worries, just spray more. If you use an epoxy primer you will also get a good idea how well you prepped your surface. The epoxy primer is slightly glossy, and will look like a fairly good light grey painted jeep. And all the scratches, and areas you didn't quite blend the body filler in will show. No worries, just give them a quick sand, and skim coat with the finishing putty. Then a coat of primer to seal it down.

Step 5: Paint! I used a single stage 2k Urethane paint. 2 good coats, with about 30 minutes between coats. This is the scary part, because you think all your hard work will get messed up because you have no idea what you are doing - at least thats how I felt. I started the 1st coat with the gun set at a very wide cone, and not a hole lot of paint. That way if I moved to slow, I wouldn't get it to heavy and cause a run. It took me a lot longer to do the 1st coat this way, slowly building back and forth until the surface started to look wet. For the 2nd coat, I narrowed the gun a little and upped the paint flow. Moving a little faster than the 1st coat, I continued t slowly build up to a wet look.

Thats it. Not sure if this is the right way, but it worked for me. I can say in hind sight it was a lot easier than I bought it would be. I spent a lot of time reading over thinking. But in the end, it's like using a spray can that you don't have to shake. And your finger does not cramp!

A note about my paint gun. I picked up a cheep Kobalt gun at Lows. Worked fine for me - but I'm not building a Ferrari. I did use an inline regulated at the gun, and kept is set at 25psi. Not sure if that was to high or to low, but it worked for me. I also used an inline water filter at the gun base. I suspect it was effective at stopping moisture for about 2 minutes. But it did prevent oil, water drops and crap from passing through the gun.

Another note. I also wrapped a rag around the base of the gun where the air hose attached. This I learned after dripping water on my nicely primed hood. Guess that water filter got saturated.

My recommendations. Go slow, don't panic, and have fun. It also helps to stop, sit back and have a

 

Great write up! Thanks much. I'll be painting my '72 soon. Think I'm going with white. That was the original color and I think it's less likely to show my mistakes!

So, steps 2 and three -- the body filler and finishing puddy -- are used even if your body is straight and free of dents, major scratches etc.? My body was painted 3 X by previous owners. Despite its age, there is almost no rust. I suspect the metal will look very nice when I get through all that old paint.

Roger on thre beer, by the way. That is a certainty.

 

You don't have to. But if you are striping off 3 layers of old paint odds are you will put some form of mark in the metal. Depending on how you strip the paint.

If I was to do it again, and I had a tub with few dents etc. I would still strip with the DA, then prime with an epoxy primer. Once the primer is on you can make the decision about body filler, finishing putty, or just sand the primer smooth.

One other part that I didn't mention above - always forgetting something. Is to use a seam seller on all your seam after priming and before paint. The better you seal the seams, the less chance you have of getting rot.

 

Long weekend, so I thought I'd post an interim update. Tub, meet frame - many for the last time. Or at least for the next 40 years!





I suspect these body mounts would have been easier if I dropped the gas tank. But I'll be damed if I do that….


For some reason I have no problem pulling myself under the Jeep now. Wonder why?




And a little before and after
Before


After


On a more practical note. I plugged the return line, and ran a soft gas line over to the side of the frame. Just incase I need to drop the tank in the future.

I'm also a little unhappy with the body mount packet from Totally Stainless. It does not contain enough large thick washers for all the mount points. Short by two… I orders some additional stainless fender washers, but are not as thick.

 

i just read your whole write up and all i can say is "WOW". that is a beautifull job my friend!

 

Thanks John.

And thanks for taking the time to read through the whole thread. I hope it provides some entertainment and inspiration.

 

Hey Al, looking awesome man. I really appreciate your summary of the prep for painting the body. I had a question. What is a 'DA' that you mention. I know when you answer I am going to feel dumb but it won't be the first time (or last).

 

"Dual Action" sander; like this one:
http://www.harborfreight.com/6-dual-action-air-sander-68152.html

-WRM

 

Rounding out the long weekend, I managed to start with some of the fiddly bits.

Got the battery trey mounted


Finished the rule lines.



I ran a hard line up and around the firewall. With a soft line between the frame and firewall to provide vibration isolation. Same between the firewall and the hard line the runs over the top of the block.

Also drilled and test fitted the rule neck "thing a ma bob" (technical term). That holds the rule neck against the tub.


No pics, but some blasting on the steering box and master cylinder. Going to try to rebuild them next weekend. I'll take pics...

 

Not a lot of progress over the last 2 weeks. But I have a good excuse.. read down to the bottom to find out what it is.


Got a new master cylinder installed. And re-ran the brake lines, again! Seems I will for ever be re-running them. 1st I had the front line bent to run to the front of the master cylinder - bad assumption that thats where it would logically go. Tried to re-bend it and promptly put a kink in the line, so that line needed to be completely replaced. Then I had to cut, and extend the rear line. Didn't have enough line left to run the entire rear line - I'v officially gone though 50 feet of stainless tubing on the brake lines.





New bearings in the clutch pedal, and mounted the pedal linkage



Trying to keep the paint from getting to scratched up - at least until I can sit in it.


I'm also contemplating upgrading from the clutch cable system to the mechanical linkage. I guess in '73 they changed away from the cable. If I stick with the cable I need to fix the cable hanger that mounts on the inside of the firewall. As my original has seen better days.





I'm not sure about changing over to the mechanical linkage. It looks like the correct mount points are on my bell housing. But I'm a little concerned about the angle between the bell housing mount point and the foot well brace on the tub. My body mounts look like they are stock hight - about 3/4 in. But it looks like the linkage would be at a 15 to 20 degree angle. Is it suppose to be level with the frame? Or are other people experiencing similar angles? :?






My excuse for not getting a lot completed this weekend. A local car club, the Oilers put on a very special event this Saturday in Allenhurst NJ. "The Race of Gentlemen". Think Pre Way Hot Rods and Bikes drag racing 1/8 mile. On The Beach! The photos do a far better job describing this than I can.

 

Now that's a hobby I could get into

 

If you can't do it in a Jeep. That's the next best thing.

 

Pretty neat. Seems like the prelude to NASCAR with the beach racing. Are they carrying illegal whisky too? Now then you would have a sport!

 

Thought a post Sandy update was in order. My town, Highlands NJ took it on the chin. Not as bad as the towns on the coast, but not good ether. We had over 7ft of water in the ground floor. But no wave action so the structure is ok. We live on the 2nd floor, so we didn't directly suffer. But most of our neighbors got hurt, bad.
This is my wife pointing to the high water mark on our building. She is about 5'4"



The workshop is on high ground, away from the coast. So no fear of rising water. But we suffered some wind damage. The back of the tent took a beating from the north wind and broke loose. Luckily the tool bench blocked the bars that run inside the tent walls from beating themselves against the Jeep. Unluckily, the tool bench fell over and landed against the Jeep. Spilling tools and parts over the Jeep.








Luckily, the Jeep was covered and only received a little scratch just above the jeep logo.





I'm very thankfully for how I've faired through this. And my hart goes out to all that did not fare as well.

 

Thanks Warloch - Im rather glad as well.

But this brings up a question. Can you shoot clear over a single stage paint?

 

I haven't heard that name in a while; painted an old truck of mine with Van Sickle blue tractor paint years ago.

-WRM

 

Just a couple of updates from last weekend.

Spent some time cleaning, sanding and painting the fan cowl. Fount the best thing to clean up the crap, undercoating and what ever was originally coating the shroud to be a 3M Green Roloc cleaning disks. Took off the dried surface, exposing the fiber reinforced plastic.

Cleaned up and pressure tested the radiator. The PO purchased a new one about a year before I tool possession so it's still very clean.

Found what I thought were blind nuts at the local hardware store, they call them "H" Nuts. But they fit perfectly and look a little stronger than the originals. And fastened with stainless steal bolts.

All bolted together and ready to be mounted back on the frame next weekend.







Also took some time cleaning up the fan. Clutch got bead blasted to remove all the aluminum oxidation. And the fan got blasted and painted. Not a perfect job painting the fan, but I can live with it for now.




Also put some paint on the spare tire mount. Looking forward to putting that on the back - helps brake up all that orange.


The last bit is the mounting hardware for the girl. I don't have a pic, but the original mount was a bit rusty to say the lease. I found a thread over on JeepForum with someone making new ones.http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f8/oem-grille-mount-1402924/ You can find them on eBay for sale by "blkcj7laredo"

I'm very happy to say that the quality of the custom washer, with the attached metal bushing is of very high quality. And the rubber pads look to be exactly like the ones I took off - well in much better shape. He supplies the kit with 3 thick washers of the same thickness as my originals, but I opted to use my original washers. His are what may be considered a standard washer - round with a hole in the center. My originals have a U cut out.

His washer, with bushing attached on the left. The 3 washers are the originals off my Jeep