Passenger-Side Storage Box

Howdy, y'all. My papaw has a '73 CJ-5 with a 304. Unfortunately, he got a GMC Sierra a few years ago and the Jeep's been sitting in the shed behind his house ever since. I've been trying to take it off his hands for years, but he keeps worrying I'll roll it. Anyways, I'm getting off track. Since the Jeep was used in the mud so much, there are several cancer spots on it that need to be replaced, if not the whole body. I'm attending Wyotech right now and hopefully I'll be able to bring the CJ up here to repair, but if I can't I'll just have to buy a new body. My question is this: if I have to get a new body, do any of them have the storage compartment that's underneath the passenger seat on the OEM body or is that something they don't bother installing?

 

That's what I was afraid of, thanks. BTW, what exactly is the difference between pre-'72 CJ's and '72-'75's? Some places I've read on them at say they're the same and others say they're different, but don't ellaborate.

 

Pretty sure you know what I mean by the storage compartment, but just in case, this is what I was talking about.

 

AKA toolbox, liquor cabinet, gun safe, etc.

 

How much cancer does the original body have? If it's not excessive, it's realy pretty easy to weld in new replacement pieces. I did mine, and before this project I had never touched a welder before.

Jim

 

Greetings from Boston -

JM2CW - the CJ tub is comparatively easy to repair, since most of the panels are flat or have simple curves. Depending on how much time you have compared to how much money, you can make many repairs with flat steel sheet or generic panels and shapes (hat channels, corrugated floor panels, etc) available from body repair suppliers. This is in addition to preformed panels available from Classic Enterprises and others.

Several members here have made substantial body repairs of this type - make a search in the "Garage pics" forum for member Johnny Jeep, or "project rust bucket" ... those come to mind now, but I'm sure other members can suggest other threads to look at.

As the link posted above describes, the '72-75 Jeeps are the "intermediates" - these are the first really new generation of Jeeps under the management of AMC :AMC: ... in 1976, the second genration came out, and they have many differences. The main changes made to the '72-75 models were to accomodate the AMC :AMC: line of inline 6 and V8 engines.

I'm a big fan of these Jeeps - they have a lot of the "classic" characteristics of the earlier Kaiser Jeeps, but provide some great improvements in steering and brakes, in particular.

If you have plenty of money, the best solution would be to buy an original, rustless tub from one of the big yards in the west and have it shipped to you. I'd expect that to be priced competitively with a new Phillipine tub.

 

Thanks for the help and welcomes guys. I'm going on memory here, but IIRC, there's rust on the rocker panels, body mounts, quarter panels, tool box, floorboards, tire carrier contact points, and roll cage mounts, so it's fairly extensive. Mostly I'm just hoping to keep the tub for sentimental reasons, I'm just not sure if it would be cost effective in the long run. I think it can be saved, though. Regardless of what happens to the body, do y'all recommend running the cage through the body and mounting it to the frame or just welding/bolting it back? Thanks again.

 

I rebuilt my tub for around $800 and I basicly replaced everything from the cowl back. It takes some work but really the hard part was learning to weld on the tub. Bad idea right there.

 

Ok, that makes me feel better. The school I'm going to has street rod and chassis fab classes that can sometimes work on your vehicle for you and all they charge is for parts, so I guess now I just need to find a truck and trailer to get the jeep up here.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, you can buy that tool box from Willy's Kaiser Auto Supply. Not sure if maybe you could buy a new tub and then install the underseat tool box in it. I don't know what the tubs w/out the underseat box look like.