1. Registration trouble? Please use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom right corner of the page and your issue will be resolved.
    Dismiss Notice

Your experiences with new tubs

Discussion in 'Builds and Fabricators Forum' started by Stout, Feb 28, 2011.

  1. Feb 28, 2011
    Stout

    Stout Member

    Quakertown, PA
    Joined:
    Nov 1, 2010
    Messages:
    958
    As I near the end of my chassis build, it is almost time to order the new body. What have other people experienced? According to Willys Overland in Toledo, they are the best folks to buy a tub from because they supposedly do a lot of work to them making them absolutely correct. They claim that the manufacturer is sloppy and the holes and mounts are not always in the correct places, they apparently fix all of that.

    Plus, Toledo is driving distance so I can pick it up, thereby saving me the shipping.

    I'm interested in hearing people's stories on which tub you purchased and what your experience was.

    Thanks.

    P.S. my hood, fenders, and windshield frame are in A-1 condition so I only need to buy the tub and tailgate.
     
  2. Feb 28, 2011
    jpflat2a

    jpflat2a what's that noise?

    Hermosa, SD
    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2003
    Messages:
    8,513
  3. Mar 1, 2011
    mdmeltdown

    mdmeltdown Member

    Bossier City,...
    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2006
    Messages:
    792
    That was my thread. I would gauge how much effort it would take to fix your old body as opposed to getting a new one. I will say this....WO does not do as much to the body as you would think. With that being said, I would still do it again as even with the work I needed, it was still less than fixing my old one.

    This is what you get for that extra $350;

    They cut the holes for the reverse lights and tail lights, however, they just cut the large holes, not the 2 holes on either side the mounting bolts go through

    I THINK they moved the tailgate chain brackets

    Speedo wire hole

    Firewall wiring harness hole

    They drilled the mounting holes in the front floor and rear floor. They DO NOT drill the holes along the rear crossmember. There are holes already in the mounting tabs from MD Juan that are not correct. I jacked with trying to get all the holes to line up for a week and they wouldn't. I finally called Jay to ask him what I payed for and he said, "Uh...Oh yea, we don't drill the holes along the back because it varied depending on year. What you do is line up all the front holes and drill the rear ones yourself" That might have been good to put in the paperwork

    They drill the clutch pedal hole, brake pedal hole and steering column hole.

    This is what they don't cut:

    Nothing on the dash; Battery tray holes; Winshield hinge holes(the ones in it allready Have to be welded up and redrilled); single stick T/C shifter hole; Master cylinder access hole (you have to weld nuts on the backside as well for mounting bolts); heater holes on firewall; gas pedal holes; seat bracket holes;

    The quality on the new tub isn't that of an original, but then usually the issue is more about rust and new ones don't have any. It seems that when the panels were clamped during manufacturing, they were pulled when tackwelded. This resulted in the outside panels being warped and having numerous deep tack weld dimples all over the body. If you are going use a gloss paint job, it is going to require allot of dollying or body filler work. The lip running all the way around the top of the body was done what looked like by hand with a smaller hammer. That required allot of additional hammer work and filler. The hat channels are not exactly correct and I had to almost cut off one on the driver's side to clear the master cylinder. The reinforcement ribs along the floor are not in the same place as the original. I had to hammer down the extra one running over the left side of the passenger side tool box for the seat bracket. The original didn't have that extra ridge. There is an extra raised portion in the front floor on both sides. There is a lowered recessed triangle inside the triangle portion below the winshield hinges. These were on the later CJ5 bodies and I think they were on the new older bodies because MD Juan didn't feel like changing the machines for the different generation of bodies. There was a large portion of the rust under the black primer on the top of the cowl. They talk about how they dip the bodies and put on a good primer, but that must be after they sit outside in the humidity of the phillipines long enough for it to rust. Luckily, it was only in one spot

    WO also talks about how the box MD Juan puts it in is horrible. They get damaged from forklift operations. You have to pay an extra $100 ontop of shipping for him to build another crate to put it in. Now that I've seen his crate and MD Juan's crate, I don't see what the big deal is. The Juan crate is welded square tubing with metal steel ties and wrapped with wood paneling. WO crate is made of 2x4's held with plastic zip ties and wrapped with regular cardboard. WO talks about how the Juan crates aren't forklift accessable, but all the ones I've seen are set ontop of pallets anyway so no big deal. I will say this, Jay talked about how the crates were damaged from running forklift into them, but in my book wood paneling is better than cardboard especially when you take into account all the cardboad was falling off when it got to me. It was only held on there with a few staples. I asked him why he couldn't use the original crate and he said it was torn up getting the body out originally, so I guess it doesn't matter anyway.

    I would also get confirmation about the Jeep stamp if you order that. Apparently MD Juan puts the newer style incorrect ones on the older style body as well. Someone on here got one of those. It's no big deal unless you care

    In all, like I said again, their jigs they cut the mouting holes and clutch/brake pedal holes with are correct and worth the $350, but they don't cut everything like they lead you to believe. You have to still do as much or more work as they did to truly bolt everything up

    Jay is a very customer service oriented person, but he doesn't know the particular characteristics of a cj5 body. I kept having to track down the shop guy that works on the bodies. I'm not saying WO is bad, one way or the other. These are just the black and white facts of my experience
     
  4. Mar 1, 2011
    Stout

    Stout Member

    Quakertown, PA
    Joined:
    Nov 1, 2010
    Messages:
    958
    My body is most decidedly fixable; the rockers, cowl, sides, corners, and wheel wells are in almost perfect condition. The front floor is shot, including the center hump (so replacing the two side floor panels would not suffice.) The riser is bad as well. The rear floor is solid but damaged from heavy cargo over the years.

    I am trying to build a show quality '59. I can replace the floors, I have welding equipment and very limited welding expertise but with some practice I can do it. The problem comes down to the math:

    To buy the complete front floor pan (center hump and all) plus the riser and the rear floor, I already over over a grand in it with shipping charges. Then I have lots of cutting, welding, and bondo work to do.

    Versus buying a new tub where I may have some welding and body work but not as much. Plus I can drive to Toledo and pick it up, thereby saving the heavy shipping fees.

    If I was building a driver I would patch my floor and be done with it. But for a show-quality Jeep where it will be painted underneath rather than undercoated, I want it to look perfect.
     
  5. Mar 1, 2011
    Stout

    Stout Member

    Quakertown, PA
    Joined:
    Nov 1, 2010
    Messages:
    958
    Oh, and my dash is in perfect condition so I will reuse it, so I don't care about the new dash not being cut. And drilling holes for body mounts is not a concern.

    What concerns me is welding -- especially welds that will be visible.
     
  6. Mar 1, 2011
    SIDSCJ

    SIDSCJ Jeep addict

    14th State
    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2004
    Messages:
    1,189
    You repop tub will not have the battery box lid on the cowl like your '59 did. For a "show quality" restoration, that would be easily spotted and a dead giveaway of a repop tub.
     
  7. Mar 1, 2011
    4XFool

    4XFool 60 Willys CJ5

    Washington, PA
    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2007
    Messages:
    56
    x2

    On my '60, I got two large holes PLUS two mounting holes per side. The large holes had to be drilled right through the mounting brackets on the back of the tub which interfered a little but it all worked.

    Mine did not line up perfectly but I was able to get them in, although somewhat at an angle. With using thick neoprene body mounts you can't tell.

    NONE of these holes were correct and was one of the big reasons I loaded back on the trailer and drove back to Toledo only to have them weld the holes closed, redrill incorrectly AGAIN. Then I just said, "You know what? I have the measurements and a drawing. Just close them up and I will redrill them at home. Came out much better.

    Paid extra to have the speedo hole cut and mounting bolts welded on the back. ($100 I think) I still had to do a little extra grinding on it to fir the speedo in.

    I have a twin stick T/C so I did not need the hole for the single, BUTTTT!!! the trans covers were so far off that I had to move the opening (in the large bottom cover) to the left almost an inch so that the top cover would clear the shifter tower. My M/C is on the frame rail. I had to cut the holes so that I could reuse the placebo heater (mainly for show). I did get a hole for the throttle linkage (F-head) and had to drill all the holes for the seats.

    AMEN to that!. One thing that drove me nuts until I figured out what it was is the way the sheet metal was cut for the cowl. After fighting with fender and hood alignment for days I realized that the P/S was higher than the D/S. This raised the hood on that side, which meant raising the fender to close the gap, which also lead to the grille being off kilter. If you look at the pictures of my JEEP you can actually see that the P/S fender is slightly twisted and the grille leans to the right.


    4xfool raises his hand. mehh They do apparently have the correct one as well...just make sure you check. (And even if you pretend you don't care...you do.)

    The only thing I can somewhat disagree with here are that the jigs are "correct". One of my body mount holes was incorrect and even with the body on the frame in their shop, their template was wrong for the pedals. Of course mdmeltdown has hangy pedals.
     
  8. Mar 1, 2011
    mdmeltdown

    mdmeltdown Member

    Bossier City,...
    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2006
    Messages:
    792
    Don't let that shipping hang you up. I was going to drive up and get mine from Louisiana too untill I found out I had to pay tax if I bought from him directly. Turns out, it was the same amount.

    If you've got to replace the whole floor, I'd say buy a new one, even with all these problems. By the time you do the floors AND get the outside ready, the old one would still be more work. Plus, you will still have the same alignment problems with a new floor. Plus, if you cut the floor out, you HAVE to jig the body or it may warp when you put the new one in. I've got a buddy that put a whole new floor in an MB and a "hotrod" shop did the work. They just cut the old one out and put the new one in. We had to put a block of wood and a jack on the ceiling of the garage to get the body down on the frame it was so warped when we bolted it up.

    Like I said, it all depends on how much work you want/can do to the old one. If you are on the fence about welding, I'd be looking seriously at the new body

    My driver side is higher than the passenger side. I had to move the left fender up a little otherwise there was a huge gap between the hood and fender.

    In all, I would do it again, it's just a major headache, but then everything on my jeep was. If you were to look at it, you probably wouldn't be able to tell the differences unless I showed you....or Greg showed you....lol. That batter box hole is do-able, just one more thing that mine didn't need. You've all ready got the cover, you just need to cut the hole and roll the edge...not a problem

    Greg, I figured you would pop up on this tread...lol

    If I didn't buy a new body, I would probably still be working on my old one right now.

    Moral of this story is, don't let Jay sell you load of goods, he is in the business to make money and he doesn't really know about jeep bodies himself. That guy that does the work kinda does though, but they don't like him talking on the phone a whole lot
     
  9. Mar 1, 2011
    Stout

    Stout Member

    Quakertown, PA
    Joined:
    Nov 1, 2010
    Messages:
    958
    I appreciate all of the replies and advice. It is a bummer about the battery box, I did not know it wouldn't be there.

    Here are some pics of my current tub. As you can see, by many standards it is in excellent shape. If I was building a driver and didn't mind the welding seams in the floor, it would be a candidate for revival.

    [​IMG]

    The riser is probably salvageable but I would want to replace it with a new one.
    [​IMG]

    The wheel wells are almost perfect
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The rear valance needs some attention
    [​IMG]

    The top side has been patched by a PO.
    [​IMG]

    Even though the tub is in good condition, I think I will spring for a new one to save me the welding hassles.
     
  10. Mar 1, 2011
    4XFool

    4XFool 60 Willys CJ5

    Washington, PA
    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2007
    Messages:
    56
    I'm thinking about slapping together a second one that I can use for, well, all the stuff a JEEP was made for - without worrying about getting it dirty. LOL.

    If you are going to get a new tub and you want to sell the old one, let's talk. I'm just "up the road". And if you want to see mine before you order one I'm up for that, also.
     
  11. Mar 1, 2011
    Stout

    Stout Member

    Quakertown, PA
    Joined:
    Nov 1, 2010
    Messages:
    958
    Funny, I told my wife the other day, "ya know, now that I'm making this Jeep all clean and pretty, I will have a build a second one for playing outside." I'm not sure if she found the humor in that.
     
  12. Mar 2, 2011
    ggreenwood37

    ggreenwood37 Member

    Pittsburgh PA
    Joined:
    Aug 27, 2010
    Messages:
    88
    Dang, I was really hoping to get a shot at that tub. I have a '59 with a homemade body that weighs more than my civic, and I also am just up the road.

    btw, Greg.. I may go pick those hinges up next week, If I do - I'll PM you so I can give yours back.
     
  13. Mar 11, 2011
    windyhill

    windyhill Sponsor

    PA
    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2006
    Messages:
    1,502
    I'd fix your current tub.
     
New Posts