Bill's 75 CJ5 ground up rebuild

billyocup · 05-08-2011, 10:49 AM

I traded my nephew a 12' fishing boat & trailer for this 75 CJ5 back in December. I knew going in that I was going to take it down to the frame and start over. Besides a general clean up it needed a new brake system, new wiring harness, steering work, new tires, and who knows what else until I started tearing it apart. My goal is to build a reliable trail rig. I want it street legal, but most of the time it will be used off road.

I needed to have a decent place to work on it, so I spent most of January working on the garage (insulation, sheetrock, lighting, more electrical and storage space for my wife's craft stuff). Moved the Jeep into the garage the 1st of Feb. and started taking it apart.

Being new to Jeeps, it took me awhile to sort out exactly what I have - 75 CJ5, 304 V8, T15 trans, Model 20 TC, Dana 44 rear & Dana 30 front with 3:73 gears. It has an existing 2 1/2 inch Rancho lift on it and 33x12.5x15 tires. The tub is steel with a little minor rot and the front end is a one-piece fiberglass unit.

The photos are from the 1st of Feb. Will post more over the next couple of days to show the progress up to date.

And thanks to all of you guys on the forums who have helped and given advise so far

billyocup · 05-08-2011, 11:15 AM

So, I spent most of Feb and Mar tearing down & cleaning the beast. Found that the front 3rd of the frame was a little bent & twisted. I'm told that a tree fell on it a few years back and that's why it has the fiberglass front end. Anyway, I spent a lot of time with degreaser and pressure washer (in between snow storms) and a wrench getting this thing down to the bare frame.

Also spent a lot of time with repair and build manuals trying to figure out where to go with this build.

You can see from the photos, that a lot of things were cobbled together by POs

The last photo is about Apr 1st

billyocup · 05-08-2011, 09:01 PM

On April 8, I took the frame in to be straightened. You can see by the first photo we were having great California spring weather. They said it would take a couple of weeks because they were backed up after all the accidents during the recent storms.

While I was waiting for the frame, I started refurbishing and painting bits and pieces - steering box and mount, motor mounts, etc. and the leaf springs. Since I already have a 2 1/2" lift kit and the springs appeared to be in good shape, I decided to just clean them up and reuse them. I found an article on line about how Deaver prepares leaf springs for off road racing. I pulled the leaves apart and sand blasted them all. Then I wire wheeled everything smooth. I coated all of the inside faces with Moly Coat and then reassembled the springs. Once they were back together, I primed and painted the outside surfaces.

I also got the front and rear axles rebuilt. Alot more work than anticipated - about $1500 in parts. All new bearings, seals, a couple of new axles, new ball joints and u joints on the front, new limited slip case and clutches in the rear, and new brakes all around including backing plates and drums.

When I got the frame back, I sand blasted it and got it primed.

oldguy · 05-09-2011, 07:39 AM

All I can say is "Your doing it right!!" On every CJ build I've done it always ends up being more involved than I planned but when finished you know what you have - not another persons cobble this, jury rig that. I love watching great builds on this site and you got one going on. Keep it up and keep posting, a lot of us will be watching.

billyocup · 05-09-2011, 12:07 PM

Oldguy - Thanks for the comments. I've been watching the progress on your 78 project and with the quality of that build your comments mean a lot

.

I've been wanting to build a Jeep for a lot of years, but never had the time or money. Still don't have the money and I figure at my age, I'm starting to run out of time.

Anyway, I'm hoping that by posting this thread that you guys will help keep me out of trouble.

Thanks again - Bill

JR74CJ5 · 05-10-2011, 03:12 PM

Bill

Looking great man!

I'd like to do this as well at some point... Seems like all I'm doing now is fixing broken stuff as i go.

Can't wait to see it as you keep going man.

~ JR

billyocup · 05-10-2011, 05:15 PM

JR -

Thanks

Like I said, I knew when I got it that it was going all the down to the frame. My nephew had put a few band aids on stuff and ran it a couple of times before he found a 73 that was already built and parked this one. When I got it wouldn't even stop because the brakes were so gone. So the best thing was to just start pulling it apart.

billyocup · 05-15-2011, 01:42 PM

Had planned to spend some time out on the driveway today sandblasting the last set of leaf springs so I could them rebuilt. Anyway, woke up to 6" of snow (see first couple of pics) so I thought I'd update my build thread.

I got my frame painted and ready to start bolting stuff back on. I tried to clean up inside of the tubes on the frame to shackle mounts with a flapper wheel, but they were badly cruded up with rust. I really didn't want to cut them off and replace them, so I took a Dremel tool with a little grinder and cleaned out all the flakey rust. Then I cleaned the tubes out with metal etch and got back to shiny metal, although kind of pitted and uneven. I figure there isn't alot of stress on the inside of the tube (it's mostly there to hold the bushings in place) so I spread some JB Weld on the inside of the tubes to fill in all the pitting. Then I took a small grinder and smoothed the inside surface out and trued it back to round as best as I could.

Once I got that finished, I installed the rear end.

billyocup · 05-15-2011, 02:03 PM

I'm replacing all of the old worn out parts and upgrading where I can. I put on new shackles, all new greasable poly bushings, new ubolts and new spring center pins. Replaced the breather tube on both front and rear axles. There wasn't one at all on the rear (just the hole) and the front one didn't have a hose on it. Not suprising there was water in the gear lube when the axles were pulled apart. I'm also replacing all of the bolts with grade 8 hardware as I go.

Not that I really need them now, but I bought a new set of BFG KM2 Mud Terrains last week. I figure that having new tires will help with set up and aligning when I get to that point. My tire guy also says that prices will be going up again soon.

I also found that the engine hoist is a great place to hang stuff on for spray painting.

PaStomper · 05-20-2011, 02:52 PM

Bill I know what you mean about money and time. I finished my rebuild last year in July. I started in November of the previous year with a $2000 budget and thinking about 2 months long. Well 4 grand+ and 9 months later (like a having a kid LOL) it rolled out of the garage on its own. In the previous 3 yrs I had done the motor,trans and tc so they didn't need done. I also did the rears a month after the build just because I ran out of money. Like was posted now you know what you have and can take pride in knowing you put every stinking bolt back on that thing. Keep up the good job. Keith