[Snoopy]

Well I'm sure many of us has been in this position. Eric, a buddy of mine as well as my welding supplier, has had this sweet little 73 CJ5 for about 20 years. He bought it stock and slowly built it into one CRAZY crawlin' machine. A frame up resto net'd him a beautiful CJ and then he started modifying it. It got a soup'd up 360, T18 (wide), scout D300 w/ 4:1, Highangle CV's front and back, Scout D44s w/ Warn Shafts, CTMs, FF rear, Detroits and eventually 37" MTRs on WE beadlocks. In its splendor and ~ ahem ~ *fresh* days, it looked like this:

Complete with OBA, welder and just about anything else you could want in a CJ5. But as Eric wheeled it, and the more the fresh paint got scuffed, the more he WHEEL'd it, and sooner than later dents replaced scrapes. These pcitures are 3-4 years old and lets just say, the little red CJ isn't so *fresh* anymore. Heck, I can't remember it having a straight body panel, except maybe the grill :laughing:

So Eric contacted me about doing some 'minor' modifications. He's got a CJ8 he wants to build for 2007, but needs to 'band-aid' the CJ5 for another season of wheeling before it gets retired.

And. with that, the Band-Aid Build (so named by Eric) was born.

 

[RockTonka]

So where's the "after wheeling" ("before rebuild") pics? Gotta see where your at now.

 

[Snoopy]

Here is one of the least noticable dents (at least to me) and I'm not talking about the chip'd paint (see the body 'contours' under level)

This build started last Saturday (as in 6 days ago). Eric had the back cut off and finsihed the boatsides by Monday evening when I showed up at his door. I bought my bender (JD2 Model 4) with some dies and he had 7 or so lengths of 1.75 delivered. With that we got to work.

Boatsides: 4 downs per side plus the ones that will angle up the rear of the frame.

New Rockers are 2" x 1/4" wall DOM. Should hold.

I asked Eric to draw up something to give me the basic design. he wanted to slant the main hoop back to minic the CJ's stock roll bar. At first I wasn't sure how it'd turn out, but its his jeep so we made it work.

Next was to connect the two rockers together. Instead of putting just a straight bar in, two bends were put in it for extra room behind the seats as well as a nice landing place for the support bars later.

In that last picture you can see the trans/tcase were removed. They were sold off and will be replaced with a fresh TF727 and D300.

 

[4x4not]

Looks like an excellent start. Keep us updated! I like the boatsides. Very clean looking.

 

[Snoopy]

The 'after' pictures are coming. I wish I had some on this computer but I don't. I'll add them to the first post later (tomorrow) when I get them.

Here is the last 'progress' picture from Monday.

 

[Snoopy]

Tuesday Night pictures.

Second front spreader went in without a hitch. Used a wratched strap to keep them up while we put the dash bar in. The spreaders came down and fit snug into the door jam, which worked awesome since it'd give us more room for the seats. The seats have been ripped multiple times from rocks coming into the cab while wheeling. The extra room will give more protection to the passengers:

Middle bar for the windshield:

(Eric's in there checking head room, so far so good)

Connecting it back to the main hoop:

Triangulation bars for added support when this CJ sees the sky again.

Eric putting the final welds on it:

 

[Snoopy]

Another view of it just before I left on Tuesday night. Cab area is almost done.

I will say that its awesome having Eric helping out and giving his views on design. We work awesome together and with him welding as I'm bending, things go together very fast.

 

[Snoopy]

Like an idiot I forgot my camera on Wednesday, so these pictures were taken after the fact. Sorry, no as-we-go shots, but I'm sure you'll get the idea. These pictures were taken first thing as I showed up today (we took Thursday off).

HEre are Wednesday Pictures/Progress

Here is the last downbars to the frame, as you can see it'll allow us to insert a clean triangle shaped skid to help keep rocks from getting stuck in the tube work.

From the back/side:

Down bar from the top corner of the main hoop to the angled bar behind the seat ~ as you can see we put it right on top of the rear-most 'boatside' bar for strength and support

Next we put some bar in to protect the seats from incoming rock invaders ~ which is getting surprisingly frequent these days.

Enough to guard the seat, but still easy to get my fat butt up and over it

 

[JR]

Needs more triangulation

Nice build up!

 

[ryanxj]

Looks like a really nice build so far, especially for being done in a garage-tube work is lookin :smokin:

 

[Snoopy]

More Wednesday pictures.

The back end is pretty self explanitory. We placed the axle where it needs to be for a 102" WB and built the rear 'dove tail' bar. Then connected it to the lowers via two simple spreaders w/ 60* bends, the bar between the two down bars is placed to protect the fuel lines going into the cell. Then we added the upper supports.

Another view from the front.

I have to say that when Eric and Chad (Eric's wheelin' buddy) mentioned putting the little kicks at the main hoop I wasn't very enthus'd about it ~ just seemed like more work than I wanted to do. But now that they are in there, I really REALLY like the way they look from the side/front. It's the little things I guess.

Some bling, 37x12.5 Red-label Krawlers, new winch line and some parts that came from SummitRacing

What the CJ looked like at the end of Wednesday...we've got about 12 hours into the tube work thus far. Seems to be going fast, much faster than I expected considering....

Oh, and that's not ride height. The stands (front and back) are keeping the rig off its weight and keeping the chasis level. It's going to drop down a bit when we take the stands away.

 

[Snoopy]

Needs more triangulation

Nice build up!

Touche!

We'll get more in there ~ promise!

 

[Snoopy]

Today being Friday, means that my wifey had to work (emergency tech) and that means I have my boy and the 3 'rent-a-rug' rats (What Led calls them, we're foster parents). Eric called and said he was at home working prepping the trans/tcase and finishing some welding on the frame. Since we didn't work Thursday evening, I was able to get our babysitter to keep the kids for two extra hours fand I went over to Eric's and bent the grill hoop and the flat-fender bars. Was only able to put in the grill hoop, but hey ~ at least its done.

Then the two 'flat-fender' bars.

Eric is going to get slick with these bars, normally I just put them on the outside of the tub (to act as sliders when driving on the side ), but Eric wanted to cut away the body a bit and sink them into the sides (only 1/2 way of course) to match the new rockers. Slick, very slick. We've got a sweet tie-in in store for the Rockers-to-Flatfenders ~ We'll see if we get to those tomorrow.

After that, came home, fed the baby, play'd some X-box with the son and Destinee, put them down and updated this thread. Not a bad end to a hecktic week.

More pics tomorrow.:cool2:

 

[bubs]

good work

 

[deke]

you do in a week what most build threads take a couple monthes to do.

 

[f0cker]

you do in a week what most build threads take a couple monthes to do.

Yea. Snoopy, you want to come down to the South and work on my junk? :flipoff2: Lookin good, nice job.

 

[Snoopy]

you do in a week what most build threads take a couple monthes to do.

Tube work is easy, its all the little crap after the fact that slows me down.

Speaking of which, its time to head over there.

 

[4x4not]

I LOVE the way those bars follow the contour of the seat! Very cool indeed! I'm also looking forward to seeing the front fenders. I need to build a set for my TJ one of these days and I haven't decided if I want to do a normal flat tube fender like most do, or do something different.

 

[paulwhat]

Looks good.

 

[KYOTA]

wow looks good!