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1979 CJ5 Build (Tank Killer)

220K views 1K replies 93 participants last post by  boarderofsnow 
#1 ·
Here is the step by step process so far of my 1979 CJ5 Build. It has been quite the long drawn out process. There is no method to my madness and I have learned al ot over the build so far. I still have many different mods coming for my rig.

I feel that we as Jeepers have a lot of knowledge and sometimes that information gets squandered. So I want to give some light to other who are looking to build CJ's with what I have accomplished on my rig.

Believe me this is a budget build and there were many different avenues I could have taken but the money wasn't there at times and I needed to make the best with the funds I had.

Feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to provide any information I have available. The 4x4 Jeeping community is one of the best experiences I have ever had. I just want to give back to all those who have helped me going forward with my build.

Enjoy
 
#2 ·
Part One (Redneck Renegade Restoration)

So here is the rig I was given from my Step-Father who was really big into Jeeps. He bought it as shown and started a small block conversion with a Chevy 307 out of a 1972 Vova. The tranny (transmission) Auto Turbo 350 and a NP205 out of a 72 Jimmy.

4 Years later here she stands! Read the thread....see how it came along!
 

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#3 ·
The very first thing to point out is the transfer case. Since there was no crossmember to hold the tranny and transfer case up the engine was sitting at 135 degree angle the points distributer had been smashed against the fire wall. This also lead to the transfer case hanging really far out as I have placed a red arrow to point out.
 

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#4 ·
This vehicle would transfer in this condition from my Step-Father to me. It left New Mexico with me and would sit in my garage for a couple of months in Las Vegas until I saved enough money to have someone fix the mistakes. Finally at the end of the year in 07 I started contacting local 4x4 off road shops to see what they could help me with. I don't have the pictures before, but here is the work they accomplished. this got the vehicle running and driveable. The work that was done was to pull the engine and replace the broken freeze plugs on the block. Build a custom crossmember as seen pointed out below.
 

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#5 ·
Next was to add an exhaust system. I chose fake flows with dual pipe all the way back. Now they asked me if I was sure I wanted pipe all the way back and not to just stop after the mufflers. I said yes I was sure but now wished I hadn't have paid for all that extra pipe.

Lesson 1 - Exhaust fumes

I didn't have a top at the time and I was in Vegas and on nice days I could drive around with no top and it wouldn't kill me. Well The exhaust would roll right out and sware back into the cab and the driver and passenger would smell like exhaust after a road trip.....NO FUN!
 

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#6 ·
The next area the shop did was changing my AMC 20 from a 2 piece to a one piece with a 1 piece Alloy kit. This is something my Step-Father had purchased but didn't have time to put in. It takes the week breakable 2 piece clip system and changes it to a solid one piece set up. Really the only part of the axles that is vunerable is the tube housing.
 

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#7 ·
The next area was drive shafts. I needed a set of custom drive shafts for the small block conversion. The 4x4 Shop went with Tom Woods Drive Shafts. Think the whole set up cost me around $800 for the pair. Now since I am running a CJ5 (one of the shortest Jeep bodies) My rear axles was Short.....I mean short! Drive shafts was last because they wanted to know my pinion angle.

Since I am running a Spring Over and what I will continue to call a Redneck Lift (This guy who owned the Jeep before me welded 2 inch metal blocks under the front and rear leaf spring hangers) I had about a 7 1/2in lift. Also I was running 35's so this made for a tall short wheel base death trap.

They slanted both of my axles to help with the angle of the drivelines (pinion angle). The rear we went with a CV Joint which helps for more angles in four wheeling.
 

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#8 ·
Well all of this was completed and I payed a total of $4400 dollars to have this stuff done. :eek: Yeah from that point on I learned to work on things myself to try and save money. Plus the work done didn't reflect the amount of money I spent.

That was lesson 2. Do your own work! Teach a man to fish and yada yada yada.

From here I drove the Jeep about a month or so and just wasn't happy with its performance. Next I ventured into motor work. I knew a good deal about the racing world and thought that my knowledge would work with four wheeling.

Lesson 3
Go with fuel injection! A carb has limitations on the trail.

Here is what I had to work with after the 4x4 Shop.

The Engine 307 Small Block with single carb

4 Core raditator with engine driven 4 blade fan.

Tranny Cooler mounted on outside of radiator.
 

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#9 ·
Natuarlly in my limited knowledge I thought well a new intake and the biggest carb on the planet will fix any low performance I was getting from my motor. When I say low performance I mean it ran sluggish, had a horrible exhaust, and wasn't pretty to look at. Well I dropped $800 bucks into a Edelbrock Performer Intake, Edelbrock 4 Barrel Carb, and aluminum valve covers!

Now for this money I could have gone with a junk yard throttle body system and had far better capability when it came to rock climbing and getting verticle. Wished I could do that one over kids!

Here are the before and afters.
 

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#12 ·
Yeah at this point I'm about two years behind where I am now. MORE MORE MORE to come!!!
 
#11 ·
From here I made a minor tweek to the Steering box in the way of reiforcing it. Plus I was told it would help with the death wobble I was recieving and large amount of play in my steering wheel. You can see what I'm talking about by the two red arrows in the picture. Cheap part runs you about $45 to $60 bucks
 

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#14 ·
Next as most Jeepers I got completely carried away with looks.

Lesson Number 4
Just cause it looks good doesn't mean it will perform on the trail.

I got lost with dumb upgrades like black finished trim that stayed finished for all of 4 months of weather and cost me a pretty penny everytime I turned around.

I did start working on patching the body and getting ready to rhino line the interior.

Here was the process.

First there was no interior in my Jeep. All the carpet had been tore out and the drivers and passenger side floor boards where rusted out. No large holes but big enough to question riding shotgun.

Also I went from a standard to an automatic. We used a B&M shifter that was mounted between the driver and passenger. Then the stick from the 205 to change into 4 high and 4 low was a little below that. Here was my first encounter with sheet metal work. Once again rather than doing the work I paid a guy at a shop to do it and almost got my thumb cut off trying to help.

Here are the before and afters.
 

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#15 ·
After that encounter I made up my mind to stop letting sops hurt my pocket and cause me physical harm and set out to finish patching the interior myself.

Next was the floor boards. I ordered a floor pan replacement and commenced to putting this in at a buddies shop. I wanted to cut out the old but he insisted it would be strong layed over the top of the old and hammered to fit. Since I was covering it with bed liner it didn't matter what it looked like under neath so we riveted it in and then sealed it with sealant. Here is the pick of the passenger side.
 

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#16 ·
Well what I learned from this was that paying for a replacement floor board was kind of a waste and I could use scrap metal cheaper to do the passenger side. Here are the before and afters.

The only regret here that I had to do later was drill bigger drain holes. Any one who has had a rusted out CJ can tell you how through all of the holes in the dash and windshield the collection point for water is the floor boards. I ended up sealing all of that but thats later on down the road.......trying to stay on topic.
 

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#17 ·
Next was getting everything out for the Line X or rhino lining. I saved money by doing all of the removing of the seat belts and had everything temp installed so that when I got there all I had to dowas remove the seats and sport bar. Here are the pictures of the prep.
 

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#18 ·
I payed a total of $500 for the interior Line X. Best money ever spent. The only thing I wished I had removed the heater and AC and had them blast the fire wall. Neither one worked but I didn't have a need to remove them then. Here are some of the before and afters with the bed lining.
 

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#19 ·
After this I worked on small stuff my last few months in Vegas. A tire carrier for the spare. Fire exstiguisher. Soft top from BestTop. The tire carrior I belive is a warrior product. Was about $75 bucks. Fire exstinguisher was free from a friend. The Top was about $900 but a great investment. I keep a cover on her during the winter but the top still looks brand new. The elastic bands for stowing the side and back winds is strating to show its wear though from the elements.


Note - Fire exstinguishers are required on most trails and I would highly recommend one!

Note - The soft top is the only thing that keeps the exhaust I have mentioned earlier from coming into the cab. It just sucks on a nice day when you wanna ride around with the top off you risk the chance of smelling like an exhaust pipe. Pics below....note my beautiful girlfriend Mallory as my helper...lol
 

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#20 ·
I also added what any cool Jeep needs and that is the ability to see at night and nearly blind anyone you come up to at night. I did this with KC high lights and mounted them above the dash at the windshield mount. Great setup and easy to install. I think sticker price was $190
 

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#21 ·
At this point the housing market is crashing and I am getting close to leaving Vegas to move to Maryland. Here is a few pics of wheeling Vegas. Not much but I really didn't know the capability of my rig or take a lot of pictures when we were wheeling.
 

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#22 ·
Shortly after that I found myself moving to Maryland. Here is a pic of the trailer I picked up and the Jeep loaded up ready to go.

Note - We all fall on hard time but selling that trailer was one of the biggest mistake I have made. It was such a great investment and now that I live in Maryland there is not alot of close four wheeling and taking a trail ready rig on the highway can almost be suicide.
 

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#27 ·
Thank you. I fall in and out of love with her all the time but its nice to look back on everything and see how far its come.

Jeeping Maryland isn't easy with all of the no trespassing laws. We decided to take a trip up to Deep Creek if any are familiar with the Maryland area. Here are some pics
 

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#24 ·
I will post this next part of my trip because it was pretty awesome to do some four wheeling there and some of the pictures came out really speak to Jeepers. Enjoy.

I stopped in Oklahoma City to see family and had a chance to roll the rig off the trailer and take my Nephew Cole out for a ride.
 

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#25 ·
Well after finishing the trip across country I found a new home in Maryland. One thing I had found out in this trip was my tail lights had gone out on the rig and that a small block chevy with a motor turned fan likes to over heat.

I can't stress enough to you new wheelers the importance of a temp guage for your engine. If your out on the trail and a hose comes lose or you begin to over heat (which happens a lot) the need to know what your engine and tranny temps are out will save you a great ton of time and money.

After several attempts to try and figure out my electrical flaws I broke down and purchased a Painless Wire Harness. This whole set up has several lessons I learned from.

Lesson Number 5
Buy the more expensive kit with the terminals already added. It is true that I did eliminate a great amount of wiring to things I just don't access but the amount of money spent on the extra terminals and the time lost cutting these terminals would have been worth the extra $100 bucks.

The whole kit I think cost me $465. Plus I was able to apply my chevy motor application with the Painless set up which made life a little easier. I did however spend a ton of money on odds and ends as you always do with any project.

You should always have a column that says miscelaneous in your budget build. I'd always add about an extra 25% to that column because there is always something that you forget or a obstacle with dollar signs you need to pass.

I can't stress enough to do this wire set up right the first time. It will save you a ton of time on back tracking later and trouble shooting. I would suggest heat enduced soder wire sleeves. These melt down and enfuse the wires together. Plus the heat shrink helps with keeping water out. Its not cheap but a great add on to ensure its done right. Lastly GROUND GROUND GROUND.....ensure you have a proper ground for all of your extra add ons....lights, radio, cb winch, ect. I had all of my items attached to one ground and things would mesh.....like my cb playing music. LOL
 

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#26 ·
A great item to invest in is a steering wheel puller if your going to do this task. Don't buy a cheap one from Auto Zone. Mine was hell and ended up breaking. I went and bought a craftsman one and had no trouble. Now that the wire harness was being replaced this gave us a lot of time to fix and remove things I didn't and did need. The first Item we really did work to was the dash. This is a quick and easy item to really help your rig look nice. We strated by removing the old dash with the Jeep logo on it. I didn't end up replacing this item. Just never saw a need for it other than looks. Next was the dash itself. We sanded it down and then through a coat of bed liner on it to match my interior.

Before and afters below.
 

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#28 ·
I will continue on this wiring problem a little later on as it falls into the timeline. The next step once we thought (keyword thought) the wiring was good to go moved on to dealing with my over heating problem. As I had mentioned before I would drive this Jeep around in Vegas and she would do fine on the highway......but get stuck in rushhour traffic and it was overheating time! The simple thought of this is that simply the belt driven fan cannot pull air through the radiator at the speed it needs to cool down a small block chevy.

Lesson Number 6
Do the expensive fixes right the first time......this saves you money even though it seems expensive.

This is the headache of a budget builder......trying to buy the right parts at the right time.

Here were the steps I went through

1 - I bought a six blade flex-a-lite motor driven fan blade. That helped but who am I kidding really showed no difference. That was $60 bucks down the drain.

2 - Someone suggested a fan shroud......this is a great idea but the only one that would have helped me was the one I meant to order. Instead of the 4 cylinder HUGE shroud I got a 6 cylinder tiny thin shroud from a Jeep dealership who, it just so happens, offers no refunds on specialty order items. Still we went to work and tried to make it happen. There was another $70 bucks down the drain

Here are both of these incorporated below.

Also took it out to see how it performed under pressure.
 

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#29 ·
This I figured would do so we started gearing up for our first real event in Maryland. It takes place near Gore Virginia and is ran by a great bunch of guys. Big Dogs Offroad Park. Since my vehicle was down during the Wireharness introduction this would be my first real four wheeling event. My buddy Nathan who has helped me with most of the work since moving to Maryland said man that paint job has to go. I agreed with him and what is a builder on a budgets best friend when it comes to paint??? Krylon! Here is what we did.
 

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