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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
 
#453 ·
You mean put in wheel wells? I have to weld up the shock towers first then I plan on scrapping the old fenders and cutting out the wheel wells. We will see how it goes!
 
#454 ·
So I finished the tube fenders and coated the insides with Rhino Liner. I think they came out great.
 

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#455 ·
I took her out to a little construction area at night and there was a good size dirt burm. Did a little poser flexing to see ho the new tube fenders let me stretch. I was pretty impressed with what I could see. Still need to elevate the rear to see how the fronts stuff.
 

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#456 ·
Just noticed I've had over 30,000 views to this thread! Thats awesome. More people learning about CJ's and 4 Wheel to Heal! Lets double the views :cool:
 
#458 ·
There is an RTI ramp at Big Dogs. I will have to test it out again hopefully in August. Bought to weld up the front shock towers and am considering painting her this next week or two.
 
#460 ·
Thanks brother!
 
#461 ·
Next event....not sure if I'll make it due to work.
 

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#462 ·
Bought about $150.00 worth of paint accessories and paint today. Planning on starting in the morning. I cannot wait to see how this turns out! Cross your fingures and wish me luck. Then tearing the rims apart Saturday! :) Should be a good weekend of Jeep love
 
#463 ·
What did you go with for paint? Single stage urethane? Tractor paint?

I need to give mine a new spray job with the HVLP- did rustoleum cut w/ acetone over primer on a couple of fenders and the tailgate a couple of years ago and it still looks good, but I´d like to re-spray the whole thing in a good quality durable paint.
 
#467 ·
Thanks for the support! Thats a nice looking rig you have there! I'll have to take a peek sometime and see what you have installed. As mentioned above the paint did not go as planned lol
 
#468 ·
So story of my life with this build...anything that can...WILL...go wrong. I'm not sure if it was a reaction with the paint or what but basically I put my Darker primer on and then waited a while...an hour or so.....then went to taping things off like I was going to do with my paint scheme and started applying my lighter primer which is a Sealer style Rustoleum......Yeah **** started cracking on me everywhere....I had only done the hood with this second coating. Hoping someone out there has the answer....because I have painted, and painted, and painted before and have never had this happen. It could be a number of things, one I didn't wait long enough....(who has all day to wait when you got an entire vehicle to paint lol), two the two different color primers didn't mix (which is weird because the sealer primer I used on my fenders and windshield and they never cracked), three it was a bad can of paint??? Any help here would be great!
 

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#483 ·
Okay, from what I understand about paint, which isn't too much, you must either apply all of your coats of primer/paint/clear within one hour, OR after at LEAST 24 hours in most cases, and you have to wait ten minutes between coats. Thats why most people do all their primer work, then wait a day or two and do all the base coat work, then wait a day or two and finally do the clear.

The reason for this is...

If you put another coat on right away (less than 10 minute wait) your paint has a much higher chance of running, because it makes essentially one big wet coat.

If you put another coat on after an hour (too long of a wait) your next coat will quick dry as the coat below it absorbs the moisture (usually alcohol or some other dangerous organic compound like MEC or acetone) without giving the freshly sprayed coat a chance to crosslink and cure, thus splitting the usually bonded surface of paint as it shrinks ultra fast.

AND if that last part isn't entirely correct, at least the wait times and the symptoms are generally correct, but you should read the back of the paint can for what they recommend as wait times.

On a completely separate note...

Dope wheels man! seriously!
 
#469 ·
The pics won't give too much away for the finished product but thats how she sits...lol. I will sand the hood down and try again. I also dropped her off my 42's and put her on what my buddy calls rollers (smaller tires). She looks so funny right now. The ULTIMATE redneck ride! Maybe after I knock the rims out on Saturday....(today) I can get some time in before the Hall Of Fame Game on Sunday to get some painting done. We will see. FOOTBALL IS BACK! :)
 

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#470 ·
dude looks amazing read the whole thing in about 3 hours very good tips i will use on my CJ5 build. mine will be an offroader too but i have absolutly no cash. and as for the primer i suggest waiting a whole day. i did that with my engine paint and it turned out amazing. check it out\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
 
#471 ·
I love this build. My favorite thing is your stance. The stretched WB is perfect and I wish mine was lifted like yours but that won't fit into my garage so I'm soa w/stock wrangler springs. Once I get a bigger garage I'm going to aim for something like yours.
 
#472 ·
boarderofsnow said:
The pics won't give too much away for the finished product but thats how she sits...lol. I will sand the hood down and try again. I also dropped her off my 42's and put her on what my buddy calls rollers (smaller tires). She looks so funny right now. The ULTIMATE redneck ride! Maybe after I knock the rims out on Saturday....(today) I can get some time in before the Hall Of Fame Game on Sunday to get some painting done. We will see. FOOTBALL IS BACK! :)
Looks like a roller skate :D
 
#473 ·
Yeah, this is one of my favorites, the direction I would have gone if I would have finished my 5…
 
#474 ·
Wow saturday was as tough if not tougher than Friday. I showed up to my buddies shop in the Manassaswith my tires in the back of my truck. We started by breaking my rims down. This will be a very detailed thread for anyone interested in doing the H1 rims. The only thing I won't be able to expand on is welding in the new centers since mine were already done. I will also use the pics from cutting out the centers because that is what we did to my current rims. The previous owner did not cut the centers out properly. You could barely fit your hand into put the lug nuts on. There are a few sets of different styles of H1's out there. Mine are 12 Bolt.

So when I got to the shop we started pulling the rims apart. Then I started priming the new rock rings that I ordered from Trail Worthy Fab. I also ordered a few extra Bolts since a few of mine were pretty rock rashed up, inner seals, new 45 degree brass fittings for the valve stems. You would not have access to the valve stems once the rock rings were in place without redoing the valve stems to change the angle.
 

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#475 ·
Once we got them broke down Dave started cutting out the Centers of the caps. I do not have pics of this but have the ones he sent me of my spare he did a few weeks back. Its a desert style cap so its yellow.
 

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#476 ·
From there I started cutting out the rock rashed Caps and getting them ready for the Rock Rings to be welded in. I also took the time to paint the inner rims. I did it in gloss black.
 

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#477 ·
Next once the three hour process of cutting out the centers was done Dave started welding up the new Rock rings. I spent a lot of time cutting out the rock rash and prepping the Rock Rings for welding. Then I started painting the new Caps with Rock Rings White.
 

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#478 ·
Once that was all done we gavce the paint time to dry and took a lunch break. Wehn we got back it was time to put the rims together. The only thing I didn't take a pic of was the inner seal but its self explained once you get the wheel apart. We then got the new valve stems all put together.
 

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#479 ·
We then started putting them together. The seal has to be stretched out to fit into the slot so you need to put the top on quick or the seal will slim back down and come out of the slot. We had a few bolts that continued to drop out so we had to get creative in getting them back in. The finished product though was well worth the time, pain and money. The first pic is of Dave next to a massive Tool Box in his shop....need that and whats in it...lol. Got them back on the rig today!
 

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#481 ·
Thanks brother. Its been a long expensive process but it just takes time, planning, and patients. This is my 4th year on this build. Thats a long time!
 
#482 ·
boarderofsnow said:
Thanks brother. Its been a long expensive process but it just takes time, planning, and patients. This is my 4th year on this build. Thats a long time!
Ya I bet. I'm tryin to have mine running by spring break so I can drive it to school sometimes next year.
 
#486 ·
Thanks! A good amount of work but well worth it!
 
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