Ok so I picked up a 76 CJ5 for $500 the other day. I am familiar with jeeps but not the older ones so i figured building this would not be to much trouble. I have the resources and machinery to do just about all the tasks at hand. The jeep had had been sitting behind the guys house for about 5 years and the guys said it ran when he parked it but he stopped driving it because the rear end was popping. I scouted it out real quick for rust, body damage, and other obvious turn offs but for $500 you can't ask for perfect.
When I brought her home to start tearing her down i noticed the body mounts looked a little different. Well i did a little research and i have now determined that the previous owner had put a '76 cj5 body on a pre '75 frame so the frame is a C-channel not a full boxed. It has a dana 44 rear axle and dana 30 front. Dana 20 t-case and not sure what tranny but 304 under the hood. No rust what so ever besides the mild surface rust on the frame and the floorboards.
Since i am a college student and working part time money isn't plentiful but i have a lot of time and resources to fix this up. So heres the plan for now. redo the body mounts and POR-15 the frame as a temporary fix until i can find or afford a year correct frame for the body. Re-gear the axles to 4:56 with lockers front and rear, and truss the rear and put sleeves in the 30 for added strength. Now since CJ5s are known to be top heavy when lifted and not to stable i figured id go for a low profile build. On my TJ i had a Twisted customs Front hood and grill which allowed me to run 37s with no lift. So i figured i would go with the same thing for this build. Put the Twisted customs hood and grill up front and keep the factory height springs. I figured the the TC hood would allow me to run at least 35s with no lift.
Tell me what you guys think about my plan so far. any problems? your ideas would are greatly appreciated as this is my first CJ build
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budget CJ5 build
