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06/19/2009
Just got into the jeep thing. My grandfather had a 78
cj-7 which fosters some memories. I just bought a 69
cj-5 that I plan to model (style wise) after his old
jeep. When I got my jeep, it was completely rusted
through. You could see the street from sitting in the
back looking through the floor. The two seats in the
front were bolted to a metal fence post that was only
lodged into place. There is no exhaust after the
manifold. Most of the gauges are faulty. The front
right fender is beyond repair and rusted. The front
left fender is bent but fixable with some heat. It was
covered in mud from all inside the engine compartment
to every inch of the undercarriage. The good news is
that it starts and stays started. If it had brakes, it
would be driveable. The first thing I had to do was
remove everything that might be destroyed by water so
that I could attempt to wash this beast. Afterwards I
washed with a pressure washer everything that looked
like it might have mud on it and the mud turned out to
be clay and was very resistant. I still was able to
manage to get most of it mud free. Then I took out the
rear floorboard because grinding it down even would
have been pointless. I would have ground right through
it. I then used a drill and a coarse wire brush and
de-rusted the entire back half of the frame and the
removed roll bar, and then used Rustoleum's anti-rust
metal primer to paint both. I finished with Rustoleum
anti-rust enamel.
I am not at the point where I can begin moving forward
instead of backwards in terms of restoring things. I
just found the wheelhouses online and will wait to
order those until my next paycheck entirely too far
from now. That will free up the framework to begin
welding the floor and other components into place. To
waste time until then, I am taking the paint off of the
exterior.
I never have done this intense of work before so the
learning curve is quite steep. I had to acquire tools
$$$ and then get some parts like the rear floor panel
and then get some more tools $$$. I have now a
flux-core wire welder. Grinder with multiple
attachments, drill for things like the wire brush, body
repair hammers and stabilizers, tin snips, wire
cutters, etc.
Thats pretty much where I am at this point. I'll keep
you updated. ...
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