Intro (1 Viewer)

[BlkSheepCJ]

Hi,
39 yr old USMC Vet who loves his wife, daughters, guns, jeeps, and the occasional night of playing COD.
I bought my '73 CJ5 in 2009 and it's been a work in progress ever since.

After rattle canning the body black, rebuilding the 304 and driving it for a few months, I wanted more HP and since the '72 304 is anemic, I decided to go to the drawing board and build what I want.

I found a beat up 5.7 Vortec from a junkyard Yukon, and brought her back to her beautiful beginnings.

Behind her is a '93-'94 NV4500 and Dana 300 with cable shifters, but because the new engine is considerably more powerful, I wanted a longer wheel base, so I cut the frame and welded in a 10" extension to give it CJ7 specs. I bought a new CJ7 body and had all the body parts Line-X'd inside and out. I replaced the front drums with discs, the 32" BFG's I had with 35's, and added 4" suspension and 2" body lifts.

Almost all the work is custom so I've had to learn a lot about welding, electrical, and even some metal fab. Especially when mounting the Yukon steering box to my frame. It's been a hell of a journey making this setup work, but she fires up and sounds sexy so the rest is details to be worked out. If anyone has any tips, or tricks for trouble areas with this build, I'd love to hear feedback. Otherwise, I hope you like the build. Happy New Year

 

[BlkSheepCJ]

Here are a few more pics of the engine when I found it, the frame chop job, the cable shifters etc.

 

[prwillard2]

As a fellow jarhead, just want to say that this forum is for 70 series Land Cruisers, not 1970's jeeps.

Build looks great though! You unfortunately probably won't find much info about building up your jeep here.

 

[BlkSheepCJ]

As a fellow jarhead, just want to say that this forum is for 70 series Land Cruisers, not 1970's jeeps.

Build looks great though! You unfortunately probably won't find much info about building up your jeep here.

I realized that after posting, but since I found this forum after searching for info about mating my 5.7 to the NV4500, I figured, WTH. Best case, someone helps me with my build. Worse case, you guys and ladies can cheat on your Yotas with a little Jeep

 

[FJBen]

 

[bj70bc]

MY EYES....IT BURNS IT BURNS!

 

[bj70bc]

 

[bj70bc]

there is the 'other tech section' though,with other makes ie. jeep

 

[Tigris]

@BlkSheepCJ

Hey, some of my friends drive jeeps!

All jokes aside. Nice craftsmanship. My dislike for jeeps tend to subside a bit the older they get. As others had stated, there are sections on the forum for other makes.

Just out of curiosity: did you use any jigs or fixtures to stabilize the chassis during welding? Or did you do the math to compensate for shrinkage? I'm sure you are familiar with distortion induced by welding.

 

[sodafeld1]

A mountain man mate complained that his troopy didn't perform too well first time on beach dunes recently. I had to agree and that whilst not my fav, a jeep goes better on sand dunes as they are light.

I met a hard core competing rock crawler builder who fabricates trailers as a business, very good welder. He loves his jeeps, pulled a face at my troopy, bit heavy he said.
But lots of lc folks pull there face at jeeps.

we all love what we have, each to their own. but I bet jeep doesn't have something dedicated to the extreme like ih8mud, if you have a cruiser it is like a second home, even accomodating a side dish section for jeep.

Looks like a lot of work and love on that jeep. Well done.
everywhere I have researched about frame repairs, you should cut and weld diagonal, vertical repairs are the direction it will fail, but I know jacksht.

 

[pb4ugo]

Most of my friends I wheel with have jeeps. I've been involved with a lot of mods with them. The biggest weak links n cj's are the dana 30 frt end and the 2 piece rear axles. Moser sells an axle kit for the rear and is relatively inexpensive. It's a simple fix. Or you can find a axles that are 60" wms to wms. That will give you a slightly wider and more stable stance. With the fender flares they look just right. The frt end is a little more involved. The dana 30 is really weak. Most narrow a full size dana 44 frt axle or find one thats 60" wide.

A friend stretched his 75 cj5 10" and it worked out well. He added 10" to the stk door opening. It looked pretty good. I run a sbc, nv4500 in my FJ40. I really like the setup.