Yep, no photos, what a dummy. It just wasn't around long enough to take
any and I was too stupid to carry a camera with me.
I found a 1979 CJ5 on the Internet located in Ohio (again). The price was right
for what I wanted. Another CJ5 frame, this time fully boxed with little to no
rust. The engine was a 1998 4.3 Chevy Vortec V6 mated to a Chevy 350
transmission and a Dana 20 transfer case. The body tub was completely rusted but
it had many saleable items like the axles, wheels, tires, hood, windshield, roll
cage and grill plus a lot of other miscellaneous items.
Next step was to take both Jeeps down to Jeep builder extraordinaire John Toumbs
of John Toumbs Repair in Mount Sterling, Illinois. He stripped both jeeps down to dozens
of individual parts. The good, the bad, and the ugly were sorted, categorized,
sold off or stored for future use.
The frame was in pretty good shape for being 20 years old but it still need
restoring and some welding. The old body and shock absorber mounts needed
removal and new mounts fabricated and welded in place. Enter Larry Schultz of
Shultz Custom Welding - another Jeep guru and welding artist. Larry fabricated
some beautiful body mounting points. Welded and fabricated so well you would
think they belonged on the frame of a Rolls Royce. Larry was a tremendous help
in just how you go about attaching an MB body to a CJ5 frame. After Larry was finished
it was on to the frame re-finishing.
Next Page -
The Frame
[The Start]
[First Parts]
[1979
CJ5] [The Frame]
[The Body]
[Body
meets Frame] [Toumbstone] [Extra
Seat Room] [Blocker and Tanker]
[Brakes
and Steering] [Test Drives]
[Details] [Incremental
Willys]
[Incremental Willys Part II]
[Incremental Willys Part III]
[She's getting old]
[Still the best damn
wheeler]
[Timeline]
[Specifications]