1979 CJ5

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

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