N8's 80 CJ5

[N8CJ5V8]

I bought a 1980 CJ5 from a government seized auction for $700 around 1998 or so?  It had a 4 cylinder, 4spd, some 31?s a new soft top with doors a bad paint job with lots of bondo.

Here's some of the parts the new build will have. Kingpin Dana 60 front (wms 63.5?) welded, 14bolt (wms63.5) rear w/Detroit/disk brakes, 40? Creepy Crawlers, full hydro steer?  

In the thread I'm including what I've already done, mostly because I have a lot of pictures and some people will find it useful info such as a small block swap...   If you would like more info on something I did, let me know.   I'm posting this up to share and get some feedback, good or bad.     I'll try to get thru what's already been done fairly quickly and get caught up to its current state and the new rebuild.    
Here's some pictures of the Jeep when I got it; and a picture just before the new rebuild.  

[N8CJ5V8]

It mostly sat for years before I started any major build to it.  I drove it out to Glamis and Gordon?s a few times, a few fire roads, but nothing too extreme. 

By now I?m pretty much hooked on this ?Jeep thing?   .   I then decided I wanted to start building it . The little four banger just wasn?t cutting it anymore and the transmission was grinding between shifts and would not hold first gear .   The plan was to drop a small block Chevy 350 and th350 into it and keep the Dana 300, and the swap went fairly smooth.  Here?s a picture with a new primer paint job, 4 inch lift, hack fender trim and ready for the new motor, and the old one.  

[N8CJ5V8]

And the motor getting dropped in.   I got a 350 from a 78 Caprice and then a rebuilt trans along with an Advanced Adapter to go between the new trans and my original Dana 300.   

[N8CJ5V8]

Motor and trans are in and now rolling on a new set 33?s and black steels.  These pictures were taken in May of 2003.

[N8CJ5V8]

New custom exhaust and headers.

[N8CJ5V8]

Once I got it running and drivable I eventually got lockers, gears, shafts.., which I eventually all broke at least once while wheeling it.  Here's some pictures of it just getting trail worthy.  Some of you might know where these are?

[N8CJ5V8]

I wheeled the heck out of it, and it did great for what it was?   I must have changed the suspension around about a dozen times, but got it working really well towards the end .  I also stepped up to some 35 inch Baja Claws, although they ran small they worked really well .  I spent four days on the Rubicon with it like this and no problems. 

[JustChad]

Awesome job!! Looks good!! 

[N8CJ5V8]

Thanks!    I can't wait to wheel it again  
I'll post more later.

[Mikegyver1]

How is the rebuild going?

[N8CJ5V8]

It's getting there... Just trying to collect parts still, almost ready to slap the axles on and get it rolling again.   

[N8CJ5V8]

I eventually got my own welder and made my own bender.
I then went to town on little projects, fenders, belly pan, shock hoops, dove-tail, boat-sides, stinger and caged it up more.    

[N8CJ5V8]

boat-sides

[N8CJ5V8]

dove-tail

[N8CJ5V8]

and later... it pretty much looked like this...

[N8CJ5V8]

Until this happened in Oct. out at Superstition.

[N8CJ5V8]

Shortly after this my wife and I had our second baby girl, so money and spare time were tight.  I eventually got some new axles.  David Wymore hooked me up with a set of one ton chevy axles.  A kingpin 60 and a 14 bolt.

[N8CJ5V8]

I cut the front dana 60 by 6 inches so it would match the rear 14 bolt. Orginally was 69.5 now gonna be 63.5.
Once I got the rest ready our one and only MT put down a nice weld for me.

[N8CJ5V8]

For the 14 bolt I swapped on dual wheel hubs and shortened it to 63.5 by doing so.  I then did a disk brake conversion using 3/4 ton front chevy rotors, El Dorado calipers and pads and a '81 Corvette master cylinder.  I also shaved an inch off the bottom of the diff.  It already came with 4:56's and a Detroit.

[N8CJ5V8]

For wheels I went with some Crager soft 8's, 17x8's.  For tires I got a deal on some 40 inch Maxxis Creepy Crawlers, the 0762 compound