Jeep CJ-5 - Project Hatari The $13 Jeep

When Cappa and I came up with the title to this story, I had only sold off about $80 worth of parts, but I suppose I should start at the beginning.

It all started when one of my buddies asked if I wanted a CJ-5. His dad had sold the land the Jeep was occupying and it had to go. It was free even though it had a 225 Buick V-6, a T-14a/Spicer 18 combo, an offset Dana 44 with one-piece shafts, and a perfect windshield frame. The catch was that the Jeep had been jumped hard and put up broke. In the interim between its moth-balling and my entrance into its life, the seats, rear floor and wheeltubs, tailgate, fenders, and hood had all been removed. Now, I should mention that at this time, I already had eight vehicles and needed another like a hole in the head, so naturally I loaded the thing on my trailer and surprised my wife with yet another lawn ornament.

The Pile O' 5
I put the CJ-5 on the side of my house for about a month before giving it a really good inspection. Aside from the aforementioned missing body pieces and the complete drivetrain, the Jeep had a mysterious power-steering conversion with a homemade pump mount on the 225 and a really scary steering-box mount welded together from angle iron. The front Dana 27 axle was severely bent, and the frame was severed on the passenger side behind the front spring. This Jeep had definitely been put to rest because of the jump and not any other mechanical reasons, so I was fairly confident the drivetrain would be a runner.

What To Do?
At first I thought I'd try to register the CJ-5 and rebuild it with a resto-wheeler flavor, complete with replacement frame and tub. However, registering it proved harder than I thought. It seems my "Pile o' 5" was a conglomeration of several Jeeps, with no real paperwork for any of them. The tub is a '66 or earlier, as evidenced by the pseudo battery-compartment hatch on the cowl. The windshield is late '60s/early '70s with bottom-mount wipers and the taller glass. The frame and drivetrain are obviously a '70-'7111/42, and the steering column and dash are out of a '72-'75. As I contemplated whether to give the DMV a third try at getting a title so I could register it, finding another CJ-5 to transfer the drivetrain into, or blowing it apart and selling the pieces on the Internet, I stumbled across an online ad for a '71 CJ-6 with a clear title, lots of rust, and a bunch of cool Jeep trinkets.

This is the turd that started... 

   

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This is the turd that started it all. It's got a good Buick 225, old fenderwell headers, a good T-14a and a single-shift Spicer 18. There's no rear floor, the tub is full of Silly Putty, and all those weird angles you see are for real. The front axle and frame are pretzeled.

The best part was that the CJ-6 was an original V-6 model and only needed an engine to be a runner. There was a lot of surface rust, but very little rot. It had a Meyers half cab welded to the tub and various other Meyers top pieces in the bed to make another half cab, part of a CJ-5 hardtop, a CJ-5 replacement floor panel, and a brand new Omix tailgate. Sold!

The $13 Jeep, Or Project Hatari!
I'll admit that I've seen the John Wayne movie Hatari! one time too many. If you've never seen it, go rent it, unless CJ-6s running down rhinos and getting driven so hard you can hear the stuntmen's spines snapping doesn't seem cool to you. While I don't plan on copying the Jeeps used in the movie completely, I do want to make a fun wheeler out of it - with or without a Zebra catching seat on the front fender. It'll have small tires, stock springs, and we'll even keep the Dana 27 for a while.

This month we'll be pulling all the pieces from the CJ-5 we need to make the CJ-6 run and selling off the rest to recoup our investment. In the following months we'll give you a walk-through of the Hatari Jeep and fix everything that needs fixing. Then we'll take it wheeling. And don't feel sorry for the CJ-5. It'll be coming soon to a Coke can near you.

With the tub gone, we yanked...        read full caption With the tub gone, we yanked the entire 225/T-14a/Spicer 18 combo. Since we were fairly sure the CJ-5 was a runner when it was killed and we weren't sure about the CJ-6, we opted to install the complete drivetrain from the '5 into the '6.	Near as we can tell, the '71...        read full caption Near as we can tell, the '71 CJ-6 served out its early life as a Border Patrol rig before winding up in Mexico for a short time. We hit the coin-op car wash and removed 33 years of crud and dirt from the underside. The hardtop was removed with the Miller Plasma cutter shortly after we got it home.	With the CJ-6 coming home...        read full caption With the CJ-6 coming home as Vehicle #10 on the Hazel fun sheet, there was no room for sentimentality concerning the CJ-5. After stripping every nut and bolt that was worth anything off of it, the tub, frame, and front axlehousing went off to the scrap yard.
	With Jeeps coming out of the...        read full caption With Jeeps coming out of the woodwork, we dropped the tranny and T-case out of the CJ-6 so we could easily swing in the 225. We were able to keep the shifter on the T-14a by jacking up the CJ-6 a bit on the side and sliding it out.	We contemplated sanding and...        read full caption We contemplated sanding and painting the engine compartment, but then came to our senses. The Ross cam-and-lever steering is in scary condition, with lots of play at the pitman arm. We'll definitely upgrade it later, but for now we'll keep the street driving to a minimum.
The easiest engine swap in...        read full caption The easiest engine swap in the world took all of 15 minutes, including the removal of the grille. As one would expect, the Buick V-6 bolted right to the factory engine brackets. We later removed the fenders and installed the old fenderwell headers that only required cutting out some firewall metal on the driver side.	Naturally, the driveshafts...        read full caption Naturally, the driveshafts bolted right up, as did the crossmember. The CJ-5's Spicer 18 still had the drum brake on the back, complete with a later-model e-brake lever. The amazing part is how well it still works.	Here's a sneak peek for next...        read full caption Here's a sneak peek for next month. We've already removed the hardtop and put it up for sale. We traded the windshield frame to 4-Wheel & Off-Road's Rick Pw for the shiny under-seat gas tank. Dig the factory dash plaques and stickers. This thing has never been repainted. We're still debating if we want to keep the original mint-bluish-green hue. We'll let you know.