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What should i build

What should i build

Out of my mind CJ5

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74 CJ5
scrap built CJ7
Hi guys, so here's the question. I'm a junior in high school and right now i have two jeeps a cougar an old diesel mercedes and a miata which is my daily driver along with the mercedes. the jeeps are a 74 CJ5 and an 81 CJ7 . both of theese jeeps are completely disassembled and i only have one drivetrain. the cougar is a 71 with a 351 clevelend. i plan to use one of the jeeps for my high school shop project and something else to learn on in college and maybe two if my dad allows it. im going to an automotive school so all the work would be done by myself. my question is what would you all build now and what later. i cant decide and its driving me insane. btw the jeeps both have solid frames and have been painted with por-15. thanks guys in advance
 
That’s a no brainer kid!!

Which one is going to get you the most attention from the girls??
:D
 
That’s a no brainer kid!!

Which one is going to get you the most attention from the girls??
:D

X2

I think the Jeep will have more parts readily available IMO then you just need to decide between the 5 or the 7 then I think it comes down to what do you plan to do with the vehicle use it as a cruise around town when the sun is shining or do youi plan on using it to replace the Mercedes and the Miata and use it as your daily driver. That's my 2 cents.
 
Fix up the cougar for school/college.
Take the diesel out of the mercedes and stuff it in the CJ7 , and run over the miata.
But that's just me, LOL. :)
 
thanks guys but for more background the miata was my first car i bought when i was 15 and i will never sell it after all the work ive put into it. it has a roll bar i put in myself and i powder coated the wheels myself and put a new top on it along with a pair of racinig stripes. this does not look like a little girls car and if i ever saw a girl driving one like it i would propose on spot. the jeep drivetrain i have is a AMC 304 3 speed and both jeeps have their own axles under them. the cougar is a car i bought my dad and snuck home with a rope while he wasnt home to suprise him but he later decided he didnt want it. the mercedes in an 85 300d turbo diesel that we converted to run on veggie oil a couple years ago for my brothers science fair project. the CJ5 i sold a ranger i had to but this for an auto shop project. the 7 was originally bought for some parts but later on decided that wasnt the right option.
 
Well as far as I'm concerned every Miata looks like a little girls car, but if it holds sentemental value then nobody can take that away. I agree with brock. Build up the Cougar for the road and pick a CJ to focus on for the trail. It sounds like you have a few too many toys and not enough discipline to liquidate some of them. Personally, I prefer the 5 look and its distinction. I have one that is being worked on and has seen better days but it's worth the world to me. Anyway, none of us can choose for you its just a matter of what you need/want, what you can afford, and what you have time and effort for. Everyone has opinions on cars and we are no different. I'm sure you will make a good choice no matter what you decide.

Cheers
:chug:
 
If you've got a '74 CJ5 Renegade , by all means use that. The V8/T-15 /Dana 20 drivetrain ain't right for the CJ7 , which was built for a longer drivetrain. The '7 is slightly more comfortable to drive, more room from wheel to seatback, but it really wants power steering - which I doubt you have. The '7 may have those 5-bolt locking hubs, too, while the '5 has the good heavy-duty 6-bolt ones.

That Miata - yeah, it's kinda' fun to drive. I'm not really very impressed with the synchromesh, though. A good hotrodder can overshift it - that's annoying & wrecks the whole mood.
 
Aren't Miatas like fat women?
fun to get into for a drive, but..........................................
 
x2. Perfect solution. :D
Fix up the cougar for school/college.
Take the diesel out of the mercedes and stuff it in the CJ7 , and run over the miata.
But that's just me, LOL. :)
 
haha yea the tranny in the miata isnt the best in the world but i still love it. but back on topic people keep saying the CJ5 is a Renegade . i don't think i mentioned it was. how can you tell. and the 5 has manual steering and the 7 has power
 
and oh yea. i probly do have a few too many toys but one i didnt pay more than 500 for the last three and the mercedes was my brothers he bought to convert to veggie when that was still a new thing and that got him a scholarship and its free to drive now so it more than pays for itself. i don't want to sell any of them because i hear too much how older people always talk about the car they wish they never sold and i don't want to say that. plus i'm studying to open my own shop and if you can show a customer what you could build before you were twenty it would kind of leave an impression on them.
 
All 1974 CJ5s with AMC 304 engines were Renegades - the AMC 304 is what gave 'em the Renegade name. You can hang Renegade decals on it & still be "right".

I'm one of them old guys with a "wish I hadn't sold it" story... I'd love to find that car & see if it's still on the road. I still remember the serial number after all these years...
 
see, thats how i got the cougar. my dad had one in high school and ive heard hom since i can remember say he wish he never sold it. so one day he showed me one like the one he used to own sitting in a field, so while he was gone one day me and my friend went and bought it and towed it home that day with just a tow rope and a jeep, we hid it in the garage and when my dad got home i popped the door to show him what ''just showed up here''. it was great but he later decided he didnt have the time to restore it so he gave it back to me. what was yours
 
Mine was a 1970 AMC Rebel "Machine", in the classic RWB (red, white, & blue) color scheme. 390, T10 manual, Hurst shifter, cold air induction, tach on the hood. I've done 120 in it - a good half the pedal was left, but the tach was redlined. Hot as it was, it was also a great family car when I kept my foot out of it, and I could pull 20mpg highway with it.

Dad bought it & gave it to my sister, who decided it was more than she could handle so she gave it back to him. I bought it from him in 1976 & drive it till about 1992, when my (then) wife demanded that I sell it because she "couldn't stand it". I buckled under the pressure & sold it...

...but later I divorced her, too. :) :) :)
 
wow, sorry to hear about the wife, and the car. so see tho thats my goal and i can see how many people think its dumb but its my money and my life
 
Of the two (car & wife), the car was the only loss. :)
 
haha ok then. what does everybody think of putting the wider axles from the 7 under the 5 along with the dropped pitman arm for the SOA
 
Wow you guys were rich when i was 15 i had just graduated school and started my apprentiseship at Rolls Royce i was earning 27 pounds a week as a 1st year apprentise equivelant to 87 dollars a week american

Cars were out of my pricerange so i rode a bicycle till i saved up enough to buy a motercycle and the insurence on that took 3 months to save for plus the tax disk and inspection was another months wages gas at that time in england was 1 pound a gallon so i was gratefull the distances were small

Still it cost me 7 pounds a week to travel to work wich left me 20 pounds i paid 12 pounds to my parents for room and board that left me 8 pounds to live on tobacco was 1 pound a pouch so 2 pints at the pub was my limit on friday night plus 2 oz of tobacco for the week

Go figure and theres me building Rolls Royce vehicles for people that had more money than i could ever dream about just the insurence on those was 2.000 pounds in the 70s Still as they said if you have to ask you obiviosly cant afford it
 
i got my first job a few days after i turned 10 helping my dad's company clean up houses after they had been remodeled. i'm broke now lol
 

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