Repli-tub deficiencies

[walkerhoundvm]

Thought it might be good to start a thread with some details on the deficiencies in the steel replitubs. As far as I can tell the replitubs are assembled from the same parts that Omix sources for panels, by the MD Juan company in the Phillipines. They're rebranded by Omix, and you can buy them direct, or "modified" by willys-overland. Allegedly, the willys-overland modded tubs are able to be mounted up in less than an hour.

While that may be true, there are plenty of shortcomings that may or may not matter to a prospective buyer.

1) the rear wheel arches are hand hammered, and take quite a bit of work to get straight. Thought I had a good picture, I'll try to find one later.

2) the spot welds are quite pronounced


As are many of the joinings



3) the holes for the rear tailgate brackets are waaaaay off


4) the bottom holes for the dash are also about 1/2" off


5) the firewall behind the heater box isn't flat, and needed to be cut and patched


I also had to put nutserts in for the dash and windshield bracket. Other than that, there's a few rough edges here and there, but I found the overall dimensions to be pretty darn close to OEM. Overall pretty happy, but just a heads up for those considering a replitub.

 

[certifiablejeep]

Have you tried to put the rear flares on yet? I noticed when I was playing around with one of them that the fit/finish in the overall arch wasn't exact.

cb

 

[walkerhoundvm]

Have you tried to put the rear flares on yet? I noticed when I was playing around with one of them that the fit/finish in the overall arch wasn't exact.

cb

Yes, we were able to get them pretty close. They both took shaving some plastic on the aft end to get them to lay flat. The driver side fit the arch almost perfectly. The passenger side had a little excess metal at the bottom that took about 5min of grinding and beating.

 

[John N]

I’m considering one of their tubs for my M-38 project, I’m wondering just how good/bad they got those?

 

[walkerhoundvm]

Lemme check, I think my builder had/has one on deck.

 

[AdamH]

Just to clarify - is your tub one that was “fixed” by Willys Overland? Or direct from Omix/MD Juan?

 

[walkerhoundvm]

Just to clarify - is your tub one that was “fixed” by Willys Overland? Or direct from Omix/MD Juan?

The one I have is "fixed," but there's an Omix direct one at the builder's location as well.

 

[AdamH]

The one I have is "fixed," but there's an Omix direct one at the builder's location as well.

Thanks. I’m trying to decide which way to go with my Postal. Full new tub and swap out firewalls or try to patch original

 

[walkerhoundvm]

Thanks. I’m trying to decide which way to go with my Postal. Full new tub and swap out firewalls or try to patch original

I went the route I did because the original was unsalvageable - the rear wheel arches were rusted completely and swelling, the cabin floors were in the same condition. The rest of the tub was under about 8 layers of paint and primer. Despite all the work it's taken (I need to add it all up, but we're looking at probably 60hrs/$3-4k in body work and prep to get it to the point of painting) in addition to the cost of the tub ($5kish), I think it's been worth it. The alternative was searching for an OEM tub, which has its own costs of course. My biggest concerns - the geometry and having the doors, tailgate, and windshield fitting correctly, were all fine. I've long given up on the idea of originality, and have instead focused on making it exactly what I wanted - cosmetically appealing with a little power underneath.

If your floorboards and rear panels/arches are in good shape, I'd say stick with the original.

 

[Jeeperdd]

I've done a couple repli - tub replacements. I have to say I'm not a fan. Not much on Fiberglass tubs either. The best tub restoration I've done is the aluminum aquala tub. While they are not entirely correct shape wise in the floor and firewall, they are very well built.
Just my two cents.

 

[AdamH]

My Postal is rough - but it's a Postal therefore I want to stick with a steel tub. I don't do fiberglass at all and the Aqualu tub, while nice in theory, would bother me not looking original with the floors, etc.

I had a '76 CJ7 that I ended up replacing almost 75% of the tub and vowed to never do that again unless I had to. Trying to decide on a new tub or fixing the original brought me to this thread.

both sides look like the below pics including the rockers plus both front pans are gone.

 

[walkerhoundvm]

If you don't mind putting in the work, or you have a shop in mind and deep enough pockets,, I think the W-O modified tubs are the way to go for you. The most difficult part will be swapping the firewalls, but there's plenty of metal reshaping and filler to do yet.

 

[ag4ever]

Has anybody done an in depth comparison of the rhd firewall and the lhd firewall?

In looking at my 2 jeeps (not side by side, and only one torn down to a bare tub) they look the same. Well, the same shape. Only real difference I can see is the holes cut into them. The rhd has the steering, brake, battery box, fuse box bulkhead, and other items in totally different locations. But the firewalls look to be the same shape and stamping. I could be totally wrong, but

 

[Dave The Sparky]

I bought a LHD MD Juan tub and made it RHD wasn't too hard to do, its in my original build thread somewhere.
Its the same pressing on the tubs for both LHD and RHD but to do it i drilled all the spot welds out of the strengthening plate where the pedals and steering mount from my RHD tub and re-attached that to the MD Juan tub then plated up the LHD bits to cover the holes and give the firewall some strength.
The hardest part was working out the heater box fixings as they are just in random positions

No experience on the replitubs or the modifications they do as i bought an MD Juan tub direct from the UK Jeep spares suppliers here.
My advice would be if you can weld and have the time and its possible to repair it then use your old tub.
If you cant weld and must have steel then a MD Juan tub is maybe the way to go just dont expect an exact copy of an OEM tub and certainly do not expect to just simply paint it and bolt it on!.
Dont let me put anyone off I am happy with the way mine turned out but would of preferred to have repaired my old tub it just was not economically viable to do so.

 

[ag4ever]

I bought a LHD MD Juan tub and made it RHD wasn't too hard to do, its in my original build thread somewhere.
Its the same pressing on the tubs for both LHD and RHD but to do it i drilled all the spot welds out of the strengthening plate where the pedals and steering mount from my RHD tub and re-attached that to the MD Juan tub then plated up the LHD bits to cover the holes and give the firewall some strength.
The hardest part was working out the heater box fixings as they are just in random positions

Great to hear first hand experience with that! I kept looking at the 2 several weeks back and thinking to myself, why would you go thru the effort replacing the firewall if you could just modify the existing one. Make perfect sense on the reinforcement plate, but even that could be recreated if your original was in poor shape.

 

[AK-RWC]

There was a guy up here who swapped his postal firewall onto an MD Juan tub. Just took time.

 

[CC CJ8]

I also bought one of the 'fixed tubs' and had many of the same issues as noted above, also this on the Passenger side door (Lower hinge mount) .. The holes on the right is where they were supposed to be, the ones of the left is where they drilled through the body.

 

[walkerhoundvm]

I also bought one of the 'fixed tubs' and had many of the same issues as noted above, also this on the Passenger side door (Lower hinge mount) .. The holes on the right is where they were supposed to be, the ones of the left is where they drilled through the body.

Looks like you at least figured that out ahead of time!

 

[CC CJ8]

I only learned from watching others to assemble it first to make sure everything is right, I don't have the patience to do it wrong to many times ! (As I'm on year 2 of the build)

 

[jmarkel]

I'm in the process of reassembling my replacement tub and windshield frame matched with original everything else. It has been a long process with a lot of challenges. The worst is actually that not all the body mounts lined up neatly which required some shifting. The cowl needed a lot of work to clean up, the spot welds, the rear corners at the top lip. The firewall holes (lack thereoff) and other subtle differences. Sometimes I wonder if I would have just been better off keeping the original tub even though it was pretty rotted out....i could have patched it all since I was covering with linex anyway. It looks great now, but has a lot of bondo skimming on it. I used original pieces everywhere else, but the fenders, dash, grill, and tailgate that came with the tub all seemed fine. I don't plan on using them for anything at the moment if someone is interested.