Just got into the jeep thing. My grandfather had a 78 cj-7 which fosters some memories. I just bought a 69 cj-5 that I plan to model (style wise) after his old jeep. When I got my jeep, it was completely rusted through. You could see the street from sitting in the back looking through the floor. The two seats in the front were bolted to a metal fence post that was only lodged into place. There is no exhaust after the manifold. Most of the gauges are faulty. The front right fender is beyond repair and rusted. The front left fender is bent but fixable with some heat. It was covered in mud from all inside the engine compartment to every inch of the undercarriage. The good news is that it starts and stays started. If it had brakes, it would be driveable. The first thing I had to do was remove everything that might be destroyed by water so that I could attempt to wash this beast. Afterwards I washed with a pressure washer everything that looked like it might have mud on it and the mud turned out to be clay and was very resistant. I still was able to manage to get most of it mud free. Then I took out the rear floorboard because grinding it down even would have been pointless. I would have ground right through it. I then used a drill and a coarse wire brush and de-rusted the entire back half of the frame and the removed roll bar, and then used Rustoleum's anti-rust metal primer to paint both. I finished with Rustoleum anti-rust enamel.
I am not at the point where I can begin moving forward instead of backwards in terms of restoring things. I just found the wheelhouses online and will wait to order those until my next paycheck entirely too far from now. That will free up the framework to begin welding the floor and other components into place. To waste time until then, I am taking the paint off of the exterior.
I never have done this intense of work before so the learning curve is quite steep. I had to acquire tools $$$ and then get some parts like the rear floor panel and then get some more tools $$$. I have now a flux-core wire welder. Grinder with multiple attachments, drill for things like the wire brush, body repair hammers and stabilizers, tin snips, wire cutters, etc.
Thats pretty much where I am at this point. I'll keep you updated.