Gary contacted me tonight to ask if I knew which year of jeep body my father used for his CJ-5 rebuild. It was a good question I didn’t know. I’d never studied the Renegade stripes. My research was not exhaustive on this, so please feel free to correct any mistakes.
Based on my review, I believe my Dad’s body came from a 1974 CJ-5. I started with the below picture.
Notice the stripe falls vertically. So, I just had to find a comparable vertical stripe. I just didn’t know how many years jeep produced the stripe. It turned out to be just 1974.
I looked up 1971 and 1972 bodies. During those years the Renegade had a straight stripe that didn’t drop over the side of the cowl as you can see below:
In 1973 the renegade had a straight back, then drop-angled stripe:
Note how the stripe is angled over the cowl and splits. This is a supposed to be a factory photo.
In 1974, the stripe fell straight as seen in these photos:
This is a factory photo.
Possible Late 1974 Style? Notice how the name drops lower. This stripe is being sold on eBay as a 1974/1975 style.
Here’s another example, though this jeep was listed as a 1973 (can’t find the original link). It may actually have been a 1974:
Here’s another jeep listed as a 1974:
In 1975, the style changed to one that dropped, then went straight back.
Those were the last CJs that interested me – I had a buddy who bought the Levi’s CJ5. I still have a back seat up in my parts stash, has Levi buttons. Renault got Jeep in about “85- ’86. They were foreign free a few years in the ’90s if I remember, than Daimler and now Fiat.
The 1973 pictured is not proper.
The “Jeep” indent is lower, meaning a reproduction side panel.
Stripe is not proper. Have a picture in the 1973 data book.
Also, there was a change towards the end of the 1974 models.
1974 models were produced into November 1974, for emission reasons.
Side panels with “Jeep” indent was lower as pictured for the “1973”, (same as
the 1975 model), and the lower part of the stripe was different.
Don’t know if I can find a picture of that, though.
Thanks Dave .. I’d like to make this correct. I was having a hard time finding ’73s.
oops .. I already had a correct ’73 in my files. I’ll insert that.
I’ve updated this. It may be a work in progress . . .
I had a ’66 CJ5 with similar striping, but it did something a little different around the hood latches. I’ll send some pictures to you Dave.
The Jeep indent was lowered starting on jeeps manufactured in June of 1974.
I forgot to mention the windshield frame was painted the body color and not black starting in 1974 sometime before June.
Good info! Thanks!
Mine is a 74 Renegade built in September 73 still had black windshield frame, stripe dropped straight down and the Jeep stamp was higher like 72-73
How many 1974 CJ-5 Renegades were produced with the (510) yellow paint?
Hi David,
Maybe the earlycj5.com forum can answer that? I’ve not run across stats for jeeps with certain paint colors.
– Dave
i have heard somewhere that possibly only 300 74 cj-5 renegades were made with this paint code (510) yellow ??
Wow this is an old thread. 70 was the first year of the Renegade and labeled Renegade I with stripes that ran along the hood and straight back to the cowl/dash. The 71 had basically the same stripe that showed Renegade II on the cowl side. These were the last models for the short fenders and powered by the Dauntless 225. For 72 they dropped the numbering and for the remainder of the Renegade package it simply showed “Renegade” in different spots, fonts, and stripe directions. These all had the AMC 304 V8.
My friend Joey Barkle owns the 74 or 75 Renegade that his folks bought new in Moses Lake still. It was restored a few years ago.