I'm getting really interested in building a rock crawler. What I have to start with is a 1977 Jeep CJ5.
It currently has a 4" sping lift hung from the factory spring mounts. I'm running a Ford 302 with some goodies.
Still has the T150 and original diffs and transfer case on 33x12.50 GY MT's. Put it this way, I drive it on the street most of the time and it's really sharp.

The area I need help in is determining if I should start from scratch and save the CJ or begin planning a build incorporating what I can and go from there. I've had this CJ since 1990 and have driven it weekly since August 1990.
The body is pristene and stays inside unless it's being driven. Also, I'm not new to the 4x4 scene, as I date back to the mid 70's in my experience. I have a lot of tools and have a mechanical background plus being a certified welder. I'm currently employed working in the Information Technology field for a manufacturing company.

Please share with me your experiences planning, building, wheeling, and wrenching your crawlers. it would be a big help.

do you want to build a competition rock crawler, or a recreational crawler. if your goal is to build a competition unit, and you have the skill (which it looks like you do) go from scratch with a tube buggy, as you are going to end up hacking to bits, destroying and rebuilding your cj anyway. if your goal is to have a nice crawler that you can still drive on the road and have fun on the weekends then spruce the little cj up a bit and you will have a very capable off road machine. if you do rebuild the cj, plan on new axles if you are still running the amc 20 in back and the dana 30 in the front. go at least dana 44 front and back with a good locker in each. i assume you have the dana 300 t-case, which can benifit from a tera low 4-1 kit. as for springs, if you can convert to coil or coil overs with 4 link, or find a good spring under leaf like the old man emu stuff. if you go spring over plan on trying to come up with a good axle wrap stopper. that wont limit articulation and lots of front end alignment issues.

it really depends on how extreme you want to go, but the CJ-5 is a good base for a soild rock crawler.