After a great deal of pondering and plotting, I decided to start my restoration early. So much so that I actually went and changed my restoration countdown on the right hand side to show December 17th as the day for starting. The plan was simple, I would get the thing started and running for a fun day of driving on my day off, go running through the desert, driving around town, and generally just having fun. Then, Saturday would be a day of draining fluids and starting to pull off some of the easy accessories into Sunday.

That would have been all well and good, except the weather turned for the worst and I’ve been unable to go out and do what’s necessary to even get a drive around the block done. Aside from the rain and wind, which make driving a little open air vehicle like this less than optimal, it’d also be a real bummer to get sick on my birthday. So, I’ve decided to give it one more chance, I’ll try and get it up and running on my next day off on the 22nd, and if that either doesn’t work out I’ll just start tearing it down then. Otherwise, I’ll start after a few hours of playing in the Jeep, before I get down to business.

The good new is, I have some new parts thanks to birthday presents. I got a brand new front bumper, rear crossmember, fuel line system, and some nice original hose clamps for the air crossover tube. The bumper and crossmember are just the thing for when I finally get down to the frame and start the reconstruction portion of the project. I for one, can’t wait.

After way too many weeks, I finally finished the latest batch of small parts. The master cylinder inspection plate, transmission inspection plate, and both the transmission and transfer case shift boot retention rings have been sand blasted, primed, and painted. I also got brand new shift boots since the ones that were “there” for the most part where all but destroyed.

Poor Ike started out with this on the floorboard:

Under all that old metal was a little bit or rubber and a very torn transmission shift boot:

Then after sand blasting:

And now reinstalled:

Unfortunately I found out the hard way that my transmission shifter had been modified at some point in the past. The original shifter would have either had a threaded 5/16″ end, or a small extension that came out of the top that is about 1/4″ for the shift knob. When I looked at my shifter, the knob, which isn’t the right one, was held on with threads, but the end wasn’t actually threaded. Without knowing that the push-on style was 1/4″ or so, I figured I needed the push on.

After receiving the parts yesterday, I noticed that there was no way for this shift knob to go onto the shifting rod. Looking closer, it appears that my shifter was originally a push-on, but that at some point the tapered end either broke off or was ground off and a larger threaded knob was forced on. I’m going to stick with what I have for now, but I may end up having to look at other alternatives when it comes time to finish the restoration. For now, the incorrect knob will be used.

The next parts and pieces to get the blast and paint treatment will be the door channels and eyelets that I took off a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I ran out of sand before I could finish blasting them, and Harbor Freight hasn’t had any in stock the few times I’ve gone to replenish the stock.

Hopefully the weather will ease up a bit and I’ll be able to take Ike out in the desert for a quick run this weekend.

Ike’s first oil change, they grow up so fast

Well, maybe not the first oil change, but certainly the first oil change in a long while. After owning Ike for only a few months, it was time to give him a good old fashioned oil change.

Some observations: the drain plug is HUGE compared to what I am used to. The bolt head is over an inch across, and needless to say I didn’t have any proper tools to get the bolt off. I ended up having to use a pair of channel locks to get around the large bolt head. Also, with the amount of crud in the oil, I’m surprised it ran at all to be honest. If I had known how bad the oil was, I probably would have changed it sooner.

The change began innocently enough, drove the Jeep around to get it nice and warm, backed it into the empty garage, and started looking for a way to jack it up. That was the first hurdle. With the tight quarters on a CJ-3A, Willys-Overland put the drive train off center and on the passenger side. This means that the front and rear differentials, instead of being at the center of the Jeep, are off to one side. The side-drop is more pronounced on the front axel so I lifted it from as close to the center as possible and quickly got it on jack stands. The rear differential is closer to center and lifted it evenly enough that everything was good.

After wrestling with the drain plug, all 4 quarts of oil came rushing out pretty quick. I guess a near one inch hole doesn’t allow for much resistance. While the oil continued to slowly drip out of the pan, I turned my attention to the oil filter. Most modern vehicles, with some exceptions like my 4 cylinder Chevy Cobalt, the oil filter screws onto the bottom of the engine. This presents an interesting removal as oil comes streaming down your hand when you take it off. Ike, on the other hand, has a partial flow oil filter that sits above the engine block with a very large cartridge filter.

When I removed the filter, I noticed that the oil wasn’t draining out of the oil filter holder like it should. Using a nasal aspirator, I pulled the oil out and saw that there was quite a bit of built up crud at the bottom. I scratched at it a bit with a flat blade screw driver and couldn’t believe how much was down there. No wonder the oil wasn’t draining away!

After a thorough cleaning, the filter went back in with a quart of oil all to itself. Another 4 quarts went into the crank case.

While I had Ike up on jacks, I decided to check the oil level in the transmission, front, and rear axels. The axels were ok, but the transmission and likely the transfer case are very low. I’ll be remedying that in a few weeks. The final thing I had to do was replace the broken engine ground strap. With a new strap and mounting hardware, and a few clever ways of getting around various components, the strap was installed.

Ike was lowered, started, and ran for a little while to let the oil circulate through the system. One interesting thing to come of this was how easily the engine started. That ground strap made a huge difference. I’m also not disconnecting the battery for now to see if it will keep a charge now. Hopefully I won’t have an issue with that.

Well, I had some pretty high hopes for Ike this weekend. While I didn’t accomplish nearly as much as I was hoping to get done, I did fill the weekend pretty successfully.

My weekend offroading adventure ended up getting cut out completely. Saturday went from being a offroading day with some sand blasting, to being a day of relaxation with some sand blasting thrown in. Due to the high heat this weekend, inside with the AC on was really the only tolerable place to be. Sunday I went down to the Pomona Antique Auto Swap Meet, which was a total bust when it came to Jeeps and Jeep related parts. Was still fun seeing some of the other vehicles though.

The sand blasting itself took a really long time to make happen. The new air compressor got its first real use, and boy does 33 gallons take a long time to get up to pressure. The good news is the large size meant that I was able to do a decent amount of blasting without having to wait long periods of time to get the pressure back up. The side-view mirror bracket was my target, and it came out very well all things considered. The only problem was that the amount of prep time and clean up time greatly outweighed the amount of time cleaning metal parts, but such is the problem when you are trying not to tear too much off before the restoration.

The side view mirror was one of the points where an immediate restoration was necessary to keep driving the vehicle. Ike came with only the side-view mirror as the inside rear-view mirror was an option. While I’ve added that “option” the side mirror is an iconic piece of Willys Jeep hardware.

Unfortunately, the side view mirror head had a stripped tension screw that is not easily fixable. The mirror itself was also rather scratched. I may look at doing a full restoration of the mirror head later, but when I first got Ike I was looking more to get it more drivable. I purchased a reproduction side view mirror replacement which included the cowl bracket, arm, and mirror head. The bracket itself was no where near a “bolt on replacement” as all the bolt holes where in the wrong place.

Next, the arm was a thin piece of metal that couldn’t stay still during Jeep vibrations, but more importantly wouldn’t stay steady enough with air movement while the Jeep was in movement. Hardly what one would call an effective mirror. I blasted down the mirror arm, found and with the help of a friend fixed a stress crack, sanded, primed, and painted the arm.

Now with the arm in better condition, I took the cowl bracket off and went to work on cleaning it up. I still need to sand, prime, and paint it, but that will have to wait for next weekend. I also need to get a few more pieces to complete the installation. I blasted the old bolt, but if I can find a nice grade 8 replacement then I’ll go with that. I also am out of the 9/16″ grade 8 washers, so I’ll need to get some more of those as well. For now, here is some progress:

Wow, has it really been more than a month since my last post?

Part of the problem with having a Jeep pending restoration is that finding tasks that don’t keep it out of commission completely is rather difficult. After all the work I have done to this point, Ike is roadworthy and isn’t in dire need of much of anything right now.

That lack of need came at just the right time. One of the things that has kept me from enjoying Ike is the start of a new job. This new job has a very good point and a not so good point. One great part of the new job is that I am making more money, and that means more money for Ike’s restoration. However, it also pulls me away from home more in that I have 2 hours of driving every day to get there and back.

So, aside from the small changes and improvements to Ike, I’m in a mode where I’m building up a restoration funds coffer,  so when March comes around I can get some real work done.

However I did have to make one semi-big, albeit not entirely Jeep dedicated purchase. To go along with my sand blaster purchase from a few months ago, I now have my own air compressor. This should help greatly in getting some work done without having to borrow a compressor from my dad.

So now that I have that, expect a post within the next week regarding my side-view mirror replacement/restoration.

Today I did something that I finally realized I needed to do: add a cup holder.

Now I know what you might be thinking. A Jeep shouldn’t have a cup holder, it’s not the way Toledo intended it. Well, here is my defense. I like to drive Ike to and from work. Some mornings, I’ll stop at Starbucks and get a coffee before I go in. After spilling my coffee all over Ike, I decided something had to change.

So, I did a search and found that someone at 1942MB had already figured out the least invasive and most usable way to add one. So, I ordered a cup holder off of Amazon and installed it. I must say, it’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but it does a fantastic job. And since I didn’t need to do any modifications to the Jeep to get it installed, and it’s easily removable, this modification can carry through to my final restoration and the Jeep can still be considered “stock”.

At some point I’ll put the cup holders in the tool compartment, once I have a tool compartment to put it in, and that way I only have to pull them out when necessary.

Also, thanks to a good friend and his family, I got the original side view mirror arm welded up. After doing my sand blasting the other day I noticed that the arm had a crack in it where it meat the cowl mount. Now that it’s welded up, I can get it sanded again, primed, and painted. Once that’s done, I’ll also pull of the mount from the side of the jeep and get it cleaned, blasted, sanded, primed, and painted. I’ve already got the new mounting hardware, so I should be good to go with putting a useful mirror back on the side.

I purchased a “reproduction” mirror from a parts site online because the mirror head had a broken tension screw and wouldn’t stay put. So when the part came, I was sorely disappointed with the material, build quality, and the overall sturdiness of the part. Even the “mounting bracket” it came with didn’t line up properly with the existing holes in the cowl. So, I will restore the bracket like I did the arm, and then just use the new mirror head. It should have a much better overall result, I think.

After what seems like an eternity, Ike is finally back up and running again. To recap, a few weeks ago, Ike had a little cooling problem. After getting the 60 year old radiator rodded out, purchasing a used thermostat housing, radiator hoses, new thermostat, retaining ring, bolts, hose clamps, and thermostat gasket, as well as blasting, sanding, priming, and painting the radiator shroud, Ike is back together. Everything was put back together with brand new bolts, nuts, and washers as well.

Here is a look at the fan shroud before and after blasting, priming, and painting:

The radiator before and after:

And then with everything back together:

After a slight scare when it first started running with the thermostat not opening, a quick rid around the block got everything humming along quite nicely. I even ran down to the gas station to top off the tank, which apparently is important.

After a few weeks of purchasing parts, waiting for them to arrive, and doing lots of sand blasting, sanding, priming and painting, I’m only a few steps away from having Ike back together and running.

After getting back the radiator, I ordered a new thermostat housing. After getting the new part, prepping, and painting it, I am very glad that I did. The differences are astounding. The fan shroud isn’t quite done yet, it needs a second coat of pain on the front and a first and second coat of paint on the back before it will be ready, but that will come along and be ready by tomorrow evening I hope.

I also learned quite a bit about sand blasting. Walnut shells are great at removing paint, but not much else, but aluminum oxide fills that need nicely. Unfortunately, I ran out of the aluminum oxide 20 minutes before Harbor Freight closed. The next morning I was back up and running, finished blasting the fan shroud clean and got the original side-view mirror arm blasted. After blasting the mirror arm I found a crack about 1/2″ at the base that will need to be repaired before going back on.

After the blasting was done, I wet sanded the shroud and arm. The shroud started to flash rust a little after it was done, so I dried it with a leaf blower, then did a light coat of primer to keep it nice. A second coat of primer sealed it nicely, and the first coat of paint is bringing it back to it’s original good looks (for a fan shroud).

Unfortunately, today I ran into an issue while checking that I had everything ready for re-assembly. Apparently, it completely slipped my mind that I would need new bolts to attach the new thermostat housing to the block. After looking through everything I got, I realized the parts list I am using has the cooling system from the thermostat housing to the water pump listed separately from the thermostat assembly, with the assembly being listed with the engine group and the rest of the cooling system listed under cooling. Since I hadn’t even looked at that page, I never thought of getting the 3 new bolts. And, just my luck, I find this out at 7pm on the Sunday before Memorial Day.

So, I think after I get all my parts painted, I’ll put everything back in its place on Ike with the exception of the thermostat assembly and then I’ll make a special trip to get the proper bolts. I may also try and clean the current bolts which aren’t too bad and see if I can get it together tomorrow and replace the bolts at a later time.

So I guess the moral of this little adventure is to always overbuy blasting media and/or start your blasting early enough in the day that you can run and get more if you need to, don’t paint in the windy desert, and always check your bolts before trying to put your Jeep back together.

“Thar she blows!”

Today was a “must drive the Jeep” day. Due to some minor issues on my primary car, I had my dad take it into the dealer for some warranty repairs. So, with the daily driver out of commission, I had a perfect excuse (as if I needed one) to drive Ike to work today. With the slightly warmer weather and longer daylight hours, today was the first drive to work where I didn’t need lights and gloves to get to work in one place.

After work was done for the day, I decided to run to my sister’s house to pick her up for a little sibling time while I went to get a tank of gas. By the time I was pulling down her street, there was a loud noise coming from the engine compartment. The noise sounded a little like a grinding noise. Unfortunately, the noise didn’t stop when I did, so I knew it was something else. I turn off the engine and run to the front of the vehicle only to find steam and water shooting out of the passenger side of the hood.

After releasing the soaking hood catch, I lifted it to find a whistling radiator overflow vent with rusted water spewed all over the inside of my engine compartment, hood, fender, and wheel well. Apparently rusted water does not a good coolant make. With the increased outside temperature and the additional driving I did at the end of the day, I think it was just enough to put the cooling system past its ability to work efficiently. The real kicker is that I was just talking to a radiator guy today to get pricing for re-coring the radiator in preparation for re-doing the cooling system this weekend.

So now my next parts order which was going to include a few cooling parts and a few other parts has turned almost entirely to a new cooling system. The radiator will either be re-cored or it will be roded out(?), pressure tested, and repaired, a new thermostat will be installed with a new retainer and gaskets, and brand new radiator hoses will top it off. Hopefully all that will be enough to keep me running for a little while longer.

Got a wonderful present on the doorstep today. My first parts order! Needless to say I was a little like a kid who woke up on Christmas Eve hearing Santa at the tree.

After finishing digging up the sprinklers in the back yard, and going out to dinner, I got to go install my new parts. So, what did the old guy get?

1. I already put these on since they came a few days before the rest of the parts, but brand new hood blocks with proper screws as Toledo intended. The old blocks (original?) were very worn down. As you can see in the picture, they were much shorter than the prescribed height, and as a consequence are also much wider after years of compression. The hardware holding the blocks to the hood, while the correct size, were heavily rusted and had the wrong head on it. The 3/8ths hex bolt and nut were replaced with the proper 10-24 round head phillips with #10 washer, #10 lock washer, and 3/8ths hex bolt, just as it was nearly 60 years ago.

2. Brand new side view mirror. The old mirror arm was in fairly good condition, but the hardware and the actual round mirror piece were very warn. The mirror itself wouldn’t stay in place at all, and the tension screw was stripped beyond repair. The new arm leaves a little to be desired and is far more of a temporary thing to give me a mirror than a permanent installation. The metal used in it, besides it’s non-original telescoping build, is far too thin and I had to shim it into the bracket to make it fit. Far from an ideal installation, but it’ll do until the final rebuild.

3. Finally, a rear view mirror. Unfortunately, much like the side view mirror, it’s hardly original. You can kinda tell in the picture that there are 3 small holes on a triangular head that attach the mirror to the windshield frame. While that may work for later model Jeeps (or maybe this is just a generic one?), it’s hardly the one that belongs on this guy. I just need to find the right rear-view stem.

4. No pictures of this (didn’t see it as necessary), but I also replaced the radiator cap. The old one was fairly rotted, and was even missing half of the gasket. I kept the old cap, not entirely sure why, but I figured I’d keep it around for a while.

I’ve got more parts in the box, but I think those will wait until the weekend for an install. The new spark plug wires will help I’m sure. I’m debating on weather or not to install the new ignition switch when I do the replacement light switch, or if I should just hold on to all of those for the re-wire at the end of the rebuild. Decisions, decisions…

On a side note, the seller let me know the Willys’ original name was Eisenhower while it was on the Avocado ranch. I think I’ll stick with that, but instead shorten it to Ike. I like Ike.