Weekend Progress

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: