It seems like I have been working on this stupid side view mirror forever. I guess that is what happens though when there aren’t any other pressing matters. It also helps that the side mirror doesn’t make the thing un-drivable, especially since the repro one was so useless, not having it seems to be an improvement.
Today I was finally able to get all the bracket pieces primed and painted. The 100º weather certainly helped speed drying times along. Hopefully tomorrow all the pieces will be nicely hardened and ready for installation.
While waiting for paint to dry, and activity that I assure you was thrilling to say the least, I started looking more at Ike’s body (that sounded dirty). After seeing how good other restorations have come out with a highly skilled welder, I wanted to do a little investigation to see just how much of the body would have to be replaced.
Holy cow, there are a lot of extra holes all over the place.
Ike had both the benefit and the — misfortune let’s call it — of being a working Jeep. I get that Jeeps are work vehicles, especially these Universal Jeeps of the 40’s and 50’s. The fact that Ike got used in a lifetime of work makes me happy. Unfortunately, with that work came the need to make various “on the job mods” to get that work done. It seems that in a past life, there was a very big need to attach lots of small things all over Ike. I counted at least 16 extra screws and bolts in the windshield frame alone. I’m not going for a trailer queen restoration, this Jeep will be run, used, and offroaded, but at the same time, that many holes seems excessive to say the least. I’m sure each one has a story though that will forever be lost to the ages.
I didn’t end up with a good enough look at the body condition to decide on its fate, but I did see more holes than I had ever noticed before all over the body. Maybe when I get the mirror put back on I’ll take a closer look at the body and see if I can’t figure something out about it’s disposition. For now I’m hoping that I can find some time tomorrow to get this mirror back on so I can start my next small project.
They are speed holes, each one adds .5 MPH. 🙂