25 Days — Gotta love long weekends

One of the benefits of a three day weekend is that I can fill up a normal weekend with being social and doing work around the house, and still have the better half of a day to get some work on Ike done. Last weekend I was able to get the hood and one of the fenders off as well as a few other small pieces. Today, I was able to move the Jeep out into the garage a little bit and got the other fender off, the windshield glass removed, the windshield frame, and the two front seats. A few other small items were also removed while I was at it.

One of the issues that I ran into last episode was the passenger side fender. The battery had, at some point, leaked battery acid all over the inside. Aside from rust on the sheet metal, it also had seized some of the bolts. Luckily the air ratchet gave me the additional torque I needed to get the bolt to start moving. The bolts holding the fender support are behind the tire, and the passenger side fender is also bulged to make room for the battery. Those two things gave me little to no room to get enough force on the bolt to get it to move. After a few minutes, I was finally backing it out. Much to my surprise, this is what the bolt looked like when it finally came out.

Needless to say, a bolt shouldn’t look like that. I’m fairly surprised that of all the bolts I’ve removed over the last few weeks, I’m most surprised that this one didn’t snap off. Since I have Ike up on the dollies right now, it was also fairly simple to get the oil drained. Right before I came in for the day, I removed the giant drain plug to let it slowly drain over night. I’m hoping that a good amount of the oil in the oil filter canister will drain as well so I don’t have to go sucking it out again. So, 25 days after the restoration started, here is what Ike looks like. Next up is to drain what’s left of the gas, remove the steering wheel and gauges, and then it’s time to get the body off and see what the frame looks like. I’m really hoping it looks as good on top as it does from the bottom.