Surprisingly, I had some time this Friday to get a little work on the Jeep in. After removing the hood, I got to work on the items attached to the fenders. I was very surprised at how clean and nice the inside of the voltage regulator was. The outside was certainly deceiving. The horn was also removed and the bubba bracket I made for holding the glass fuel filter. The driver side fender came off fairly easily. However, when I went to work on removing the passenger side fender, I realized I was parked far too close to the other…
Comments closedCategory: Restoration
Finally got some time today to work on the Jeep. The goal today was to get the grille, radiator, fan shroud, and the fenders and attached hardware off. Unfortunately, the cold and the need to prepare the other Jeep for transport to storage cut me just short of being able to free up the fenders. Once I get the fenders off, I’ll work on getting the rest of the body ready for removal. The goal is to get the down to a frame that I can take to get blasted by the end of the month. Hopefully a doable goal…
1 CommentIke got his Christmas gift a bit early this year. Joining him in the garage for the time being (until I can figure out where else to put it) is another 1950 CJ-3A! Now, it’s not exactly a “finished” gift and instead is more of a parts donor. With two axles for backup, newly rebuilt transfer case, good transmission, great looking grille, hood, and tailgate, it’d got plenty of good source parts. Among other things, I also got a very good pair of dual vacuum wipers, a new pushrod and a second starter, a good spare radiator, era-correct replacement speedometer,…
Comments closedToday is a big day for Ike and myself. The rain finally stopped yesterday, and with a whole day (so far) without a drop falling from the sky, I figured I might try and get Ike running again for a quick tromp through the desert. Unfortunately, Ike had other plans for me. Aside from the dead battery (again), the thermostat housing had leaked enough coolant to completely fill (and overfill) the number two spark plug well. I drained it by wicking up the fluid with a paper towel and began checking other areas of the engine. After about an hour…
Comments closedAfter 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…
1 Comment…to bring you a possible change to the time frame. That’s right, I’m getting restless. Ike is a fantastic and fun Jeep. I am consistently impressed with what he can do, even in his 60-year-old, rusted-through, leaking every possible fluid including gas state. He’s like the old man that just won’t give up his independence. Either that, or he’s the old man yelling “I’m not dead yet” when the body cart comes rolling through town. In any event, I’m starting to rethink my time frame for striping Ike down to the frame (you see what I did there?). The only…
2 CommentsAfter 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…
2 CommentsI’m still a ways away from even starting the tear down, but I think I’ve come up with the color that I’ll use for Ike when it comes to doing the body work. Drumroll please…. Potomac Grey! With it not only being a color I was considering, but also the original color of the Jeep, I think it was all but destined to be grey again. Below is a picture of an accurately restored color scheme I found on the CJ-3A page of Mark Struhsacker’s 1949 CJ-3A. Ike’s wheels were definitely red in the past, but I don’t think I’ll…
2 CommentsWith the weather being nice and with the transmission cover already off the Jeep, I decided to do a little cleanup on some of the smaller pieces attached to the body. Along with the transmission cover, I removed the shift boot retaining rings for the transmission shifter as well as the transfer case shifting rods. While I was at it, I took off the master cylinder inspection plate, and then the eyelets and body-side door rails for the canvas top. On the passenger side, this proved especially problematic. The semi-veritcle rail on the left is mirrored on the passenger side.…
3 CommentsOur long national nightmare is over, I have finally completed the restoration of my side view mirror. I originally took the arm off back in April, and slowly (very slowly) restored it as I found time. I must say, for the one restored component externally visible, it looks damn good for being 60 years old. So the arm went from this: To this: And finally this: It may not look like much, but I’m pretty proud of it. Came out much better than I had originally thought it would 🙂
2 Comments