Been a while . . .

Been a while since I've made any entries, and truth be told, there's been very little to post on with regards to Jeeps . . . . I've made no progress, having many more activities to fill my time with & all progress on the Flattie on hold. However, for December, some activity has finally surfaced! My Dad did the awesome job of getting me a new fuel tank for the Flattie, as the older one we installed kept pluggin up at the outlet line due to rust & debris. So I pulled the old one & proceeded to install the new one, but low & behold, when I went to transplant the fuel sending unit, I found a major contributor to the rust & debris problem; it was a rust popsicle. So, 3 days later & a new sending unit in hand from Krage Motorsports, I go to install it in the new tank, the last item left to complete the fuel system so I can fill the tank & fire up the motor again . . . . but once again, a another challenge reared its head: the bolts from the old sending unit that I matched up with new bolts for the new unit won't fit in the new tank sending unit location! So now, considering I don't care to keep investing in bolts until I find the right ones, I've got several posts out on forums I participate on & an email out to Krage for an answer to get the right size bolts.

THEN, I can finally fire it up & hopefully have no running issues with it. It's now been almost 4 years & I'm ready to finally get to enjoy driving it, rather than just admiring it in my garage. Stay tuned in for further details . . . once this challenge is overcome, the next big challenge is getting it painted, an adventure in itself, given I have a nonexistent budget to do it with.

Well, the latest news is that we've successfully moved to Jacksonville, Florida. The girls are happy, I'm real happy, & Florida is NICE. Have had to change the plans for the restoration projects, however. After getting the painting done successfully on my M38A1 in Memphis, Dad brought my other project, the '47 CJ2A, over & we made a swap just before the move. Given the cost of homes, neighborhood restrictions, etc., I've had to make a decision about which Jeep I can take with me (due to limited storage & no private back yard to hide it from the neighbors) . . . given that Dad & I have spent around 3 years working on the 2A, and I'm so close to getting it finished, I'm taking it with me to work on.

Key items on the list are getting it registered/licensed, getting the seat cushions attached to the frames, & getting the issue with the fuel system fixed. The tank I have has a bad interior, with some debris (apparently rust) that keeps stopping up the the line. I'm trying to find out which will be cheaper . . . having the inside of the tank cleaned & sealed, or just buying a new tank. After that, I'll be on the hunt for someone to do an economical paint job . . . just need someone who knows what they're doing to shoot the paint for me, as I have the paint I want for it (see previous post for a preview). In the meantime, here's some pics of the M38A1 after I painted & reassembled everything, before sending it to the farm with Dad for storage. The reason for the windshield & grill not getting painted are that I have a replacement grill that's in better shape I just didn't have time to swap, & I'm not sure I'm going to keep the existing windshield, as it is a venting windshield . . . military windshields on A1's were not venting, that was a civvie feature. More to come soon!

Seat Cushions for the Flattie

New seat cushions for the flattie . . . . moving along! Now if we can just get it painted, I got the paint in the other day, a beautiful 'Normandy Blue'.





Imagine this without the stars, numbers & with the tire mounted on the side . . .

A Really Drab Day . . . .

Well, I can't say much other than it was a really drab day, today in Memphis . . . . an Olive Drab day, that is. Finally took the jump & painted the jeep today. Can't say I'll be quitting my day job to pursue a career in auto painting, but at least it's painted, and the right color at that.

Progress Continues

Progress continues! I've finished sanding the interior of the tub, with only the dash & steering column left to sand & prime. I've finally gotten all the guages out of the dash plate, so I can get it cleaned up & primed. I began to make some headway on the floor panels, which is going to take some additional time due to the angles & shape . . . there's only so much I can reach with the wire wheel brush on my bench grinder, & will have to sand some of it. I get a little more excited each day as I pass it by in the garage, feeling like I'm finally getting somewhere. I hope to paint it in mid-May . . . looking forward to finally seeing this thing in olive drab again.



Above: Replacement grill looks good & ready for some OD paint.

On another note, want to direct you to a fellow blogger, Roberto Flores, who is doing his own restoration on a flatfender. Not only is he talented when it comes to his restoration, but he's also an accomplished artist. Visit his sight & enjoy! http://thejeeperwarehouse.blogspot.com/

Leaps, Bounds & Crawling

It never fails to follow the classic pattern: sometime you make leaps & bounds in progress, and other times you work at an absolute crawl. I found myself last weekend with some spare time while my beatiful bride & kids were visiting GrumPa & Mema in Texas & managed to make some significant leaps in a few hours. But I get ahead of myself, let me back up to the crawls . . .

I finally did the smart thing & got really organized, at the expense of my bride's stock of Ziplock bags. This has also helped speed up the disassembly process, as now I'm taking things off & bagging them for work later, rather than taking a part off, cleaning it up, priming, then putting aside. It was a great feeling to actually have a large collection of parts put together in an orderly fashion in the "Finished" box, awaiting installation.

Some bounds include getting the seats out & cleanup started on the frames, as well as getting the CJ2A fuel tank installed by a Bubba pulled out. Here's an ugly picture:

Here's an uglier picture: can you identify how many pieces of wood are cobbled together to level the make-do tank?

Finally, here's where I made a serious leap in progress. After removing the seats & tank, I've continued to remove the floor pans, so (1) I can get them cleaned up, primed & ready for re-installation with weatherstripping, & (2) gain better access to the transmission & transfer case to clean up the accumulated grease & dirt of 30 years. This pic is just before I removed the floor pans, but gives you a good idea of the sanding work facing me:

The second leap of progress was getting the passenger side wheel well, area around the tool box, passenger side floor & space between the tool box & fuel sump sanded down & primed.

It's now a week later, & my plans today are to sand & prime the grill I got to replace the existing one, as well as complete sanding the driver's side of the interior, bed & driver's side wheel well, completing the interior clean up with the exception of the dash. After that, I have only to sand & prime the windshield & clean up the undercarriage. Once that is complete, I think I'll be in a position to finally shoot the entire jeep with a new coat of the correct Olive Drab paint. Once that milestone is passed, I will focus on the mechanical repairs: rebuilding the carb, fuel pump, & distributor; replacing the entire brake system with newer components (stock, though), etc.

The Boss & the Hired Help

I won't sell my Dad short as just the Boss on the CJ2A progress, as he got his hands plenty dirty, plenty of times. But it's funny to have it in a picture the glee he takes in having me do some dirty work, especially when it's cleaning up greasy parts. This is just a great picture & one of the few I have of us together, as it's usually he or I taking pictures of the other as we work or just pictures of the project on it's own.

Sabbatical

OK, OK, maybe sabbatical isn't the best excuse, I just haven't gotten much done due to family schedules, weather, illnesses, etc. The only significant work I've done in the past 4 months was a weekend with Dad working on my CJ2A getting a lot of the interior parts & front cap on. Dad went a huge step further & has nearly completed the work. We finally got to drive it for the first time at Christmas, the first time since we've owned it, putting 4 miles on it before we developed an issue with the oil pressure, requiring a replacement pump, & a problem with air in the fuel line. Hopefully we'll get that worked out soon when time allows & I can move on to finishing up the body work & paint. I also recently scored some brand-new canvas seat cushions that will make for a nicer ride and a great look. As you can see from the pictures, we have come a long way on this project.

Original Condition, Spring 2003:

Current State, December 2005:

As far as the M38A1 is concerned, I've completely sanded & primed the exterior of the tub. I continue to hunt for parts, with the latest finds being the correct military breather & a generous donation from a friend of a pintle hook. Beyond that, not much progress due to colds, busy home schedules & temperatures that prohibit priming, so sanding or buffing parts is not possible. I hope to start back on it in March & begin some steady progress. As it's not a frame-off restoration, & I plan to spend more time, money & effort finishing the other Jeep, this is definitely a long term project. Here's a pic of the sanding/priming progress:

Meanwhile, I've spent a lot of spare time foraging through the forums & learning a lot, with a lot of quality time spent on some outstanding websites:

http://www.willysmjeeps.com Wes Knettle & Ryan Miller's website devoted to the M-series military Jeeps. You will not find a better source of information or anyone more knowledgeable about M38, M38A1 & M170 Jeeps. This site is the next generation of the original group Wes & Ryan ran on Yahoo!

http://www.g503.com/ Ron Fitzpatrick's website dedicated to WWII jeeps, but with excellent forums for all other military vehicles & Civilian Jeeps. Great place to start & an excellent community of people.

http://www.thecj2apage.com Best place to start if you want to learn about Flatfenders.

http://www.film.queensu.ca/cj3b/ I'd have to say this is the best Jeep page on the web, & believe me, I've looked at hundreds. Can't say I'm a high-hood fan, but you have to respect the passion this page demonstrates for CJ3B's & all things Jeep. This site has jeep stuff you didn't know existed.

http://www.earlycj5.com/index.shtml Site devoted to the early models of the CJ5 & CJ6, but with forums for flatfenders