Paul has supplied us with some additional pics and an explanation of the mounting system.  You can view the full article about Paul’s jeep here.

“The first pic with the hood open shows the two Dzus (brand name) (learn how to pronounce Dzus) fasteners which help hold the hood down when inserted into the brackets shown in the 2nd pic.  The brackets are just above the yellow ignition coil and next to the master cylinder.  I also use another fastener (for a total of 4 to hold the hood) on the back side of the flat fenders.  The last image shows another view of the ½” pipe as it is bolted to the top side of the flat fenders. ”

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A reader, whose name shall remain hidden to protect his identity :-), shared this cleaning technique with me;  Try the dishwasher.  Technically, the cleaning was already done, but the dishwasher added a nice finishing touch.

Here’s his description:

“With my frame changes completed, it was time to mount the engine.  The first thing I had to do was clean it and add some paint.  This engine has lots of cast aluminum mounts on the front. Unfortunately, the parts had a lot of surface crud. To clean them I used muriatic acid and elbow grease along with Mothers Aluminum cleaner.

Next, I put the cleaned parts into the dishwasher.  WARNING:  only do this when your home alone!

Finally, a little air drying resulted in some good looking parts.  Below you can see the below and after images of the engine.

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Don’s got a beautiful CJ-3B that he’s clearly spent a great deal of time building.  Only a labor of love would produce details as unique as ‘a 4 barrel with a holley from a scout’.  If you don’t see this weekly driver around town, then he’s likely in the the hills of Colorado.

Some stats:

• A 1954 CJ-3B that has the nomenclature plate for government service.
• 231 buick bored .030 balanced
• Eldebrock performer 4 barrel with a holley from a scout with a small venturi
• Continue reading →

A gentleman named Vivek contacted me last night.  He ran across ewillys while searching for some jeep parts.  He’s from India and owns a CJ-3B that he restored.  He’s currently working in California for a few months, before heading back to India, so he’s looking to locate a few parts he can take back with him (there’s enough jeeping in India that maybe I ought to head there and work for a few months — can I get a job with my MBA Vivek?).  I’ll be highlighting him and his efforts in a post I’ll write in the next few days.

For now, I want to thank Vivek for opening up the interesting world of jeeping in India to me.  After a few email exchanges, he pointed me to a gentleman named Mr. Uday Bhan Singh.  Mr. Uday, it turns out, owns 45 flatfenders that he has collected over the span of 40 years.  This month, autocarindia did an article on him, which has been copied and posted to the Jeep Thrills website, which is also Vivek’s jeep club.

Here are links to the article pages which is worth reading (once open, click on the page to zoom into it):

Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4

To say Mr. Uday is passionate about jeeps likely understates things; The article’s description of him as a Jeep Junkie is likely more accurate.  One look at the images of his “great arc” jeep and you’ll see he not only knows jeeps, but uses and jeeps with them.  Last year in his MB he navigated the length of the great arc, the 78th meridian that bisects India.  The meridian itself stretches about 583 miles as the crow flies, however the actual driving mileage was just under 1200 miles.

To complete this drive, Mr. Uday went prepared.  This jeep carries a few extra parts, such as 2 sets of springs mounted to the underside and a special contraption made of poles for helping winch out of difficult places that are strapped to the driver’s side.  I highly recommend reviewing the pictures.  Even the paint job is nicely unique (reminds me a bit of the follow-me jeep paint jobs).

Brian's been busy creating a new bumper for his CJ-3B build. He's says it's nothing fancy, but I think it's pretty nice.  Here's a start-to-finish explanation of the work it took to make his bumper.  Thanks for sharing Brian!

"Because the springs are longer than stock, I had to come up with a way to lengthen the frame a little in the rear. So, I fabricated  a new rear bumper and incorporated a swing out spare tire mount.  In addition, rather than cut holes into the body, I decided to put the tail lights in the bumper. To make the bumper, I only need to use a grinder, drill press, and a Mig welder — it's nothing fancy."

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This is a build done by Chris Olson that I found at the BC4x4 website.  He found a beat up '48 CJ-2A, made a variety of mods, and ended up with a highly modified, but ordinary looking, CJ-2A.

"At first glance, Chris Olson's 1948 CJ2A Willys looks rather plain next to his brother's LJ80 Suzuki. Your first impression would be that it's another flat fender Jeep with big tires and a spring-over-axle conversion. But like his brother's Suzuki, Chris' Jeep isn't what it appears to be. In fact, it is more Toyota than Jeep. This flat fender reflects Chris' pragmatic attitude toward building a 4×4. Choices were made due to cost, availability and functionality. He has no loyalty to any make or model of vehicle and because of that, he has ended up with a very unique vehicle.

When Chris first set eyes upon the Willys in 1997, it was sitting in a backyard, partially hidden by knee-height grass. It had a seized engine, the front axle housing was gutted, all four tires were useless, the interior was a rat home, and it sported a rollbar made of old driveshafts (including the yokes!). The important thing to Chris was that the body was in pretty good condition, especially for a vehicle built half a century earlier. For $400, it was his."

Read more at the BC4x4.com website

Louis Dawson recounts, in this four page article on code 4×4, his 12 year building process for Bumble Bee, a 1947 CJ-2A.  Started as a restoration project, Louis discovered he'd rather focus on trail performance.

Louis sums up the experience with the following quote:  "Our ensuing 12-year restomod of "Rumble Bee" includes a huge amount of fun, plentiful stupid and expensive decisions on my part, and a final result that retains the flat fender look and feel, while being competent and safe enough on the trail to peg the fun meter. This "retro" project includes little of the latest tech — it's mostly older solutions that reached their peak a number of years ago, but it works."

On additional feature I like is the "what we did right" and "what we did wrong" on page 4 of the article.

Read the entire article and see the pictures. 

Many of you may have seen this site already, but if you haven't it's a treat.  The author nicely details the experience of rebuilding his titled 1953 CJ-3A (which he discovers to actually be a CJ-2A).  One of the more interesting details, to me anyway, was his write-up of the swing pedals.  This is the first time I have seen these type of pedals (in my 1st jeep I used a swing pedal set from a Vega — with significant mods — and in my current jeep I've modified a set of pedal set from a jeep cherokee.  

See all the different pictures and write-ups at the author's website (The author never mentions who he is). 

Here is a rebuild from Ohio as seen on offroaders.com.   It’s a very nice, clean rebuild that resulted in a playful looking flatfender. The before picture is on the left and after on the right.

Mike writes, “The Jeep had a rough  life for some 8 years wheeling the local 4×4 haunts of southern Ohio and it was looking pretty rough and was needed some serious TLC. In early 2005. I stripped it down to the frame and this is the end product after nearly 2 years work.“

SEE THE FULL WRITEUP FROM MIKE AT OFFROAD.COM