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1944 “Flooded and Mud Bound Roads” Video

• CATEGORIES: Features, videos This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Sorry, but just this one post for Saturday. Besides the long day,  I’m just not feeling my best (not Covid or virus-related). It’s been an on-off issue for the last week or so. I see a doc about it in a few days.

At the start of this video is a modified jeep named ‘Deloris’ built to keep the driver pretty mud free inside the cab.

0:00 “Doloris” on jeep with unit sign and formation sign painted out.
0:09 Artillery tractor also has unit and formation sign obscured. Transfer of Canadian forces from Italy to the Netherlands had been kept a secret. The obscuring of the signs may be part of that effort.

 
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Stripped Allen Bolts and Smoking Hot Weather

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

I’m sure you are as shocked as I am that this post is about yours truly working on a jeep! It’s truly a miracle!

This all started because this weekend and into the early part of next week, we will have record hot temperatures, the hottest of which seem to be centered on ol’ little Prosser, Washington! (See the Axios story here) … records are going to fall.

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Because things are supposed to heat up, I wanted to clear room in the shop so we could move a couple more vehicles in there. To do that, I wanted to move the racing jeep underneath Patterson (which would be lifted up on the hoist). But, to drive the racer within the hoist stands, I wanted to remove the wheel spacers to reduce the width.

Sounds simple enough, right? So, I jacked up the rear, pulled one rear tire. That’s when I saw this mess: several of the Allen bolts have been stripped. Ugh. WTF?

 

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I figured I had a minimum of 2 solutions:

  1. I can weld Allen wrenches on each of the stripped bolts, then (hopefully) spin them off.
  2. I can drill out the Allen bolts.

Thankfully, I don’t want the spacers anyway; if they get ruined in the process, so be it.

But, before I started, I figured I would throw my dilemma out to you folks to see if there are any other ideas floating around?

 
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Thanks For the FC-150 Sign!

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Joe-in-Mesa was kind enough to donate an FC-150 sign he won a few years ago while attending the FC-Roundup to eWillys HQ. It will have a ‘most excellent’ place of honor in the shop. Thanks Joe!

To keep it safe for the moment, I put it on the fireplace mantle. It is covering a lithograph my great grandfather bought in the UK in 1924.

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In case you are curious, this is how it normally looks. Upon his return from Britain in 1924, my great grandfather Karl Eilers gave it to the Engineer’s Club (this was shortly after the club built their golf course and country club near Roslyn, NY, on Long Island), where Karl was a member. At some point, my grandfather, who was also a member of the club (and President in 1930) was given the lithograph back. Subsequently, the lithograph hung for years at my grandparents house over their fireplace, which was a done floor to ceiling in rock.

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You can just see the edge of it in this mid-1960s Christmas time photo of their house on Hayden Lake. It’s interesting how much lighter the matte looks in this photo. It must just be the light, as I doubt the matte was ever changed.

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Grandfather Eilers on the left. My aunt Martha on the swivel chair. My grandmother Eilers standing. That place looks smaller than my the way my child-self remembers it, lol. 

 
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Jeeps at the Old Barthell Coal Camp and Museum

• CATEGORIES: Features, Museums This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Tom in Paris shared these two photos of jeeps he found at the Old Barthell Coal Camp and Museum.

Tom wrote, “The GPW is a 1942, missing some stuff and sitting on M151 wheels. The CJ2A is a 1946 with tool indents, with the shifter on the floor. They were parked at the old Barthell Coal Camp and museum, in Strunk,Ky. Barthell was owned by Stearns Coal and Lumber. The mining operations stopped in 1948.”

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I was able to locate a stock photo that shows the GPW from a different angle:

 
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Jordan’s 1964 Tux Park CJ-5: “The GoGo Gadget Jeep”

• CATEGORIES: Builds, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

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Jordan offered to share some pics of his uniquely modified CJ-5. It’s a pretty cool jeep with lots of details. It looks like it was a serious jeep for off road exploration. Here’s Jordan’s story:

I call it the GoGo Gadget Jeep. I bought this CJ-5 about 7 years ago in the foothills between Sacramento and Tahoe. The guy I bought it from had not had it very long and had not done much with it. He bought it from the estate of the guy who built it. It probably sat around since the early ’90’s when the guy died or just stopped driving it.

Apparently the original owner did search and rescue work with it in the Sierras. I have taken some stuff off that I did not want, a rack over the rear bumper, 9 horns, a single side band radio, a winch fairlead that folded down (probably built to pull rigs up cliffs), and a few other things.

The wiring is still a mess, but I am driving it around the Estacada, Oregon, area. It came with a brand new in the box full top (white), the bikini top in the pice, a worn out full top, some extra motor parts (Buick 225), a second set of tires that are in some of the pictures-I had to get new rims because I got 5 tires, but 3 rims of one type and 3 of another), and a few other odds and ends.

The extra set of tires are Goodyear Wrangler Mud Grips. I have only found one picture of them online, and no info.

It runs great with about 40,000 miles, overdrive, PTO Winch, turning brakes (those are the tall levers between the seats). The levers between the seats are the turning brakes, then the PTO engagement lever, then the overdrive lever, and then the shifter. The transfer case shift or is down below the dash.

I wish I would have met the guy that built it. It seems he was an aerospace engineer, based on some of the stickers on it. It may be that someone on your site will recognize the jeep. I would love to hear from them if so. I imagine that it was well known when it was running around the Sierras way back when.

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