I assumed these pictures were lost, but they appeared in a trunk my ex-wife kindly gave back to me. The first pic is a good shot of my first jeep’s roll cage. The second pic is a pre-paint job pic of my first jeep stuck in the Rabbit Hole, a small mud pit at the Eastern edge of the Naches Trail. The third pic should come with a caption “Oh does my nose hurt!”. The fourth pic is a great shot of the jeep parked at Roche Harbor Resort on San Juan Island (Washington State) while working there in 1987. The final pic shows the down side of oil pressure problems — broken rod, piston, and other parts.
Features Research Archives
Builds — Mike Hardesty’s 1951 CJ-3A
Mike got a deal on a $530 CJ-3A, but buying it was the easy part. Mike's built an extensive website called Jeepchasm that follows his extensive rebuild from a cheap deal to best of show.
"We hope this site will serve as a resource and an inspiration to others who are interested in vintage Jeeps and in Jeep restoration. We will post and update links to various Jeep restoration resources on and off of the Internet. We will let you know where and how we found our parts, and the obstacles and challenges we had to overcome."
Builds — Craig Ellis’ M-38
I don’t know whether Craig is finished with his jeep or not, but he certainly had some terrible rot to deal with. I’ve linked to the ‘Golden Triangle Jeep Club’s’ bulletin board for this Build story. Below is the pic of Craig’s M-38 body:
“you could draw a line down the middle of the body and replace all of the driver’s side floor to be safe. i’m gonna avoid catalog bought floor panels and construct my own from 16 gauge sheetmetal along with new crossmembers. i got a pair of Wagoneer Dana 44s last weekend and am working on the suspension, which will be stock waggy leafs in the front and YJ leaves out back. I picked up a Chevy 4.3 V6 to use and can’t decide on which tranny to go with, but i’m thinking SM465 b/c Novak offers a really short adapter to the Dana 18 case….”
View all the rest of Craig’s pics and related comments (10 pages) as he works through various issues.
Builds — 1943 MB
Andrew McGraw (and friends) gave new life to a beat up 1943 MB (to the right is an 'after' pic). The only before and after pics are of the engine compartment, but the differences in those two pics is pretty dramatic.
"The Willys MB project was a feat in that it was completed in about 2 months. Having been in my friend’s family for many years, they were looking to do a restoration/upgrade on it.
It had undergone so many repairs and body modifications over the years. That fact, combined with the cost and relative impracticality of a full authentic restoration led to the decision to rebuild and modify. If I were in charge of the finances, I would have at least upgraded the powertrain/drivetrain to that of a YJ, at the minimum. A fuel injected 5-speed MB would be awesome. However, I wasn’t in charge of the finances or major decisions…."
My Build — A couple cracks in the engine plan
Lyle from Bob's Mechanical called me today. He left a message on my phone asking me to call back in a tone that made me wonder whether a relative of mine had died! Turns out, the news was worse; Both of my heads had one crack each between two valves. You can see one of these cracks in the picture to the right.
Fortunately, my $50 engine had 2 good heads, though these heads weren't ported nor did they have their valve guides machined, they did have better seats. Best $50 I've spent so far!
Are Sand Dunes a favorite for Jeeping?
The American Sand Association operates a nice website with plenty of information about sand dunes across the United States. Here’s their bulletin board.
“The mission of the American Sand Association is simple: “Unite, Inform and Mobilize: We accomplish that mission throught the use of the volunteers. We believe in responsible resource management for the people. The American Sand Assotiation supports a national cooperation of local and regonal sand sport organization and shares with them ideas and infomration to help them Unite, Inform and Mobilize.”
Builds — Chris Olson
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."
My Build — Fixing a Power Steering Leak
One of the minor fixes on my list of things to repair (a never ending list it seems) was to replace the seals on the input shaft of my power steering unit to stop a small fluid leak. At $15 (from my local NAPA dealer) for replacement seals this is an inexpensive fix. So, to make the fix more interesting, I taped my efforts for your viewing amusement and edification.
Dana 20 with Dana 18 gears rebuild
A couple weeks ago, after finally ordering and receiving my Bronco Dana 20 rear sliding gear, I got my Dana 20 with 2:46 ratio Dana 18 gears put together. I decided to videotape the build and despite a few setbacks (such as trying to install the wrong dana 18 intermediate gear) I got everything together.
The video is hardly a complete document on how to rebuild a transfercase properly. Clearly, I won’t be quitting my day job to go into TV! However, I hope it’s educational and a little amusing.
A few related links:
- Article on rebuilding the Dana 20 with Dana 18 gears
- Novak’s Master Rebuild Kit for the Dana 20 $178
- Bronco Dana 20 Rear Sliding Gear from Bronco Graveyard
- Dana Transfer Case History
This is a low resolution video, but is still 49mb. It runs approx a half hour.
Digitized Drawing
This is a drawing a Boeing co-worker of dad’s drew of and for him many years ago (in the 80s I believe). We believe the artist was Bill Mandeville or Manderville (dad can’t quite remember any more).
Dad’s First Jeep – CJ-2A (And Jim Carter’s first roll)
Every once in a while my dad will start talking and he'll talk about some event in his past I knew nothing about. You'd think, for example, that I would have known my dad's first vehicle was a jeep — a CJ-2A — he got it when he was 16 as his first car. But, no, today was the first day I've heard of it. There are several reasons for this, mostly, I suppose, having to do with our father/son dynamic. Though I wish I had heard about some of these stories earlier in my life, there is something nice about continuing to hear new stories.
As dad tells it, the year was 1949 and he was 16, living with his parents and two brothers in Holladay, Utah, now just a suburb of Salt Lake City. The city of Holladay is south of Salt Lake City, laid out underneath Olympus mountain. When dad lived there, off of Walker Lane, there was only wasatch blvd and 5000 vertical feet between his house and the top of Olympus mountain. Now, I-215 with its six lanes of traffic has added a much bigger divide between the two. Of course, there are many more houses and fences in the way as well.
One day, Dad decides to take his jeep and 5 passengers jeeping up the hill towards the base of Olympus Mountain. Today this area is known as Olympus Cove, but at the time, I'm sure it was the great unknown.
As best I can interpret from Dad, he was driving his CJ-2A with his brother B.B in the passenger seat, and four other kids in the back (one was his other brother Tony and one was Jim Carter). Dad was driving very slowly, crawling along when his left front wheel started over a bump or rise. As they slowly moved forward the rise grew, shifting the jeep slowly toward the passenger side until the jeep tipped over onto the passenger side, dumping the four kids in the back onto the ground. Miraculously, the jeep didn't tip all the way over and hurt anyone severely. The worst damage was to Jim Carter, who suffered a cut on his knee or leg. Apparently, Jim fell the furthest, I guess he must have been on the driver's side back wheel well (dad couldn't quite explain this to me — sometimes dad's stroke makes these explanations more difficult).
After getting off the ground and checking out the jeep, they decided to tip it back onto its wheels and head back home.
Whatever physical damage the semi-roll caused Jim Carter, I guess he must have enjoyed himself, because he became a life long jeeper, a jeep club co-founder with dad, jeep racer, and President of the PNW4WDA for a year. Perhaps we should all fall out of a jeep 🙂
Early MB Mods — The SAS
From day 1, adapting the jeep was a necessary part of using or owning one. In my mind, this is one of the attributes of jeeps that differentiate them from most other vehicles, even from other 4x4s. Andy Carter highlights early desert modifications in this story with pictures from jeeps used in Africa by the British Special Air Service (SAS) during WWII. Check out the grille in the picture on the right. If you read through the site, you'll note that this was a modification done to many of the jeeps, not just this one. They look like a boxer who has been through a few rounds!
Here's an excerpt from the website about SAS Jeeps:
"The jeeps were stripped of all non-essential parts including the windscreen, most of the radiator grille bars and even sometimes the front bumper to increase the effective load carrying capacity of the vehicle. Thus the large amount of fuel and water needed for fast long-range raids could be carried avoiding the need for slower support vehicles. A water condensing unit was fitted to the front to reduce loss from the radiator which would otherwise have had to be topped up from the limited drinking water supplies…"
Builds — Bumble Bee
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.
Mini-Jeeps
UPDATE: It appears east coast mini classics is no longer making the mini jeeps shown below. they can be found occasionally for sale on Craigslist.
Builds – 1951 m38 Glendale, Az on Ebay — The Rhino Hunter
This build is for sale on eBay. There are plenty of pics. Note the m606 in the background of one of the ebay pics.
“This is a really unique combination of old and new and we’ve had a ton of fun in it. This rig started it’s life as a military M38 until the previous owner started modifying it as a back country rock crawler. When we got it, it had wasn’t much to look at, was missing a windshield but ran and drove so well we had to have it. It is heavily modified to be a safe, comfortable, go anywhere ride. We call it The Rhino Hunter as it has effortlessly shamed a few ORVs in the mud and rocks…”
Builds – a Build from the MYCJ3A.com website
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.
Rebuild in Ohio — from offroaders.com
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.“
CJ-3B Fiberglass Bodies
UPDATE: Since I wrote this back in April of 2008, I have learned that someone in the Seattle Area purchased the Parkette molds, but I still haven’t learned who.
In April of 2008 there was an ad from a buyer looking for a CJ-3B Fiberglass body. Frankly, he was the only person I have come across on Craigslist looking for a fiberglass jeep body other than I. The CJ-3B bodies are very rare.
I did search and found a guy named Rick in the Northwest who says he has a CJ-3B mold (looks like a parkette mold with the side stripe). Here’s a website that show’s a variety of pics of him building his CJ-3B. (see more of his pics below)
According to the CJ-3B Page, there are no sellers of CJ-3B fiberglass bodies.
To the right is a fiberglass CJ-3B body I found for sale back in 2008.
“This is a Willy’s Jeep that i got off a friend in a trade. it was sitting in his field for years. it used to be covered but the tarp blew off a couple of years ago. someone put it together in the 80’s with a fiberglass body tub and fenders. they didn’t do such a good job, the wiring is atrocious and it needs alot of other work, but they did put lockouts and disc brakes up front, thats a plus. it needs to be completely stripped down and re-done.”
Here’s more pics of Rick’s Fiberglass CJ-3B with a Parkette (?) Fiberglass Body. You can read more about it here:
March 2008 Engine Mounts
The CJ-5 I bought last year had been modified to accept a GM 350. I really liked the way they put together the engine mounts, so I chose to reuse the mounts and then modified my frame to accept the mounts.
To make the mounts, I took the standard buick v6 mounts and removed the rubber blocks, leaving only the steel. Then, I cut and welded some 3×3 square tubing to the mounts.
To make the holders that are welded to the frame, I used some recycled angle iron and added side braces to create the triangular look. I look this setup much better than what I did in my first jeep.
March 2008 Frame Rebuild part 2
These shots show the painted frame with the Dana 44 rear and Dana 30 front painted and attached.
January 2008 Dana 44 Putting it together with a Detroit Locker
With my Dana 44 all taken apart (See article below), it was time to put everything back together. One aspect I have left out of the rebuild process is the importance I placed on using the appropriate language to assemble and disassemble the R&P properly; lets just say I'm glad my children weren't about.
Gathering tools and parts
In terms of parts, I needed to gather a rebuild kit, a locker, and axle kits. Using Craigslist, I found a locker for 3:73 gearing locally for $325. The rebuild kit I got at half price from a jeeper in Bend, Oregon. The axle bearings, cones, and outer seals were purchased online through Tellico4x4.com. The inner axle seals I purchased at Schucks. At first, when I realized I had forgotten to order these (oops), I went to tellico's website. The seals themselves were around $5 a piece, but the cost for shipping was going to more than double the price. I thought that was ridiculous. So, I dropped by the local Schucks to see what it would cost to get the seals (I figured they would have to order them). Well, to my surprise, they had them in stock! $10 later, I was out the door with them.
January 2008 Dana 44 Taking it apart
The Goal .. take apart my Dana 44 housing and install a Detroit Locker along with new bearings and seals. Sounds easy enough, right?
When building my last jeep, I did not have to rebuild either of the axle housings. In the rear I had a Dana 44 from a mail jeep. Mail jeeps come with detroit lockers: note that the housing is a little narrower than a standard jeep by approx 2". To fix this, you can have some shims machined that will allow you to use standard flanged jeep axles.
Fast forward to the new jeep. I had a Dana 44 I knew nothing about and a detroit locker I wanted to install inside it. I figured this would be a good opportunity to learn about ring and pinions; and, learn a thing or two I did!
The First Issue – Broken teeth
Naturally, the first step was to pull off the housing cover and examine the condition of the gears. Unfortunately, the news was not good. I quickly discovered that I had a very broken tooth on the ring gear.
Interestingly, there was no evidence of broken pieces in the oil. This lead me to suspect that the previous owner may have discovered the damage while changing the gear oil and 'forgotten' to mention it to me. Also, once I pulled everything apart, I would also find the pinion gear broken as well.
Fall 2007 — Gus’s Frame Makeover
At left is a pretty stock CJ-5 frame. There were some cracks where the front crossmember attached to the passenger side frame rail. Because of this, I felt the crossmember had to go so I could box in the front of the frame.
At the back of the frame, the driver’s side was slightly lower than the passenger side. Also, because I wanted to outboard the back springs, I needed to add a bracket onto the side of the frame to help support both the front and the back of the springs.
To make all these changes meant a great deal of work .. welding, grinding (and welding and grinding again) and painting. I am pleased with the results.
Click here to see many more pics of the frame transformation.
The Meeker Trail aka the Naches Trail
I've heard rumors that a TV show in the 1960s did an episode on the Naches Trail. Good News! I finally found the episode, which was created by Exploration Northwest. The best news is you can buy a copy of it and some other early jeep videos on DVD from the Don McCune Library.
Jeeping 1 (Click link and scroll down to Jeeping 1)
This DVD features 3 episodes:
1. The Meeker Trail: "Join this spine-rattling trip with the Yakima Ridge Runners Jeep Club as they retrace the oldest route across the Cascades: Naches Pass. Filmed in black-and-white in 1965, it is based on Ezra Meeker's book "Pioneer Reminiscences of Puget Sound", which recounts traversing this old Indian trail with the first immigrant wagon train of 148 people in 1853."
2. The Doe Run: "The female members of the Seattle Jeep Club leave their families at home and enjoy a weekend 'Doe Run' on the rugged backcountry roads of the Cle Elum and Salmon La Sac area in the Cascade Mountains." (The WWJC club did something similar about this time – my mom and grandma went)
3. The Mud Race: " Yakima Ridge Runners Jeep Club race their specially-equipped jeeps through a mud-hole track in central Washington."
The Desert Races DVD (Click link and scroll down to Desert Races)
This DVD features 3 episodes
1. Mattawa 100: "The 1975 Mattawa 100 features 750 dirt bikes racing across 100 miles of sand and sagebrush near the eastern Washington town of Mattawa. Aerial and slow-motion photography offers an exciting view along with comments by contestants. The Everett Highriders Jeep Club and the Stump Jumpers Motorcycle Club assisted in the event". (I think I was at this race. Our jeep club was helping run a checkpoint. Guys were coming to the checkpoint bloody from falling. Very memorable).
2. The Sunfair 300: "Sponsored by the Washington Off-Road Racing Association, the Sunfair 300 is a desert race with 4-wheel-drive vehicles and rails (dune buggies) on a 225-mile course near Yakima that ranks as one of the toughest in the nation! Members of the Yakima Ridge Runners staff the race course check points." (I believe this was what my original racing jeep — that I purchased for $600 — was built to compete in).
3. A retrospective of the life of the host, Don McCune.
April 2007 Purchasing the CJ-3 Body and parts
I purchased this jeep CJ-3A body and parts for $450. It came without running gear, but with a recently rebuilt engine and transmission. I just happened to have a rolling frame without a body, so I put all the parts I didn't want on the rolling frame and sold that. I ended up making all my money back from this purchase and was left with the fenders, hood, windshield and the data plate that goes on the dashboard 🙂