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Buttercup — A True Love Story

October 4, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Builds, Features, Reader Stories This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Buttercup has come home again.  Here is the story as told by Buttercup’s current steward.

William writes,  “I would like to introduce you to “BUTTERCUP” a 1946 CJ2A. My father “Skip” Taylor bought her in 1973 for $150.00 and brought her out to our family house on Clarks Island in Plymouth Mass.

Out there he put plywood floors in, added yellow paint(out of a can) and named her Buttercup after a cow that was once on the property. For 20 years she was our tractor and stuff hauler. I learned to drive her when I was 10. Sometime in the 80’s Skip added the wire wheels and had a trailer built.  By 1990 it was decided that she was getting tired and was replaced by a John Deer tractor.

After a while she was sold to a gentleman with the agreement that my father would get “right of first refusal” if she was ever put up for sale. Well, 3 winters ago that man kept his word and sold Buttercup (painted red) back to us with new floors and a rebuilt original motor.

She is now back on the island, going back together once again.  She has new brakes, a tune up, the wire wheels(off a 35 ford) and her bright yellow paint (out of a can). Buttercup is running great and driving the property cleaning up branches and taking the kids out for rides. She is a part of our family and hope to keep her going for another sixty years.”

I asked William about the wire wheels and he said his father had the centers of some jeep rims cut out and welded into the 35 ford rims. Not road safe but good for an island.

Here are some pics of Buttercup.  Thanks for sharing William!

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Kevin Paints His Wagon — With some Helpers

September 21, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Builds, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Kevin painted his wagon with some unusual help …

Kevin writes, “I Finally got good help on my ’62 Willys Wagon rebuild…it didn’t hurt either to wear my “Big Daddy Roth” – Rat Fink t-shirt for inspirational artistic talents…and yes, in tradition of an old time build, I’m painting it outdoors.”

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Gerald and his brother’s rebuilt Mighty Mite

September 16, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Builds, Mighty Mites This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Gerald and I were exchanges some emails and he mentioned that his brother and he rebuilt a Mitey Mite a few years back.  I think he was trying to inspire me with the Champs?  Here are a few pics.

Gerald wrote, “My brother did a Mity Mite a few years back.   Toughest project we ever worked on.  It was a basket case literally.”

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Buck Completes His Hunting Jeep

September 11, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Builds This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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There have been some outstanding eWillys reporters filing stories from all areas of world, but none were more intrepid nor braver than the Head of the eWillys Bureau in Afghanistan, Lt. Buck.  His report from the front lines (or close enough) on Willys in a field in May of 2009 from Afghanistan marked a gold standard in reporting.

The fact is, rumor has it he even joined the Army to get there, because the penny pinchers at eWillys corporate wouldn’t buy him a plane ticket.  Now that’s dedication!

I am extremely happy to report that Buck made it safely back to Montana and, I hope, has found some well deserved peace.  Since he’s been home, he managed to complete his CJ-2A build, which he put together as a vehicle to explore the central Montana plains and do some hunting.  What better use for a jeep is there than that!  Congrats and Thanks Buck!

Buck writes, “Well, I’m happy to say that I’m back home and my jeep is finally done after 10 years of on again off again work. Attached are photos of my dog Uncas and me out hunting grouse in the vast wheat fields of central Montana. I never wanted a museum piece, but a functional piece of history.”

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Kim’s LRDG S.A.S. Willys

September 3, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Builds, Features, MB, News • TAGS: , . This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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I’ve seen them in old pictures, but Kim is the first owner of a Long Range Desert Group S.A.S. Willys to contact me and share pics.  Of course, you can’t but help but think of the old Rat Patrol shows when you see these vehicles.  After reading through the LRDG.org website, one of the things I’ve learned is that there was plenty of thought, research and recon work that went into the supplies these jeeps and truck would need to carry with them as they sailed long, desolate seas of sand.

Kim writes, “The jeep I bought is mechanically perfect. The previous owner put all his money into the motor, brakes and trans.  The body on my jeep needs some help and eventually I will replace the rear and floor sections of the tub as there is some rust. Fortunately, It came to me painted in the proper color and had many extras including a Bagnold sun compass.

As a special addition to this jeep, I re-built a WW2 Italian de-milled M37 machine gun and converted it into a gas gun M.G. simulator. It sounds like a M.G. but no blanks are needed and it can not shoot a projectile. That is mounted on the front cowling. As I have been a machinist and tool maker for 30 years I machined a set of Twin Vickers machine guns out of aluminum for the rear mount. These are strictly dummies with no moving parts.

I did not buy this jeep to be a Trailer Queen. This is a re-enactment jeep and as far as I am concerned it looks like it just got back from Kufra Oasis and that is exactly what I want.  My ultimate dream is to have 2 WW2 jeeps. The S.A.S (which is not street legal) and an American OD jeep that is licensed and ready to drive to work.”

And a couple pics of the Twin Vickers Kim made. In this pic, some basic outlines and contours have been created in the aluminum stock.

Here you can see many more details are apparent.

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Colin’s 1952 CJ-3A Project

August 22, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Builds This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Another project Colin wanted to share with readers was this CJ-3A he restored.  As I understand it, this was his project before he purchased this DJ-3A Surrey.  After purchasing the Surrey, he turned the CJ-3A project over to his son who seems to be doing just fine with it.

Colin writes, “Here are some photos of our CJ3A project.  It is actually by serial number a 1952, but wasn’t sold until 1953, so was titled as a 53 (Pretty typical of Willys products).  I bought it in late 2006 and it hadn’t run in about 6 years. After getting it running, I decided to do a body off restoration on it.  The mechanicals were pretty good, with a new engine with less than 500 miles on it, and it had been upgraded to 12 volts and larger 11 inch brakes. It had a CJ2A windshield on it, which I prefer over the CJ3A style. It was yellow and my wife is not fond of yellow.  I found the original Luzon Red paint underneath the dash, so decided to paint it Luzon Red to match the Luzon Red of our Jeepster. Work progressed and I took a break from it and in December 2009, I found the Surrey for sale.  At that point, I couldn’t pass on the Surrey and our oldest son, Lee said he would take over the CJ3A, but he wasn’t going to paint it red.  I had already powdercoated the wheels and put new NDT 600×16 tires on the rolling chassis.  There was still some body work that needed to be done before painting.  Lee finished up the bodywork  and we got the paint done 3 weeks ago.  We started putting it back together and now we only need to do some of the small details and the wiring to be done.  The latest photos don’t give a true color, but it is sort of a Butternut yellow or beige.”

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Jeff’s Fiberglass (Bobcat Body) Flattie

August 21, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Builds, Features, Racing • TAGS: , , , , . This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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After seeing some of the posts about the old Desert Dog and Bobcat ads, Jeff dropped me a note saying he’s been enjoying the old ads and old pics as it reminds him of the busy Northwest days of jeep clubs, playdays and racing in the northwest.  So, he forwarded me a pic of one of his jeeps (he also has a sand drag jeep listed below for sale).

He’s been nice enough to let me post it.  I really love the creative paint job — I haven’t seen anything quite like it.

Jeff writes, “This bobcat jeep was bought back in 1983 as a project.  It was a body and a HUGE pile of parts, to which I’m sure your readers can relate. Currently, it runs a 355 chev w/ ford toploader 4 speed, a dana 20 case, a ford 9inch w/ 35 spline summers axles spool nod case and 6.00 gears.  The front is a gutted mdl 27 w/ a mustang rack.  The cage is chromoly.  The car weights 2250lbs w/o a driver.”

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Colin’s ’48 Jeepster

August 19, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Builds, Features, Jeepster • TAGS: . This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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As I mentioned yesterday, besides his grandkids mini-jeep, Colin has worked on several different Willys.  Here’s his Jeepster that was featured a couple times in JP Magazine, specifically the June 2007 issue and the January 2008 issue.

Colin writes, “Here are some photos of our 48 Jeepster.  We have had this car for over 33 years and when we bought it, it had a non running Studebaker Champion 6 engine in it.  Once we got it running and back in decent visual and mechanical condition, we drove it that way for many years. Around 1990, I stored it in our garage and worked on other vehicles and a house remodeling project (a happy wife makes for a happy home!).  I did our Corvette restoration from 1994 until 1998.  After I retired in 2003, I began putting ideas together about re-doing the Jeepster.  I wanted a car that looked original on the outside, which it did already, but with an improved drivetrain and suspension under it to keep up with Phoenix area traffic.  After a lot of research, I decided a Buick V6 was the way to go.  I found a freshly rebuilt (still in the plastic) 1982 Buick 231 even fire V6 for a very reasonable price.  I pulled the front sheet metal off the Jeepster and got to work.  With an updated engine going into it, I chose to put a Mustang II front end kit with tubular A-arms, Ford disc brake rotors (I wanted to use stock Jeepster wheels, hubcaps and trim rings), and rack and pinion steering into the chassis.  A buddy of mine and I did the majority of the front end work in a weekend.  I used a set of engine mounts from Novak Engineering in Utah and bolted the engine to a 1967 Muncie close ratio 4 speed that was in my parts bin.  For the rear end, I found a 1969 Ford Mustang 8 inch with 2.79 gears.  That rear end is a bolt in for any of the 46-63 Willys 2 wheel drive wagons, panel deliveries and the 48-51 Jeepsters. I also used a front sway bar and on the rear, a Willys Jeepster/station wagon sway bar. I did upgrade the Buick with a set of finned aluminum valve covers from TA Performance,  a 4 bbl Holley 390 cfm carb from a 65 AMC 327 engine and dual exhausts.  The end result is a Jeepster that runs great( 1750 rpm at 65-70 mph), gets excellent gas mileage(about 26 at 65 mph) and handles like a sports car(better than our Corvette!).  All of this work was relatively easy, even though it took me a while.”

In this first pic you see both his Jeepster and the 1960 Surrey he purchased that can be seen here.  Colin has been restoring the Surrey as well.

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Builds: Mike’s Truck

August 3, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Builds This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Mike’s built a nice looking truck.

Mike writes, “This is my Baby. It took 3.5 years to build it was going to be a restore but it couldn’t be done. So I took a 1/2 ton chevy truck frame and narrowed and shorten it. I dropped in a 454 chevy and many other goodies. It is a show winner and a great off road toy.”

Here are a couple pics.

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Some Updates …

July 5, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Biscuit, Builds, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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For the Fourth of July, I celebrated by heading back to the formerly snow bound roads near Boise’ only ski area, Bogus Basin.  As you can see in this pic, the snow is gone (see snow pics here), the mountains are now in bloom, and more progress was made.  More on that tomorrow ….

A 1950 CJ-3A: Today, Darrel had to talk to me.  So he stopped next to me, while I waited at a stop light, rolled down his window, and started asking me questions — what year was my jeep, who did my roll cage, and more …

Now, I had no idea who Darrel was.  However, in the time it took for the stop light to finally change colors, Darrel had explained through his passenger side window that he A) liked what I had built, B) had a 1950 CJ-3A, C) wanted his jeep rebuilt for his daughter, D) had his jeep nearby, and E) wanted me to follow him there.  If I learned that much at a stop light, I wondered how much I would learn about him once we stopped to see his jeep.

True to his word, he lived very close and had a 1950 CJ-3A that needed some work — hadn’t been run in 15 years.  It had a V-8 conversion, solid body, rotted top and plenty of potential.  And, to my surprise, based on my jeep, he asked me to do the work (and will pay me). I don’t have pics of this just yet.  I’ll share more about this if we go forward with the project.

Brian wrote to me late last week to share a sad tale.  As a part of the continued testing with his new build, he learned the hard way what happens if the oil in the front pumpkin housing gets too low AND the 4wd somehow gets accidentally shifted into gear (how that happened is still a mystery to him).  The result:  his front pinion started freezing up, resulting in some ugly sounds and a twisted driveline. See the pics to the right.

The good news is that everything else continues to behave well.

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Upgrading a Single Master Cylinder into a Dual set up

June 17, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Builds, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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A reader ask me about replacing the stock single brake master cylinder, found on many early jeeps,  for a dual master cylinder.  Can it be done?  It turns out there a variety of threads and pages on this alteration.  Here are some of the links I found if you are interested in this mod.

1) http://www.thecj2apage.com/forums/dual-master-cylinder_topic14193.html
2) http://www.earlycj5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45099
3) http://cj3b.info/Tech/BrakesDualMaster.html
4) Herm’s conversion kit: http://www.hermtheoverdriveguy.com/id2_dual_reservoir_master_cylinder.htm

OTHER BRAKE UPGRADE OPTIONS HERE

(Image from the CJ-2A Page)

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