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Builds: Randy, His Boys, and Their Flatties

February 2, 2011 • CATEGORIES: Builds, Features, Reader Stories This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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If you’ve never really looked at a map of Idaho, pull one out (or, I suppose you could use Google Maps).  Between where I live in Boise and Coeur D’ Alene in the North is one significant route — US 95.  Look to the East of US 95 and you’ll see National Forest after National Forest.  Then look about halfway between in central Idaho and, if you look close, you’ll see the town of Kamiah. That’s where a reader named Randy and his boys, Devon and Dusty, call home. And, at their doorstep are endless National Forests they can explore with their friends. It is a regular jeeptopia.

Before you get to Randy’s story, keep in mind, that each of these jeeps started as basket cases, so there is still hope for your project!  Also, a big thanks to Randy for taking the time to put together detailed descriptions of their rigs.  Finally, check out the last pic … I think Biscuit would fit in just fine there :-).

Randy’s Blue 1946 CJ2A: This Jeep was purchased new by my wife’s grandfather in 1946 and was used for decades on the family farm.  After her grandparents passed away we were able to purchase it from the estate for $200 in 1993; it was about $199 to much considering the shape it was in.

We completely rebuilt it from the ground up with a new steel tub and repaired fenders, grill and windshield. The tub is for an M38 but was all that we could locate at the time.  I did most of the body work and my brother in law painted it in our garage.  The motor, transmission and transfer case were all rebuilt and 11” brakes were installed, we also installed a rollbar, stereo, CB and a back seat.

I built a spare tire/gas can carrier/cooler rack on the back and we also have both a bikini and full soft top.  I run 32×11.50 tires in the summer and fall; 33×12.50 tires in the spring when running in the snow for better flotation.  The low range 2 wheel drive pill has been taken out of the transfer case and lock rights have been installed in both axles.  A Warn M8000 winch was installed a few years ago.

Dusty’s Green 1946 CJ2A: I (Randy) purchased this Jeep for spare parts around the year 2000.  It was a total basket case with a rusted up headless motor and most of the back of the tub missing.

We decided to rebuild and modify it for my two sons to share; at the time Dusty was a sophomore in high school and Devon was in junior high.  We started the project in November of 2004 and completed it for its first run on Memorial Day weekend of 2005.  The 4 banger was removed and a Buick 231 V6 was put in its place, the T90, Dana 18 and stock axles were all refurbished and reinstalled as were 11” brakes.

New front and rear floorboards along with new wheel wells were welded in and we decided to take out what was left of the tailgate area and welded a flat back MB style back panel in its place.  The lift is all from a spring over and we installed Saginaw power steering up front.  Racing seats and harnesses along with a full rollcage were installed for safety and a rear seat was put in for passengers.  A console contains a stereo and a CB is mounted to the front of it.

The tires and wheels are 35×14.50×15 TSL Boggers mounted on 15×12 Mickey Thompson wheels.  I did all of the body work myself and my brother in law painted it Olive drab in our garage, a star was put on the hood just for fun.  A Warn M8000 winch along with a winch mount and bumpers that we built ourselves were installed as well.  The Jeep stayed pretty much this way for 5 years until after we found another Jeep for Devon that had bigger and better components than were in this one.

Once it became Dusty’s Jeep alone, he decide to box the frame and install a warmed up 350 Chevy with an sm465 transmission, Dana 20 transfer case that has been twin sticked and axles from 1975 CJ5.  The axles are Dana 44 in the rear and Dana 30 in the front 3.73 gear ratios.  New gears and ARB air lockers have also been installed in both ends in the past year.  He currently has a set of wider Dana 44 axles to be installed some time in the future.  Dusty did the entire drive train swap himself with only minor advice from me.  He has since built a spare tire/gas can carrier/cooler rack for the back and plans on putting on a set of 40 inch tires after some fender trimming behind the back tires is done.

Devon’s Green 1942 MB: I purchased this Jeep off of E-bay for too much money but it already had the running gear that I was looking for which included a small block Chevy (283 not a 327 as advertised), sm420 transmission (no ceramic clutch as advertised), a twin sticked Dana 20 transfer case and Scout II axles; Dana 44 rear, Dana 30 front with 4.27 ratios.

The body was pretty rough and it had a thin skin of sheet metal installed all of the way around the tub that hid lots of holes and rust.  A home built gas tank was in the back where a seat normally goes and a heavy spare tire carrier/cooler rack was mounted on the back.  We started rebuilding this one on November of 2007 and had it mostly finished by Memorial Day weekend of 2008.

A warmed up 350 Chevy built to the same exact specs as Dusty’s was installed along with the refurbished running gear that came in the Jeep.  All new spring hangers and reversed shackle mounts were built and welded on the outside of the frame in the front because of the wider Scout II axles, a new mount for the Saginaw power steering unit was installed and the frame rails were boxed.

The rollbar was cut apart and welded back together then installed in the correct place.  The floor boards front and back were all replaced and the area between the rear fenders was increased by using narrower rear inner fender wells, as a result we were able to put in some comfortable small bucket seats.  The rear fenders were opened up 2 inches and the rear axle was moved back an inch to make room for bigger tires.

Racing seats and harnesses were also installed in the front along with a stereo and CB radio.  I had injured my shoulder during the winter and was dreading the thought of all of the sanding that would need to be done getting the body ready for paint when a friend of ours that owns a body shop (Orofino Body Shop) volunteered to do all of the body work and paint the Jeep as a graduation present for Devon; what a fantastic gift.  We also had a star put on the hood and Devon built a rear bumper with a spare tire/gas can/cooler rack mounted on it.

A Warn M8000 winch was mounted on a winch plate and front bumper that Devon built as well.  This winter he upgraded the axles to newer Scout II Dana 44’s in both ends with disc brakes in the front.  We turned the front knuckles 15 degrees which gave it 6 degrees of caster and turned the back of the pumpkin up 9 degrees for a better drive line angle, new perches were welded on to get the angles correct.  The axles now have 4.10 ratios with OX cable actuated lockers.  He built a center console that houses the locker shifters and cutting brake handles for each rear brake.  New shock mounts were welded on the axles and he built new shock hoops for the front, he added Bilstein 5150 shocks on both ends and a heavy duty tie rod and drag link set that is designed for Dana 60 axles was also installed, the tubing is 1.5 inch OD with .250 wall thickness and huge tie rod ends.

The tires and wheels are 13.50x37x15 TSL Boggers on Mickey Thompson wheels; 40 inch tires will be coming in the next year or two.  All most all of the work done recently has been done by Devon, I helped him with turning the knuckles and installing the lockers but he did everything else himself.

Here are the boys Jeeps at the inlaws cabin in OroGrande which is near Elk City and Dixie as well.  Every time the boys take their windshields off it rains, we got caught in a nice shower on this trip.

And, finally, this is a Jeep run with friends of ours that have cabins in the old mining town of Dixie (near Elk City) about 100 miles from Kamiah.

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Builds: Chet’s 1965 CJ-3B Restoration

February 1, 2011 • CATEGORIES: Builds, Features • TAGS: . This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Chet contacted me today, telling me about the restoration he recently completed on his 1965 CJ-3B that was once owned by his Grandfather. He clearly suffers from the Willy’s sickness, as he’s got the restoration bug again and is thinking Surrey this time (but don’t tell his wife just yet).  His CJ-3B is evidence that any project he tackles will benefit from his good work.  You can read all about his restoration at the CJ-3B Page. (Make sure to read about the bottle opener.)

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Wolfgang’s Travel Trailer & M-38

January 31, 2011 • CATEGORIES: Features, International, M-38 This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Wolfgang lives in Germany and has a great looking M-38.  But, I think that travel trailer is equally cool.  It was built in Belgium in 1977 and the model is a Coral T3.

BTW Wolfgang is looking for a Bell Crank.  Anyone have an extra one?  Just email me at d@ewillys.com.

Here’s the shot of the trailer:

Wolfgang and some friends were out jeeping recently.  As you can see, he’s not afraid to get it dirty, either.

I thought this was a really cool shot.  They are crossing a river on a small ferry.  The town in the background looks so picturesque!

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Parkette(?) Flat Fender Fiberglass Molds

January 31, 2011 • CATEGORIES: CJ-3A, CJ-3B, Features, Unusual • TAGS: , . This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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UPDATE:   Steve and I believe these are the Parkette Molds.  They appear to have sold.

You don’t see these appear for sale often. The CJ-3B Molds are especially unusual.

“Old set of molds to build Willys fiberglass bodies
One floor pan mold in good shappe.
One High hood body mold, needs to be reworked, wooden supports rotted and broken
One high hood grille mold
One low hood grille mold
One high hood hood mold
One low hood hood mold
One tailgate mold
Couple other misc. molds”

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Check out this photo from Offroad Action

January 27, 2011 • CATEGORIES: Features, Website This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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I was checking out Wes’ Offroad Action site the other day and ran across this amazing photo.  There is no evidence to support the rumor that the driver was texting just before this occurred (in fact, texting was a few decades away yet).  But, I’ll make the claim anyway.  See kids, particularly my kids, don’t text and drive off road!

Click on the pic to see a larger version and to see other pics of this CJ-5 Camper Combo.

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Builds: Mark updates us on his Jeepster Project

January 27, 2011 • CATEGORIES: Builds, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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During Mark’s last update, he got a steal on some Mitsubishi seats that fit perfectly into “Her Royal Highness”.  He’s made some additional progress since then.

Mark writes, “You may recall phase I consisted of making her safe, legal and roll down the road without leaking out all the  fluids. Phase II for me was to make it reliable and comfortable. Phase III is body & appearance and that one may take awhile. I’m rather fond of the aged patina look (alright I’m lazy).

After sitting in a barn for 18 years I’ve been leary of opening up the 265 on the highway because I was afraid the gaskets would fail so I replaced both diff. gaskets, the t-18 cover gasket and the oil pan gasket on the SBC. Once I got in there I was amazed at the pristine condition of the gears, they looked new. I installed a sound system and finished off with some sweet tan leather seats.  Replacing the orginal split bench with modern buckets changes the whole driving experience for the better.

One neat idea was to mount the seats with 1lb. rubber mallets cut and drilled to compensate for the uneven floor board. I’ve included some pictures.”

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1944 MB With Custom Body

January 27, 2011 • CATEGORIES: Features, Sedan-jeep, Unusual • TAGS: . This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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I stumbled upon this unusual Willys creature at this prewarcar website.  I guess Wally Cohn wasn’t the only person trying to create a unique body on top of the Willys platform.

“2 of these willys mb were bodied in germany in 1945. one was destroyed, ended in hamburg probably beeing rebodied to an original jeep, so when i got that survivor i did not do the same mistake and put it on the road again. now it is one of a kind with all the original chassis, drivetrain, axles etc. even with the original data plate date of delivery nov.11, 1944 (author Bussinger Kfz)”

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Tubing in a Tubeless World

January 26, 2011 • CATEGORIES: Biscuit, Features, Tires and Rims This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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I admit that sometimes I’m entirely clueless.  Today was a perfect example, for today I got my Desert Dogs mounted onto a 2nd set of Hurricane Rims that have been holding down the garage floor for more than two years.

The last time I got a set of offroad tires mounted on a set of rims was 27 years ago.  Those too were desert dogs. I had inner tubes added to the tires so that the air pressure could be dropped to 10 – 15 lbs when jeeping; using inner tubes was a very normal thing to do.

So, now you will understand that when I pulled up to Les Schwab Tires (btw, Les Schwab, the company founder, was an early fan and seller of the Desert Dogs) and told the guy at the counter what I wanted to do, I didn’t think much of it.  He walks out, looks at the rims, looks at the tires, and tells me he doesn’t think the tires will actually fit the rims.  Frankly, he was looking at me like I just dropped in from planet Mars.  Fortunately, I’m used to people looking at me like that.  I told him that Les himself would have mounted Dogs to rims similar to what I had.  He took it all in and seemed to think that maybe my request was possible.  So, I asked him for an estimate to mount the tires and add inner tubes.

He gave me an estimate ($91 to mount and balance them) and said he didn’t know if he could get some inner tubes, because running inner tubes on tires like that would cause them to heat up and explode (the inner tube explode that is).   Now it was my turn to look at him like he was from Mars.

However, to his credit, he was courteous the entire time and spent extra time attempting to locate inner tubes, finally finding four tubes at a cost of $38 …. that’s $38 a piece.  After some quick addition I concluded that would cost me almost $160 just for tubes!!  I told him thanks, I would see what else I could find for inner tubes.

So, I left, went home, and hopped on my beloved internet, hoping I could find a better price.  After a half our of searching the internet and finding nothing, I had an idea.  I would call Bucks, a local 4×4 shop, to see what they used.  They said they rarely use inner tubes.  The last time they used them, they got the tubes from Commercial Tire.

It turns out, in a world of tubeless tires, the use of tubes, once standard practice, has evaporated.  Worse, no one told me!

My next step was to call Commercial Tire and see what they could do.  The guy on the phone was helpful and said tubes would probably cost about $23 for my tire size, however I’d need to check the stem size of the rim as the tube price he was quoting was for a tube with a thick stem.

I figured I had nothing to lose, so I drove over to Commercial Tire and asked for some tubes.  They looked at my stem size and determined I needed a rare inner tube.  Several employees started making calls and one finally found four tubes at a warehouse somewhere and that was all they could find.  The price would be $35 a piece.

I still thought that was crazily high, so asked them to just give me a quote on mounting the tires.  They said they wouldn’t mount them because they were older than 6 years. So, my trip to Commercial Tire was a waste of time; and it confirmed that the world of tires had changed while I had been away from jeeps.

I left Commercial Tire and made the decision that I would mount the tires without tubes and give that a try.  Since Les Schwab was willing to mount the tires, I decided to just take the tires back to them and get them mounted.  Then, I took the mounted tires home and put them on the jeep.

So, maybe putting 18 year old shoes on Biscuit isn’t the smartest decision, but I couldn’t resist.  They probably have 5000 miles of road wear left, maybe a little more. However, I had to do this to complete my image of what Biscuit would be: a fiberglass flattie with an old school look.

Here are a couple images of the new, old tires.  I do prefer the pure aluminum color of the other rims, rather than having the black within the splines. So, I plan to polish the rims at some future point and take off that black.

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