As some of you saw in in the regular forum I recently purchased a 1953 CJ3A. Purchase price was under challenge budget, but I'm not sure I can get it up and running and not go over. I am keeping a record of expenses just in case. It might be the slowest vehicle ever taken to the challenge. I'm told top speed is about 50 while traveling downhill with a good wind at the back.
It came home, we gave it a bath with CLR, temporarily mounted the windshield frame and grill, then went on vacation for 8 days. I'm home now and trying to do a for real build thread.
These are from when I looked at it in the sellers shop:
The seller's daughter was graduating from University of Tennessee so the seller delivered the CJ to me in Knoxville.
Here are some outside pics:
It needed a bath in general but since painting it won't happen in the foreseeable future, and patina being a thing now, I started looking at ways to clean it without messing it up. I found lots of people posting about linseed oil but I didn't have any of that at the house. I saw other methods of cleaning it with Coca Cola, which I didn't have that at the house either. And then I found where some suggested using diluted CLR with warm water as a way to not only clean the gunk off, but take part of the surface rust off, and not damage the paint. We tried that method and it worked really well. Not perfect but better. I need to roll it back out and get some outside after CLR shots.
This is one of the hood halfway done:
And a before and after of the passenger side fender.
Here are my two biggest projects with the Jeep. I have an engine, it has compression, but other than that I know nothing. It has a carb of unknown condition. And it is also missing some pieces, oil filter, distributor, alternator, and fuel pump. I'm told as long as the engine spins and has compression it is basically indestructible. Besides those other issues, I pulled the plugs and they have a pine smell to them. Almost like a mix of gas, oil, and pinesol. ????? I've never encountered that before.
The second is the wiring harness, if you can even call it that, is all hacked to pieces. Wires going nowhere, wires twist tied together, switches with all the wires cut out the back. I'm ordering a new harness, but it's been a long time since I messed with wiring on that level.
I remember riding around in the back of one of these in the winter of 1990 downtown Atlanta. Froze my ass off. Still loved the Jeep. That's cool on the CLR. I might have to try that on Suprang. Did you just wet a rag and wipe it down?
In reply to Stampie :
The ratio I used is 1 part CLR to 4 parts warm water. I just eyeballed it, but it has to be warm water. I tried with a rag, steel wool, and a Brillo pad. I found that the Brillo worked the best. I then rinsed with clean water.
The funky plug smell is probably a funky mixture of bad gas and old oil.
I love how this Jeep looks with those white wagon wheels on it.
Had to go to my in-laws this weekend, which means I shopped for parts along the way.
old tailgate which has rust holes and spare tire mount in the wrong place
and the "new" OG one I picked up that the guy had on a military look CJ2A
and for cheaper than a new reproduction one.
Good move on a complete wiring harness. Great find on the tailgate!!
In reply to octavious :
How flat are the inner surfaces of those tailgates?
I've been thinking about mounting one to the garage wall to make a drop down work space.
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
not totally flat
Mr_Asa
PowerDork
6/14/22 8:28 a.m.
I have 47 with the flat head also. If you ever need pictures of something let me know. Mine is cobbled together, but give an idea.
ooo FedEx guy dropped off some stuff. Time to get busy
My kids have been helping me but with summer travel, and school starting I haven't posted much. For now we decided to keep as much of the original parts as we can and only replace what we needed. In this instance we needed new hood tie downs, but kept the original pieces on the hood.
Got all of the old wiring out.
New harness and instructions
He's 5'6" but way more flexible than I am...
some of the other parts we tried to reuse.
This is the only pic I have of the radiator, new reproduction ones were $300ish, so I took ours to a local radiator shop and they gave me this back.
Lastly, (and no pics of the process) I removed the surface rust, primed, and painted the driver side floorboard. We even tried a blue color under the gas tank we were thinking of painting the Jeep. It's really bright so we put that on the back burner. The old tank had pin holes in it that couldn't be repaired so I had to get a new tank.
I also removed the old master cylinder because it was stuck. I have the engine ready to go back in, but the master mounts on the inside of the frame between the frame and engine so I need those parts to go in first. Holley has sent me the wrong mounting bracket twice. And I'm waiting on the parts to convert all four corners to disc brakes.
Whew. And we are up to date for now
Great project. It looks like the right mix of project and solid foundation. It's also cool you're doing it with your kids. There are a few of us on the board with build threads going on CJs, so there are pics and resources up already and I'm sure we'll all chime in with more if needed.
The joys of having an old project no one cares about is that you can try things you read about but have never done. Since painting it isn't in the plans right now, I decided to try boiled linseed oil on the paint. I was trying to get rid of that faded look. It didn't take a lot of oil to cover the whole Jeep, I mean it is pretty small. But this is one light coat before and after sitting for one day.
