Clean shop and nothing in my eyes this weekend.

There is not much to report this week. School has started and I can already tell that the amount of time that I will be able to devote to the Jeep project will decline.

I have a nut that is preventing me from disassembling the transfer case. If I cannot coax the nut off soon I will have to cut the nut off. Cutting it off may result in a ruined output shaft... I would really like to avoid cutting this sucker off.

The transmission did come out this weekend From what I can tell the gears are not chipped, worn, or pitted. This was just a quick inspection, but as the transmission comes apart I hope that nothing serious is uncovered in the gearbox.

While removing the transmission I noticed that the rear end is not straight. Upon further inspection I noticed that the spring pack attached to driver's side is cracked. All I can say is that the Jeep must have been dropped off of a tall building or that it ran over one hell of a stump.

I spent quite a bit of time this weekend trying to cut out the metal rot from the bottom portion of the grill. My father gave me a laser level that he was no longer using, and it came in handy when marking a straight line across both sides of the grill. I have only tacked the replacement portion back into place, but so far things are looking pretty good.

What a grind!

Hello again friends and family!

I would like to report that I was able to remove the motor and transmission this weekend as I had intended, BUT it rained. A lot! I was able to brave the rain long enough (and after $40+ in new sockets larger than one inch) and snag the transfer case. I am sad to say that when I drained the transmission that water was the first fluid that came out of the case. I now know that a complete rebuild of the transmission and transfer case await me.

The weekend was not a total loss however. I was able to bring in the grill (as seen in the previous post) and then the cowling. Mike was home and I had been neglecting him all day so I thought that this would be a good opportunity to have him come out and work on the Jeep. We first swept the floor and got rid of a lot of junk. Next we washed our hands, put on clean gloves, and then washed and dried the grill. He was really getting into helping daddy out.

When the grill had a chance to dry I began shaking up a can of primer. Mike wanted to know if this was going to be the blue paint that I had promised him. I then had to explain that we have to paint the Jeep one color before we can paint it another. I am sure that this seems very odd to a five year old, but he bought into it.

Now finished shaking the can I pointed it at the grill and what came out was, well really nothing. I stood up and turned the can away from Mike (who I had made wear glasses and gloves) and promptly sprayed a shot of primer into my left eye. In a great amount of pain I asked Mike to open the door so that I could rinse my eye out. A splash of water and the world was right again. This Jeep hates my eyes!

Painting finished I sent Mike inside to play with his toys. "Dad, can I play Wii?" "No, play with your toys." Right, Right! I set to work cutting out rusty areas on the cowling and patching them back up. I believe that I covered a bit of this in my last post, but that post was after working on the Jeep for ten straight hours. In short the process is pretty simple. You find a hole, inspect the area to see just how far the rust has eaten away at the metal, cut a larger hole that removes rust and thin metal, next you take a new sheet of metal and stick it under the hole. Once you have traced your shape the cut off wheel comes out and you cut your patch to size. Then comes the fun part, you get to tack and weld in your patch into place. If I am honest, I am rubbish at welding and make quite a hash of things (sorry I have been listening to a lot of British speak). A short conversation with my father about my skills brought to light that I was trying to weld at a 45% angle. His explanation was that with my wire welder I was pushing the shielding gas away from the area that I was trying to weld. I began welding at closer to 90% and you know what happened? I began getting much better welds and burning through the body a lot less. This also means that I do not have to be as aggressive with the grinder when I finish things up. Thanks Dad! This Jeep may be a gift from my mother's side of the family, but it is what I learned from my father over the years (Yes, that includes putting tools back where you found them when you have finished with them)that will allow me to complete this project.

I have a lot of work to do to get things straight before painting, but it feels good to have accomplished something. I will be taking nine hours this semester. School may really put a dent in my progress, but the plan is to have this sucker rolling by the summer. If that is to happen I have to find some magical elves to drop by and lend a hand.


Enjoy the new photos.

9/16th, a bad PLF, and Eviction

Good afternoon,

This will not be a long post. I feel as if I have been run over by something large after the time that I put into the Jeep project today. I started working at 9:00am and knocked off at 11:00pm. I wish that I could say that something wonderful happened today, but that was not the case.

So, 9/16th you ask... That this the size of the #$%#$^)(@#$ wrench that I needed all day long. A wrench, mind you, that kept getting up and walking off to some other place that I know that I could not have left it. I have more than one 9/16th wrenches, but you just don't leave your tools about in the hopes that you will discover them later.

A bad PLF (Parachute Landing Fall for all of you legs.)? Mike wanted to ride his skateboard today. It had been raining all day, and with a break in the weather I felt that getting out would be good for him. As he stood on the board I tried to tell him how to steer, but to no avail. I told him to watch me, and sure enough he said that he then understood. Great, I stop, turn around, push off back toward Mike, and wham. Blacktop and my head meet! For those of you that have never jumped you are supposed to land: feet, knees, rear end, back, shoulders. This is what is known as a PLF. Ask anyone that has ever jumped how many of these landings they have had. The answer will most likely be a big fat ZERO. This is because God loves to giggle as paratroopers burn in. On any given jump you are likely to land; feet, ass, head. Today when I fell off Mike's board I landed; ass, head.

Things blurred, but I was able to stay with it. Mike must have known it was bad because I told him to get his board and he did without asking questions. Once inside I told him that I was hurt, that it was not his fault, and this is why we do not skateboard.

On to Eviction. Rusiko lost her ability to park in the garage today. It was raining, and in order to get anything accomplished I had to drag body parts into the garage. She was a good sport about it.

Enjoy the photos!



Here you can see the door hinges once used in place off a real hinge.


Cutting out rotten patches.

Cutting off windshield hinges.

Holding a skin graft in place. I am using metal from other parts of the old Jeep to weld into the holes.



Time to pass out!

My Eyesssssssssssssssss!

Here is a bit of advice. Always wear safety glasses when using a grinder. I forgot for a moment and ended up at the doctor's office. Not being able to see for a bit really put a dent in the time I could allocate to rebuilding this Jeep.

I will go on record right now and say that this project will be far more involved and costly that I had thought it would be. I have done a bit of research and it seems prudent to rebuild most everything while I have the body off. I will rebuild the transmission. I will send the head off to have it looked at. I will see what the bottom half of the motor looks like.

For anyone in the family that has driven this car and knows that it did not have brakes I would like to tell you why. The brake pedal connects directly with the master cylinder. The master cylinder holds the brake fluid, and thus causes the brakes to work. The brakes on our Jeep were not even remotely connected because the master cylinder is completely shot. In fact the e-brake was completely disconnected as well.

I did order a great rebuild manual that covers every component, and I am looking forward to loosing transmission bits. I am afraid of the brakes, and if I am honest I do not want to mess with that job. However, a Jeep needs brakes.

The Jeep was a light blue to start with, but Mike (my five year-old), who the Jeep will be passed to wants it a darker blue. To be honest the darker blue will look better. Other than that I will try to keep it as original as possible with the exception of a Warn over drive unit. If I can find a cheap over drive unit it will help the Jeep putter around town a bit better.

Here are a few more pictures of the destruction process. I would like to thank my friend John Riggs for all of this help and smart remarks during this process.