Not surprisingly, Porkchop needs new brakes. All of them. Front brakes, rear brakes, parking brake, brake lines, master cylinder, everything. So, I went ahead and bought everything I needed for a complete rip-and-replacement of all the brake parts I need. With that, I got ready to get to work.
Willys Jeep: The Frame, Before & After (Photos)
As promised in my earlier post, here are the before and after photos. I tried to figure out a way to do this so that the comparison was easy to see, but I didn’t have the time to do anything too special. Thankfully there are online animated gif programs. I hope this works the way I wanted it to. This …
Willys Jeep: The Long and Painful (Frame) Journey is Over
8 months. It’s been 8 months since I took the frame, completely free from other parts of the Jeep, to get the front crossmember to get welded. It’s been 7 months since I was able to bring the sandblasted frame home and deal with the reality of not being anywhere near completed. It’s been a very long road since then. …
Willys Jeep: Porkchop’s Brakes
After bringing Porkchop home last Monday (you know, the name has grown on me, it just… fits) today was the first day that I was able to really get in and around it to find out what “the sitch” is, and I’m happy to report that the situation is pretty much what I thought it was. In other words, unlike …
Porkchop, The New Willys Jeep, and the Great Samaritan
The Monday of Memorial Day weekend, we went up to Sacramento to look at a 1952 Willys Jeep – a M38A1 “field extended ambulance prototype.” A friend of mine, Dave Alexander pinged me on Saturday to let me know that his father had a Jeep that he (sadly) needed to sell. The timing was better than you normally expect. Anyone who …
Willys Jeep: Went to See a Man About a Jeep
Yesterday I drove 7 hours (round trip) to take a look at a Jeep just north of Sacramento. The seller had advertised it for $1500, but didn’t know exactly what kind of Jeep it was – just that it was a 1949. It had an overdrive and a Saginaw steering system, as well as a V8 (which I would sell) …
Willys Jeep: Framing the Situation
The Willys Jeep makes some progress with the frame, but there is still a long way to go.
Willys Jeep: We Missed a Bolt!?
If you’ve been following along the trials and tribulations of the Willys Jeep saga, you’ve probably read (with some amusement) about some of the things that have made this project interesting – including my ongoing exploration of the depths of my automotive ignorance as well as the discovery of the addiction to tools. This past weekend I hit a major …
Willys Jeep: Tailgate Practice
Practicing my grinding and polishing on the tailgate.
Willys Jeep: Some Progress
After a couple of months hiatus on working on the Jeep, I finally had a chance to get working on it again. This post is actually a summary of some of the things that have been happening since June, when we moved into our new house.
Willys Jeep: Steering Through Obstacles
So, this is where the frustration is starting to set in. At the moment, it’s raining – hard – and it’s the one day in the past 3 weeks that I’ve actually got time to work on the car over a two week period, and I’m dying to get working on the Jeep. In the meantime, I thought I’d update …
Willys Jeep: The Hood, The Grille, and the Nasty Surprise
The hood and grille come off, leaving a nasty surprise on the Jeep Restoration Project.
Willys Jeep: The First Step is Acknowledging You Have A Problem
Looking back I see that it’s been a month since I’ve last posted, which surprised me at first. Then I realized that yes, with the traveling for work and some of the crappy weather, it actually had been a while since I was able to actually work on the Jeep, let alone post about it. I did manage to get …
Jeep: First Weekend
With the first 3-day holiday weekend of the year, I managed to make as much of a dent in the jeep project as I could. What became obvious, though, is that the old beast ain’t givin’ up its secrets willingly. Not that this is a surprise, of course. I mean, it’s been severely mistreated for the past several decades. Left …
Jeep: Bringing it Home
So, I went and picked up the Jeep a couple of days ago. It’s actually in even better condition than I thought it would be. We actually got the engine running! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNQPJusWy8M] A day earlier, my Service and Repair manual came in the mail, so obviously it’s helping engender quite a bit of excitement.