Willys Jeep: Quick and Dirty Axle Before-and-After

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  I don’t have a lot of time, so this is going to be a pure photo extravaganza. Just brought the Badger’s axles back from the restorers. Due to time constraints I haven’t even had the chance to take them off the trailer yet. I’ll write more about that later. For now, though, here are the comparisons for the axles …

Willys Jeep: Porkchop’s Clutch Arm Problem

In Jeep by J Michel Metz6 Comments

This is a quick and dirty post to describe a particular problem that I’m having. Part of what I have to do when replacing the master cylinder (that is, converting it to a dual master cylinder (MC) from the original single reservoir, making it safer) on the M38A1 (affectionately named Porkchop) is disassemble the pedal assembly bracket and modify it …

Willys Jeep: Calm Before The Storm

In Jeep by J Michel Metz4 Comments

It all started so well this morning. A beautiful day, sunny and cool. I had finally gotten the right tools (after my third trip to Home Depot and another one to Sears) to fix the problems that I couldn’t get to last week. I started off working on Honey Badger, trying my hand at my first-ever tap in order to …

Willys Jeep: Ballad of Porkchop’s Brakes

In Jeep by J Michel Metz12 Comments

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)

In Jeep by J Michel Metz2 Comments

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

In Jeep by J Michel Metz3 Comments

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

In Jeep by J Michel Metz3 Comments

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

In Jeep by J Michel Metz6 Comments

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

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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: We Missed a Bolt!?

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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: Some Progress

In Jeep by J Michel Metz3 Comments

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

In Jeep by J Michel Metz2 Comments

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 …