Hello all!
I swear I was in this forum once. Well here I am for good now, since I finally started working on my jeep, sitting in my garage for 25 years. I don't know how that happened. It was just ONE year, then suddenly it became 25. Of course I'm still 34 years old, well... I wish!
Each time I had thought of starting to work on it, it seemed overwhelming, especially since everything had started drying out: fuel tank, brake lines, etc.
It had all started with just a broken exhaust valve; this was in 1995.
I ended up buying a truck (also in 1995) in the meantime and kept driving it instead of the jeep, which I bought in 1977 when I was still 15 years old. (I'll be 60 next year)
So, about a month ago I just STARTED. I had been staring at this ghost jeep all these years and not doing a damn thing but rinsing it off every decade.
My goal was to first re-do the brakes, which were completely dried out. I had bought a replacement kit back in 2013, still sitting in my garage neatly boxed up. However I needed to order some new metal lines, so just for the hell of it,I thought I'd see if it would start.
A new battery, carburetor, lines, and fuel pump later, I got the darn thing to start! Of course I HAD to drive it, "sputteringly" around the block a few times - brakeless. But in compound low, who needs brakes anyway?!! It was the most surreal feeling... almost emotional in that it WAS alive still! I was a kid when I got this thing, financed by my dad who passed in 1993.
That alone really gave me more inspiration and the realization that I CAN do this job little by little and not letting everything become overwhelming.
So as of now, I've got all the new brake shoes, drums, wheel cylinders and many of the lines installed. I also "became smarter" and bought coveralls, mechanics gloves, an impact wrench and some other things to make this project go smoother.
Unfortunately I had also scheduled major neck surgery on Nov 9th, so I'm now on the mend (I hope) for at least six weeks. The surgery was over two hours long and was quite necessary for me to go on with any kind of normal life. Living in pain, especially chronic nerve pain is f-ing awful and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
There's my introduction and, when I get home (staying my sisters for a few days at least) I'll post a couple pictures including one of the kid Mark with his jeep and one taken last week, driving brakeless.
