The bane of my wife's existence

[PeterL]

Hello everyone!�

I have been meaning to do a write up about my 3A but, I have been so engrossed in disassembly I have not gotten around to it.�

On an impulse I bid and subsequently won a 1952 CJ3A on EBay.� It was found in a repossessed storage locker in upstate NY.� As a part of the purchase I was given a lease until the end of April and possession of all the items within the storage locker.� Well, after about a month of listening to my wife gripe about my recent purchase.� I took a day off from work and traveled over to take a look.


The body is in pretty rough shape, the vin plate was no longer on the firewall.� I did later find it in a baggy of parts.� I have to be honest.� The visit really fired me up to work on the unit.� I have been obsessively reading this forum and others for tips and tricks.� My only concern was the strength of the frame.� In some of the photos you can see how pitted the frame is.� I planned on bringing the frame into my shop where we have a 10x10 sandblasting booth. However, my obsession was fueled and while hunting around craigslist I found a CJ3A frame listed for $250.00.� I sent off an inquiry to the owner and he told me to come take a look.� I was not expecting much when I got to his house.� What I found blew me away. It was a CJ3A rolling chassis and it was in GREAT shape.� Well, I found out quickly that one jeep is never enough�


I purchased the chassis and brought it into my shop to disassemble it.� I used our 15 ton house crane to disassemble it.� By far it was the fasted strip down I think I have ever done.� Knowing this frame was far better then the one in NY, I sandblasted it and prepped it for paint.� When it was ready and I was talking to a paint jobber about what I was looking to accomplish and one of my employees asked why I wouldn�t just galvanize it.� I did a little research and found a place in Massachusetts that hot dip galvanized to ASTM A-123 standards.� I hemmed and hawed about galvanizing it.� I did not want to have to take a day off from work to drop it off and then have to take another day off to pick it up.� This is where fate stepped in.� The next day after I spoke with the galvanizing company a customer of ours called and requested a pick up.� This customer was 9 miles away from the galvanizing facility. Soooo the decision was pretty easy.� I had my truck driver drop the frame off last month and it was agreed that I could pick it up this week.�

While I have been waiting for the frame I have had time to strip the engine and sent it off to the machine shop.� I have disassembled the transmission.� The transmission was kind of a heart breaker.� It was filled with water. Where gears and sprockets used to be was a giant ball of rust.� I was worried that the transfer case would also be as rough as the transmission.� To my surprise it was in remarkably great shape.� I stripped the transfer case last night 03/19.� The transfer case along with the transmission case is in our parts washer as I speak.� I will be bead blasting them in the next few days and probably running them through our bake oven in hopes of having the iron release some of the absorbed oils.� Once cleaned and prepped I will begin painting them and likely reassemble both units next month after parts are procured.�

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention.� I was supposed to fly out with my wife to Vegas on February 12th to be in a wedding for a friend of mine.� Well, good old New England weather prevented the wife and I from flying out.� So, I received a refund for my trip.� Much to her chagrin I plan on using this money to purchase a body kit (it was my money used to purchase the entire vacation, so I think it�s fair).� �

My plan of attack is this.� I am going to get the frame back tomorrow.� Set it up on jack stands.� Finish the transmission and transfer case and install them in the next 3-4 weeks.� Get the engine back sometime in April to begin rebuilding that.� The original 3A that starting this whole fiasco (my wife�s description), needs to be moved by the end of April.� When I bring it home I will use that body and tub as a �Chinese blueprint� for the body placement along with where to run the wiring harness among other things.� The frame needs to be weathered for 6 months or more before I paint it.� So, I plan to build the jeep, and then tear it down to paint the body panels and frame.� Well, that is the plan anyway�.

Some photos can be found here-

http://s124.photobucket.com/user/peterlary/library/The%20Jeep

[Ryan_M]

Just went through all of your pics. You obviously aren't afraid to tackle a project. Looks like you have a pretty nice facility to work in too which always helps.

And that's money well spent on the body kit. The cash would have only lasted a week in Vegas. Now you can enjoy it for many many many years in the form of a rebuilt Jeep. If it makes you feel better, my wife refuses to even ride in mine 

[PeterL]

Ryan,

I do have a pretty nice shop.� We rebuild large electric motors and generators.� I have to admit that I have a lot of equipment at my disposal that others may not.� A 15 ton bridge crane, large burn out & bake out ovens, sandblasting booth etc.� I am also fortunate to be in charge of the shop and have an owner who will put up with me!�

[athawk11]

This should be a fun one to watch. Galvanizing a frame is a new one for me, but a pretty cool idea.�

You have a WWII or earlier head on that rusty motor. (not the blue one)� Did you get any casting information off that block?� Serial #?

That frame is in great condition.� Must have come from Colorado.

�

Tim

[PeterL]

Tim,
My goal was to do the best quality frame up restoration I could do.� I would like my grand kids and maybe even great grand kids to enjoy this jeep.� The average mean life of galvanizing is 15-20 years adding paint to something galvanized gives an average life of 30-40 years in an urban environment (theoretically the worst).� We also use a Krylon paint that was designed for Marine buoys at my shop.� It is tough as nails and cheap.� Another perk is that it was designed to paint directly over galvanized metal without needing to clean off any of the phosphate corrosion or needing a special primer.� Oh yeah and it looks good when it is sprayed on!

As for the WWII head, how do you know the head is WWII?

We are going to pick up the jeep in a few weeks and I will take a look for the numbers.�

[PeterL]

This it the paint we use.� They have superseded it recently to a new product name.� We use both and they work great and hold up really well in the industrial environment.� Which is why I am very confident in its durability on my frame.� �


http://secure.nhbragg.com/product/kry-k-11001131-iron-guard-water-based-acrylic-enamel-buoy-paint-748656/

New product name = slightly higher prices but, again for the durability and look it's still cheep!� We were using commercial vehicle coatings when we painted our motors and generators.� We started to move away from any VOC's we found this and it is better than the Napa Commercial coatings we had been using.�

[athawk11]

Galvanizing just seems so obvious now that you mention it, but I didn't think of it in terms of the Willys frame.� My industry (Garage Doors) is surrounded by galvanized metal.� I probably could have sent the darn thing to my manufacture to have them do that.� Oh well, maybe the next one.

The photos� of the rusty engine aren't very close, but from what I can see, your head has two 'tells'.
 
1. Early heads do not have the ribbs that run from front to back, and stand proud, between the mounting studs/nuts.

2. Early heads are not drilled for a heater connection hose.� On later heads, this drilled hole would be at the very back, and to the driver side of the head.� Your heater connection is utilizing the thermostat hole on the side of the head, just above the distributor.� This is a fairly common way to add a heater to a military head.

The whole engine might be military, but you will need to get some casting numbers before you can determine that for sure.� Might be some real value there.� If not to you, certainly someone looking for a military engine may have some real interest in it.

Have a good day.

Tim

[PeterL]

Well, yesterday I pulled the trigger on a body kit.� In the mean time I have bead blasted the transfer case and transmission.� Internally I coated them with Glyptal 1201 (conveniently I have gallons of it in my shop) and baked it at 250 in one of our ovens.� I also purchased VHT's high temp primer, engine enamel, and engine enamel clear coat.� I followed the instructions and everything looked great.� Primed with three coats, base coated with three coats and topped it all off with three coats of their clear 10-15 minutes apart.� I must say it looked amazing!� I let it dry completely for 24 hours.� Then baked at 200 per the instructions.� This is where I ran into problems.� The clear coat turned YELLOW!� The cases look like they were dipped in honey.� I am pretty upset about it.� I contacted VHT about what happened.� The customer service rep stated "yeah sometimes our clear coat does that".� I am not a happy camper.� I am going to sand them down this week and base coat everything again.� I can honestly say, the color was amazing and I hope once baked without the clear that it stays that way.� Oh well, we will find out.� �:'(

[Ryan_M]

The customer service rep stated "yeah sometimes our clear coat does that".�

What is that all about? They might as well have told you "Yeah, sometimes our product totally sucks and not only does it fail to do what we told you it would but it also ruins hours of tedious work that you put into your project before you wasted money on our stuff...."

No other explanation from them? Frustrating.

[PeterL]

Howdy all!  I have updated my photobucket account with some pictures of the frame. 

http://s124.photobucket.com/user/peterlary/library/The%20Jeep

Cheers!

[zooke581]

I have used VHT clear on my motorcycle engines and bake one and it came out yellow and did not bake the other and it as still clear two years later after only heat cycling the engine.