My '53, from the start... to the END

[garage gnome]

Just thought I would post up a restoration thread of my '53 to give some inspiration to people working on their projects.

This project started back in 2008 when I was 14. There was no particular reason why I did. I just felt like doing it. �:

It was your typical New England plow jeep. Body and frame were rusty and crusty. Surprisingly, it had no jeep lean. Maybe that is because it had the heavy duty leaf springs. It came with a 4 way plow which I still have and will probably never use. It was pretty stock and wasn't too bubbafied. The wiring was a mess and bubba did make the body "solid" with pop rivets, aluminum flashing and lots of bondo. It ran great, tranny and transfer case were rebuilt several years before I got it, and it stopped somewhat. Not a bad Jeep to start with. Its original color was Saber Rouge Red, not Luzon red surprisingly.













The tear down.

[athawk11]

Nate,

Good idea.  I think I've seen this at the 2A, but it is a 3A.  It should be here where it belongs!!!

Tim

[garage gnome]

It used to be here on the old site. So I'll post it up again.  

[garage gnome]

Here she is with the frame and axles all sand blasted, new springs, and paint/primer. It still has the stock brakes on it, which I upgraded shortly after when...





I got these two heeps for free! The 3B was 100% original, but in very very bad shape. The frame was completely rotted out in the back. The CJ5 had a  factory v6 and working 10" drums (about the only working part on these two!). Those were the first things stolen off it.



The Lhead was all rebuilt too. There was a crack between two of the valves. When we took it apart, every ring was in 6 piece or so. It ran great and had decent compression surprisingly! I painted it Pontiac blue. I'm not a fan of painting the drivetrains black. It just looks weird.

[garage gnome]

Engine and frame reunited. The cutlas hubs I found in a junk yard for 20 bucks! 10" brakes are installed too here and engine is running.



This is what happened to me with a new oil pump. After 5 minutes of running with great oil pressure, this thing locked up for no reason. The teeth on oil pump drive gear snapped off and luckily it didn't hurt my cam shaft. I rebuilt my original one and it is making 40 psi still. Never going to replace an oil pump again!



And of course, a first test run!

[garage gnome]

I realized I haven't updated this for a while.

Moving on, we get to the dreaded body kit. Don't worry Rommel, this was way before you joined all the forums to improve your product. I will say, compared to some of the storied I've heard about these kits, mine wasn't too bad. Here is a list of things wrong with it:

- Gauge holes too small
- Front hat channels off
- Missing key switch hole
- cowl had incorrect bend (fixed with body filler, see pics)
- drivers fender was incorrectly bent (fixed by putting my foot against it and pulling it to where it needed to be)
- front center weld on hood was cracked







I completely built my jeep before doing the body work and paint. I drove it a bit to work out the bugs and to make sure everything was happy.



My original tub was shot. I think the cowl even had issues. It would have been a huge project to fix it.



Popped back apart and the body put on a homebuilt rotisserie.



And after some judicious sanding of body filler...





And it looks much better all one color!