Re: My 3a's Progress report

[James P]

Well fired up the Jeep tonight and had to add to the list of things that need some focus.  
Had little bit of a panic when I first rolled it over, I had oil suddenly poring down the side of the engine.
A bit of advice make sure the oil filter canister's top is Tight before firing up the jeep.  

She ran pretty smooth, at least till the fuel drained out of the carb. The current fuel lines have been seriously bubbafied, but I am not to worried about that right now seeing that I am going to be stripping it down completely.

[F Bill]

Well fired up the Jeep tonight and had to add to the list of things that need some focus. �;D
Had little bit of a panic when I first rolled it over,

What? don't say rolled it over when you are talking jeeps!! Ya almost gave me a heart attack there..

Congrats on the successful startup.!

[Comanche_County]

Ah, the first golden moment of start up, congrats!

[James P]

Been stripping the jeep down as I have had time and decided to up date my progress and show off some more pics of what I am dealing with on the jeep.
Apparently at some point in the jeep's past, some one decided to "fix" the floor boards and and a couple of other bad sections on the body.
It looks like the preferred material for patches was street signs.






The passenger side after I removed the street sign on that side.





A possible bubba mod, are these jeeps supposed to have a coil spring as well as the flat springs?






A definite bubba mod, this one actually aggravates me because I now have to cut the thing out and find the supports and the draw bar.






Also here is an example of the original color any body have an Idea what color I am looking at.






Right know I have most of the parts off the windshield and have started removing what I can get off. Putting all the small stuff in my shed and hoping to have it stripped down far enough by this winter to get the running systems into the shed for some work this winter.

[Stich]

James, you're a better man than me, tackling a job of that magnitude. Congrats and good luck. I finally found the 3A that I can do the finishing touches on. It won't be a restore but a modded CJ as it has the Buick V6 and stuff like power steering and later model CJ axles and stuff already done. I wanted more of a bit modern willys but keep the looks. �

[Bob W]

Also here is an example of the original color any body have an Idea what color I am looking at.

I'd say it is Hampshire green.

[James P]

Sorry I meant to do this before I posted the picture. The spot I have circled here seems to be the lowest paint color on various protected and flaking areas.

[athawk11]

My computer color stinks.

Is that a blue or a green?

Tim

[James P]

Blue

[Bob W]

Hampshire Green can be described as Blueish Green or Greenish Blue depending on the lighting.

[James P]

Started stripping off the sheet metal that was riveted on the passengers side and found what looks to be Normandy blue there.
But IF you tip the hood up and look on the bottom side of that, you find on the lowest layer that it is OD green.

But seeing that the tailgate and hood do not have any stamping My guess is that those two items probably came off an m38.

But then again I have at least 6 different colors on this jeep. 8-)

[3aJeeper]

Speaking of paint, my 3a had multiple layers of paint too - at least 3 or 4 shades of green (but no OD), some kinda orange-ish color, yellow, black and underneath all that was the original red.

[athawk11]

Hi James,

If the hood is an original M38, there will be a strange cut out on the passenger side.  This was where an auxillary power connection and fording components would sneak through the hood.    

The M38 tailgate is also easy to spot.  There are additional vertical reinforcements on the interior side.  They are there to support the gas can and spare tire mounts.

If you don't see these things, then the hood and tailgate may be reproductions. Some vendors sell un-Willys-marked replacement hoods and tailgates.  They are a bit less expensive.   They may not be able to reproduce the Willys stamp.  It may be a copyright issue of some sort.

Are you thinking Normandy Blue for your restored paint finish?    I know I don't have a vote, but I haven't seen many Willys done in that color.  

Tim

[James P]

Still out on the color I am going to finish it to but probably will end up being Normandy Blue. Based on what you are saying about the hood probably was repro but with my jeep who knows.  

[macrisel]

Yes!  Go with Normandy Blue!  That is what mine is getting ready to be.  If you need the paint code, let me know because I still have the label from mine when they mixed it.

By the way, if you want to see a beautiful Normandy Blue jeep finished, take a look here under "My Restoration":

http://www.cj-3a.com/

Johnathon did a great job on his and I have been modeling mine after it..