50 CJ3A "Nuthin' Fancy"

[squidtone]

Thanks guys.

Tim, yes I am a fan of the Master Series silver. I used it on my GTO. I like how you can see it seep into crevasses. Some batches are higher viscosity than others...I actually like when it's rather thin. I like that it is NOT like POR 15. It can be sanded, it does not form a hard shell that moisture can get under. That's what scares me about POR stuff.
Only thing I've noticed: don't apply in cold weather. It will not stick, (or more likely it does not cure properly). So I try to use it only in summer. I'm going to wait to coat all my parts until at least a warm spell in March or something.
I also bought a gallon of epoxy primer and a gallon of "Hot Rod" semi gloss black from Summit racing. Their paints (at least the stuff I bought) is Kirker brand. I've had good experience with Kirker paints. And the Summit version is very inexpensive.

Today I've been cleaning and straightening the crossmember and skid plate. I just purchased a 12 ton press from HF. WOW I can't believe I've gone this far in life without this kind of tool. I've used it everyday for a week!

[squidtone]

I've had a busy half year so far, so it's been very slow for Willys work. However I did get the frame and some parts coated with the masterseries primer.
I also checked the frame and found that it was splayed out in width at the fixed spring hangers for the front springs. I believe it's because the snow plow on my Jeep had a lower mount that was clamped to the frame in that area.
It was splayed out by about a half inch, mostly on the driver side (as measured to centerline of frame).
I figured I'd have a go at straightening it myself, and conveniently enough there is a great point to apply force: the rear spring hangers themselves. I bought a hardened piece of 1/2 threaded rod and spanned it from one hanger to the other also filling the gap of each hanger with washers.

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I installed nuts on the rod and squeezed the frame together by an inch. The steel is quite springy and as a check I released this pressure to see if I moved anything. No movement yet, so I tightened the rod nuts again to squeeze about 1.125" and then used a sledge hammer to apply more "nudging" force on the driver side (since this side was more out of line than the passenger side).

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I released the rod nuts and everything looked beautiful and within spec.
I hope to paint the frame in the next few weeks, and consolidate all these parts hanging around!

[athawk11]

Very clever fix.  Nice.

Tim

[1955CJ-5]

Yes very clever....

And it's a proven fact that assembled jeeps occupy less room than  dis-assembled jeeps!

[squidtone]

Thanks guys. It worked out well.
Next up: Frame paint. I painted the frame and lots of bits and pieces, including the spring leafs. Wow what a job. It took alot of paint too! I have a gallon of epoxy, and a gallon of Kirker Hot rod black. I used up a third of a gallon each for this stuff.
But it came out pretty nice. The Kirker urethane paint is almost hard to get runs; good stuff.

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I painted the axles too, and I intend to re-hang them on the frame and refurb them installed. (new seals and stuff).

The leafs came out nice, and after the black paint, I sprayed them with graphite paint (EZ slide from Tractor Supply). I made some spring wrap/clamps from some sheet metal as some originals were destroyed when taking them apart. All in all the original springs looks good!

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I also did a stud conversion for the knuckles. I used the button head cap screws as seen in Moses Ludel's book. I spotfaced the backside of the bosses inside the knuckle with a radiused endmill, and used 3/8-24 BHCS (modified by turning the head diameters and head height down) to install from the backside.

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Some threads were damaged so I heli-coiled them. It was a bit of work but I believe it's a definite upgrade from original (there were actually some broken coarse thread bolt bits in some of the holes I had to remove)
I noticed a thread in the Rants forum section by Carlsjeep on how he came across a knuckle upgrade to 1/2 bolts....but I'm happy with my grade 8 3/8 fine thread BHCS!
So next up is to assemble the leaf springs and install the axles. Looking forward to getting the frame rolling again!

[squidtone]

Since almost two months have passed, I'm posting an update on "Nuthin' Fancy".

After getting the frame and bits and pieces painted, I began the process of putting it all back together. I was very happy with the how the leaf springs came back to life after the grinding and sanding and new paint. I made some new wrapper clamps and they look good!

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Some time was spent on the knuckles with the stud conversion. The balls on the axle do indeed have to be notched to make way for the stud heads, but not by too much. You can see where I made a marker trace where I have to notch:

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I made a template with a 27.5 deg angle to set the max turning angle. (My front axle has both a rzeppa and a plain cardan joint, so I went for the middle of the road 27.5 degree angle). This was where I realized how terrible the Willys steering is. The steering arms are actually anti ackerman, and of course the steering links are really bad as far as bump steer goes. These CJ's definitely were not made for handling manners!
In another thread I mentioned that my Dana 25 was grenaded at some point. It seemed to have a mismash of parts, and indeed I found interesting king pin caps with the Ford script on the pin tops:

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Since it's definitely not a WWII axle I'm thinking a kit must have existed with leftover WWII parts to do the kingpins.

Since I was concerned about what vintage the front axle might be, I checked the knuckle kingpin bosses to see if I had the bottom offset cast in, and indeed I found this can be measured from the ID of the counterbore where the split seal goes, to the boss surfaces themselves. So in fact the bottom boss is thicker by 0.058".

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I purchased new king pin bearings from a bearing place on Amazon. The knuckle bearings were 5 bucks for both cup and bearing. We'll see how they do over time.

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I actually got far enough to need to put some wheels back on. I wondered about the wheel color, so I sanded down to see what was under the layers. I was pleased to find that they were indeed the cream color (to go with the Luzon Red body) with the Red pinstripe. I love the fact this thing still has it's original wheels.

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I also found that the transmission had a cast date of 7/17/50 which matches up nicely with the other July dates on this July built CJ3A.

So, this is the state of my garage right now:

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Thoughts of body work still haven't pervaded my conscious mind yet. I hope to have the drivetrain up and running in the chassis in the next couple of months!

[Dre]

This is exactly the same way I am beginning to proceed with my '50 CJ... great write-up with lots of interesting information. My original idea was to sandblast the frame and then use POR15 after all the cutting and welding was done but thanks to you I have another choice. I have used POR on a couple of my previous projects and it held pretty good but did not like tithe idea that it got so hard that I could not work with it.
Keep up the good work...

[Kirkski]

Looking great!

[squidtone]

Thanks Dre and Kirkski.
Just installed all the brake lines and bled 'em, now I've got brakes!

[JeepFever]

I am enjoying the thread.  Thanks for keeping us posted.

Lots of good info here.

[squidtone]

Overdue update:
I sorta kinda burned out for a while. I've been trying to keep up with my regular household stuff, and daily driver stuff. (All our cars are over 10 years old, and it's quite a task to keep me and my kid's cars running....[i'm the mechanic for the family])
But when I get some time, I still really enjoy getting something done on the CJ. Last time I checked in, I had finished the brakes. I was really pleased I got it done with a very low budget. I did have to buy a new master cylinder and two wheel cylinders, but I managed to rebuild two wheel cylinders, and re-use most of the hardware and brake shoes. JeepFever (of this forum) helped me by sending me a needed front brake drum, and I ended up swapping drums around as well as using some new studs to get the Willys back to all LH studs on the left, and RH studs on the right.

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A neat set of Chrysler lug nuts finished it off. (There are really low cost lug nut kits [sub 20 bucks] offered for 60's Mopars that have the correct size and thread for Willys Jeeps offered on eBay.)
I made up all new brake lines by hand, and managed to flare everything with an odd assortment of old flaring tools.
Anyway, all the brakes finally got assembled and they work!

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[squidtone]

My Ross steering box internals were still bathed in pure (if not old) oil, but I still needed to replace the bushings. I used a brake hone to size it to the sector shaft. The tie rods and links needed only cleaning and repainting. The steering seems good and tight.
I dreaded the transmission and transfercase work because they were so encrusted with greasy dirt.

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But after some extensive cleaning sessions, I got them on the bench and separated. After all these years I still had never cracked them open to see what they looked like inside. I was so very happy to see they look really good. I took the Dana 18 completely apart to inspect the bearings and re-seal the whole thing. The intermediate shaft does exhibit some wear, but I'm going to see just how it does before committing to any replacement.

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The T-90 looked so good, I didn't take it apart. I cleaned the exterior and painted it.

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The trans and case were reunited and I dropped them into the chassis. The propeller shaft u-joints looked original, and they were still fine, but the seals were gone. I replaced them. The slip yokes are astonishingly still good.
So a takeaway for anyone looking for an old Jeep is to find one that had a top on it! It keeps the water out of the transmission!

[squidtone]

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I finally was able to put the engine into the Jeep, but not before doing a spray can rebuild. (haha). If you'll remember, I bought this as a running replacement for the frozen engine that came with the Jeep. So in keeping with the budget, I'm just going to run it as is for now.

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With that engine deal, I got the seller to throw in a fairly new exhaust system. In my typical nitpicky fashion (and also because I have the tools at my disposal,) I cut and spliced the intermediate pipe quite a bit to really fit it to the Jeep perfectly. Note how I changed how the pieces "clock" to each other. I think it fits way better than if I had let it be as supplied.

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So that's it. I'm populating the engine now in hopes of getting a running chassis soon.

[squidtone]

Spring update:� The frame/chassis refurbishment is almost done. I got the exhaust done and then filled all fluids, greased every zerk, and installed a goofy 1 dollar swap meet lawn mower gas tank mount up near the grille. From my scrapped, beloved Dodge Dakota I saved the passenger seat and fit it to the CJ3A for testing purposes. Let me tell you it is luxurious; it has full forward backward and seat recline adjustments. I wish I could run Dakota seats permanently!

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When I had the engine on a "stand", I had made a preposterous, ugly "instrument cluster" which I re-used for the Jeep. I simply mounted it up high with scrap on the back of the bellhousing. It's got a switch for the alternator field, and a switch for the coil. Oil and Temp gauges finish it off. Below is a picture on how I rigged up the gas pedal as well as the base for the "instrument cluster".

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I wired the Jeep up with the harness I made for the same engine stand. I'm not sure if I want to go with the expense of an original style cloth wire set up, or perhaps a really neat and tidy wiring harness by myself with some modern components such as relays (I'll keep all that hidden).

I got the Jeep started up and ran it for a few minutes, but the original radiator was just not going to make it. I made a post in the tech section about installing an aluminum radiator in place of the original. It works fantastic, and while it is a rather glaring deviation from stock, the low cost and super performance won the day. I'm still pondering my lower hose solution here...

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During the first few episodes of chassis tests, it was evident that the engine was running way too rich. The Solex carb was wet with gas on the exterior. I purchased a Holley regulator and temporarily put it inline with the intake fitting on the solex. I adjusted it for slightly less than 2 psi and it runs so good now. It starts right up with the Solex "starter", and is a bit balky when cold, but when it's warmed up it runs super.

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So my son helped me made a gopro video and I put it together in the past couple days:

[media width=800]https://youtu.be/YcGeAcq5zqA[/media]

I did score some parts from a young craigslister with a modified CJ2A (a really nice rig) with a ton of leftover, extra parts. I scored a new signal stat directional, a good Dana 25 and some NACO tail-lights too. 80 bucks for all. The Dad tried to get me to take away more parts (including a Dana 41 with 11" brakes) but I stuck to my budget.

Bodywork next!

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[JeepFever]

.
Very nice!   

This reminds me of your first post,   our Jeeps were practically twins at the beginning.   I chose to do bodywork first,  but it sure would have been fun to first get a running chassis like you did 

I have enjoyed all your posts,  hopefully our "twins" can meet up one day.