50 CJ3A "Nuthin' Fancy"

[squidtone]

Paint repairs: The paint job was bad enough that I have sanded the whole tub down. I first did the inside, and repainted it. Way better.
I am now sanding the outer panels, and I believe I can do a "cut and buff" on these panels as they're not as bad.

I made up a jig for my Beugler striping tool and pinstriped the wheels. I used my extra dana 25 to mount and spin the wheels. I made two passes with the narrow striping wheel to get the 3/16" width. I used the body paint and it worked fine in the Beugler tool. The stripes came out great. I had the tires mounted after a few more days of paint curing. The wheels got scratched up on the edges but I touched them up. The tires are Indian made Speedways 7.00 x 16's.

I've found that cameras have a really hard time with Reds and I can't get a good shot of the color, but the last picture shows it fairly close.

This paint job repair is taking loads of time dangit, but hopefully soon I'll be able to get the tub back onto the frame....at least I have wheels and tire again!

[squidtone]

I'm still hammering away at fixing my quite horrible paint job. Since the last post I've repainted the driver side, the inner front fenders, and the inner wheel well areas of the tub. Oh this is not the way to do a paint job. I maintain that painting a Jeep tub is probably one of the HARDEST automotive paint projects. There are so many nooks and crannies, hidden and obscured areas that can be seen but are near impossible to get a paint gun to with any control.
I've spent quite a few hours buffing paint too. Just about the whole vehicle will be sanded and buffed. I really didn't want to do that, but it does make some marginal areas look much better.
I got some helpers and dropped the tub back onto the frame. I dragged the Jeep from out back with my crusty Rubicon, and I'm happy with the nice stance with the new tires.

[squidtone]

For a diversion from my grueling paint repairs, I painted the logos and "4 wheel drive" on the tailgate and hood. For the "WILLYS" I approached it with the brute force method of masking them by hand with 3M tape, then masked everything around it with painter masking paper (I do have some good stuff...I'm not THAT cheap...haha)
For the 4 WHEEL DRIVE logo, I printed the pdf file that I created some years ago (I created a vector file with AutoCAD and made up a high resolution pdf file and sent it off to all the Jeep forum webmasters [CJ2A, CJ3A CJ3B] to include on their webpages so folks can download the file and print it off) and tacked it to some shelf liner material, then cut out the letters, stuck the shelf liner to my tailgate, masked everything else off, then shot my cream paint (extra wheel paint) with my cheapie Harbor freight detail spray gun. I shot it, waited a few minutes, peeled all the masking away, and had to do some careful cleanup of some edges, but it came out pretty nice! I was quite happy with it.
So I'm about done with the paint detailing, and now I'm starting to dig through boxes in order to assemble this rig.

[athawk11]

Nice work on the homemade stencils.

[squidtone]

I've been digging through my dozens of sorting bags and boxes and taken all the piece parts and hardware that are to be gloss black and finally gotten them painted. This includes the fan shroud and shifter cover. I used NAPA (Martin Senour) paint for these parts and I'm very happy how this stuff sprays. It does take HOURS to cure up enough to handle, but it looks so good I'm fine with this minor complaint.
I had intended to get a new dash data plate but found that the repro's seem to be simply screen printed, and the fonts don't match up to the originals. So, I made an attempt at a "refurb" of the plate I had. It was eroded, and had no paint left. It looked terrible. But since it's embossed, the highlights can be sanded...so I fogged it with satin black, then wet sanded the plate on a flat surface. Alot of the fresh paint came off unintentionally from sanding, but I touched it up with brush work, then coated it with matte clear. Sheesh, I like it...it looks old but pretty good.
By the way, I had a * of a time finding original type slotted fasteners. I scoured many hardware stores, yet still had to order a bunch of stuff from McMaster Carr. I should say I wanted to re-use as much original hardware as possible, but alot of it was very poor condition, so I made the decision to replace many bolts with new. It seems as though orginal hardware was mostly zinc plated, so that's what I replaced them with. I'm bummed it all has 'modern" initials on the bolt heads, but I suppose not many will scrutinize bolt head markings.

[squidtone]

I could not find some replacement fasteners so I ended up making up my own zinc plating rig. The recipes are all over the internet, and I found a fairly simple one. It's actually quite simple to do, and it does work fast. I deconstructed zinc batteries for the zinc, used vinegar, sugar and epsom salts, and a small power supply. My goals for the plating was more for utility and not for looks, so I didn't strive for shiny finishes. Since I had sandblasted my parts, any plating on this would also be very "matte" looking. However, brushing with a brass wire brush does bring out a nice lustre which was worked fine for me. I plated the windshield clamps and hardware, the front signal socket parts (to maintain electrical conductivity!) as well as some other stuff.

[squidtone]

I read the CJ2A boards almost every day and noticed they have a "grille welt rivet tool loan program" and the tool looks pretty simple. I made my own by fabbing up a piece of steel, and then welding it to some locking pliers. I used padding to avoid scratching paint, and it worked pretty good. Walcks doesn't give you any rivets to spare, or length of welt for that matter, but it does fit perfect!
So the Jeep is coming along. So much more to do, and it's been COLD in the garage but I do enjoy the assembly work. Keep on Jeepin'!
Dave

[squidtone]

Okay I'm still cheap. I wanted to get the radiator installed, but I had to finish installing the grille wiring for all the lighting before I covered up access for all the loom clamps. Initially I was going to go custom and fit "Blazer" style LED's into the parking lamp holes, but I really like the clever original style Ba9 bayonet sockets that came with the Jeep. I ended up restoring those: I zinc plating the parts and drilled out the original crimped mushroom terminal inside and soldered on a new wire. The socket assemblies fit from the back side and allow a #51 (6V) or #1895 (12V) bulb to fit from the front. But I wanted amber for these lamps since I'm going with directionals. You can buy BA9 bayonet style LED's, but the ones at the parts stores are priced crazy, and online they all seem to be real cheap quality (terrible reviews). I liked the well made Blazer LED's I bought a while back, but they're just pigtailed with wires. So I decided to make my own lamps by grafting the Blazers into BA9 bayonet bases. I popped out the globes of my old 6V bulbs, and milled out the potting glue in the Blazers until I hit the solder terminals inside, soldered new short leads onto the terminals, placed the socket over the short leads and soldered, then re-potted the Blazer lamp to capture the "new" sockets. They work great. The Blazer "lens" projects the light very nicely, and the original style CJ3A parking lamp bezels and lenses will fit over them. And they are only a few bucks. Well sure, I had to throw labor at it, but that's fun.

I also have one shot of the Jeep kind of thrown together for a picture my daughter wanted to take with our dogs in the back (we added another Golden this past February). No wiring, seats, gauges, etc. (Still lots of work to go.) But It was nice to push the Jeep out into the sun (rare to see this fall and early winter here in New England!) and see the nice colors in the open!
Merry Christmas folks!

[squidtone]

[size=12]Soooo...a few months have passed....but I've managed to work around the cold and get some decent work done in the dead of winter. I filled in the huge steering wheel cracks with JB weld and then used primers and glaze to smooth it, filled in all the heavy pits of the seat frames, and also obtained a 1952 Donaldson oil bath air cleaner to finish off the engine compartment. The air cleaner had no rust but was super filthy and had some dents. But that got all smoothed too. All these things were shot with the Napa paint, which I've been very happy with. I zinc plated the oil bath threaded bolt too![/size]

[squidtone]

I've tried to reclaim all the electrical bits and pieces from the dash and I've had some success. I had to sandblast the high beam indicator and found some rather large rust through areas, but it won't impact performance. I also re-furbed the instrument cluster light. All this was zinc plated too.

[squidtone]

Lots of time installing the electrical system particularly because all my easy grounding points have been covered up with paints and coatings. In order to ensure good grounds, I made up a brass block and fastened it to the front of the battery box (where the negative battery cable should bolt to) and fastened the battery cable to it (in the picture you can see the top of the battery cable, and juuust where the other end of the battery cable bolts to the brass block...). The top of the brass block provides taps to run 10 gauge ground leads to the fenders and grille, and one lead to the tub gusset under the dash. I think this will keep grounding gremlins at bay.

For the tail lights, I came up with a scheme to protect the measly grommets from collecting water as well as provide a good point for star washers to dig into the tub to provide good grounding for the tail lamps:
I made up a cover plate that slips over the housing studs inside the wheelwell. The plate is a piece of sheet metal with a short stub of 3/8 copper tubing to pass the wires through. I used copper because that's what I had, plus it's solderable to the steel plate. The wires pass through the tube, and then into asphalt loom material. The loom end is slipped over the tube end and a spring clamp locks it in place. I used rubber sheeting as gasket material between the lamp housing to body, and cover plate/tube to body. The rubber gasket on the inside of the body was trimmed to allow a star washer to make good contact with the tub to make good earth ground contact between the nut/stud/star washer/tub. I gooped it up with dielectric grease to keep corrosion at bay. The looms run to the inner side of the driver side frame where I used bullet connectors to connect to a harness that runs to the inside of the Jeep through the firewall. Subsequent to this picture I repainted the tail lamp housings with that gloss black paint! (I've got a napa paint hangup now)

I've wrapped my wiring with non-sticky harness tape and I really like the way it looks. In the picture you can see an example of it as it exits the firewall in front of the driver. Also note I was able to re-claim the original oil lines...both the rubber and hard line. A new grommet kit was handy for all these dash holes!

[squidtone]

I refurbished the speedometer and fuel gauge a while back but I still had three holes in the dash to fill. My oil gauge still worked but the face paint was worn away. I was going to take it apart and re-silkscreen it, but the OMIX ADA replacement is so dang cheap I thought I'd take a chance with that. My temp gauge was AWOL so I got an Omix ada replacement there too. I didn't want an Ammeter so I bought a new-old "Champion" Voltmeter to use. The orange needle and chrome bezel had to go so I took the gauge apart and painted the needle white, then I scuffed up the bezel and painted it semi gloss black. The dash picture shows what I've ended up with. As noted in another thread, I tried fiddling with a regular control cable for the hand throttle control, but it pulls back from the throttle spring. So purchased a military surplus throttle cable control from ebay and it fits in the same hole as the original. I've since detailed that handle with black paint and repainted the "throttle". It has a ratchet mechanism which holds the throttle position until you twist the control 90 degrees to return to idle. Not stock but looks cool!
The choke cable doesn't look original...I may buy a repro....but that one works for now.
Note too I have a repro gauge light there, but I'm not sure it's right...it throws light onto the gauges, but it also floods the floor with light too, which is completely distracting...I must try the original light to see if it's masked better to prevent this. Anyone know?

[stony]

Hey Dave, that looks great, I really like the led front parking lights, I think I will try to do the same.� Just wondering what you are planning to use for a turn signal switch?� A Signalstat 800 signalflare ( what I have) will work directly with the single filament front parking lights you only need to add a couple of wires.� Pretty cool, they have a 4 way flasher function too.� They show up on eBay all the time.

[squidtone]

Hey Stony,
I bought a signal stat 900 some years ago before I knew there was a difference from the 800. So yes, the 900 won't work with single filament front parking lamps whereas the 800 does work. But, in taking the 900 apart, I found that it could be modified to indeed accommodate single filament lamps in the front. It involves cutting a couple traces, and adding brass screws for contacts. The work I did is on page 6 (I think) of this thread. Also, another member did the same mod to his signal stat 900 and he was considering offering modified units for sale....I forget which forum section that's in.
So yep, I've got the signal stat 900 bolted to the column, and it works fine, and it does have the hazards feature. I made a tube to carry the wires from the unit to down under the dash. I hope do a final picture set and post it when the Jeep is "done".

[67galaxie]

Wow! What color did you use for the wheels?