50 CJ3A "Nuthin' Fancy"

[squidtone]

67galaxie� �� It's a universal color offered by my local NAPA paint jobber.
Cheap because it's not a custom mix. I chose it because of that and I got lucky it matches pretty well to the original (albiet aged) color I found on the wheels.
It is "Universal Colors/34045/Cream" And I used the single stage urethane.

Photo attached of label....

[squidtone]

As noted in earlier posts, I had rushed the paint job last fall because I was pretty busy; I had house projects, had a big trip and the winter was coming. I choked and rushed it and it ended up more work. Haste makes waste. I would love to just strip it and repaint, but that's nuts. I said that on my last project....never happened. Anyway, the last paint repair was to repaint the windshield frame. I took the opportunity to fix some flaws that I missed the first go around. It's much nicer and I'm very happy with it. And I finally found a good recipe (mix, gun settings) to paint with the Kirker Low VOC stuff. I called around for getting a windshield glass, and I believe they all were going to cut flat glass to fit, and pricing started in the mid 100 range and up. I felt that this was kind of too much, so I took a chance on a new seller on eBay from Montana. I was pleased to receive a nice windshield glass to my door for $115. Nicely smoothed edges too. I got a gasket from amazon along with the tool and fitted the glass in last week. It went fast and easy and looks great.
I've also started my seat upholstery. I got the upholstery from Walcks and they look really good. I am going to use foam since my springs are too grungy and broken, although I may use the springs for the seat backs. I bought long life foam from a place online called foambymail.com. Reasonable and nice stuff. I cut out "pans" from 1/2 inch plywood and I'm ready to cut foam. I'll post the results soon!
I took my first ride in the Jeep this past weekend. For the most part fun, except I have this very odd heating event the lasts for a minute and proceeds to burp coolant all over the engine compartment. This causes me to hose it all off, wipe it down, and then it happens again because I assure myself that that was the last air bubble. But it's happened three times. Some detective work is necessary. I'll report back on that too. But here she is sans seat upholstery (slippery and dodgy moving blankets not cool for upholstery while motoring)

[athawk11]

Beautiful work!! 8-)

One trick I've learned from the Willys world is to drill an 1/8" hole in disc face of the thermostat.  This eliminates the burps and doesn't affect the thermostat performance.  Although, generally the burp is over after the first air bubble is expelled.  Where does the antifreeze come out?

[64CJ5]

Looks nice and straight with a beautiful paint job.  Good work!

[squidtone]

64CJ5, Thanks!

athawk11,

The coolant squirts out of the nipple at the radiator filler neck. I don't have a tube to direct it down to the ground (it's on the list!), so it makes a mess which I dutifully clean every time. I keep assuring myself it's the last "burp", and then it spits out coolant again! All in all, I'm wondering if I just need to let it find it's happy medium (and keep in mind these old coolant systems do that....keep air in the top tank and burp out excess coolant until the system stabilizes the ratio of coolant to air)

As for the Jeep, it's weird to finally take a few test drives after having it for over 12 years. My few rides so far were good....It tracks nice, has no vibrations at all (I didn't have the wheels balanced), has no transfer case noise, and the trans stays in gear at all times.
But, having never driven or ridden in an old universal Jeep, I notice it definitely doesn't like speeds much above the low 40's mph range! It bucks a bit on bumps (I'm thinking of lowering air pressure in the very HD Speedways tires) and the brakes are pretty decent. The solex carb is great so far I think...it starts up immediately, the idle enrichment (choke) works perfectly, it idles perfectly from startup to full hot, smooth power too. No complaints with it.
I've got more de-bugging, and more details to tend to so I'll post my progress soon.

[athawk11]

Well at least it exits where it should.  Don't be afraid to drill that hole.  It does eliminate the burp.  May be helpful on the next radiator flush, etc.

Losing a little air in the tires will help the ride, but old straight axle suspensions are what they are.  Rough riders.  Until it's time to go off road, I'm generally happy with around 24psi.  On the trails, I get nervous with anything below 17psi.   

I'm glad you're able to finally enjoy the rides. 

[stony]

Hey Dave, there is no reason (that I can see) not to add a small coolant expansion tank to catch the coolant.  All it takes is a bottle with an inlet in the bottom and a top vent.  Attach a hose to the nipple and the bottom of the tank, fill the radiator and fill the bottle about 1/3.  When hot, the coolant will expand into the bottle, and be sucked back into the radiator when it cools.  No mess, or toxic stuff the dog can get into.  Will probably do that with mine.

[squidtone]

Stony,
Yes I think I may do the expansion tank. There is a little room in front of the battery under the headlight bucket....My Jeep has some deviations from pure stock, so this wouldn't be much of a stretch.

There is a pretty cool short blurb article about different types of radiator caps (cooling systems) on Allpar. https://www.allpar.com/fix/engines/cooling-caps.html

They describe 4 main types:
Partial pressure open
Partial pressure recovery
Full pressure open
Full pressure recovery.

Chrysler used partial pressure for decades. It's described as easiest on the engine system (gaskets and seals of the cooling system). I wonder what Willys used. I think you can use just about any cap for a recovery type system but you must make a recovery tank that places the filler neck tube end always below the recovery tank coolant level. And like you said stony, the tank must be vented to atmoshpere. The engine coolant system will always remain full for that wee bit of extra cooling capacity too as a bonus.

It's supposed to hit 70F this coming Saturday...hopefully more testing!

[stony]

Thanks Dave, I looked it up in the manual #3 full pressure open, so it looks like we would need a full pressure recovery cap to make the tank work, otherwise just tape a pop bottle to the end of the tube LOL!

[squidtone]

Update:
I put in a new thermostat. The one I removed is a Robertshaw Controls unit (note the pic). Never heard of them. I looks old and alright, but I replaced it anyway with a NAPA unit. I did drill a couple holes in the flange to bleed air. I fired up the Jeep after replacement, it heated up to 180F, stayed there and the Jeep purred away. No more burping and eruptions. The top hose is hot, and the lower hose is quite cooler; I think this aluminum radiator is working awesome. I have the fan half in and out of the shroud too. The '3A shrouds seem like an nice improvement over the 2A style.

[squidtone]

I got my seats done. I was going to make my own seat upholstery, but my wife convinced me to just buy a set. I got them from Walcks. They are very very nice. I had hoped to use my original seat springs, but I found that one was not original, and the one original was not good enough to use. So I bought a piece of 36 lb foam. I found that was not firm enough, so I bought another piece of 44lb stuff. That too was not firm enough, but I decided to put it in and just try it for a while. I used 2" stuff and stacked two pieces together for the seat bottoms, and used a single piece for the seat back. I also purchased a big piece of "fiberfill" which is a polyester material which helps keep cushions from appearing wrinkly, as well as keep the foam and vinyl from rubbing together too much. The fiberfill was nominally 3/4 thick I think, but compresses right down.
I had no idea for the best strategy to place the seams of the fiberfill, so I just grit my teeth and cut everything out. I glued the two pieces of seat bottom foam together with 3M #77 spray adhesive. I tried to cut to size with a razor, but that was super messy and ugly. I then tried a bandsaw, and the cushions looked beautiful. I proceed to wrap the cut fiberfill around the cushions and stuff them into the seat covers. I made up plywood bases for the bottoms and simply placed the plywood over the foam, pulled the drawstring of the seat cover, and then used oval head screws and finishing washers to help fasten down the seat upholstery edges to the underside of the base. It worked out fantastic.
I had put in "T" nuts into the plywood so I could screw them to the seat frames.
The seat backs had one piece of foam along with the 3/4 fiberfill, and I re-used the original slotted oval head retaining screws to fasten the upholstery to the seat frame sides. Those also went on pretty easy. I used an x-acto knife to poke a hole in the upholstery and then simply screwed each screw/finishing washer down. I was careful to keep things aligned and it wasn't too hard to do.
It turns out they're quite comfortable, and it kinda transforms the driving experience. I don't feel like I'm going to slide out around corners!

[squidtone]

One thing drove me crazy: When I took a ride, the windshield was rattling. I had purchased new pivot shoulder bolts, but it turns out the shoulder is waaay undersized. So the windshield just rattles when you hit a bump. I got some brass shim and wrapped it around the shoulder....about 35 thousands worth. Now there's no more rattling. Ahhh.
By the way, I think these are supposed to be zinc plated, but I painted them black. Eh, I'll leave them this way for now. The tape was to protect the bolt head during removal and installation.

[squidtone]

One last question:
I installed my transfer case knobs....these are worn out...are they supposed to be painted black? They are some odd material....
Still working on wipers....almost done.....pictures soon!
Dave

[Bob W]

Nice job on the seats!

The transfer case knobs are black in photographs of original CJ-3As.

[Brad Y.]

One last question:
I installed my transfer case knobs....these are worn out...are they supposed to be painted black? They are some odd material....
Still working on wipers....almost done.....pictures soon!
Dave

The ones I have are black. Also, what is the red light in the picture next to the steering column?

Great work by the way. I hope mine comes out looking half as good as yours!