My 1953 3A restoration

[garage gnome]

Hey Guys, I wanted to post up my restoration of my '53 3A to inspire those who are still working on theirs and like Calvin said, to reminisce. Lets see if we can do a a complete frame off restoration in a week! �:o

A little background on my Jeep. My dad brought it home in 2001 when I was 8. The guy we got it from also threw in this neat little minibike from the 40s called a doodle bug. The interesting thing about my Jeep is it was bought by a huge chemical company, Monsanto Chemical Co in Springfield MA. The weird thing about that is my two grandfathers worked there during the time the jeep was there and both could have driven it. �[smiley=huh.gif] So, it does have some family history behind it.

Enough talk, lets get to work! This is what it first looked like when I started the restoration in 2007. It was pretty rough, but is was all there and in good driving condition.









And the tear down http://cj-3a.com/forum/Smilies/evil.gif



We cheated and used the excavator to take the body off. �[smiley=laugh.gif]









And down to bare frame! The frame was in pretty good shape. The only rot was the rear bumper, all the body mounts and the crossmember where the rear shock mounts are.

[3aJeeper]

Nice going! Love to see a CJ3a get revived. Pix are always great to see.

[Carls_jeep]

Nice photo's of the Jeep but were is the photo of the mini bike . Did you fix it and ride it? I got my son a mini bike in 1976 and almost wore it out riding it everyday after school. Now he rides Harley's and has a Harley chopper. In fact he has two Harley's and his wife has one.

[Bob W]

Cool, I will be following this one. What is the complete serial number of this CJ-3A?

Thanks,

[garage gnome]

Cool, I will be following this one. What is the complete serial number of this CJ-3A?

Thanks,

Bob, my 3A's VIN is 453-GB1-13268.


It is a '48 doodlebug sold by western flyer. It has a very rare briggs and stratton model NP kickstart engine (now my antique engine side is taking over �:). It runs great and starts on the first or second kick. Its all original too. �:)

[Bob W]

Bob, my 3A's VIN is 453-GB1-13268.

Thanks! One more question and I will leave you alone for a while �:)
Is the front passenger seat's left rear leg shaped like an L or is it trapezoid shaped?

[Comanche_County]

Oooh, a snow plow mount? �Even though I live in TX, and would never use it, I still want one (you never know, hehe). �Sold mine when I left CO, wish I still had it. �Snow plows are kinda like chainsaws, guns, tractors, Jeeps, proper fishing gear, a boat, etc,,,they fit in the "what everyman should own at some time or another" category.

[garage gnome]

Bob, my 3A's VIN is 453-GB1-13268.

Thanks! One more question and I will leave you alone for a while �:)
Is the front passenger seat's left rear leg shaped like an L or is it trapezoid shaped?

It is an L shaped leg. I don't care how many questions you ask, ask away! �:)



Yeah, the plow it had was a 4 way. I still have all the stuff, along with two more 2 ways. I don't think I would put it on any jeep though. They really take a beating from it.

[Bob W]

Thanks again! I will probably have more questions when you post more photos  

[Matto]

GG- nice project! The Doodlebug is great too.
Is that backseat original?

[Carls_jeep]

That is a neat scooter and I like it the way it is. I have a plow for my Jeep but I don't think I'll be putting it on because. like you said, it beats the Jeep real hard.

I think I will modify it for my tractor or sell it.

[garage gnome]

GG- nice project! The Doodlebug is great too.
Is that backseat original?

The back seat is an original one, for a 2A or early 3A. Not original to my jeep though. I've had several offers from the 2A guys to buy it. It now resides in my '49 3A.  

[garage gnome]

My dad and I had built a rotisserie for the frame so I could spend countless hours sandblasting it. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of that. I wasn't too good at documenting stuff in my younger years. It was also helpful when we put the axles on too.





And of course, the rebuilt Lhead. We had some Pontiac blue leftover from when my dad rebuilt his GTO engine. I like it. I also would like to know, is that fuel filter off the carb original? It is a Carter product, I was thinking it was.





Oh, and I scored these two free junks. My dad was talking to some guy and well, one thing led to another. �[smiley=laugh.gif]
The 3B was all original and complete. Just the body was completely shot and the rear frame was rotted out. That donated many parts. The CJ5 was heavily bubbafied. Only thing I used from that was the 10" WORKING brakes. I'm so glad I did that upgrade.

[garage gnome]

At this point in the restoration, we had the rolling chassis complete. I was getting pretty excited when I could actually drive it around!



and the running chassis.



The first time we started it up, it ran great for like 5 seconds and then for no reason, it shut off. Turned out the oil pump locked up.   The teeth broke off the oil pump gear. Everything else about the engine was perfectly fine. This was a new melling pump. guys on the CJ2A page have had similar problems too. Some even broke the cam gear.



I found a set of cutlas hubs in a junkyard. Picked those up for $30 with the axle attached.  

[rocketeer]

That oil pump problem is becoming epidemic. More and more guys are having that kind of experience to the point where I would advise anyone to give the existing pump a good goings over and keep it rather than install one of those problematic replacements. In this day and age there's just no excuse for the number of failures we're seeing. You may need to drop the pan and see if any of the bearings spun, starting with the rear main and working forward.

Larry