Interesting observation about spare tire dampener

[squidtone]

I thought I'd post about a very interesting observation I just discovered today.
I am in the midst of adding all the brackets and holes on my patched up 1950 CJ3A tub. In all my research I noticed that Willys mounted the spare tire on the passenger side of the body for most of the lifespan of the flatfender Jeeps, except for some small blip in the CJ2A run....but anyway, I noticed that some CJ's came with wood dampeners screwed to the side of the tub over the wheel opening. Today I thought I'd take a look at my original body side panels for evidence of the wood block...(Very happy I haven't thrown them out yet...I keep referring back to them during my resto).
And sure enough, I found the holes as well as a "signature" of where the wood block used to be due to corrosion and different color of paint. If you look at the pix, you can see where the block was to the right of the 6 inch ruler...it's at about a 45 deg angle.
But the interesting part is I noticed that the driver side panel had the very same holes in the very same mirrored spot. Everything matched up. See my attached pictures...
Now while my Jeep was extremely worn out, it had remarkably few changes in it's life. The other holes are from me drilling out spotwelds, but close inspection reveals the dampener holes are indeed have no burrs from drilling...I'm sure they're factory stamped.
The most info I found about these dampeners is on the CJ3B page, but they don't mention anything about the holes being on both sides....Wondering if anyone else can comment on whether they too have holes in the driver side of their CJ3A's?
So that's my observation, and just kinda cool to find this stuff. I'll duplicate the holes in my new panels.

[athawk11]

Squid,
Before you make this decision, I would refer you to Service Bulletin # 49-24 dated May 20, 1949.  It is directed to "Distributors and Dealers".

It reads as though this was not a factory installed part, thus was probably not drilled at the factory.

Here is the major portion of the bulletin...



In order to reduce the vibration of the spare tire on the Model CJ-3A Jeep, a hard wood spacer can be installed on the side of the body as per the attached sketches. The thickness of this block depends upon the size of the tire used on the vehicle, whether 7.00-15 or 6.00-16. The thicker block is used with the 6'00-16 tires.

Where vehicles are used in rough territory, it is suggested that you interest your owners in the installation of this vibration dampener. It can be purchased under Part No. 671158 for the 7.00 tire and Part No. 671157 for the 6.00 tire, or made locally and installed in accordance with the template attached, by using the following parts.



The actual service Bulletin can be found at the 2A Page.  It includes a couple drawings, including a template to use for proper placement and drilling.

[squidtone]

Thanks Hawk
Yes the more I ponder, the more it doesn't make sense (factory holes in driver side).
I looked at the pictures I took of my Jeep when I picked it up in 2006 (before I stashed it away), and I see that the passenger side still had stovebolt type slotted screws with rusted nuts in those holes, with the wood presumably rotted away. The mirrored holes in the driver side were there too in my pictures, but of course no screws were in them. I suppose the reason is lost to the mists of time why someone (or dealer) would put in holes.
I do wonder if ever these blocks were installed at the factory particularly in the later CJ3B to CJ5 years.
I'll at least put on the passenger side block.

[athawk11]

Is there any indication that the spare tire was moved to the driver  side at some point?  Perhaps after the passenger side started to disintegrate?

[squidtone]

Ahh, a good question.
I looked and nope, I see no mounting holes for a spare carrier in the driver side.
The remnant carrier bracket holes are still there on the passenger side.
But I'll add this oddity to the list of things I'll keep an eye out for on other early CJ's...ha.

[Bob W]

According to my notes the vibration damper was installed at the factory beginning at CJ-3A 31245. I can't seem to locate the source for this information at this time.

[athawk11]

Bob,

With that information, is it possible that they did drill the driver side for some reason?

[Bob W]

Bob,

With that information, is it possible that they did drill the driver side for some reason?

I'd guess that during the process of making those side panels the left and right sides begin as the same cutout blank. The holes were probably punched early in the process while it was still flat, before the flanges were formed. Somehow that left side blank inadvertently ended up with the punched holes for a vibration damper.

[athawk11]

So this Willys is possibly the proverbial two headed Nickel.   Squidtone, I don�t know how you feel about this, but I might drill both sides... just as a conversation starter.

[Bob W]

I've also seen a 1951 CJ-3A with only one of the vibration damper holes punched in the right side panel.

Take a close look at the drawing included with Service Bulletin #49-24. One of the dimensions is incorrect.

[mtnman37879]

Then there's the possibility it was simply personal choice. Some people want things for no other reason but "I want it". Maybe they though it looked better with two wooden strips, one on each side. People do thing for odd reasons and 50 years later we're left scratching our heads...

[Bob W]

According to my notes the vibration damper was installed at the factory beginning at CJ-3A 31245. I can't seem to locate the source for this information at this time.

Service Bulletin 49-57 is the source for this information.

[squidtone]

I looked at the dimension drawing from that #49-24 service bulletin (as shown on the CJ3B page) and the glaring mistake (to me anyway) is that the drawing shows the DRIVER side with dimensions, and the dimensions on the drawing reference spare tire carrier holes for placement of the dampener block. Of course, the driver side will not have carrier holes, so even if one didn't notice the drawing is of the driver side, and went to drill holes, the lack of spare tire carrier holes to reference from would have flagged one not to continue.
In my case, I'm leaning toward them being there since new. Not sure what I'll duplicate.

[athawk11]

Okay, here is my theory as to why the template is made backwards...

Perhaps the dampener block was conceived during the 2A "Lefty" period. 

If you read the first "Lefty" Service Bulletin,  they were committed to making this a permanent change.   Only later did they realize this wasn't a good solution, but never re-drew the template.  Then, they decided to just install the block at the factory, so they didn't really need to re-draw the template.

Again, just guessing.

[Bob W]

It's not obvious but the 8-1/2" dimension is incorrect.