Hello from Portland Oregon

[JayByrd]

I bought my first 3A when I was 12 and have been hooked since. I currently own a 1962 Willys pickup I bought two years ago and at 1951 3A I bought when I was 13 Vin: 451GB135057 engine serial: 4LR135462. I'm saving pictures and more details after I finish writing it all up.

[athawk11]

Welcome to the Page.  Looking forward to the photos.

Hawk

[Kirkski]

Welcome to the group, can't wait to see pics

[Quebec Jeep]

Welcome Aboard!

[JayByrd]

I guess I'd like to catch everyone up with what I've been up to before joining. This will be a bit image heavy at first.(It was until I found can only link three pictures each post) I started my love of jeeps very young when I saw my first Willys in the Safeway parking lot in my hometown, it was magical to say the least.
Having grown up on a farm in was afforded certain luxuries. I learned to drive when I was nine, but I had been riding three wheelers a year or two already at that point, by eleven I was driving on the road, but only from the house to the back orchard and once or twice to the neighbors down the road. The important part about growing up on a farm is I had a job that paid every summer. Which led me to buy my first Willys at the age of twelve.
750 dollars for a rusted out 1953 CJ3A.The engine was in pieces, but I bought it anyway thinking as long as I had all the pieces I could put it back together just like Lego. The previous owner already went through the axles, transmission, and transfer case so it should make the process easier. At the time the camera available to me was not the greatest and these are the only surviving pictures from several computer migrations and failed hard drives.

and the non panorama album
http://imgur.com/a/k1XeL
Since the engine was so dirty I took it down to the local machine shop to have it cleaned up only to find that both the block and head were cracked and I learned at that point cast iron can't be welded, at least not in my price range. This is when the sad music starts. Well it just wasn't meant to be. I didn't sell it right away because it's always nice to have extra parts. So I began my search again.�
One of my uncles bought a 2A and I was so envious, he ended up buying half my jeep for access to parts only to find out the parts he wanted weren't interchangeable between a 2A and 3A, all he wanted was some parts off the front axle.

[JayByrd]

Not quite a year later my dad mentions to me his boss has a 51 2A for sale cheap because it needs a new piston, he was only asking 1000 dollars nearly my entire summers wages and I jump on it. I've now bought my second Willys. I think I'll put just a few pictures here.




((((I seem to be limited to only adding three pictures?, I have 13 more))))

I am not sure how true this story is or how well I remember it, but this specific jeep was pulled out of the blackberry bushes on a neighbors farm some odd years ago and at the time it didn't have a windshield. In orchards windshields typically get in the way and are removed. But someone tracked one down and the 2A was upgraded to a hunting jeep, I do believe a picture shows the four holes in the hood for the gun rack, and large washers held with bolts in the floorboards from one or two accidental discharges, hopefully no one lost a toe. It shifted through all the gears with its door handle shift knob and the four wheel drive worked and it had these crazy dual lever locking front hubs and it had a pedal to engage the starter (the ultimate anti theft protection) so if someone hot wires or tries to start it the starter will spin but if the pedal isn't pressed it won't engage the flywheel. (I'd like to note that I was told it was a starter from a buick but I've recently realized someone removed the button on the starter and added a relay) It was 6 volts and still had cloth covered wire. But my Dad and everyone else said "listen, can't you hear that. Its got a blown piston." I honestly tried but I couldn't hear anything. But first things first engine has to be fixed and since it was running when I took it apart, It should run when I put it back together, later in life I find that isn't always true. So the head comes off, the oil gets drained and the pan is removed and low and behold a piston has a hole in it. Now I don't remember if it was number three or four but it was one of them. In the first month I didn't get to really drive it since I was waiting on parts and when they finally came in it went back together just as easy as I came apart. I praised the amazing engineers with their foresight to have the valves in the head since it meant I didn't have to mess with the timing. But as quick as it went back together I had a problem. The head gasket was similar but it doesn't match up, so back to the parts store. First lesson with the Willys. The head may be flat but that does not make it a F head. I have an L head. More waiting and the new part arrives and matches and I have a running 51 CJ2A.�
In next three years before getting my license I rewire the whole Willys replacing all of the cloth covered wire as some areas were quite worn and seemed like a good idea to replace all of it.

[JayByrd]

Now to the second lesson. At some point after getting my license at 16 I've been driving my Willys everywhere and at some point I run into a man who knows stuff about old jeeps. Obviously I would want to talk about jeeps with and tell him about my 51 2A. Only that bothered him because I didn't have a 1951 2A, that doesn't exist. He goes on to tell me I have a 3A. Second lesson I have a 3A not a 2A. Another year passes and I've decided to protect the Willys so I take it apart and spend all winter sanding and come spring when it got warm enough I painted it with single stage automotive paint.



((((Same issue only 3 pictures, I have 12 more))))

Looking back I really wish I painted everything frame down but it has dirt, oil and grease to protect it right?. Now I've got a shiny blue jeep and continue driving it everywhere.�

All the missing pictures
http://imgur.com/a/8RAcy

[JayByrd]

But soon I graduate and begin college and in my first year of college I come back to another blown piston in the Willys. My dad must be working it hard on the farm. I remember to order the correct head gasket this time. Now the jeep has two newer pistons 3 and 4 and two older pistons 1 and 2. After that some years pass the paint fades and the Willys only gets brought out a few months every year and a few years I never even drive it. Two non consecutive years it doesn't get brought out all and the battery fails the first year it sat and gets replaced with an 8 volt battery. Kind of impressive the 6 volt battery lasted more than a decade. Some issue with the brakes developed and it was driven less and less. I've been away long enough that I've gotten married, bought and sold numerous cars and motorcycles but I soon found myself looking for a Willys that could handle some freeway speed in the big city. I find my new Willys, so I ride my motorcycle 20 miles to look at a Willys pickup that has been sitting a year with squishy brakes, Ford 302, 3 speed auto, and no transfer case. but it runs and is enclosed and I'm done being wet and cold in November in the Pacific Northwest. So I vacuum bleed the brakes with a mighty vac, load the motorcycle in the back and drive home on the freeway at night in the rain with not quite almost there brakes. Terrible idea, I mean really really terrible. I've never driven something that tried to kill me so many times. No working wipers, brakes that keep going to the floor the harder you press, no dash light, no speedometer, something so wrong with the alignment akin to a poltergeist possession by a taxi driver determined to kill you before you get to your destination. So I drove it just like that for a few months because why not.

But I want four wheel drive and automatics aren't for me so I buy a diesel engine two months later and wait.
�
After a year I've fixed most of the problems but I'm always thinking back to my first drivable Willys, but I commute on the freeway. Then I find a new job that is close by with no freeway driving and shortly after I buy a house nearby to work. My plans are coming to fruition so I flat tow my 3A a hundred miles from my parents.

 I promptly-ish pulled the engine and transmission from the pickup.
[media width=400]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGH8KSlRVZ8
[/media]

[JayByrd]

Now I'm back to daily driving my 3A, first I have to fix the brake issue. First I attempt to bleed them and strip the bleed screw, or it already was stripped, either way first night back I'm pulling off the rear brake drum replacing a wheel cylinder. Then the 8 volt battery gives up the ghost two weeks later and dies, and wouldnt you know it new car chargers automatically detect 6 or 12 volts so I have no way to charge 8 volts and my dad's 30 year old charger is hours away. Even in a big city no one keeps 6 volt batteries in Stock, everywhere is special order. Amazon to the rescue I wait a month for the shiny new optima red top and immediately realize I need a battery box, so I make a custom one, and im back to driving.

I still have to determine my brake malfunction. They hold, you press the pedal and they hold but let up after sitting a few hours, I swap my brand new master cylinder from the pickup and no change but the brakes feel firmer. Two weeks go by I finally can't handle coming home and seeing smoke coming off what I've found to be the right front drum, apart it comes and the shoes pivot points are so stiff so I clean the brakes, hub, and knuckle scraping years of dirt and oil away and paint everything I cleaned. Problem solved or so I thought. After that the brake held one more time and then it went away. But after that I felt like every time I stopped it took way more effort than before then again I had that hill assist before so I'm not sure. So I try to bleed the brakes again since I never did after cleaning up the front drum. Nothing comes out with the hand vacuum on the front bleed screw, weird. I unhook the hose from the master cylinder, nothing. Unhook the T splitting left and right, nothing. I go straight to the master cylinder and remove the front metal line and hook the vacuum pump to clear the line backwards thinking something clogged it and it'll break free. Nope not a chance, I remove the steel line and the frame to T hose, I separate them and find the hose to be swollen shut. I love that jeep uses the same parts on decades worth of vehicles, except batteries, because at 7pm on a weekend I can go to the local auto parts store and buy the exact hose I need. New hose, bled the brakes and now the jeep stops like it never did before. I honestly think the hose was clogged for years and only recently partially let fluid through because it hasn't stopped that we'll since I first got it. But after trying to bleed the brakes I pressed the brake pedal so hard I broke the pedal, I ordered a new one only to find out my clutch and brake pedals were reversed, I wonder if I did that when I painted it before.(I did, I checked the pictures.) I temporarily welded the pedal together but I haven't got around to swapping in the new one. Some months pass. After pawing at the engine I noticed my fan belt was loose so I tried to tighten it on to notice I can't because the ear is broken on the generator. So out it comes and I see that the ear is home made and was welded on, well as much as I would like to believe that I could just go pick up another one I decided maybe I'll just weld it back on even though I recall welding cast doesn't work without proper equipment. I've recently removed thermostat housing to see why my engine runs so cold to find a pipe coupler.

[JayByrd]

In the last month after having some hard starts in the morning I replaced the points with a pertronix and it ran for two weeks. I assumed� I burned out the coil after testing it so I replaced it and installed new plug wires, still nothing. I noticed a leaking gasket on the carburetor and thought it was leaning out.

I cleaned and installed new parts and gaskets in the carburetor, still nothing.

�
I currently plan on checking to see if my timing is off from when I installed the pertronix and that is where I end up today about four months of driving five days a week to work.

[JayByrd]

Now I've been looking at 3A's online and pouring over everything I can find about anything and everything Willys and my plan is to keep the 3A as stock as possible and within budget. I have three 16 x 5 rims I'm just looking for a fourth and one 16 x 6 that doesnt match that I'll use as a spare. I haven't decided on tires yet.

I do want to replace the windshield frame with the proper one. I missed out on one that was on Craigslist a few months back. And find stock seats, I have the bottom frames but the backs were cut off, it seems like a common thing on here.

And that is what you all missed since I bought the first Willys 17 years and 21 vehicles ago.