I feel as if I already know many of you as I have been pouring through the many pages of this page and forum since June.  That's when my wife says that I started having the affair with "Williet".  Or that is when I went to retrieve the 51 CJ3A that my Grandfather had given me when I was in highschool.  I think I have forgotten more of what I have read than I remember.

I am told that he purchased it from the man that owned the ranch that they moved onto in the mid 50s.  She continued to work on the ranch doing odd jobs like pulling wells with the Koenig winch mounted on the front or pulling the long cable to run the overthrough during haying season.  Over the years she got pretty tired and by the late 70s she mostly sat out by the fence and kept grandchildren occupied taking imaginary jeep rides. They also liked to play mechanic and moved many of the plug wires to different plugs, this was interesting when trying to get her running later.

In the late 80s She was given to me for a project in Ag class.  She was off the the big city lights.  She roared back to life with a few new used parts, alot of elbow grease and the discovery of the correct firing order.  She didn't get that many miles but they were probably pretty hard miles (High school driver).  I had a big proud smile the whole time.  Then came college and she didn't seem like a good option for the 8 hr drives each way.  Back to the  ranch she went.

Time flies as life drags us along.  The next thing I knew I was back in a place where it was feasable to go get her and start over.  The day we went to pick her up I figured out it had been 25 yrs since I dropped her off back out by the back fence.

Within the first couple of days, after filling the cooling system, pulling the cracked rubber fuel lines and running a hose into a gas can, fixing mouse tattered wiring and putting in a new battery, She roared back to life again.  I considered myself quite lucky.

I have started to work on a few things like new brakes all around, u-joints, seals and general cleaning.  I would like to thank many of you for the help you have already given me just by sharing your knowledge on this site and forum.

I love (and envy) family Jeep stories. It's great that your Jeep survived alone for so many years.
Bring that baby back to life and have a blast driving her around.
We're looking forward to pictures, pictures, pictures.

I tried several times but it keeps telling me it is to big.

Wow man.
Very, very nice.
Have a blast restoring her.
I'll be she cleans up really nice.