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Ol blue is the roll-over tested 49 I inherited from my dad a couple years ago.
My mom bought it in the early seventies from the next door neighbor (he kept his 47 2a) and gave it to my dad for fathers day/birthday, it was sky blue and rust and it had been rolled and sort of repaired? New windshield frame and glass, change oil, drive. My dad drove it to work every day rain or shine for 15+ years, never had a top, heater on high and loving life.
Then in the mid-nineties he retired and stopped driving it, told me he was going to restore it. I assumed he enjoyed working on Jeeps as much as I do. Fast forward 15 years and now prostate cancer has slowed the glacial like progress on the "restoration", and I finally realize the joy of working on Jeeps has skipped dad, and hit me with a double dose. I go down for a visit, it's about 200 miles, rent a trailer and drag it home.
It was mid-February and in addition to a full time job, I worked 8 hours every night and two weekends and then I drug it back home. Using mostly junk and parts I had lying around, I freed the motor, rebuilt the knuckles converted to disc brakes because I never did that before and a 1 piece tie rod.
Finished the re-wire my dad started changed all the fluids and started on the body work. Cut out rust, weld in steel, hammer dents, weld cracks and a thin coat of mud. I painted it in my 40 degree garage at 11:00 at night w/ a $30 epay gun. Then I drug it back home, when I showed it to my dad in the middle of his street he was speechless, and as I continued to point out the flaws and rough body it was like he couldn't see what a mess it was, and none of his friends and neighbors could either.
As before he drove it every chance he got until the prostate cancer spread to his spine and he couldn't work the clutch. Then I would go down and drive him around every few weeks or so, and still nobody we met could see the flaws in this thing. I would point them out until my dad got made and told me to stop.
So part of the lesson is this; I built it in three weeks with very minimal cash outlay and I enjoy driving it nearly as much as any project I've built, 6 years later it still gets thumbs up and turns heads, even though the tired old motor can't get out of it's own way.
Next part of lesson: If you seem to lose momentum on your project, maybe you bit off more than you can chew, I clubbed this thing together after 15+ years sitting and it is a joy to drive, and looks as good as the night I finished it.
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