What Is This For? Is It Factory?

What is this for? Is it a factory part of the tub or was it added by someone along the line? It seemed to have OEM paint over it, so I suspect it's factory but I've not seen this before in other people's Jeep pics.

I'm guessing it has something to do with a top...

Thanks
John

 

site:earlycj5.com bow sockets - Bing

 

Top bow sockets. There should be another pair on the rear corners welded outside on the sheetmetal. These disapprared sometime in the '66 model year as best I can tell. OEM paint was never as slick and shiney as what is in your photos.
-Donny

 

i have the same, but not on the rear corners. odd. i use it to hold a flag when the hardtop's off, got a steel pipe that fits perfect.

 

Thanks Donny. Is what I expected although I don't have ones in the rear. My Jeep is a '69 built in June of '68, but it was made in the Windsor Ontario plant in Canada. There are quite a few things on the body that were from earlier Jeeps that didn't go away like US made Jeeps.

As far as the paint, yes you are correct, the factory paint was never that slick. What you see in the photo is new paint from my resto process. What I meant to say was that the original OEM paint was over these bow mounts - that is before it stripped it all off for repaint.

John

 

Same here. No rear bow mounts.

John

 

There were a handful of these vestigial military features on the CJ body. Battery box cover, snorkel cutout, bow indents, bow sockets, removable floors, brake cylinder access cover, floor drains, maybe more. I expect Jeep eliminated them when convenient and justified by the economics.

 

I wanna battery box! my battery keeps slipping off the mount and down the fender

 

Will the 12V battery fit in the M38A1 battery box?

The battery box was never functional on the CJ. The factory welded the cover in place.

 

welds aren't necessarily permanent...