Finally got her on her wheels!

When I paint in my garage, I wet the floor down, keeps the dust down. The only thing you have to watch if the air hose is drag on the wet floor and lifted over what you are spraying you may get water drops on your work.Looks good

 

Well I messed up the wet sanding and went through the clear coat in a few places. Aaargh!

 

I wet sanded and buffed the clear coat finish and installed the seats. I used stair tread traction tape on the places where the seats rest on the floor to protect the paint. Now I just have to install the tail lights and get started on the windshield frame.

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Looks awesome! Nice work on the painting :tea:

 

Looks great! Hows the horn I sent you?

 

Thanks. I haven't hooked up the horn yet. My next step is to get the windshield frame finished and then I will finish the fenders and get everything wired back up again.

 

Stout, you CJ looks good, you are in the Matt class

 

It's been a while since I've posted my progress but things have been moving. I got the windshield frame painted, glass mounted, side steps, and RH fender installed. I'm still doing some paint touch-ups and wet sanding on the fender, hopefully I'll have it buffed out this week and then get started on the driver's side fender (which needs a stress crack welded up.)

In my quest for originality, I decided to stay with the vacuum wiper motor on the driver's side and the manual crank on the passenger side. I disassembled and lubed the vacuum motor and it worked well for a while but now it isn't so I'll try the lube process again. If I can't get it to work, I may have to go electric. The manual crank wiper is original and I scored an NOS replacement blade on eBay.

 

wow, very nice, but that first real scratch is gonna hurt.

 

Finally scored an original Willys horn -- thank you, Nate (Garage Gnome.) It was in sorry shape and was missing an electrical connector but I was able to restore it. I started by disassembling it, cleaning everything, and stripping the paint/rust. I soldered on a new connector and painted everything. Put it all together and voila, an authentic horn with that old M*A*S*H Jeep horn sound.

The only problem was these horns are riveted together so I had to drill out the rivets and put it back together with bolts. I went with stainless bolts and decided to leave them shiny. Even though it is not authentic, I think it gives it a nice look.

 

The hood is now painted. One more fender and a tailgate to go and I'm done with the paint. Now I just need to get the hood and fenders aligned properly with the grill, which is turning out to be a project by itself.

 

Think I am just going stop in Morgantown in the fall and not drive to Linn.......... Looks real nice

 

Looks great! I never thought that horn would look that good. Awesome work!

 

your rig looks phenomenal...

very well done, sir

 

Thank you. I've put a ton of hours into this project -- a year and a half of working virtually every single evening and all weekend on it. I'm really looking forward to driving it before summer is out but my concern is that once this project is over, I'm going to get very bored.

 

I know how you feel! After the project is done, you can start searching for all the other cool stuff, like original side steps and a canvas top. I replaced a few repop parts that dove me nuts with good originals. OR, find another neat hoppy like I did!

 

I've already decided that phase 2 of the project will be fabricating a back seat. I found some examples on the CJ3B page.

 

A new milestone reached -- I got the license plate today! I have classic car plates, valid insurance, and an almost ready JEEP to drive. Sprayed the tailgate over the weekend, just need to color sand and buff (which will probably be by hand given all the nooks and crannies in the tailgate.) Need to spray the driver's fender and I'm done.

I took it down the road a couple of houses and back. Ran great but was very squirrelly, which I'm hoping is just alignment issues. The springs are bouncier than I thought they'd be. I heard a couple of clangs and bangs but couldn't identify them, I need to go over the whole car again and make sure everything is tight and in place. The first time I take it out for real will be very scary considering I built this entire thing myself.

 

haha I think that to myself every day I work on mine.

 

Nothing like driving it for the first time, every little noise imaginable can and will be heard and in the back of your mind your thinking did I remember to tighten that or not. Can't wait to see the pics of the finish product. You have done an outstanding job Stout.