Durangotang joins the world of CJ's....

callaway · **Posted:** Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:51 am

That's a really clean vehicle for something 60 + years old. Those body mounts look great !

durangotang · **Posted:** Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:15 am

Well today I had to stay home from work due to an abcessed tooth... the pain medication I'm having to take would make it a littel interesting trying to work :lol:

So it turned into a day of working on the Willys... Mission #1 is just to see what parts I need to order and fix what I can to get it street legal.

Started out with a little engine tune-up (a.k.a. learn what's what on this prehistoric engine)...

*Check my bling air cleaner*:lol:

The oil filter is just an open element that oil gets circulated through in the black canister... you have to empty the canister with a turkey baster because they smartly put the drain valve about 1" over the generator :lol:

Glad I noticed that before I ruined it. :lol:

Changed the plugs... replaced the points... and tightened up the leaky oil pan after changing the oil.

Then it was time to try and get some of the gauges working... none budged when I bought it so I was a little concerned. After a couple hours of wiring...

We have Fuel!!!

We have a rocking dash light!!!

We have headlights!!!

And I ghetto rigged a tach so I can set the idle and mixture...

I still need to fix the temp gauge, ammeter, and order a new speedo cable.

And my previous owner specialty of the day..... :shock:

These goober-welded bolts were used to create space to get a wrench under the metal plates to tighten down THE SEAT MOUNTS!! :shock:

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice....

Next comes the dreaded carb tune... :shock:

durangotang · **Posted:** Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:13 am

Got done tuning the scary carb last night. It now idles at 600rpm with the new fuel pressure regulator set at 2psi. Purrs like an autistic kitten :lol:

My oil pressure at idle is <10 per the stock gauge and goes up to 20 or so when I rev it. Time to pull the pan and see what it looks like under there and test it with a new pressure gauge.

Fix one problem... out comes a second one

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:11 pm

yeah... um nice welding

Makes you wonder what the person was think at the time.......

tommudd · **Posted:** Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:47 pm

Diggerfreek wrote:

:shock: yeah... um nice welding

Makes you wonder what the person was think at the time.......

Maybe thinking like I do at times, get this thing repaired right now any way I can. Will do it right ...............later :roll:

Did you ever notice there is never a "later" on any calendar????

Looking good Tang! At least you haven't ruined it by painting it yet! :wink:

daspes · **Posted:** Fri Oct 23, 2009 12:30 am

Nice Flattie Ben!

durangotang · **Posted:** Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:52 am

I spent some time in the garage today and got the real work on the 2A going...

Let me start off by saying that these stripping discs are the bees-knees

It took the hood down to this in about 20 minutes

I wound up with lots of these little baggies by the end of the evening...

...and a Jeep that looks like this...

Found some rust under the fender supports.... boooooo

A nice surprise was waiting under the floor covering on the passenger side floor... yikes :shock:

Windshield frame, fenders, and grille are off now and ready to be prepped for paint... booya... hopefully the hood will be finished tomorrow and you guys can see what color it'll be

tommudd · **Posted:** Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:18 am

Sad day

50 plus years of history gone, all that patina that made it look the part. :roll:

durangotang · **Posted:** Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:27 pm

Soooooooooo.... today was a day that most people here have probably gone through with some form of apprehension... I set off with my stripping-wheel to explore what was under the paint on the Jeep. Time to see how bad the rust is... where the bondo is... and all the other surprises...

AAAAAAnd we're off.... what is this bondo masterpiece on the rear corner?

Nice... bondo over wood... about 1/2" of bondo at that...

Finally got all the bondo off... it was just hiding someone's lack of metalworking skills... not as bad as I thought. Just a lumpy patch job done at some point. As it turns out, 6 square feet of 1/4" thick bondo makes a lot of dust...

I thought this was surely a rusted out corner... but it's just another lumpy patch job... This I can work with. There wasn't any rust at that hole... just a hole

I also stripped and primed the hood...

Hood is done... in all its tan glory

This is the color the Jeep will be through this iteration... once I have to remove the tub it will probably return back to its factory yellow that it was originally...

Next come the fenders!!!

Inc · **Posted:** Sun Nov 01, 2009 10:15 pm

Nice work man. Looks great so far.

JJsTJ · **Posted:** Sun Nov 01, 2009 11:51 pm

while it will look cool in tan, I'm w/ Mudd on how it looked before.....

I would love to have an old flatty Rat Rod Jeep. I'd even patch that floor w/ some old street sign or license plates or something.

Am looking forward to the final result.

durangotang · **Posted:** Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:32 pm

Well... another day of work is done. Got some stuff done.... found more evidence of "Bubba's" handywork, and have plenty more questions.

I was feeling a bit bogged down with exactly where to start on things so I decided to simplify and just go from front to back:lol: I removed the tow bar and set out to clean up the front end and get rid of any rust I found.

Apparently someone just decided to do an add-on to the old tow bar :shock:

Tow bar stripped, rustproofed, and primed....

Found some interesting stuff when I went to take off the bumper... I can't take it off:shick: Someone found an ingenius way to install some tow hooks and put in just the right welds to make sure the bumper never comes off LOL Bolts are still there though for some reason... just to get my hopes up... :roll:

Also found this... and I'm assuming this is not a factory stabilizer. Looks like an ok job though.

Stripped the front end as best I could with the bumper in place... then everything got treated and primed...

Front end painted...

Tow bar and front end finished and put back together... also naval-jellied the battery tray as it was pretty bad... it got painted to match as well.

That was enough for today... I think next comes the engine degreasing and refinishing the fenders... :shock:

kskj · **Posted:** Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:13 pm

looking good

durangotang · **Posted:** Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:49 pm

A lot more work got done today... my back hurts and I got so dirty I had to wash my face with fast orange :lol:

It was a good day

Made a giant driveway mess (again)... the dark stuff on the driveway all the paint I removed... :shock:

Got the grille stripped...

I also got both fenders stripped and spent quite a while applying coats of naval jelly until the rust spots were gone... then sealed the fenders and got one painted. I ran out of paint for the other one so those pics'll have to wait until a later date.

Here it is after the grille was refinished and I polished up the light bezels... I'm loving it!! Had to finish the day off in the standard tradition... a lap up and down a nearby gravel road.

And the best mod to the Jeep thus far :lol:

durangotang · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:00 pm

Not a whole lot to report... been busy picking up toys for the KJ

Got the hood lined up with the front grille.

Also found some seats on Ebay... turns out they are old army seat and not specifically for the 2A. Oh well... it fits the theme of my 1/2 Army Jeep. Check out how the seats mount on the outside of the tub... craziness.

You can also see just how low the army seats were...the backs sat waaaaaaaay down there. Sweeeeeet

jsc7002 · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:31 pm

looking real good, I like the color choice, Im thinking about painting my CJ OD green too

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:42 pm

I love watching this build

STINGN · **Posted:** Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:48 pm

how is this project going?

durangotang · **Posted:** Wed Jan 06, 2010 10:56 am

STINGN wrote:

how is this project going?

It's going great.... under a cover in the back yard :ROTFL:

I can't get the KJ ready for Baja and do the Willys at the same time... once I get back in March the Willys gets bumped to priority #1 :BANANA:

STINGN · **Posted:** Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:39 pm

O BOYY!!!

Durangotang joins the world of CJ's....

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