I thought you would all enjoy to see my Willys restoration. Last year I was working on a 3d model of a Willys MB for a vehicle simulator, and while searching for reference pictures I came across a few Craigslist ads. I couldn't believe how cheap it was to get into one, considering I was about to spend a few hundred on my r/c crawler for simple upgrades. So I figured it would be more fun to get a real 4x4. A genuine military Jeep is quite expensive and I didn't want to ruin one on the trail. On May 7th, 2014 I found a 1952 CJ3A for sale in Illinios, the price seemed decent and it looked good in pictures. He told me a guy was coming that Friday to buy it, so my grandpa and I pulled a 2am road trip on Thursday to go pick it up.
Upon arrival we found the clutch was destroyed, the body was more bondo than metal (not a straight line either), and the tranny needed rebuilt. We planned on going to Bundy Hill in a couple weeks so grandpa and myself got to work pulling the tranny out and had it rebuilt by a friend.
We stayed up til 2am once again to get it ready for the ride, it was miserable. But we made it!
First ride [Video]
Since that ride I've been bringing the Jeep back to life. It's been to Bundy Hill numerous times, and we even brought it to Haspin [Video]. Off the top of my head it's had: new carb, head gasket, 12V conversion, u-joints, winch... I found a huge lot of parts to begin my MB conversion. Non-dry rotted military tires, MB fenders/windshield/hood, reproduction seats, rear leafs, jerry cans, and I also sourced out a GPW grille.
Whenever I had free time I've been working on it the past 8 months. Usually it's a little here and there.
Now I've begun the big step into the restoration. I'm dying to get this road legal and looking halfway decent. Mechanically I need to change the intermediate shaft in the tcase, rear pinion seal, install the Warn overdrive, and have front disk brakes on the way. Drums suck in the mud. These will be the next step soon after I get my rear leafs put on. The stock U-style shackles are sketchy for off-road use so we're going to a custom made CJ5 type shackle. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the entire body is trashed from 60+ years of beatings. The previous owner welded in a new floorboard which is great, but the outer tub is banana shaped bondo with crumpled/rusted metal behind it. So, I had the acquired parts sandblasted and began the gruesome body work and painting process.
Next up was painting the chassis. I used a sanding wheel and went at the most visible parts of the frame: bumper and side-rails. With the pitted look gone it transformed. Then I hit the hubs that would be visible with the rims on.
That was the easy part. Dad taught me how to weld and I started making my own patch panels for the fenders and hood. After sandblast they came back pretty nasty. It was pretty difficult welding the panels in, even with the heat turned down I was blasting holes through the thinned metal. It's not the best work in the world, but it'll do just fine. Next I'll fill in the patches with bondo and smooth it out nicely. I've also been undenting the grille.
The whole section from the windshield forward will be the parts I've completely restored. For the tub, we know a guy who's going to wrap the outside in sheet metal and make it look appealing. His YJ looked like it drove off the showroom floor. Before then I'd like to have the mechanics all but finished so I can finish painting and swap my parts over, then register. Before I leave for college I'll send the engine to Keith, no more mosquito smoking feature I'll keep the thread updated as progress goes.
This old Jeep has taught me an immense amount of mechanical and repair knowledge. When it's done it'll be my proudest achievement