More Grill and Heater

Spent some more time outside in this "Arctic" blast of below normal, mid 30 degree Easter weather. Tried to get a better idea of the very faded serial number on the Harrison. All that I can make out is the last two digits which are "52." You can see the 5 in the crop, but you'll have to take my word on the 2. I thought that I had read somewhere on the CJ3B page that the last two digits referred to the year of the 3B if it was original equipment. But "52"? Maybe left over from a 3A? Hmmm...





Also finished stripping the grill. The headlight buckets are in pretty nice shape, but I snapped off a stud on one of the turn signal indicator mounts, which disappointed me as I had lubed it up nicely with PB Blaster and it turned with no effort. It was a big surprise when it fell out of the mounting hole minus the stud. I still have the PO's holes to weld and fill from those crazy tear drop running lights, but have also three holes on either side to the outer edge of them that were filled by rubber grommeted nut and bolts. They are smaller than the holes for the running lights, but I can't imagine what they were drilled for in the first place. Also wondering what the circular outlines are at the very bottom. Looks like a decal had been placed there at one time or something that left that impression.

More Spring Miscellanea

Also got the gauges and choke and throttle cables out today. The dash is beginning to look pretty bare.







I just noticed this on the speedo, Aug 19 and what looks like two incomplete numbers, the bottom loops of a 5 and a 3, as that would makes sense, the Mistress being a '53. What do you think? An assembly date for the speedo, when the dash was assembled or something else?

Seat Frames, Etc...

Lotsa miscellaneous work done today on a beautiful spring-like April day. Pulled out some old wiring that's been hanging on like a bad cold in June to the frame, pulled out the oil bath air cleaner and oil filter assembly to prep for paint. (PS. Does anyone have an idea of where to come up with that particular orange on the oil filter canister?)
I was going to go after the gauges in the dash, but didn't feel like standing on my head this afternoon, so that'll wait.
But got the few last rusted in screws out of the driver's seat frame and the covering and old stuffing from the passenger's. Took the old HF 20 buck cheapie grinder to them to get the worst of the surface rust off. Then I got them primered with a couple of coats of Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer. Still have to figure out how to unattach the old seat cusion pad from the seat pan.

Before:





The driver's side dime sized rust through. The passenger's side is a bit on the thin side with a jagged edge that needs to be cut out too.

After:



Just a shot of the project in situ:

Spring Cleaning 2009

Spring cleaning! Finally, a 60 degree day here in Southern Maine. Swept out the barn and started doing what I could. I pulled the old stuffing and cover off the driver's side seat frame. Still in pretty good shape, but the back was starting to get pretty rusted up. There's one small dime sized rust-through that I was sad to see, but otherwise in good shape with plenty of the old original paint intact. I guess that I'll start priming and rustoleuming them soon. Still have to do the passenger side one.
Also started pulling apart the Harrison heater. Not sure what I can salvage. There's a good swiss cheese rust through in the left front corner and the fan motor I was thinking of doing something with, but one of the studs snapped off and the whole thing is in pretty sad shape, so it may just be cheaper to look for a replacement rather than trying to rebuild it. That's it for now! :)

A pile of rust

Been awhile since I've spent any real time outside with the Mistress. I fired up the kerosene heater and went out in the barn on this sorta nice 40 degree January day. Got alot of bolts off which wasn't such a big deal in most cases because the good old 50 year old grease coating kept things rust-free. I pulled off the brake and clutch linkage and the brake master cylinder. Still have to figure out how to pull the pedals and since I got off the steering gear box, I have to figure out how to pull the steering gear arm. It seems to just be a pressed on fit, but I can't fit a pickle fork in the space to get it wedged in there. Oh yeah, I also started removing the emergency brake, but got stopped when I found that I didn't have a socket to fit the nut on the end of the drum. Oh well, a nice big pile of rust and a bunch of old nuts and bolts and washers remained behind to say that I got something done. Maybe I'll take a look at the Harrison heater tomorrow.

Cleanup October 15, 08

A nice fall weather day, so the boy and I decided to push the chassis outside and let it get some sun and start to scrape, chisel, soak, wire brush and sweep away 50 some odd years of dried mud, dust, dirt, rust and grease from the inside of the frame rails, covering the transfer case and T-90, from the surface of the skid plate and generally everywhere. A bit of elbow grease and Simple Green allowed to soak in for 15, 20 minutes and it started coming off. The grease, mud combo formed at the very least, a sort of waterproof barrier from rust. It was a solid coating that wouldn't come off without the gentle pryings from a screwdriver, cold chisel and the wire brush.




A few before pictures. The water proofing "jacket" of grease was about 1/2" to 3/4" thick.


A closer view of the transfer case and transmission. The shape of each is completely obscured. The blob of grease is from trying to shoot some grease into the fitting to get the xfer levers to shift smoother.


A large chunk of the grease/ dirt.


Lookit that, it really IS a T90 hiding under there!


It formed a pretty good pile underneath.




Some cleaner shots. You can tell that it isn't just some amorphous hunk of clay in between the rails.


The total pile probably weighed a good 8-10 pounds!

lifting the body

As she sat before I got the body off. The Mistress sat there patiently watching the replacement f-head.






Next was the body itself. With the steering wheel off, I could maneuver the body over the column without having to remove it or the steering box. With bascally only myself to lift it I had to get creative, though a couple two or three guys could easily lift it off. I bought a comealong and decided to look at the rafters I hemmed and hawed climbing way up into the 20' high rafters to attach a chain and the comealong, but got around to it. I probably could have used a couple of extra ratchet straps too, but I made do with what I had on hand and inched it up a bit at a time over the steering column while pushing the frame forward. Unfortunately I sorta painted myself in a corner because I couldn't push it farther than the end of the wall. But I managed to get the body down on the floor and on some 2X4s so I could push it out of the way.