Hey Folks! Carolina CJ-3A family project

Thanks for adding us!

I am here to introduce you to (code-name) Sarge, and our family of four that are caring for him.

Sarge, a 1950 CJ-3A, started life on a South Carolina peanut farm and served his first family well. Now he's enjoying retirement in the High Country of North Carolina.

My father bought Sarge from the original owner's family and continued the restoration that 'the grandson' had been working on. My dad got Sarge to the start-run-stop stage with a fresh coat of paint.

Upon return from World War II, my grandfather bought the first civilian CJ-2A in this area, and his/our family hasn't been without a Jeep ever since. There's 6 Jeeps at our house now, including Sarge, a '55 Willys truck, a '70 Gladiator 350ci short bed, '00 Cherokee, '03 Liberty and a '15 Grand Cherokee.

My dad decided to pass down the CJ-3A to my oldest son (now 15) so he could watch him enjoy it. Once we gave it a bath and made it a place (in the basement) to rest, we came up with the name Sarge. It isn't an original military vehicle, but both our boys loved "Sarge" from the Cars movies and that name will remind us of the person that started this family's love of Jeep vehicles.

It's very satisfying to watch a 15yr old tinker on a 70yr old vehicle and beg to get it out for a drive. I have driven it about 4 miles on the road so far. Once I get a brake light wired/installed, "L" will get to drive Sarge on the road for the first time. He's logged several miles in the yard, but he can't wait to feel the wind and fight the wheel at 35mph!

I want my boys to continue our family's love of older vehicles. It's up to me to show them why and how to do that. I sure hope that I can lean on y'all and kaiserwillys.com to help me get these projects to a point that allows the boys to take over and run with their own restoration.

Thank You and Speed Safely,
50 Willy

Awesome way to keep the boy's involved. A nice stable of Jeeps in the family!

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Originally Posted by bmorgil

Awesome way to keep the boy's involved. A nice stable of Jeeps in the family!

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Thank you Sir. I will be studying your posts and album closely. As a matter of fact, I think Sarge may have originally been the color of yours. When i was upside down under the dash yesterday, i saw what looks to be the original paint.

Finding the original color can be a challenge. Under the dash is the best place to look. getting the original paint color was a bit of work. I had to take some early paint codes to the library of the paint company. In my restore thread here on my Jeep, there are a few posts about what I went through. One interesting thing is the paint colors referenced by year that you find in the KW catalog and on the net, indicate that the Emerald Green was on the other 1950 Willys vehicles and it is not listed for the CJ. However mine up under the dash was clearly Emerald Green. There are a few other original Emerald green CJ's out there. Bottom line Willy's used what they had in the economy of the era!

As Larrbeard will tell you, "never say Willys never...". Can't wait to watch your resto!

"getting the original paint color was a bit of work. I had to take some early paint codes to the library of the paint company."

As Larrbeard will tell you, "never say Willys never...". Can't wait to watch your resto!

It has been said, almost in jest, that the WO paint shop during WWII just needed things to be OD and gone. They used buckets and barn brushes to paint the original Jeeps. Things were tight ("there was a war on") and by the end, those brushes were pretty well worn out.

When WO shifted to civilian production in 1946, all they did was buy the paint shop new brushes... . Jeep paint jobs were not really the best of the era.

BMorgil went over to the vintage paint archive and helped me find the real Tunisian Red for the '48 truck. He whispered in that lady's ear and she came up with what has been acknowledged by many folks as a striking color for the truck, with about three of four (maybe more) choices of base for it.

Just about any Jeep painted with modern paint looks better that it did from the factory.

Good luck, no matter what color Sarge ends up!

Welcome 50 Willy!

Great back story, and future endeavors with the next generation. We look forward to helping out with advice, and to see your project come along.

I had to remove 6 layers of paint to discover that our 2A was originally Normandy Blue.

My dad didn't go through the process of determining the original color (which was odd for him). He told me that he went with Fiesta Yellow, "cause i haven't had a yellow Jeep before and it was an period-correct color".

Sarge will have to wait a little bit for a repaint. We want it comfortably road worthy first, and then i hope 'L' will take over the restoration himself. I am currently restoring his '00 Cherokee that needs to be finished yesterday, so he can get used to driving it before he gets his license.

"L" = 15 year old son
"G" = 10 year old son that's helping and getting ready to start on his '70 Kaiser-Jeep Gladiator build.

Paint is superficial.... Get it out and enjoy it, and get a couple of scrapes out of the way. Introduce L and G to block sanding, body, and paint. All the hours of sanding will be good prevention to scraping up the quarters on a trail.

You're exactly right! It sure made me think twice before I took off through an old road bed with my first 4x4 that I helped prep. L is getting ready to learn it on his Cherokee.

The boys are wanting to take it to a local cruise-in this weekend. I'm trying to develop a quick "checklist" to see if Sarge is/will be ready for a 50-mile round trip. 20 up, 20 back, >10 in-town cruising.

Introduction is in order for L and G to the first line of defensive maintenance.... The trusty grease gun. It will be like an Easter egg hunt to find all the zerks, so make it a competition between the two..... Just don't over grease The axle bearings and throw out bearing. Check the differentials, and the rest and roll out. Just take it easy, and you'll be fine. You have enough experience in the Heep-domain to handle any issue.

I have found on my '50 that the bottom/underneath has tell tale signs of the original paint all over. Sooo, it was a piece o' cake to determine my course of action. The funnest part was removing some undercoating and seeing "bright shinny" Potomac Gray as though it was painted yesterday.

Exciting to read this! An album for the ages.

I will say that I introduced "D" to all things mechanical when he was very young. Just a few years latter he has more cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATV's than I dreamed off. All built by him or traded by him or bought by him. Not all kids are mechanical. But if you give them something that interests them whatever it is, at a young age they will almost always show you something. Of course you have to learn right along side them and then a few steps away.

The gmwillys sanding "exercise" is spot on. "Wax on Wax off Grasshopper". A great way to learn why body work can cost thousands of dollars.

My daughter turned 15 over the weekend. She is in search of her own Heep, preferably a Wrangler. She watched me weld up the frame on the last one I had blown apart in the driveway, so she wants to get in on the fun. She has always been daddy's little helper from the time she could walk. She knew her fractions from handing me wrenches by 1st grade, but knew her colors from handing me electrical connectors from the time she was a toddler. Now she is wanting to take welding in shop class, so it will be time to buy her own hood and jacket. They grow up fast, and when you are able to spend quality time with them, it means worlds to both them and you.

Yeah, they grow up Sooo fast!

A young lady who can weld, shift a three speed with transfer case, play poker and shoot a pistol is well prepared for the world of today.

Happy Birthday to her! Welding is a skill she wont regret.

Great post! Looking forward to the build. Now, we know he will need to get stuck and broke down and not show up for a day while out on a jaunt. We all remember this right? The Jeep life begins.. then one day a long hair passenger shows up after he disappears and suddenly life vaults forward? Mostly because she selects the next modification and off we go. lol. Looking forward to pictures of the build!

WOW!!
Thank You to each reply! This is really great and I appreciate each of your comments. I guess I'll need to start a 'build thread' in the appropriate category. Your comments have solidified my initial thought- to just enjoy it while tinkering-toward-restoration.

Currently Sarge is sitting in our house garage, so the four of us see him daily. We give him a pat on the fender, a rub on the windshield frame, or a little kick on the (recapped) tire. Sarge seems to enjoy whatever attention comes his way. lol.

Again, thank you guys!

PS- @gmwillys, "L" turned 15 in May... just say'n... haha

Yeah, my "H" knows she will end up with all my Heeps in the end, and is wanting to help with the wagon project to help move it along. I should have figured she would be into working on things since she was actually named after a carburetor, minus the E..... Long story.

As we were sitting in line at the High School a couple of weeks back she turned and said she wanted to take welding as an elective. My first reaction was to order her a welding hood and jacket, then let her bedazzle it with stickers and such. I can't say I wasn't proud!

Don't make me break out the 10 rules for dating my daughter T shirt. I've already threatened her to buy a pair of bibs, and not buttoning the top button on the sides. Then the topper would be to not wear a shirt. She just had this look of panic.

https://www.amazon.com/Rules-Dating-.../dp/B079NPKJSZ

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Originally Posted by gmwillys

I've already threatened her to buy a pair of bibs, and not buttoning the top button on the sides. Then the topper would be to not wear a shirt. She just had this look of panic.

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I'd like to have seen YOUR look of panic if she thought that would have been a good idea.

I remember the days when I was working cotton (in the truck) 'way down in the country and I would stop at some little one gas pump store on a gravel road to get a coke-cola. (If I had an extra 15-cents, I might get a Moon Pie to go with it.

There would be a couple of guys hanging around who would be wearing old duckhead overalls with only the top button on the side buttoned, a piece of wire holding one strap through the button hole, no shirt and a pair of old low top boon-docker work shoes with maybe one lace or no laces in them. I'm not sure if they had either boxers or briefs under there.

Some of those guys were hauling cypress bark or pine scrap in old cut down school buses. The fun started when the cottonmouth moccasins or water snakes came crawling out of the load of bark and wanted to help drive the bus.

"L" is going to have to take Agriculture in order to get any welding schooling at our little HS. Welding isn't offered as a stand-alone class till community college.

I like the t-shirt!

Reverse psychology only works one way. The more she acts like she would be OK with it, the more she is trying to mind bend me to not. Then I would offer to take her to the mall in said get up.

Our high school is the same. She opted in to the ag program, (probably truth be known), that's where the guys that are worth a hoot are.

I need to see all the looks when you old boy's figure out you do not have the girls in this generation figured out at all. Man do we just love to bounce the subject matter around. We better hope Pyrolocks does not' spot this thread.

This generation. ... lol...

I was going through some of the parts and pieces that dad had bought from KW. I opened up the new electric wiper kit and noticed something odd. The wiper arm shaft is about 5-inches long. Looks like dad either entered the wrong part number, or the wrong one was pulled. He ordered several things and set them back, so the invoice is old now.

My question is, do you all think KW will 'swap out' the motor or the kit? I bet it's been 12-18 months since he ordered it.

The electric wiper kit is a universal, fit all applications. The outer threaded sleeve and then the motor shaft needs to be trimmed down to fit your particular windshield.

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Originally Posted by gmwillys

The electric wiper kit is a universal, fit all applications. The outer threaded sleeve and then the motor shaft needs to be trimmed down to fit your particular windshield.

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Oh, i see. I'll have to trim off 4.5 inches. I will try and take a second look at it this evening after i get the mowing done. I'd rather just have 2 manual wipers on it to fill the holes, but since we've got it...

place the motor in place, through the windshield, then figure out the geometry of the wiper arms, then mark and cut. The outer threaded sleeve will be cut down more then the motor shaft to allow clearance for the wiper arm to travel. Some do not cut them off, and the first time they lay the windshield down and scratch the crap out of the paint on the hood. Makes for a bad day.

Attachment 6479
Here is what I'm working with. (I hope the image loaded correctly)

What was THAT noise?

L and I tried to get Sarge out over the weekend, but...

After we filled the gas tank, loaded the fishing rods and cleaned the windshield, we took it for a shake-down drive. Sure glad we did! On our way back to the house we heard a noise that made us both cringe. It came from the DS rear and when we eased back up the driveway, I noticed the DS was dragging with each revolution. Jacked it up, took off DS rear wheel and when I tried turning it, I could hear something clanking around and it'd stick.

That's when I noticed that nor myself or dad have a hub puller. grrr! I'm hoping one of the parts stores have one in their rental program.

Some of the chain parts stores have loan-a-tool programs. You'll want to look for a puller like the one sold by Kaiser. It mounts to the lug studs, and pulls evenly. The jaw style pullers hurt you and the drum.

https://www.kaiserwillys.com/vehicle...86-jeep-willys

I have the puller gm suggests. The "secret" to it is the impact technique used. The jolt combined with the pressure has yet to fail me. As long as you have studs that puller will get the tapered axle apart. You will read a lot of persons on the net trying to figure out how to get the wheel assembly off, with a myriad of pullers and techniques. Most fail. I have never had a taper axle resist this type of puller. This impact style has pulled them all no sweat. google "tapered axle hub puller". I have this one. https://www.amazon.com/OTC-7394-Univ.../dp/B0002SRH60. The one from KW is good quality and OTC is a good name. Stick with both as I have seen cheep Chinese impact pullers spontaneously disassemble on "impact".

These are the pullers recommended in the original Jeep service manuals.

Thanks guys. It doesn't look like any of my local parts stores loan that type of puller. I guess L and I will have to save up and split the cost of just buying one. I've saved the OTC in our "wish list". lol

I got about a 3 foot 2X4 and used a 4 lb. hammer to whack it. One end practically fell off and the other took a few whacks.

okiemark, consider yourself a lucky man! It does go that way sometimes. When they are stuck on the tapers, I have seen a lot of "tears". If they don't come off fairly easy as yours did, they will probably require an impact puller.

I wondered about that. Maybe the ones on mine had been on fairly "recently".

I've had them go both ways as far as removal goes. A frequently driven Heep took the before mentioned OTC puller, a torch, and a sledge hammer to shock the hubs off. Then I've had one frame that was found in a creek bottom that came apart with no effort at all.

Respectfully request fuller detail on the 'found frame from the creek bottoms it still works!'... That tale has all the trimmings right from the start

The creek bottom frame wasn't too good as far as structural. It is pictured on it's side on the trailer. It did come in handy for mocking up tubs for body work, but the center section rails were rotten to the point that it was too far gone. The front frame horn did live on to be the replacement for our 2A, and was grafted on to replace the cobbled up original. The frame did have a rear PTO that was salvaged.

You and your trailer. Would love to tag along on an adventure that ends up pulling a willy's with wheels on out of a creek. Wonderful fun that..