Hello from Western North Corolina!

Hey y'all. My name is Larry Phillips and I live in the foothills of North Carolina. My love of Jeeps started at a very early age when my Dad had an old early 60's CJ5. I owned and rebuilt a 1967 CJ5 back in the 80's shortly after getting out of high school. I work as a tool and die maker now and also run my own part time machine and fab shop. I call it a machine and fab shop, but I actually do more automotive work than anything which is a good thing because I love automotive work.....especially restoration work. The machine shop supports the restoration projects nicely......if I need a part I can't get.....well....I just make it. :cool:
I have recently started work on a 1962 Willys truck with the L6-226 super hurricane engine. I bought this truck a year and a half ago, but have only just in the past month got to start working on it due to having a 1954 GMC truck in my shop that I was restoring at the time I bought it.....My shop is small....definitely not enough room for two projects of this magnitude to be going at the same time. When I bought this truck the head was off of it, it was locked up and had a mud daubers nest in No.6 cylinder. Well, with alot of soaking the cylinders in diesel fuel, bumping the pistons with wooden blocks and a hammer, and lots and lots of patience I finally got the engine broke free and cleaned up. I rebuilt the original fuel/vacuum pump and the carburetor, lapped the valves, built and installed new bushings in the starter, and with a little coaxing it came back to life after sitting for approx. 29 years.......the last inspection sticker was 1986. Here are a few pictures of this project which I hope to share with y'all all along the way. These pics were taken the day I brought it home. For those of y'all who would like to have a look at our shop and what we do here is a link to our facebook page also.
https://www.facebook.com/KL-Machine-.../photos_stream