I'm curious too about the slithery critter that fanged the dawg - Copperhead?
The big tires on the rear of the '48 have holes for studs too. We old guys can remember when just about every garage had a stud installer with an 'ammo belt" of studs hanging down.
I spent many hours as a young kid pulling studs out so we could tool up and down the hard road, because the township commishoner would turn us in for tearing up the tar.
We don't see many snakes here at the ranch, but if I had to guess, it would have had to been either a copperhead or a rattle snake. I came home late that night and she was laying by her water bowl. Her ear was three times the size of normal, and her lip was hanging down. She can generally handle herself, so she must of been caught by surprise. The vet drained the fluid from her ear, but there is a lot of scar tissue that may not let the ear heal up properly. She can still hear a fire truck coming long before I can.
The latest project on the ongoing saga of the parts runner 2A. A while back I came across a deal on a new set of shoes for the 76 year old heep. Considering that the nearly 40 years that the Willy's has been a fixture in the stable, it has never had a descent, matching set of tires. Well, today was the day.
This process started just after Christmas with breaking down a matching set of 15" Kelsey Hayes wheels. Some of the tires had been on these wheels for at least two generations, bearing BF Goodrich Silvertown snow tires and Firestone town and country snow biters. Since I'm still cheap, the tires were broken down by hand with the hitch of the heep, a cheap high lifter jack knock off, and three pry bars. The process took a couple of hours.
The next step was to pick any rust, and repaint the wheels. The selected wheels are tubeless, so there are no worries about using a tube with tubeless tires. The wheels cleaned up fairly well, with only minimal metal work done to touch up some pitting from some fix a flat being used somewhere in the past. The color selection was a bright red, with the initial plan being to leave the visible parts original. That plan was soon scrapped when one of the four wheels turned out to be a different shade of red. Back to paint removal. After being primed in several coats of self etching primer, a maroon was chosen to pay homage to Senior Chief's Ham's '48.
I did spring to actually pay to have the tires mounted and balanced, just because I didn't want to booger up the paint with a pry bar or tire spoon. Two wheels were not perfectly straight, but not bad enough to cause concern at under 50 mph. One needed almost 3 ounces of weight spread around the inside, and an ounce on the outside. They will go on 5he rear. The two fronts needed very little to true up.
The tires went on without a hitch, but some time was spent adjusting the front brakes. The last time the Jeep was run to town, the left front tightened up enough that it would pull hard to the left when stopping. The upper adjusters had loosened up, pushing the top of the shoes tight to the drum.
All in all, I'm happy with the results. A twenty mile jaunt through town, and around the mountain pass, all was well. The road manners are much improved with the radials. Steering was as steady as it can be. Now, all that's left currently is to go and get the registration transfered over to this state and get a license plate.
Just don't pay any attention to the underside of the tub. That will be a down the road project, but even then I might not fool with the passenger side. I am in love with the brazed in patch panel.
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