Jeep Restoration

[Ranger]

New to the forum but not to forums. I have been lurking around here trying to learn a few things. This is a lot to read I know, bear with me here.

Hi, my name is Clayton Moore I live in Houston Texas, everyone just calls me "Ranger" Google it if you want to know why. I'm 17 years old and a junior in high school, I have been restoring cars with my dad since I was 6 this is my first jeep restoration however. My dads friend gave me a 1953 Willys CJ-3B, the frame and all the drive train have been sitting outside for the past 15-20 years. The body or "tub" as most of you on the forum call it was sitting in a barn and is in absolutely horrible condition (the floor pans were replaced 4 times and are rusted out again etc..) but I'm going to repair it as best as I can.

The rumor is with this engine is that my relatives were out deer hunting and an insert on one of the connecting rods went out, so they used a leather belt to fix it and the thing kept running for the next 15 years Right now I have the engine and transmission out and then engine is on a stand, so I can take it apart and get it running again. Since this engine was outside for 15 years the crankcase was full of water and #4 cylinder was filled up with water and there has been some pitting of the cylinder. One of the push rods is bent also.

Now onto my questions...

What kind jeep is this? There is no tag on the body.
What do these numbers tell me about the engine?
8062 79-W-12-D-AB with a CU CR
The stamped numbers above the water pump are
4J 19535
How do I get the crank out of the engine? Mainly the pulley off the front, the rest I think I can figure out but pointers would be nice.
How can I solve the pitting in the cylinder? WITHOUT taking it to a machine shop and paying a ton of money. I know the owner of a great machine shop and he said it will take a lot of money for him to rebuild the engine.

This project is going to be as cheap as possible, I'm only going to buy what I need.

Onto the pics






My high school car 1967 Mustang Coupe 289 automatic, all restoration was done be my dad and I.



Thanks
_________________
-Ranger

[BullRun]

Nice Ride!

Just my opinion but I think you will have to have the cylinder walls machined. Also having the engine boiled out will clean any sludge or rust buildup from sitting all those years.

My machinist can do an F-head or L-head jeep engine for about $650 to $1200 for the machine shop work. Maybe it can be sleeved. I would do the rebuilding yourself. Save some money and learn a new skill in the process. Jeep engines are fairly easy to learn on and there is a lot of information available on how to do it.

I would do the engine last. The body and chassis repair always seems to take longer than expected and cost more too.

But before you do anything have the engine inspected by a machinist and Magnafluxed for cracking to make sure that engine is rebuildable. Same for all the major components. A little money and time now might save you thousands later. At least then you will have a game plan on how to proceed. If you are going for originality now is agood time to check if all parts are correct. I once bought a jeep that I did not check the axles before hand only later to find out they were not correct. A costly and time consuming mistake.
The High Hoods are cool jeeps. Just a little different!

[wesk]

[FrankenJeep]

I'm no expert, but if you do a half-a$$ job (and I'm not saying you would), you may regret it later. These engines are fairly simple, but if they aren't done right the first time, it will (may?) come back costing you MORE than if you had done the whole job the first time. IF it were ME. and to each his own, I would do the rebuild fully now rather than putting $$ into it and having to go back in it again. By the time you buy seals, gaskets, rings, etc, to have to do the job OVER would cost MORE. IMHO. I would, at least, do all the machining, and save money by doing the re-assembly myself. I have already learned this lesson once before.

FRankenJeep

[Ranger]

Thanks for the answers, there are a lot of great people on this forum who want to see these types of engines rebuilt right.

I think I'm going to do it the right way, I might as well. I like doing things right the first time and I want this engine to be done right. I have downloaded the manual and have been reading through the parts that I need help with.

[TomM]

Ranger,
Welcome to the forum. I bought my first jeep when I was 17 and I still have it 33 years later....
Do what you can do, when you can do it. Do the best you can with the funds you have. You and your dad obviously put a lot of experience under eachothers belts working on that nice mustang!
If you hold on to the jeep there will be a chance down the road to "fix" whatever it was that you didnt have time/knowledge/funds/interest in doing earlier.
We all know the old "do it once do it right". But reality says "do it however you can or you will sit around doing nothing waiting for it to be right".
Good advice on getting body and Chassis done first. Engines are available and buildable.
Looking forward to seeing more of the build.
Tom

[RICKG]

[53a1]

Agree.

Body work takes the most time. I spent 6 months on my tub.
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'53 M38A1 X2

[RICKG]

53 A-1, The killer here is that i have a clean tub-arizona jeep
that was stored indoors. NO RUST.. hats and floors in excellent
condition. I just wanted a little tweaking here and there and a
paint job done in a booth. My painters work is flawless and
affordable. But the big dollar jobs keep pushing my project to the
back of the line..
_________________
keep 'em rollin'
RICKG MC 51986 DOD 01-52, '50 CJ3a

[53a1]

Lucky Guy.

I live in the desert and one of mine is from AZ and one is from the High Desert in CA. Desert vehicles will not have much rust but do rust in areas where water pools, ie. behind kick board brace & hat channels. I have kept verticle pieces of sheet metal outside and they don't rust because the water runs off them, the wind kicks up and they are dry.

If yours was kept inside you would eliminate that and you could have a perfect tub.

The only other bid dollar item I can think of are the tires, engine, harness, trans.
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'53 M38A1 X2

[Ranger]

Ok, need some more advice. I'm trying to get the front axle out with springs, steering linkage, and shocks, etc. Well I was almost done when I could not get the bolt out of the leaf spring. The bolt I'm talking about is the bottom bolt on the shackle attached to the leaf spring on the passenger side. I tried everything, 1/2" break over bar, oil, getting it red hot, impact wrench. I even thought it might be a left hand thread so I tried that too. The other side was a left hand thread is this side a left hand thread? If I cant get it off, I'm just going to cut it off with the torch.

Thanks, Ranger

[Oldsalt]

Try not to get the spring too hot or it will lose it's tempering and be ruined.

[RimfireJim]

Right (passenger) front shackle threads are both RH. Which ones are RH and which ones are LH can be very confusing. The only LH threads are front driver's side lower and rear passenger side lower. See Wes's description in http://www.willysmjeeps.com/v2/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=3577&highlight=shackle

I vote for a lot of penetrating oil, patience, and the impact wrench. I've had pretty good success with an impact wrench reversing back and forth, which seems to allow the penetrating oil to get in better. Sometimes the threads are ruined by the time it finally comes apart because they were so rusted, but at least it's apart. On the spring U-bolts I did that on, it would have been a lot faster and more effective to use the torch, because the bolts were shot anyway.
_________________
Jim M.
1952 M38 son-father project
Discovering more worn out parts, one assembly at a time

[53a1]

There is sometimes a notch at each apex of the hex head if it is LHT.
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'53 M38A1 X2

[Ranger]