Darren's CJ
All these photos are from Father's Day. The CJ is there, the Dodge, our club President's M715, and a few of the military Jeeps. For the last two years, I have volunteered on Father's Day to help a sponsor of the off-road club that I belong to. He lets us use his land for recreation, over 200 acres worth, and in return we help him stage an event at the Veteran's Hospital every Father's Day. He has several vehicles that he likes to display as part of the events. There is usually the Classic Car Club of Montreal, The Corvette Club of Montreal, The British Car Club of Montreal, some Military vehicle owners, and us, the Off-Roaders who show up. We help with crowd control, running the event, supply a DJ, and help with the vehicles. We also primarily get our sponsors collection from his house to the hospital. He has a Model A, a Model T, a Dodge 6 wheeler, and a 1948 CJ-2A that he likes to bring out every year. That being said, I have ended up driving the CJ-2A for the last two years. I gave rides to the kids around the Hospital, and any able bodied Vet that could get in and was willing to go. A combination of things did me in. Driving the CJ-2A for two years in a row, having at least 2 others in my club who are restoring MB's, and the whole popcorn experience of watching John (sorry John ;) Ever since John bought his CJ-2A, it was in the back of my mind: "How could I do this?". Watching the whole experience here with John, I want to sell, I don't want to sell, I never got around to formally offering him anything for his CJ. Of course, I would have to get it here somehow, here being the suburbs of Montreal. So after Father's Day, I got into some serious discussion threads with John, only to figure out that his Willys is worth a little more than I want to pay, and he has decided to keep it (again ;). Not that I do not fully understand or not back his decision. He had a Willys, and wanted to keep it, and I still wanted one... So I started a hunt. I was trying to find something local to avoid transport costs and title issues. In the end, it came down to two. No really, there were only two. A 1951 MB that was in pieces, but had a new gas tank and radiator, but no way to see it run. Asking price, $1000 CDN negotiable. The second was a 1957 CJ-3B. Asking price: $1200. The '57 had run as late as two years ago. The PO put in a new fuel pump, and it stopped working. It looked promising as a runner, so I started to ponder. I called one of my buddies who is restoring some MB's, and in the end it boiled down to him suggesting that I buy a runner, and restore that instead of looking for trouble with a bad engine, tranny, t'case, or diffs. That ruled out the '51 MB, so I went to have a look at the '57 CJ-3B. I also knew that my other buddy had paid $2500 for a running MB... I brought a mechanic buddy of mine with me to see it. We knew that the fuel pump was suspicious, so we put gas straight into the line to the carburator while we were charging the battery. It was fairly recent, and still had enough water to cover the plates. We let the gas settle into the float bowl, and put some more while the battery charged and we pondered how to boost a 6v system. In the end, we decided to take a chance, because the system is externally regulated. We put the booster pack (12v) on the battery and gave it a kick with the starter. Holy Cow! It turned over! It was starting to look good now... Except that the battery was not getting enough charge. My buddy found that the positive connector to the battery was falling apart. So we sent the PO off to his garage because he thought that he had one... My buddy looked at me and asked: "Do we just bypass the battery?" and I said sure why not? It wasn't my Willys yet... So we connected the 12v booster pack to the battery cables without the battery, and my buddy gave me the signal. Go! turn, turn, turn, fart, fart, fart, putt, putt, prrrr it was running! During the whole commotion my buddy removed the booster, the PO came flying out of the garage wondering what had happened, but more importantly, I had a runner! For me, that was the deciding factor. I had proven what the PO had said about it being a runner and that it ran 2 years ago. Now I knew that I had a decent donor. The PO decided to tell me that he still had the original fuel pump and some other misc. parts that he would throw in. It also had an extra set of tires with snow chains, and a snow plow. Once the PO knew that I was interested, he gave me his final price of $850. $850 intead of $1200? OK, we had a deal. And if I can sell the plow, then I can make some money back. I made arrangementas with him to return that night with my payment, and I got the paperwork and parts for it. I returned the next day with CAA, and had them bring it home. Since then, I have found out that not only do I need to fix the fuel pump, but it looks like the PO deleted the oil filter to make room for a second alternator. He put in the second alternator to wire in his own 12v system for the winch to lift the plow. He even wired in seperate flashers on the 12v system with its own regulator. So it is a little rougher than I thought, but not severe. Today, I received an email from a co-worker of another one of my buddies who manages the new National 4wd store here. The co-worker has a CJ-3B for parts, and wants to know what I need. It is a small world, and I am glad that I asked for some quotes on Omix-Ada stuff from my buddy! Let the fun begin... frame-up restoration, new body, 1957 CJ-3B! I have sent a whole bunch of photos to John, hopefully he can post them for you all to see. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darren K. Page Montreal, Qc dkpage at videotron.ca ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the photos of my Willys. It is a 1957 CJ-3B with 41000 miles. At least the title says 1957. The VIN plate is worn so the first set of numbers is obscured. Based on the gauge style (it has the earlier cluster of gauges, as opposed to the one big one like with CJ-5's), it may be older. Based on what is visible of the VIN, it may be older. During the rebuild, I want to try and determine the year more accurately. I bought it as a donor for a frame up restoration. The body is shot, but the engine, transmission, transfer case and suspension are all good. I intend to get a new tub for it. The PO put in a completely separate 12v system for a winch to lift a snow plow. He also wired in secondary flashers on the same system. It had two batteries, two voltage regulators, and two alternators. It is missing its gas tank, and instead has one from a snowmobile or boat, with a botched gas line run. It has both seat frames, but no rear seat, but I plan on adding one. It has no horn button, and a steering wheel from a Massey-Ferguson. It has no data plate, but I will rectify the anomalies during the build up. It cost me $850 CDN. Thanks, Darren ----------------------------------------------------------------------
other classics in Darren's life...
This Willys is a 1948 CJ-2A. It belongs to a sponsor to our off-road club who lets us use his land (over 200 acres worth). In return, we help him out every year on Father's Day at the Veterans Hospital moving his vehicles to the site (read cleaning, boosting, charging). We also help with the setup of the event, supply a DJ, and do the crowd control. I got to give rides for two years in a row now with the CJ. I also got to drive a Dodge 6 wheeler. Afterwards, we load them all up and take them all back to his house. He also has a Model A and a Model T, but I did not get photos of them.
