Bare Bones

PROJECT 51: Bare bones. It only took a day to get all of the suspension and brake parts off of the frame once the body tub was removed. All of the moving parts in the front end were surprisingly tight for a 69-year-old car, so I suspect it was rebuilt sometime in the not-to-distant past. One indicator that Brutus or one of his kin had been there before me was that of the four bolts that hold the rack-and-pinion steering assembly to the frame, two were British Whitworth size, and the other two were American inch size.

In a nod to before we were married, my wife, Diane, tackled the dirty job of scraping the heavy grease off the frame while I disassembled. Back in 1973-74 I did this same level of body-off restoration on a 1946 CJ2A Jeep (which I wish I had kept!) and then-girlfriend Diane helped me the same way.

The stripped frame, the wheels, and a couple of other components are now at ProStrip for media-blasting and powder-coating. There is not too much left to disassemble … but a lot to clean and paint.

Stripped bare and heading for media-blast and powder-coating.

Other items going to media-blast.

Good help is hard to find! My wife, Diane, helping with the dirty work.

So, when you find it, you keep it! My then-girlfriend, Diane in 1974
helping with the dirty work on a Jeep restoration.

1946 CJ2A before.

About nine months later.

Not much left to take apart.