First thing I wanted to see was how much Bondo was in the hood which weighed a TON. Used a torch and scraper to remove a bucket load of the bondo revealing a pretty big dent.
I said I removed a bucket of bondo! After all was removed, putting the hood on the garage floor slightly raised with some carefully placed wooden slates and standing on the hood fixed the dent.
Tailgate and spare tire carrier came off next along with little bits an pieces like the top bow brackets, footman loops, etc.
Without a proper puller, removing the steering wheel was a bit of a challenge.
With the help of a club member the wiring came out in a few hours (I haven't a clue how it goes back!!) and the gauge cluster was removed.
After a few days, a half dozen broken bolts, a few skinned knuckles and a serious grunt fest the tub is off and soon on its way to the sandblasters.
The frame ready for work.
The jeep was a happy find, however it was not the intended major project for the summer of 2004. When we bought our house I gave up a fairly big workshop in the old place, so building a workshop was a priority. This detoured me from working on the jeep for the rest of the summer and much of the winter. Follow the detour sign to see the work on the shop. A detour sign there (on page 2) will bring you back.
The major parts of the jeep body were sent for sandblasting to a commercial sandblaster who used glass bead on the parts. I did some of the smaller pieces by myself and was very pleased with the results. The two pictures to the left show a before and after of the license plate holder.
Once I got all the parts back and finished the shop I moved the tub indoors and began the process of bodywork. Please go to the body work section to take up the story.
continued on the Body Work pages.
Tear Down
The First step in restoration is the tear down. After driving it around the yard for a bit (very loudly as it had no muffler or tail pipe), and getting some more "before" photo's, I began to disassemble the jeep. The following photo's follow the process.
