thejanitor
New member
Hi fellow Jeepz-ers, I'm Eric and I'm the proud owner of a new 1961 Willys CJ5. I have very little experience working on cars of any sort, much less Jeeps, so this will be my first undertaking with a project car, which I've always wanted to do and I've always wanted a Jeep so it works out perfect.
I'll do my best to search for answers to any questions but I'm probably going to ask a lot of questions that have already been answered. However, I promise to keep it to my own personal build thread which will probably be a long slow process as it will ALL be a learning experience for me.
So far, I haven't done too much to it other than try to get it running every time I go to start it. The first weekend I wanted to work on it at a friends house it was running. I go to head over to his house, it starts, then stalls and won't restart. Long story short, plugs got changed, it runs, I'm happy. Next planned trip out, it won't start at all, turn the key, nothing at all, not even a crank. Long story short, wire from the ignition to starter shorted out due to loose coil bracket allowing coil to slide down and touch the screw attached to the wire, replaced wire, tightened bracket, it runs, I'm happy. Put the half cab on the same weekend as the wire swap and went for a drive. I have the doors that came with the top, but they don't fit quite right. The windshield angle doesn't match the door and the door doesn't quite fit in the recessed part of the body made for the door to sit in. My options seem limited to make it work with out having to cut the doors or top or both which I'm hesitant to do seeing as I tried searching for these after finding them on Craigslist and not finding many if any for sale. It seems a shame to cut something original if it's harder to find, I think I'd rather re-sell to someone that would restore them than to ruin them with a torch.
It needs some things, maybe a lot of things, but that's what a project car is about. It runs and drives so it's a work in progress.
That's about all for now. In the very near future I'll start a build thread and show the green monster I've nicknamed FrankenJeep (D'oh, THAT should've been my screen name..)
I'll do my best to search for answers to any questions but I'm probably going to ask a lot of questions that have already been answered. However, I promise to keep it to my own personal build thread which will probably be a long slow process as it will ALL be a learning experience for me.
So far, I haven't done too much to it other than try to get it running every time I go to start it. The first weekend I wanted to work on it at a friends house it was running. I go to head over to his house, it starts, then stalls and won't restart. Long story short, plugs got changed, it runs, I'm happy. Next planned trip out, it won't start at all, turn the key, nothing at all, not even a crank. Long story short, wire from the ignition to starter shorted out due to loose coil bracket allowing coil to slide down and touch the screw attached to the wire, replaced wire, tightened bracket, it runs, I'm happy. Put the half cab on the same weekend as the wire swap and went for a drive. I have the doors that came with the top, but they don't fit quite right. The windshield angle doesn't match the door and the door doesn't quite fit in the recessed part of the body made for the door to sit in. My options seem limited to make it work with out having to cut the doors or top or both which I'm hesitant to do seeing as I tried searching for these after finding them on Craigslist and not finding many if any for sale. It seems a shame to cut something original if it's harder to find, I think I'd rather re-sell to someone that would restore them than to ruin them with a torch.
It needs some things, maybe a lot of things, but that's what a project car is about. It runs and drives so it's a work in progress.
That's about all for now. In the very near future I'll start a build thread and show the green monster I've nicknamed FrankenJeep (D'oh, THAT should've been my screen name..)
. Looks like you've got a really good platform to start your project. Do you plan on restoring it to near stock or modifiying it?
