CZARMAN'S JEEPSTER COMMANDOS: Welcome
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It's together! New top! See rhino-lining, welding, sandblasting and carnage pix. Stay tuned for updates. Page last updated December 27, 2004.
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END OF '04 UPATE
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At any rate, the Spruce Tip Green Machine is alive and kicking. I ordered an engine rebuild kit today and already got the original block bored and the heads fixed up. Hopefully, by the end of the January, the newly-rebuilt original motor will be back in. It's about 95 percent complete right now with just a few odds and ends to complete.
It'll definitely be ready for Jeepster Jam in the summer of '05. Hopefully, I'll have a lift kit and stereo system complete by then as well. ;)
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MORE PIX
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IT'S ALIVE AGAIN: JEEPSTER FIRES UP JUNE 6, 2004
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Click on the above headline to see more pix of the project phases. I'll have more updates soon.
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RHINO-LINING HAS BEGUN
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| new side panel |
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LATEST UPDATE (CHRISTMAS '03): BODY NEARLY READY
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| side panel removed | |
I was all set to take the body to get Rhino-lined the week before Christmas when I found the NOS side panel on EBAY (thanks to the Jeepster Forum bird dogs :) Though I wasn't the winning bidder, I bought the part outright for $200 afterward and then made a run to Vermont to get it.
Just got done cutting the passenger side panel off this week (right before Christmas) and the new panel is a wonderful piece. It definitely completes the tub!!! No bondo!!!! All metal!
We'll be welding it on soon and she'll be ready for Rhino-lining. I'm getting it pigmented Spruce Tip Green! Can't wait to see. :) Hoping to have it together for the next big snow by the end of January. :)
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| The start of the frame-up rebuild |
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THE START OF SOMETHING GOOD???
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| GOTS A MOTOR! | |
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Hopefully by next summer, the '69 vert will be back on the road.
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| AND WHEELS! |
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| MORE SNOW |
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MY 1969 JEEP JEEPSTER COMMANDO "PLAIN JANE" CONVERTIBLE
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| KICKASS SNOW OF '03 |
I originally purchased it from Patrick Foust near Richwood, Ohio, for $3,100 around Thanksgiving '02. I bid for it on EBAY, but didn't meet the reserve price. Still, destiny must have made it mine as Mr. Foust replied with a second-chance offer and I took it. You see, ever since I bought that neat-o Willys convertible back when I was 13, I've just been hooked on Jeepsters!
So, the day after Christmas '02, my best friend, Bo, and my cousin, Shawn, headed for Ohio in my '93 Honda Civic SI. (I'm also a Honda guy - 6 and counting.) We arrived there about 7 p.m. that night and about a half-hour later I was leading the way home in my new '69 vert (cold as hell with no heat in the dead of winter :). With snot freezing and fingers numbing, I roared home (pushing 80 to 85 on the highways) and unfortunately (or not surprisingly) blew the motor near Frederick, Md. about 4 in the morning -- about three hours from home. Yeah, yeah, I was tired and P-Oed, but there wasn't much I could do. I took the tags off of it (to prevent theft of the tags -- not the car :), jumped in my Honda and finished my road trip home.
After a couple hours of sleep, later that morning, I borrowed a brand new SuperDuty QuadCab 4x4 F250 (kick ass) from my wife's boss (cool guy, huh?), rented a car dolly for $35 and returned to that lonely, desolate stretch of Route 70 in Western Maryland where the Heapster sat -- all sad and gloomy looking. A few hours later, we were home, and a month later, I transplanted a donor motor just in time for the Blizzard of '03. Wooowee!
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| HMMM . . . |
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MY 1971 JEEP JEEPSTER COMMANDO STATION WAGON
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| PRETTY :) | |
Of course, buying another Jeepster (north of Chicago this time) meant another road trip, so once school let out (I teach high school English and Journalism) for the summer, I took off for the Windy City. I originally planned to fly out and drive back a box truck with my cargo, but I instead opted to buy a '97 Dodge 1500 Ram V8 longbed pick-up for $3,200 (sounded good to me), borrow a friend's trailer and make way for Chicago. This time the wife went as my sidekick, and we traveled 16 hours out, took a pit stop in Indiana for a few hours and returned home the next day.
Overall, my wife, Shelly, kind of turned her nose up at my new find, but at least she hasn't given me much heck about my little pile of partsters. Plus, she gets to drive a truck now. :)
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| UGLY |
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| 1967 PARTSTER |
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MY 1967 JEEP JEEPSTER COMMANDO STATION WAGON
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| 1967 PARTSTER | |
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Looking for a donor motor, I stumbled on the American Jeepster Club forum (GREAT SITE -- yes, I'm an addict) and found more than a motor when the previous owners posted the ad: "1967 Jeepster Commando Waiting for YOU!!"
Again, it must have been destiny. For a cool $500, I got the 1967 plus a garage-full of goodies. My truck (borrowed again) and trailer reeked of Sanford & Son.
The '67 had been the previous owner's project for some time, but his wife was ready to clear out the garage space after the couple had been splitso for several years. I made sure I talked to him, as well, since I didn't want to be caught between the two and his once-proud project. Anyway, though a bit sappy, he felt ready to cut ties with his project, so my buddy, Bo and I spent a Saturday afternoon loading up the goods -- including chrome rims (as seen now on my '69 vert), a bikini top and numerous spare parts from a '69 as well.
A week later, I had my motor guy take a look at the motor. After some tinkering, it fired up and purred nicely. Instant donor motor!!! We were quite surprised since the '67 had been on jackstands for several years. Nonetheless, we made the quick swap and I finally got my '69 through inspection (after rebuilding the failed brakes, of course) -- just in time for the big snow!!!
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| 1967 PARTSTER |
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FLASHBACK: MY 1948 WILLYS-OVERLAND JEEPSTER
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Actually, part of that car -- the frame and drive train -- started it all.
I had never seen a Jeepster before until I saw Merton Betts' for sale in his front yard about a mile down the road from where I grew up. At age 13, I couldn't wait to start driving, and when I saw this cool convertible, my heart was set. I got a small loan of $2,100 from my father and bought my first car -- a 1948 Jeepster originally from North Carolina.
Driven on the beaches, its body had been corroded and rusted beyond repair, but it ran very smoothly with a recent rebuild of the little 60-horse flathead four. Still, I began my search for another, and a few years later, I located one that had been sitting in a farmer's barn for nearly 22 years. I got it for $500. He had bought it originally from a dealer in Georgetown, Delaware before the motor died, and it was stuffed in the barn. Of course, the dry storage provided wonderful protection for the body, and I eventually went through with the body-off restoration -- going all-original with the eye-catching yellow paint with the black trim. Smooth. :)
About that body-off . . . My parents had been giving me heck about that Jeepster (or clunker probably in their words) taking up space in their garage. So, when they went on summer vacation for a week, I had other ideas. I stayed home and spent the whole week dismantling my Jeepster. When they arrived home, they were none too happy to see that my friends and I had lifted the body off the frame and put it up on sawhorses in the driveway. :) Although I got in trouble, they had to at least let me put it back together to get rid of it . . .
Over the years, I had tons of fun and hell with that car. Before I was 16 and before the restoration, my friends and I would hop in it and drive it around and around in circles in my parents' two acres of alfalfa. Once I took it all apart and put it back together, the goal became getting it to the beaches. And finally, we all hopped in one day with the top down and cruised to Ocean City. I spent a few days cussing at it or pushing it home, but I loved that mobile.
Though I pumped more than $8,000 into it, I ended up unloading it and numerous extra parts to a guy near Annapolis, Md., for $4,500. His name draws a blank right now. Maybe it'll come to me later. At any rate, I missed it too much, and nearly five years later, the time came for another -- this time I moved up to the more powerful, 4-wheel drive version -- more brawn than beauty, I guess. :)
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FLASHBACK: MY 1971 JEEP JEEPSTER COMMANDO STATION WAGON
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Loud as heck, it roared fairly strongly all the way home -- 12 hours away. Of course, going through the foothills of the Appalachians caused a little struggle, but once we made it over the peaks, we were roaring again. About an hour into our trip, we figured the speedometer was about 10 percent inaccurate because of the oversized tires since it said we were barely going 55, although we breezing past a lot of Kentuckians (I guess that's what you call 'em) on the highway. We figured they all didn't drive that slowly. :) Boy, that trip made some wonderful memories -- from the Kid Rock CD blaring through speakers with no boxes to the police officer that snuck up on us in Western Maryland.
At any rate, the previous owners had tinkered with the carburation and exhaust, and it wouldn't pass Delaware emissions so I couldn't drive it without doing a lot more work to it. To get around that, my plan was to find a '69 or older (since they are exempt from Delaware emission standards). So, I sold it on EBAY for $3,500 -- the same price I bought it for. It's now back down to Tennessee where "Big Al" Sipe has made it the "prettiest" Jeepster in town. :)
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| SANDBLASTING |
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SANDBLASTING DONE BY JOHN F. KOHOUT SANDBLASTING SERVICE
Click on this picture or headline to see the sandblasting done to my project.
EMAIL ME WITH COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS
Send e-mails to Bloomies@bellatlantic.net.