October '98

November '99

My plans are to swap the tub, 2.5" suspension lift, 9.5"x33" tires, decent radio, CB, correct Korean war era olive drab paint, Besttop Supertop, and all the other minor things that will also crop up.  Follow on along...
 

Sequence of Events...

October '98	Bought a 1953 M38A1 and towed it home with a car-dolly.  Running, driving, and streetable condition.  Known good title and all serial number plates are intact. The Jeep came with an extra M38A1 body tub that the previous owner had planned on installing but never got around to.
November '98	Brought the tub home and the prep work begins.
November '98	Took the Jeep off road at a local place, it did fairly well but there were a few things that I really didn't like.  The springs and shocks are worn to the point that the Jeep is dangerous on a less than perfect road surface.  They also make the Jeep sit low enough that I was concerned about ripping off the mufflers that ride out the outside of the frame rails.  I also decided that the hard-top is just too warm and comfy for our local weather, I'm going to put it up for sale once I take it off.  Other than that the Jeep did fine, I like the Saginaw steering, power of the V6, and the brakes are OK too.
Early December '98	Driving the Jeep to work a few times I notice that the throwout bearing gets fairly noisy with use and the 2nd and 3rd gear synchronizers seem worn.  I decide to go ahead and do this mechanical work after the old tub is off and while things are easy to get to.
Late December '98	Finished up most of the prep work to the extra tub.  Ready to paint the underside of the tub.
January '99	Put the CJ-2A in the driveway and the M38A1 in the 2A's former place in the garage and began the tear down.
January '99	Traced down all the wiring and "gently" lifted it from the Jeep.
February '99	Stripped the body.  After a close examination of the engine conversion it looks as if the engine was mounted an inch too far back in the chassis.  This was evident due to the slightly modified firewall and the fact that the upper part of the floorpan had been riding on the bell housing.  Buick V6 conversion information I've seen before say to offset the engine one inch to the right and one inch forward.  Well I can tell the shift to the right was done, but no shift forward.  It looks like I'll have to modify the current mount setup if I want to avoid hammering out the same firewall modifications.
February '99	After taking the old body tub off, I realized just how bad it was.  The rusted through rear floor panels had been covered with flat metal plate and then covered with plywood.  This rear floor sandwich was held together by silicone, bondo, and bolts...and all but fell out when the tub was lifted from the frame.
February '99	Beginning to develop my very own Jeep salvage yard.  I've even got a couple of junk yard dogs!
February '99	Completed removals, now down to the bare chassis.
February '99	Front frame area prior to cleanup or motor mount modification.
March '99	Cut one inch off the rear end of the above mount tube and rewelded to the front end of the tube.  Also drilled two new holes in each side of the frame for bolting the transmission cross-member.  The new holes are one inch forward of the stock frame holes.  This is all that needed to be done to shift the engine/transmission forward by 1 inch.
March '99	Separated the transmission from the transfer case and replaced the bearings, syncro assembly, and long input shaft.  Also put in a new clutch, pressure plate, and throwout bearing while I was in there.
March '99	Sold the hard top and doors.  I felt very secure with that steel hardtop on there, but it rattled a lot and dang it sure was hot when it got warm outside!  It also made the Jeep rather top heavy.  My plan is for a tan Besttop Supertop.
April '99	Installed a Superlift 2.5" lift kit and Superlift Superride shocks all around.  After a good washing (er-ah, several good washings) the frame was acid etched, Por-15'd, Por-15 Tie-Coated, and painted with 24087 olive drab.  I really like the results of the Por-15 application and would highly recommend this stuff!
May '99	Somehow talked my wife into doing the engine re-installation, she did a much better job than I'd ever have been able to do.  The re-install went very well considering the shifting of all of the mounting points.
May '99	This is the Rancho overdrive installed in the vehicle.  You can see that the rear driveshaft angle is a little severe due to the extra length of the Rancho.  But, after installation of some three degree shims under the rear axle I've got a 15 degree angle at both the axle and OD output.  More than I'd like, but acceptable.
May '99	Undercoated the bottom of the tub, painted the underside and inside with 24087 semi-gloss olive drab.   This stuff is really beginning to grow on me!  Overall I was happy with the paint job, this isn't exactly rocket science...if I can do it anybody can!
May '99	Passed a major milestone!  Got the body mounted with the help of 4 of my wife's co-workers.  The bribe she used to get them to come over and give me a hand was "foamy pop" (beer).  I know it was a high price to pay, but the results were worth it!
May '99	Began the re-wiring.  Got as far as I could without a dash or fenders.
May '99	Bodywork and paint to the front fenders, grille, gas tank, dash, and underside if the hood.
June '99	Fenders and grille installed!  It's finally beginning to look like a Jeep again!  Hmmm....there seems to be a light at the end of that tunnel!
July '99	Installed steering column and dash, finished wiring.  Had a couple of minor problems with the wiring but overall things went smoothly.
July '99	Installed gas tank and fired the engine up!  Music to my ears!  Took it for a test drive around the block, what a sight I must've been...no windshield or hood, kids in the back sitting on the floor.  I've set a goal to complete this project by September first so I'll be able to drive it during the nice fall weather.
August '99	Went ahead and painted the outside of the tub and the top of the hood.  Also re-did the left front fender which I'd sanded down due to drips from the first coat.  This used up the last of the gallon of 24087.  I'm real happy with the tub, but I put one to many coats on the hood and it turned out kinda rough.  I'm hoping I can buff out the hood 'cause I don't want to buy another gallon and it's a little too much area to do with spray cans.
August '99	Finished up windhshield and had new glass installed.  Doing a lot of small things that needed to be done in order to call this thing finished.  Seems like these small things are taking longer that a lot of the big things did!
September '99	Being as cheap as I am I didn't want to pay a couple of hundred bucks to buy reproduction seat cushions and covers.  Besides, I hear that they were very uncomfortable.  So for the bottom part of the seat I found two injection molded seat cushion "seconds" for $5 each and covered them with green canvas.  The seat backs I actually sewed myself and used the original foam rubber.  They're comfortable, look decent, and my total cost was only about $25!
September '99	Work on the Jeep has slowed signicantly.  Partially due to the fact I've been so busy with other things, but probably also due to the fact that I've had such a good time on this project I don't want it to be over.
October '99	I've got it looking fairly complete.  The white wheels stick out like a soar thumb and I've got to do something about getting a radio.  Drove it to work a couple of times, but that's real tough without tunes to listen to!
October '99	Got my ammo can radio installed.
November '99	Painted my wheels.  Dang, this project is looking complete!  But, I still need to paint the military markings on it and do a couple of minor things.
November '99	The weather guy says "cold rain is on the way", so I broke down and put on the Bestop Supertop that I'd ordered back in September.  Its got a good look and a great fit, but... it really makes the old Jeep look modern.  The problem is I wasn't going for the modern look.  So now I need to get off my duff and order the star and numbering stencils so I can paint on the military symbols.
Jan. - April '00	Just to prove how backwards I do things, I decided that since I'd finished most of the cosmetic aspects of this rebuild I'd do a few of the mechanical things I hadn't gotten to.  Well, an upgrade to HEI ignition turned into a valve job and a timing chain replacement, then I had to replace the front seal of the transmission that I hadn't done when I rebuilt the darn thing.  The interlock pins came out of the transfer case at the same time.  Oh yeah, almost forgot the new Rochester 2GC carb and the new alternator.
June '00	With all the mechanical stuff taken care of I took a month or two off from the Jeep.  The only thing left was the military markings and it took me that long to decide what numbers to choose.  I didn't want hood numbers that would falsely present this as a true military restoration, but I did want numbers that actually meant something.  So because I'd like to use this Jeep to "boldly go where no man has gone before, I chose...   NCC-1701-A1.  You might recognize these numbers from Star Trek.  This is the number used on Kirk's second ship, except for the '1' on the end which I thought fit in very nicely with the Jeep's model number.
July '00	That's it!  ALL DONE!  Just kidding, no Jeep is ever done.  But this one is "as done as I'd originally intended" when I bought it over a year and a half ago.  There are a few things I'd still like to do... 33"x9.5" tires, full floating rear axles, etc.  But for now all I intend to do is drive it and enjoy it!

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