So I don’t really have a love story about this Jeep. It wasn’t my grandfather’s. Nor was it my boyhood dream. And my wife and I didn’t have our first date at the drive-in movie in it. It’s a Jeep that I bought from a guy in New Jersey on Craigslist about 5 years ago. I tossed out the metal top and doors, took it to our beach house and used it to drive on the sand to surf fish or to drive 2 miles to my boat. Recently I told my wife that I needed another car project. I have a lot of cars. She got worried that she would lose her space in the garage and suggested that maybe I should restore the CJ. So I trailered it back from the beach (wouldn’t dare drive it at highway speeds) and took the body off of the frame and used it to refine my very poor welding techniques. I cut so much rust out that I had to use angle iron to hold it together. I made a rotisserie for it with two engine stands. Lots of my money is now invested with the guys at Kaiser Willys. But here is the finished product… well almost finished. It is painted with bed liner bumpy finish to cover up my poor body work. The hurricane 4 engine rebuilt, new mag wheels, new seats, new tail lights. So what is it? It’s actually a 62 CJ-5, someone in its past life cut off the front fenders. With all this work, the single biggest problem that I had was changing the left-hand wheel studs to right hand studs. I couldn’t get the rear wheel hub off so I had to do it in place. Why did they do that back in the 60s?
Kaiser Willys Jeep Blog Story – Don Verrico
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cool, another old Willys saved for posterity.
The reason for right and left lug nut Once you torque the lug nut they won’t come loose. All Commerical Vehicles are left and right hand lug nut Know you know
That is a good looking job. Lots of satisfaction in completing a job like this.
I am currently doing the same thing to our ’64 CJ5, and I hope it comes out looking as good as yours.
Hi Don,
nice work. I’m from Germany and own a 1967 CJ5 universal. I’m thinking to change the original seats against new seats with headrests like your installed seats. I have no Idea who to realize this change.
Can you do me a favor and post some pictures from your seats and consoles which shows how you did the installation in the small space of a CJ5. Thanks in advance. Regards Henning
Great job. There is no reason to replace the 4 cylinder engine in these jeeps. My M38A1 is original and will take me anywhere I need to go as fast as I want to get there. Where’s the “Little Surfer Girl?”
I like the look of the chopped front fenders, they are different. I’ve seen flat fender replacements in YJs and they’re okay too. The semi-flat red reminds me of cake icing with red food coloring in it. Your project as a whole is great alternative from the norm.
Looks good to me. I do like that engine stand adaptation for body work.