766: Jeff Kyle’s 1961 CJ-5 Project
This past summer my wife and I were going to yard sales. It’s a fun thing to do during the summer months and occasionally, we find some cool stuff. We found this Jeep, a 1961 CJ-5, hiding in some brush, swarming with hornets. It’s in rough shape to say the least but after years of wanting a jeep to restore, it fits the bill. I’ve cleaned up the top of it and removed to homemade spare tire carrier. So far I’ve removed in excess of 2 to 300 pounds of dirt, rust, garbage and really messed up tires. The next big job will be cleaning out the underside. It appears to have been originally a column shift and 4 cylinder engine. Now it has a floor shift and a V-6 engine. The V-6 is a Fireball Buick engine. I haven’t tried to start it yet. That’ll be a bit farther down the road. The exhaust is crushed underneath so it’ll be interesting to see if I can start it without replacing the exhaust. It’s also got a PTO driven front winch. Getting that to work is just one of the fun thing to get done on this journey.
Almost forgot, the Jeep cost a grand total of $400.00. Add in the $450.00 to replace the tires, so far not a bad deal.
Kaiser Willys Jeep Blog Story – Jeff Kyle
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