1964 cj5

after all this, i had to have another jeep. this one was found a few miles down the road from me, sitting out in a guys yard with a plow for 500 bucks. she was in pretty good shape, a rusty, dingy red that i painted over. i never thought that i'd own a red jeep... so i wanted to go with a plain battleship grey. spent a summer again, like the dj painting her with a brush. i tried using a sort of attachment for spraycans that let you put it on the can and it had a trigger that depressed the button. alot less tiring than using a spraycan straight, but i got tired of it and didn't like the results, so i turned back to the brush. a few dozen cans of paint later i had a grey bodied jeep with a red grill. (i couldn't get away entirely from sort of liking the red somewhere in the back of my head...). she also had a homemade hardtop that i had left on. if i could have afforded a soft top at the time to replace it, i would have torn off the pop riveted mess away, but i liked it and the hard doors that even locked.
i drove this for a few summers mostly to work. she was geared so high, like all early 5's that i decided to stick to backroads where i could stick to a 40mph speed limit. the only problem that i had (after getting a set of hercules terra tracs on and the old bias plys off...) was that the t90 popped out of gear going down hills. i've heard this is a common thing with t90s and worn out synchronizers or shift rails or something that i could never wrap my mind around in that humming mystery that is a transmission. i also, completely foolishly, smoked at the time. despite the fact that she had a small pinpoint gas leak in the top seam of the tank that as you know, i was sitting on top of... it really only sloshed gas out while it was full and so i rarely filled the tank. to be young and foolish again!

the 1953 m38a1

...and her accompanying sister, the later acquired 1964 cj5 that i drove for a few summers. the m38a1 came from a contact that i made who so loved the dj that he offered to buy her from many a time, though of course, i declined his offers. so once again, my dad helped me drag her home and i had another old iron project in the fire. this was all in the days before the internet but i managed to find about a half dozen sources for the pricey waterproof 24 volt parts. willys motors, soon to be kaiser at this point, over-engineered everything about the m38a1 for the army...special plugs and wires, points and condenser in their own sealed case, a huge 24 volt generator and a double large battery box in the cowl.
i could hardly afford anything and sadly never got her running for an extended period of time. i bought a set of plugs and regapped the points and got her to turn over. but that was it. the gas feed line from the tank was rusted through, so that was a big part of her not running. she was also lacking a front driveshaft, but had all her data plates on the dash and a set of solid seat frames (rear seat too!) and toolbox, even. i really miss this jeep, but i know where she still is locally where i grew up. i had to sell her to a friend of the family's and then he sold her again. i can still dream of re-acquiring her one day!