Story of a 1961 Willys Jeep CJ5                                  

After looking for a project to keep me busy and finding that when I start a project like tiling my bathrooms or replacing light fixtures in my home that when the small project is complete, the excitement of the job is short lived. I scratched my head and thought I needed something bigger. I have a 4 year old boy and to leave the house is just not fair to my wife. If I had taken up something like Poker night with the guys or hanging at the bar spending my kid's peanut butter money on beer and shots, I just don’t think that would fly very long. I needed something to do at home in the lonely third stall of my garage. I had always appreciated the clean look of a nice 4X4 and haven’t had a cool rig like that since high school (wow 20 years ago), so I began looking for something that wouldn’t break the bank to fix up but would be fun for the whole family (my wife and kid and me too).  My oldest brother told me about his brother in law and an old 1961 Jeep Willys CJ5 that was just sitting on the side of his house. I called the brother in law of my brother (just follow me) and he said to come and look at it and he would consider selling it. I traveled over to his house (just ½ mile) and took a look at the old bird and thought I could at least make it look presentable and maybe do some trailing and have a little fun with it. After all this Jeep was an old hunting wagon that had been in this guy;s family since it was new.  I slapped the guy $600 and towed the Heap (Jeep) home. I noticed that the brakes didn’t work and the rust had taken advantage of the floor boards, but one good thing is that the original owner had installed a V6 motor under the haggard hood. A Saginaw steering was installed not too long ago, so I saw some good in the project. After tossing the old torn soft top and putting the old girl on a diet; ripping off the spare tire rack, front tow bar and losing the not so cool square roll bar I began to get a little excited. But then I revieled more rust at the tail end from the original tail lights and found gaping holes underneath the brackets. I ripped off the old bent rear bumper and found some “C” channel and fabricated a new one. It looked great!  I brought the seats to a local upholstry expert to have them recovered in original condition. That is where things took a wrong turn. The Jeep sat in the third stall for about a year holding everything from my kid's toys to lumber for other projects that I was working on around the house, and the newly recovered seats sat in the store room of my basement just waiting to someday be reunited with their old friend. Then my wife asked me if I was ever going to finish this project. I was re-energized and uncovered the antique from all the stuff we didn’t need but never threw away. I borrowed a welder and bought a grinder to attempt to smooth out the wrinkles in the metal and weld in new pieces to cover the red brittle chunks that fell out when I moved the Jeep just a little. Great attempt but I think I am better at hanging light fixtures or tiling my bathroom. I found a real live body guy that was willing to work on the butchered repairs I tried to fix, and really work on the Jeep to make it presentable. I stoppedby every day to look over the body work.  Things were really looking up! I found a gentle but dark green color that I liked and the old Jeep was coming to life. After the face lift I brought it home and placed it right back in the third stall of my garage...and then the fun began. I reinstalled the new 1975 windshield frame on to the 61 body which fit like a glove and installed all the neat new chrome hardware. It looked like a new Jeep. I didn’t mention that installed a new set of springs to make her look a little more aggressive, which also picked it up three inches, and I fastened on a set of 35x12.50x15 BFG all terrain tires and the look was set. With the sparkly new chrome and shiny new paint on the '61 I went through the old brittle wiring and went back to my upholstry guy to finish off the inside with a fresh carpet job. Then I reintroduced the seats with
their old buddy that they had been with since the beginning. They had a lot to talk about and it all came together. My wife was very happy and scheduled a Moab trip in April so we can show it off. I am sure that I will not make it a rock crawler. just a looker and a trail machine as it has been for all the years it made it through hunting camp. I am sure it will bring my family a lot of joy throughout the next 35 years or so until it needs a makeover someday once again. After a tune up and some TLC on the 231 V6 it looks like I will make the next project under the hood and finish off the Jeep in style with a fresh motor, but for now lets just have some fun with what’s left in it for now.  Total tally to have a little fun   $8500.00