July 12, 2000- My Jeep is now blue. I can’t bring it home until tomorrow. There were some mistakes, but it looks very nice. I cleaned in the garage and painted the chain come-along. (When I bought the Jeep, this chain come-along was left it. The Jeep also had a rusted jack and a broken fluorescent light.)
July 13, 2000- I have my Jeep back! I painted the underside of the hood with black Rustolem. I put on the windshield, hood, and tailgate. There were small cracks that were missed when painting the windshield. I’ll take it back off to repaint it. I had lots of fun tonight.
July 17, 2000- I worked on wiring the turn signal in the Jeep. I made the horn button work. Only a few threads catch that new horn nut. Hopefully that will be enough. I cut the chain for the tailgate. I worked with the wipers. I can’t find two nuts that match the threads on the wiper motor shaft even at Lesse tool and die. I did some touch up painting on the windshield and hood.
July 18, 2000- The turn signal switch was a little unstable, but now it works fine. I painted the turn signal box black. I painted the hood hinge and the lip on the underside of the hood.
July 19, 2000- The ammeter has 1 old nut (3/8" head) and one new nut (5/16" head) on the back. I finished wiring the headlights, parking light junction. I wired the front turn signal.
July 22, 2000- The wiring is complete. Wiring a Jeep really gives the neck and back a hard time. I installed most of the floor mating. There is just a little trimming to do. The gas tank is in place. Tonight, I ran the Jeep in the dark so I could see all the lights glowing. It’s getting close to being finished.
July 23, 2000- I put the floor mats in the Jeep. I had a great deal of trimming on the mats to get them to fit. I went over to Bill Stripps's in the Jeep and he’s going to get some items for it. Now, inspection seems possible. I also made a new gas tank cap seal with an old inner tube. (The real problem was not the seal it was the tank. The gas tank would later be replaced.)
July 24, 2000- Today, I purchased insurance for $140 for six months, but it was only liability. I didn’t get classic plates. I worked on the hood blocks. (I helped Dad with the chimney.)
July 25, 2000- I mounted the hood-to-grille cloth and varnished the blocks for the hood.
July 26, 2000- I welded the footies to the back seat and painted the entire seat. I put the stainless steel footman loops on the tailgate. I ruined the grinder motor, but replaced it. I ran about a quart of oil out of the jeep, because I forgot to put the oil gauge back on. This was an unintelligent decision that sprayed oil all over the driveway. Bill Stripp rethreaded the wiper motor shaft making it a standard American thread. I put the ax on the Jeep. The ax looks nice on the Jeep. The Amish guy did a nice job on the leather sheath.
July 28, 2000- I hooked up the throttle and choke, and refilled the radiator with clean antifreeze. Filled the motor with oil and put on the steering wheel cover and the passenger side wiper.
July 31, 2000- I put in the seat belts. I put in the passenger seat and painted the back seat. I had a piece of steel in my eye and had it removed yesterday. I haven’t been doing much lately, because of this injury.
Aug 1, 2000- I painted the underside of the dash, adjusted the brake, and cut holes for the back seat in the floor mat. I was very sluggish from the injury.
Aug 4, 2000- I made Tupperware speaker boxes. I found a convertible top in JC Whitney. This is something that Bestop claims that they don’t sell. JC Whitney was very nice about it and promised to send me a top that fits the old bow holders in my Jeep.(JC Whitney's top did NOT fit. Their top is all wrong.)
Aug 5, 2000- Mom finished my passenger seat foam covers. Both seats look great! I touch up painted on my Jeep.
Aug 6, 2000- I built a portable cd player amplifier for my Jeep. It works great.
Aug 9, 2000- I hope I finish the cd player. I bought a voltage converter to convert from 12 volts to 4.5 volts, but it made noise and did filter much engine noise. This was enough to be annoying. So it put a "loud switch" that has two 44 ohm resistors in parallel to make 22 ohms, but only displace half the watts each. This way the noise was less noticeable. (Later, I would again change the amplifier to include a volume control.) I put the green wooden balls on the transfer case sticks. I finally adjusted the brake cable of that it works properly. I ordered "S" tubes for the front brakes. The "S" tubes were almost impossible to make for a straight piece of brake line. A mere 3 hours and they were installed. I bled the brakes. All the problems of the brakes sticking have passed.
Aug 10, 2000- Today, I had the Jeep inspected. I was trying to tie up some loose ends. I reconfigured the emergency cable bracket, because it was rubbing the front drive shaft. I adjusted the carburetor and the points. I discovered the speaker boxes fit in the toolbox.
Aug 11, 2000- I found out my alternator wasn’t charging the battery. We fixed the alternator connection. The dash light connection was hooked to the exciter wire connection. After this connection was changed the battery should charge the alternator. The Jeep seems to cut out at 40 mph.
Aug 12, 2000- I put the muffler and tail pipe on the Jeep. I made a key-on alternator exciter wire because my alternator was excited all the time and the battery went dead. I worked a long time at Bill Stripp’s, cleaning the entire carburetor. I ran the Jeep with an electric fuel pump to see if the problem was in the fuel pump. We figured out that the problem was the points. The spring on the points was too weak. When the engine would spin too quickly the spring wouldn't be able to return the points back to the closed position. We put a pen spring behind the points and had it up to 60 mph. It’s temporary fixed. The brake light still stays on though, which is yet another problem.
Aug 13, 2000- I gave several Jeep rides to people yesterday. It was fun. Bill Stripp and I spent all day on Saturday trying to figure out the rpm problem. It was the points. The return spring was to weak so we put the spring out of a pen in it and then got it up to 60 mph, but you don’t want to go that fast. It is scary. There are lots of bumps and no power steering. I washed my Jeep.
Aug 15, 2000- A found a scratch or two. This was bound to happen. I adjusted the clutch and the brake. It seems to work better now. I now have a license plate sticker. I checked on a roll bar it would be about $75 to make.
Aug 20, 2000- I put the plate Mom bought me on the front of my Jeep. It says "Built and Rebuilt in the USA." I tore the air horn off the carburetor to find the gasket I thought would work, wasn’t going to work.
Aug 21, 2000- I drove my Jeep to work today. It was fun. The ride home wasn’t though. The turn signal broke and the engine overheated. I have parts coming in the mail including points, gas cap and a stop light switch.
Aug 24, 2000- I cut a new gasket for the thermostat. The hole in the middle of the FEL-PRO one was too big. (Later, the water pressure would push the thermostat through the softened gasket. Susan fixed this problem by cutting pieces of metal plating the size of the gasket from a coffee can and placing them on the thermostat housing. The water pressure won't be able to push the gasket through the metal plate.) I fixed the turn signal. I adjusted the steering wheel and took Mom for a ride. It was fun.
Aug 26, 2000- I JB welded the holes in the gas cap shut. I figured no ventilation means no leaks. I gave rides today. It was fun.
