New can of worms..... or Old bucket of bolts???

I've been waiting to post this here since yesterday. I may not be a CJ5 owner much longer. Yesterday I went to look at what was supposed to be a M38A1 tub to swap onto my CJ5. To make a long story short, I now own a whole M38A1 (minus the drivetrain).

This Jeep came from New Mexico, spent a short time in Wisconsin and will be in my shop in Chicagoland tomorrow afternoon. You can definitely tell this thing lived it's life out west. I've never actually seen hat channels in real life before yesterday.

Now for the dilemma:

Originally I planned to just swap the tub onto my 5. After seeing how nice the frame is and how the original rear crossmember is intact, I'm thinking about putting all my CJ5 parts onto it. Since the drivetrain is already out of my 5, I won't really be setting myself back time-wise. The main concern is getting and mounting another Saginaw plate since the A1 frame is bone stock. And since I'm doing a 4.3 swap, maybe it would be best anyway. Maybe I could even remove the crossmember from the A1 frame and build one out of tubing for better steering shaft routing..... I'm going to go nuts with all the decisions I'll have to make with it!!!

What do you all think? Right now I can't seem to shake the thoughts of an OD green M38A1 on 33's. Man, I think it would look coooooooool!!! I think I'd have to keep all the military stuff on it though. Pics to come tomorrow!!!!

Going nuts with military Jeep thoughts,
mruta

 

Mruta, I just completed making a new rear crossmember for Nixon out of 4" C-Channel. It was really pretty easy and in my opinion looks as close to original as the original itself...minus the holes and it's 10 times stronger than the original.

The strength is why I did this...I intend to mount my tire carrier to it and I'm sure it'll hold up.

Trying to get pics in the next couple days, but wanted to get the carrier on before I did to eliminate multiple posts.

 

thats awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cant wait to see the pics. its funny you mention this cause about 5 minutes ago a friend of mine called and said he just was given an "old miltary jeep" by his grandfather. this thing i guess is all original and in mint condition. he said to me that he has no use for this and would i be interested in it. he asked me if $1000 sounds like i good price. the jeep is in new jersey and i will be in maine on friday so i am going to take a look. i told him i would have to see it to tell him if a grand is a good price :twisted:

 

I agree on the M38 --- nice collectors item to own!!

I call 1st dibs on your old tub since I know it is VERY garaged!!

 

Go with your gut on this. I like the idea of the military jeep on 33's.

 

Sure, put together the best Jeep you can out of the parts you have!

Erik wrote: the jeep is in new jersey and i will be in maine on friday so i am going to take a look." ... You realize that Maine is a big state? The rest of the states are small, but you'll have to go through Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York before you get to New Jersey. Not something you can do in an afternoon unless you can fly.

 

i live in the southern part of maine, about 30 mins from newhampshire. new jersey is only about 4-5 hrs from me. i just might be taking a little road trip. i wish i could get some pics of this before i drive all the way down. the words used to describe this jeep to me were "cherry" he has no idea what he might have there. i really would feel guilty taking it for a grand if it worth 4 or 5 times that. considering he is a friend of mine

 

If it's truely in good condition, with all of the original parts, have you considered doing a restore on it instead?

Jim

 

minus the drive train... just stuff whatever you can back in there and have at it. it's not like you're hacking up a complete a1. plus all the little parts for an a1 would nickle and dime you to death... 24v here, canvas there, stencils where?, etc etc.

 

which a1???? gun jeep on 33's would be sweet.

 

It's nowhere near complete and probably impractical to do a resto. And there are a few military only parts missing- windshield, fuel filler neck, taillight, military badges, etc...

I'm going to dream OD green tonight. I'm really starting to think a "resto-mod" OD green A1 would be awesome. I have to use the tub anyway so maybe that would be best...

 

Sounds neet. I kinda like the A1's.
Cool part about yours with the stuff missing that yours is, shouldn't have to feel guilty
for putting in the 4.3 and 33's with an od paint job. Plenty of places to get the paint and easy to match when you need to. I like to match the mil spec with the year model.

 

jd7,
Are there any websites you know of where I might be able to find out what color(s) were used for particular years??? The CJ3B site has something like this for the civvy Jeeps but not military.....

TIA!!!

 

mruta, www.armyjeepparts, RAPCO parts company are two I know of. I found the colors and numbers on the web several years ago but my cimouter crashed earlier this year and I lost them and haven't been able to relocate them. Anyway I just found the color I wanted amd went down to my local paint store with pictures and numbers and my guy at the store matched and mixed me acouple of gallons. I've used GCI paints that AJP sells before also and it works well.

 

same thing i did... two or three cases of marine green in spray cans sitting in the back yard waiting for the body tub to get ready. i'm pretty sure the colors aren't going to match exactly from can to can, but it's not like every motor pool had the exact color on hand