The Commando herd increases....

Well, managed to pick up a '68 on the cheap. My friend was coming up from SC with his trailer and I had seen this 68 on CL in VA for $700, so I asked him to buy it for me. Yeah, I'm sick like that! lol.

Advertized as runs and drives, not road worthy, broken front and back glass. Was used as farm / lot hopper only.

Idles great, but shudders when revved up. 4x4 works great hi and lo.

Seems to have one working light - the LF turn signal!

Butt end ain't the greatest, however it's all there...

I like the adapting to hydraulic clutch which must have worked at one time, seems there's 2 issues though, first, the bleeder screw on the slave cylinder is located on the bottom, so air stays trapped. Secondly, the slave leaks a bit.

The driver seat seems to have good support, unlike Trusty my '71.

The plan for this one is going to be make safe to travel in.

So that means a compression test for step one. Followed by an oil change. Then make the lights all work right. Then use as DD.

 

That doesn't look too bad overall. Of course that could change all of a sudden if you started stripping paint off .

 

i'm keeping the original patina on this 68. starting a new look to be the next big thing - urbancamorod.

Had some time finally with Fussy last night. Managed to swap out the hatch, get the tail and park lights working, now have L and R turn signals but no brake lights. Low beam headlamps too. Including the T3 on the L !

Today i verified my diagnosis, carb is full of yuck. Been running on the lawnmower varnishpetro, which is typical for an OEM tank. I've had good results on past classics running nothing but primo petro and 2 large capacity fuel filters in line. Hate to **** with a tank that's not leaking when other stuff needs attention!
Also got the plate support fixed and even rigged a connection for the plate light which worked, as have ALL the bulbs so far. How do people expect these lights to work when the connections are missing or disconnected? i'll tell ya.... hahaha.

Have what looks like a "rebuilt" Rochester, which came in on the parts deal with the tub i bought for Trusty. I think i may have found why the new looking carb did not end up on his rig. The choke rod was on the wrong side of the casting and the cam was flipped. But i gotta wait 3 days for a carb base gasket to arrive. Took a hell of a rubber mallet hit to knock the old carb off. Might have been on Fussy since Kaiser bolted it on. For now, the replaced fuel filter still flows freely and the brass one in the carb is new, clear and clean as well, so a swap looks like a possibility, future traveled miles to tell...

The other funny thing is the dash. The face black out slid down, so no one could ever see the miles. Amp and R turn lost their color inserts. Oil and L show clear above the color. With the cover off, she shows 71,672 miles and the title was marked as 113K. Guess they were off by a few or the cluster was changed to this horrible one. Have a spare cluster from the tub and parts, so i'll probably end up using that one. The OE circuit in the 68 was nice, just one broke pin, the lights ground, an easy rig. So for now, it shows the dash lamps and the signals. No oil or amp light working yet.

List of needs for Fussy:
Small bushings need changed on all 4 springs. Found 3 rear ones in parts. Need so spend some $$ there. Fail to understand the tie-in bar across the front shackles? Seems like it's a home-made articulation eliminator?
Needs to charge battery. Have 2 used regulators and a new looking alternator with the OEM regulator harness, so hopefully that can happen without $$.
Amp light should be resolved by above, oil light needs to work though too. I'll still go with adding gauges, leaving the idiot lights too. More like an airplane that way.
Needs brake lights. Has power at the switch. When jumped to steady on, i get a R light. On a L turn, I do get the R light and L blinking as it should. But in N or R on the signal arm, there's no L brake lamp. Master's fluid is pretty rusty, pedal is like stepping on 2x4. Pressure switch is clogged at best, and seems to seep fluid.
Water pump is really loose. Hard to believe it holds coolant just fine. See that tomorrow. Don't know if it'll be installed, but ....
Tires. All are 215 75 15, dumb size, one has tread with no dry rot LF. Others are lurking death, even as roll-outs. lol.
Swap "new" carb when gasket arrives. Adjust accordingly. Already re-set the timing from cyl 2 to 1. What a goof that was!
Need to check the brakes, only looked at the LF. Bleeder opened, is clear, but won't spit any fluid and the shoes are thick, but heat-cracked. Maybe a collapsed hose. Have a few of those too, Rock Auto had them on a clearance discount for $2.X? each. Think i bought all 3 left.
Brakes are the hardest thing to not spend $ on! lol.

I always challenge myself to Mad Max it and work with what i have.

Spend less. travel more.

 

Isn't owning a Jeep from this era a joy?
I think mine was in better shape when I bought it than yours. The "Women" I got it from didn't seem to have a clue about repairs.
Tighten up brake line fittings? Unplugging half of the wireing behind the dash is going to fix the turn signals?
It took a few weeks to get things sort of close to correct.
The insulation they used on the wires is crap, very brittle, so I check out all of the lights on mine before driving.
The rear differental in this era Commands are also junk, Keep your eye out for a later D44 flanged unit. I broke the rear in mine, never could figure out how I did it, or when.

 

Yep Unca, my 71, Trusty, had a rot hole in the differential housing at the L spring mount. Guess the crap sitting there ate it away. I welded it without taking it apart. So far no dribbles, but like you said, axles are replaceable. Still fiddling with the quarter replacing on Trusty, this constant rain every day is not helping me.
On the other hand the 68, Fussy, seems to be excited to be able to be on the road again soon. Fixed the bad spot near the LR spring shackle perch. Used a piece from a YJ front bumper. (That bumper's fixed a few things.) Waiting on the carb base gasket....

 

Well, things are looking up for Fussy. I got the carburetor swapped and replaced the carbon-fouled new spark plugs with another set of new plugs. So it runs pretty fair, but I have my doubts that the cam lobes are at full height! Oil and filter changed, got 4-ways to work, replaced the front diff pinion seal, figured out the brake light switch is shorted so that's on order. Even when I bypass the brake switch it appears I only have a brake lamp on the right side, however the signals work on both sides! Obviously a problem in the turn signal switch. Might just add a center brake light for now since the signals work.

Found a restriction in the LF brake hose that caused the wheel cylinder to not bleed out. Once that was cleared, the brakes actually feel good.

The rear frame repair went well. Gotta love those YJ front bumpers, this makes 3 frames fixed and I still have bumper left for more repairs!
How it looked:

With the Ginzu hitch removed and the bad section of frame cut out...

Fitting the bumper piece for the repair....

Ready to weld....

And with the frame fixed.....

Can hardly wait to run Fussy around the block to make sure the transmission works OK. Tonight I'll try and deal with the alternator charging issue.

 

Well, getting Fussy ready to run down the road turned hairy for a good bit on me. The starting motor bendix just stripped out one day and was spinning with a nasty grind w/o cranking the engine at all. Previously, it would only doing the kkrriinngg noise once in a while. It turned out the block ear is missing for the starting motor and someone rough-cut a bracket with a torch and hung the bracket off the head to hold the starter. Too bad it was loose and over an inch away from the mounting place! So I found a bracket that made a good starting point for a perma-rig.

The forward view of my perma-rig...

I replaced the starter drive bendix with a new one and lucky for me (and Fussy) it works great and required no starting motor shimming! Once that was dealt with, I went on to straightening out the engine harness wiring. First issue was a lack of coil bypass during cranking time, not to mention the disconnected oil and temp light senders. Then the wires all received new terminal ends with some shrink tubing to make the connections nice.

I bench checked what I could on the Motorcraft alternator w/o any disassembly other than the diode output plate, which tested fine. The idle charge voltage is 13.78 to 13.83 with the parking/tail lights on, increasing to 14.65 when revved up over 2K RPM.


Nice to see the plate light working and proper brightness tail lights...

Without the camera flash on...

Soooo, Fussy got to run down the road last night for the first time in 20+/- years after I borrowed Trusty's tires/wheels and put them on Fussy. I was very happy to hear no axle / trans / steering problems. The brakes on the other hand appear to need some love in spite of the firm and high brake pedal. Betting one or more wheel cylinder pistons are stuck. Seems to be a lot of effort to stop Fussy, but it will stop. I added a school bus stop lamp as a center brake light in the hatch window to compensate for my lack of LR brake lamp due to an issue in the column's signal switch.
Still need a windshield, my glass guy is the slowest ever I swear!

 

Can't say I've ever seen a block broken right there. Must have taken some doing to accomplish that .
Chances are pretty good you have stuck wheel cylinders. 10" brakes weren't the greatest but once everything is working right and they're adjusted they're not bad.

 

Yes, it was a real joy there with the block! Finally at the point where I now have a new windshield. Had to swap the windshield frame, as it was bent about 2 inches towards the driver side. Funny how that didn't show just looking at Fussy. The glass man figured it out after the gasket was re-stalled. Needless to say, Fussy's topless now and I'm going to travel home and see how much the 9 to 15 brake adjustment clicks per various wheel helped the stopping. Cool to know the adjusters are free and hate to pull the drums if she'll stop w/o pulling or grinding! lol. Oh yeah, had to re-locate the STOP lamp to where the lid hatch plate was. Slicker than snail snot!:driving:

 

Well, 'ol Fussy's been doing rather well as a DD for a few weeks now. Still need to rebuild the carbonator (aka carburetor), had trouble locating the exact kit, but found one that should work. Also the water pump that was loose finally started to leak, so I had to replace that. Opened up the front brakes and found both wheel cylinders seized up.


I disassembled the brakes and wheel cylinders and beat the stuck cylinder pistons out.

Honed the wheel cylinders, cleaned the old seals and popped it back together. Stops good now and cost nothing but some time and brake fluid!
Pretty neat that this puppy hasn't been on the road in over 20 years and I've spent less than $200 to get it to DD status! Even highway travels nice. I am darn happy with Fussy so far, and once the carb is rebuilt it should won't be such a pain running when cold. Runs best when fully warmed up as it is now.

 

$700? WOOT? Would like to get one someday.
I haven't seen any for sale around East TN for quite awhile. There was one that was very sharp, seller only wanted $12,500.00
When my Father bought the CJ-5 in '70 in Denver there was a Jeepster right next to it in the same color, that pale pee yellow.
I guess he couldn't afford it at the time. But then in '71 he bought a Bronco... With two kids? not exactly family cars.

 

I did see a Jeepster on CL in Tennessee - definitely a project, it's on 38's - https://chattanooga.craigslist.org/for/4497961897.html

I rebuilt the carburetor on Fussy yesterday (after soaking it for 2 days) and had a quite powerful drive home last night and a great cold start this morning with fast idle and everything. Amazing the power a 68 Dauntless has even after all these years. Even got some tire squeal outta it!:driving:

 

Well, did it again. Look at this junk!!!!!!!!!!!

Found this in Indiana, a mere 200 miles from where it was built originally! Story goes that Grand Dad bought it in 1977, which is what the title shows, and strictly used it as a farm hopper. When the rear diff broke Grand Dad had a guy down the road replace it with a Jeep diff he had. Guess Grand Dad was unhappy with the job and said it didn't drive right, so he parked it. The sad part is the hood was off for 17 years as it sat behind the barn.

Same hauler friend brought it back for me yesterday with his covered trailer. Paid him a Benjamin, you REALLY don't want to know what I paid for the junk remnants of the half cab!

Yes, it was also used as a dumpster, so I have to wait until a thaw to see how terrible the bulkhead to bed floor is. Got about 8 inches further to dig.

At least Fussy can now have a half cab like it's title said it had. This 69 is an original H17, but it's WAY too far gone to even think about restoring it unfortunately. The heavy farm bumper pulled off the entire rear frame including the rear leaf perches, the floors are non-existent as well as the support brackets.

The fun part is, it only has 41K on the clock, so I hope to salvage more than the half cab and the bulkhead.

 

Not all that bad, looks like it's got some parts on it or in it or maybe under it now .

 

I did save the nose with fenders attached. The ONLY place they were still attached BTW! Still need to rip the hood so I can have a Jeepster Commando garage man door awning! R) It'll bolt to the wall on the 4 radiator holes. Need roughly the first 9 inches of that mangled hood.

Tore the block down for fun I guess. Could only get 1 head off. The other head's bolts were ate away on 5 of them. Pulled the pan, it spun number 3 main and snapped the timing chain. Confirms my suspicions the hood was thrown in a fit of anger. It also broke the cylinder sleeves when the water froze. Neat 'cause the outer block held up and did not crack.

Water is a powerful tool...

 

whoo boy! yes it is!

 

Been a while since any updates on Fussy, so here goes.

It sat all winter in my driveway with the battery connected. One fine Sunday in April I tried to start Fussy. Battery was up, and it cranked for about 35 seconds and then started right up onto high idle. That was nice. Two weeks later we had enough rain happen to wash down to corrosive salt off the roadways, so Fussy went back to daily traveler status and Willy got parked for the summer in the back yard. Before winter I had slapped the half cab from the parted out 69 on Fussy, so it wouldn't get damaged or be in my way. Plus it made Fussy look a lot more normal than the hacked off bent and rusted full cap....



Here's another view, I ended up moving my third brake light from the gate to the back of the cab. Looks much better up there, and a glance into the rear view mirror lets me see the glow of the red around the edge of the light so I know the brake lights are on.



After I started daily use of Fussy, the master cylinder really started to give me trouble. Had to expect that since I really got by last summer with no brake parts. I had only freed up the front wheel cylinders, cleaned up and re-used all the guts and the adjusters. So, I finally had to order a new master cylinder and when that came I broke out the parts I had accumulated last year for Fussy. I had 1 new front wheel cylinder, 2 front cylinder rebuild kits a set of new shoes, 2 new bearing seals and 2 new drums. That all installed fine but I could not get a proper pedal pressure/height and I figured it will now be time to order a hub puller so I could finally be able to pull hubs on all my Jeeps and Willys.

When the puller (OTC7394) arrived, I finally got to see the rear brake situation. The LR wheel cylinder was seized up, the RR was leaking at both ends but the shoes were still serviceable. I figured that since the emergency brake always worked after I repaired the cable where it went into the handle mechanism. Going back into my parts stash I found I only had rear wheel cylinder rebuild kits, so that is what I did. Brakes are now great. Nice high pedal and the emergency brake applies with only 7 clicks. Having good brakes, I ventured into taking some dents out of the body.

First was the big dent in the cowl.



Had to make a hole on the hood seam to use a prybar since the dent puller did squat to fix the dent.



Took the small dent out of the left fender....



Then worked a bit on the right fenders' multiple dents (still more work to do there)...



After tiring of dent pulling for the day, I ventured into installing one of my new headlamps. I bought 4 of them on a closeout clearance. They are Wagner halogen lamps that have a metal back and a capsule head light bulb sealed into the unit with a glass lens. Works nice.



Quite a difference in the light intensity! Could not bring myself to pulling the original T3 out of the left side, so it's staying until it finally burns out.



A few dark comparison pics - from the right a bit.....



and finally from the left angle....



Very happy I'm traveling in a much safer status now, next thing will be to work on some of the rocker and floor rust-out!

 

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I like seeing this kind of stuff. Makes me want to stay home and work on the Jeeps.

 

Yeah Tim, with that brace behind the cowl, I could only access the dent very little from above the glove box, but since that dent was over 2 inches in, it really bothered me. The first smack with a hammer from the inside broke off the body filler and revealed that round hole which looks like it was an antennae mount at one time. Funny part is the "patina" of the body existed under the filler! Then I tried the dent puller. Ha Ha good luck! My prybar and hammer still remain as favorite tools.....

Been collecting different satin and flat green paints as I find them so I after I fix some dents and rust I can end up doing a new rattle-can camo paint job. A buddy of mine is helping, he's going to make some leaf stencils for the camo job.

My seats have been redone (the ones I pulled from the half cab I scrapped) by a friend of my Boss at work. He just called last night that they were ready, so I'll have to repaint the bases so I can swap the seats out.

Hoping to push the latest Commando acquisition, the 67, onto the hoist tonight so I can evaluate it's needs and pull the driveshafts, T-case and tranny to find and fix the clutch issue.