46 CJ-2A - Family heirloom

Greetings Forum members,

I've been lurking for a little while and reading up all the threads I can on rebuilds as I've been planning a rebuild of my own.  My grandpa owned a 1946 CJ-2A - Serial 14381.  It was an army surplus machine that he got just after the war to use as a farm vehicle. My mother learned to drive in it, and I remember riding in it whenever we went to visit his farm.  His farm was in California, but later he moved to central Utah.  There, when I was 5 years old, my Grandmother was driving the Jeep on a backroad when she had a stroke and died.  My grandfather and I found her there pinned underneath the overturned Jeep and went for help.  A few years later my grandfather passed away as well and the Jeep made its way to Chicago with an aunt, who tried starting it up after years of no service, and seized the engine.  It then went into storage for about 25-30 years.  WHile I've been refused for a number of years trying to purchase the Jeep from my aunt, it was only recently that she conceded, and I made the trip to Chicago to dig it out of her storage unit.  I loaded it on a uhaul, and drove it back to Seattle, where I'm planning on restoring it for my son Wilfred - named after my grandfather. 

I'm looking forward to this active community to help me out, as I'm only somewhat mechanically inclined ( based on a few years with a Volkswagen bug that I owned ).  I'll add some photos of the process... starting at the beginning.

Here's to breathing new life into an old machine!

Here are some shots of the situation.

1) Here's a shot of how I found her... stuff in a dark corner with years of 'stuff' loaded on her back. The folks in the shot are friends of my aunt who came to help out.


2)Here's a few shots after we got the place mostly cleaned out. There's a soft top, that I believe my grandpa got made for it in the back, but I also have the old back seats and an old towing arm. Sadly, my aunt used the old accompanying trailer until the axel broke and she tossed it.


Here's the back view


Here's the dash view - 37k miles on it


Here's the front view. Note that the tires were all flat - very flat and cracked.


But... innertubes to the rescue. We pumped them up, and those old, old tires held air!!


Then, we got her up on the transport and drove on home.


Now, she's safe and sound in my garage...


Edited by Beerbelly - 30 May 2018 at 4:17am

Welcome, BB... looks like a great little jeep with some VEC features.  I think rocnroll's comment is borne out of the lack of any evidence that 2A's saw any use in the US military.  You gotta remember that post war the military HAD jeeps, they didn't NEED jeeps ... so many in fact, that the big automakers were horrified at the notion of them all coming home and flooding the market.  They were left oversees, lend leased, thrown overboard, yada yada...  

Edited by mbullism - 29 May 2018 at 10:45pm

I love the family Jeep tie in and the Utah tie in. I see it still has a Utah plate. I live in Plain City near Ogden.

Yeah, what MB said! Congrats on the v nice jeep(many desirable and rare features) Thing to remember anybody with enough money could buy a similar jeep but nobody can buy that story! Joe W

WELCOME!!!!  That is a great start ..as others have stated your early A2 has lots of goddies, body with tool indents is very desirable!  Look forward to following your story.  Family jeeps are the best!

Welcome to the page, Beerbelly!  That CJ might even be a '45 that was re-titled as a '46.  Note the square washers on the front of the windshield frame and the MB-style inner w/s hold-open arms.  A very early civilian Jeep thing.  You might be interested in procuring a copy of Fred Coldwell's book, Preproduction Civilian Jeeps.  It's chock-full of interesting early CJ history. You can PM him here under his name.


Edited by Ol' Unreliable - 30 May 2018 at 1:48am

wadoyado wrote: Yeah, what MB said! Congrats on the v nice jeep(many desirable and rare features) Thing to remember anybody with enough money could buy a similar jeep but nobody can buy that story! Joe W

Thanks, Joe!  I'm excited to have it as a part of the family.  Hoping to keep it in the family, at least until self-driving cars rule the road.

mkoloc wrote: WELCOME!!!!  That is a great start ..as others have stated your early A2 has lots of goddies, body with tool indents is very desirable!  Look forward to following your story.  Family jeeps are the best!

Thanks for the note, mkoloc!

I'm not sure what's desirable in a Jeep, but looking forward to getting her running again. Need to see if I can dig up old pics of her with me in them.