48, 46 CJ2A's in eastern CT

I do see your photo.  Looks like a winner!

Thanks... It's in pretty poor shape as it was a NorthEastern plow Jeep. It looked like junk to some local people, but as I have over 5 decades of sheetmetal & mechanical "experience & tools", we just could not part it out after seeing that it survived this long.

I'm doing some metal fab on the drivers side for a couple of days while waiting for the new clutch to get here tomorrow. This 46 lost it's engine and seats while in that junkyard, but my son just found a CJ2A complete rolling chassis with a motor that was not stuck.

The motor will likely be installed by Thursday I hope.

I'm doing the metal work now because the drivers floor is beyond rotted out, and there is no way to put some sort of seat in to be able to yard test the 46 drivetrain.

I'll take some pics of the messy chaos by late today.

Here is a pic of the white New Mexico 48 when we were picking it up in upstate NY last January..

Joseph, Welcome from Old Saybrook.... We're just finishing up a 46 rebuild that came out of the woods in Wallingford. It should be on the road this spring. Good luck!!!

Some metal work from past 2 days. I had to replace the lower part of the body here, as the floor must be welded to the sides. You might be able to see where a past owner overlayed a screwed on patch panel over the original side. That was better than if they welded or brazed it on.

This Jeep will be a work truck, so I am not wanting to get carried away, but I am trying to do fairly good/straight butt-welded patches in case my son Joe wants to make the Jeep look nicer in the future. I replicated the original type vertical seam in the doorway, and made the water drain hole too.




Below, here is the first inside piece to be made to get started on making the floor pan. It supports the front of the cargo floor, and drops down to the front floor pan. This part was originally long enough to go across the entire body, behind the seats. I decided to make just this side for now, as to replace the whole part would require the tub to be removed.

It's better for me to leave the body on, so I can keep the tub sitting on the body mounts correctly, and keep the tub from getting out of shape.

You can see the welded nut that is for the seat mounting that sits on the front edge of the cargo floor.


Here is a pic of the 46 in my small work bay. So I used the hood as a table. :) Also you can see the original grille guard that I found under junk in the passenger side floor. I confess it took a while to know what is was.


Last 2 pics for this post are the donor engine and the chassis it came from. The engine was not stuck, but had no compression on any cylinder due to crud on the valves. I have an old valve and seat grinder, so we pulled the head and ground all the valves and seats.

I could tell from the crud on the pistons that it really needed rings, but Joe decided to just do the valves to test run it. It runs so nice that it can idle even lower than a Model A Ford. We got lucky that the donor chassis had a leak free radiator and the engine runs cool. even with cardboard in front of the radiator. We need a new thermostat and wanted to see if we could get it up to temp by blocking the radiator.


The donor 2A chassis that the motor & radiator came from. The intake manifold was broken at one flange, but there was the original intake & exhaust in the 46. But the 46 one had a broken exhaust manifold and the 4 bolts to hold them together were rusted badly. I put it in my woodstove for 45 minutes and got all 4 bolts removed. LOL

Spent today tackling the worst panel on the 46, the drivers side floor. I have no idea why it was so far gone, but the passenger side is fine? How is that possible?..lol

I decided to not make a fitted cardboard pattern, and just try to go by measurements to every possible place. I'm not sure if that wasted time as I had to correct one 90 degree bend flange at the rear of it, where it fits to the cross support for the cargo floor. I was able to fix my screw-up and have it look OK. :)

I did look up a repro floor a few says ago, but the ones I saw would not go far enough up along the trans tunnel, so I went with 18ga homemade floor. All of the various complicated bends are a nightmare to bend in the 4 foot box/pan brake.

Here is getting closer to the final fitting late today. I still have some shaping of the new floor to do along the entire trans tunnel. Then I can do final trimming of the old floor along the tunnel.



I almost hate to post the following pics of just how rotted this floor is. This is why some local people thought the 46 was too far gone to try saving. But, once this floor is done, all the rest of the metal fab on other areas will be easy.



Once I do the final shaping and trimming along the tunnel, then I will remove the floor to build & install new hat channels first...and then I can weld the new floor in.

The new clutch arrived late today, but I can't put the engine back in yet, as I need the room to work on the forward end of the new hat channel tomorrow.

I did pull the trans drain plug out to see if it had water...it did have some, despite the fact that this Jeep had a half cab since new, and that roof should have kept water from getting into the shift tower?

I then pulled the trans top cover off, and was surprised to see no rust in there. Gears are not chipped, and syncros look fine. If it was all rusted, I would have pulled the trans out now before installing the engine.


Below, are pics of the other parts chassis which is a CJ3A frame and a 70s Buick V6. I have no idea why they used a U-joint with the stock steering box. The white New Mexico 48 has U-joints on it's Buick V6 swap, but that's because it also has the Chevy/Saginaw steering box mounted way up front.

Welcome to the page! Im over in Westbrook. I spotted both the junkyard 46 and that original rolling chassis on the local listings and hoped someone would save them. Im glad they went to a good home! It looks like you’re not afraid to dive right in and get things done. You will be on the road and having fun in no-time!  

Hi CT48, I have some seat frames if you get stuck... They are not in the greatest condition, but judging by your work, you could make them work.... Progress looks great

Wow!

A good weekend for progress as Joe finally got scheduled for a Saturday off, except he knew he'd get called in for snow/ice work by late in the day. But he did get his engine back in before he had to leave at 2pm. I continued on a bit, and also Sunday.

He was here today and we knew we'd get to see this 46 move in it's own power for the first time in at least 40 years if we finished a few things.

A member here sent me a pic that he took of it when it was still in the wrecking yard, sunk in the dirt for decades:



Here is midafternoon today,...it's now alive and running great.



the thing we wanted to know, is how well it could slow crawl without using the gas pedal, even though it has the oversized tires from the 48. It is amazing, and the steering is so light/easy and no slop in the center bellcrank or steering box.

So... out into the woods he went:


He drove around quite a bit, and later he wanted me to try it. After I did, he asked if I relived my childhood.....meaning me driving my Uncles 42 in the woods as a kid. It did feel familiar. :)

He finished the day by removing some screwed on patches, and cut off one brazed corner patch on the right side, to save me time when I make some new panels this week.

Fun day when you get to see our efforts actually pan out.