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SE Kansas 46 CJ-2A View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SE Kansas 46 CJ-2A Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Apr. 2017 at 6:59pm
Here's another take on the MD Juan tub...

While there are some fitment problems with the tub and the surface might be somewhat less than showroom perfect, this is one way for those who do not possess the skills to do bodywork to still enjoy the ownership of a reasonably good looking Jeep. There are some pitfalls with the MD Juan tubs, but none that can not overcome with a little ingenuity.

There are many of us, myself included, that don't have the skills, the space, equipment, or the time and patience to do bodywork.

I admire the bodywork skills that many of you have to turn rusted out tubs back into something useful and drivable. Some of the flatties that I wouldn't have believed would have ever seen the road again, have been transformed through many hours of cutting, welding, grinding, filling, sanding, and painting into beautiful rigs. I am simply in awe of the wonderful looking rigs some of you have documented in this forum...absolutely in awe...

Let's face it, some of us don't have a clue about bodywork, but we do want to be a part of this great hobby and lifestyle.

While I have a lot of mechanical skills, (some of which I acquired working on Ol' Red) I am a KLUTZ when it comes to bodywork. Sure I can sand and paint, but forming and welding thin metal isn't one of my better skills. The old tub on Ol' Red needed bodywork and many of the panels on the tub had seen 20 years of "careful oilfield miles" when I acquired her and she badly needed attention. I knew I didn't have the skills to do the job, so I sold the tub to a man in upstate New York who was glad to get it and had the wherewithal to get it fixed right. I put a MD Juan tub on the frame of Ol' Red and with minimal bodywork skills, and I then had a fairly presentable looking Jeep. Now there are two Jeeps on the road, one in Kansas and another in New York. Ol' Red is not a show Jeep by any means, but it will serve as a daily driver around a small town in Kansas...and it turns heads when I drive it down Main Street.

...and if I decide to do some offroading, I'm not afraid to spoil a showroom perfect paintjob...because it never was perfect by any stretch of the imagination...

Edited by SE Kansas 46 CJ-2A - 29 Apr. 2017 at 7:05pm
46 CJ-2A #64462 "Ol' Red" (bought April 1969)(second owner)(12 V, 11" brakes, M-38 frame, MD Juan tub)

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote leecarr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr. 2017 at 1:00am
I will never wheel mine either and like I said earlier they are a perfectly good option in some cases. I considered getting one myself but the money situation does not allow it. I'm fortunate enough to have a decent shop, enough tools and just enough skill to please myself. I could never make a living doing this because I'm way to slow, I traded this paint job for a body I can repair for myself and some other parts. I just wanted to let other people know what they may be getting into. If someone was to take this on as a paying job with the idea that it's a new body, how much work could it be , could end up with a disappointed customer and an empty pocket.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ol' Unreliable Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr. 2017 at 9:15pm
Back in '78, I bought an Acme Truck Parts body kit to replace the body on my M-38.  I think it was made by MD Juan.  It was a piece of junk.  Rust started appearing within a year, there were stress cracks near the body mount bolts, parts didn't fit right from the beginning.  They must be improving, they couldn't get much worse.
There's a reason it's called Ol' Unreliable
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Adrian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr. 2017 at 9:43pm
Originally posted by Ol' Unreliable Ol' Unreliable wrote:

Back in '78, I bought an Acme Truck Parts body kit to replace the body on my M-38.  I think it was made by MD Juan.  It was a piece of junk.  Rust started appearing within a year, there were stress cracks near the body mount bolts, parts didn't fit right from the beginning.  They must be improving, they couldn't get much worse.
I think you'd be surprised if you saw one that had been "tuned" and fitted properly.

They will only rust if not protected properly in the seams etc.

They do require careful shimming to match the frames and I think that's part of the trick to setting them up so they are not stressed.

Adrian
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ol' Unreliable Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr. 2017 at 9:52pm
They have to be better now.  I had to tear out the toolbox in mine after just a few years and replace the floor, even though I had painted it inside and out.  It was in Ohio, though, where it's almost as humid as, say, Florida, just without the salt in the air.  Plenty of salt thrown on the roads if someone said it might snow.  I'm glad to be out of there!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote leecarr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 May 2017 at 9:24pm
Should a brand new hood need this much work? Granted I may be a bit on the anul side.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SE Kansas 46 CJ-2A Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 May 2017 at 10:04pm
Originally posted by leecarr leecarr wrote:

Should a brand new hood need this much work? Granted I may be a bit on the anul side.
Probably not...but the work you have done on it looks great. I'm sure that if the same type of finish work is done on the rest of the tub that when finished it'll be a knockout.   
46 CJ-2A #64462 "Ol' Red" (bought April 1969)(second owner)(12 V, 11" brakes, M-38 frame, MD Juan tub)

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ralf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 May 2017 at 12:12am
I just prepped my tub to remove oil and painted it. Put some flattener in the final coat. Yellow matte finish. Looks fine. No show car, just a Willys.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote WeeWilly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 May 2017 at 12:41am
You probably would have to do the same thing to a factory new Willys hood and body to make it look that good.

   Jim
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote leecarr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 May 2017 at 12:56am
I can safely say that it will be the nicest one in town. At this point there is only one other one in town (until I finish mine) and it belongs to this gentleman's brother. It's an older restoration, I've done some mechanical work on it. This one will be a fresh frame off.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote otto Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 May 2017 at 3:00pm
Originally posted by leecarr leecarr wrote:

Should a brand new hood need this much work? Granted I may be a bit on the anul side.
 
"Should a brand new hood need this much work?"
 
It depends on what you want it to look like when it's painted. Even brand new panels and parts needed a little work before we could put them on a customer's vehicle- and that is with current manufacturer's parts. They didn't need as much as your hood displays, but in my opinion there's nothing wrong with a thin coat of filler to straighten out a panel.  If you are ever at a car show and you see a vintage car that's laser-straight with beautiful paint on it, I'm willing to bet that it looks just like your hood underneath that paint. It's really the only way to get a panel straight.
 
I've done cars that looked like your hood from bumper to bumper.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote leecarr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 May 2017 at 6:08pm
Most of the really good car guys on TV basically cover the entire car with body filler and go from there.
I tend to sand off too much and have to do it again , it's that "just a little bit more" that gets me all the time. like I said I could never make a real living at this I'm way to slow.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote leecarr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Aug. 2017 at 7:03pm
Finished hood and more being way to fussy on drivers side.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Willy M Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Aug. 2017 at 7:34pm
Looking great!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Gil Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Aug. 2017 at 4:26am
Looking really good,nice job on that body work.Thumbs Up

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Unkamonkey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Aug. 2017 at 9:13am
I spent weeks out doing the body work on the 3B everyday. Welding in patches and smoothing things out, building parts. Painted it and then noticed that I had missed a ding on the hood. I suppose you have to leave something imperfect as a friend told me.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Willy M Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Aug. 2017 at 2:42pm
Originally posted by Unkamonkey Unkamonkey wrote:

I suppose you have to leave something imperfect as a friend told me.

Yep, never did body work on anything that I didn't find something I had missed when I thought I'd finished.  

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote leecarr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Aug. 2017 at 6:48pm
Last coat of paint on the hood I got a big drop of sweat right in the middle. That meant let it dry, sand it out, repaint half of it then wet sand it and buff it to blend it in. Everything shows up on this Normandy blue.
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