CJ3B: Original Willys Preservation

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After having restored all many of Jeeps over the years, and modifying a number of others, I decided that I would like to do a preservation rebuild. I watched a show on Jay Leno's Duesenberg where the vehicle was too original to restore and Jay wanted to keep some of the original character of the vehicle.

There is nothing nicer than a fully restored vehicle, but you do lose a lot of the history of the vehicle in the rebuild.

Anyhow I decided it would be a CJ3B (did not have one in the collection) and so that hunt began.

The problem with doing a preservation rebuild is that you need to find a bloody original vehicle to begin with and with CJ3B's that is not very easy to do. Most of them have major rust and/or have been modified to hell. I'd never actually seen a good candidate - well not since I was a boy on Fraser Island in the 70's.

I looked a probably 10 3B's over a period of a year trying to find a good starting point. I picked one up from Mitchell, but even the small amount of rust and the 6 cyl motor excluded it as a candidate, though it would serve well as a parts vehicle.

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I had a friend who had seen a couple of 3B's whilst chasing military jeeps out west. He gave me some contact details and I contacted the station. The son of the owner confirmed that they had a couple of old Willys and promptly sent me some pics of the vehicle - this is what he sent me.

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It looked fantastic in the pictures and I was hooked. The bonnet looked reasonably straight, the original yellow painted willys was still intact and it even had the original hood bows.

I contacted the property owners again the next day and the son said I would have to speak to this Dad.

Turns out the Jeep had sat in that shed for 32 years without moving. The owner had purchased it from his father (on a neighbouring property) when he retired. The jeep had only been used for 10 years before being retired. The owner had really only purchased it as a spare parts vehicle for his own 3B (there were two 3B's on the property) and over the years had removed various mechanical items.

Overall the Jeep was in fantastic condition and a perfect candidate for a preservation rebuild, HOWEVER the owner was not particularly keen to part with it. After 3 months of calls and offers the owner finally agreed and I planned a trip in the next few weeks to pick it up.

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I drove over two days to get to the property which was in the middle of a drought. It looked like I was on the moon as I drove up to the homestead and I could not believe that cattle actually lived out here.

The owner and his son were absolutely fantastic hosts and helped me load the Jeep onto my trailer. They used a forklift to load it carefully.

The original engine had been removed and was at the back of a very full machinery shed. When they located it I thought OMG how are we ever going to get that out of there - to my surprise two of these chaps just lifted the engine up and hopped over all manner of machinery to get it out of the shed - I though they would have sore backs the next day.

The jeep was just as perfect in the flesh as it was in the photos. There was a crack in the LHS rear quarter that was a bit of a worry but I was able to fix that up eventually no worries.

The jeep was basically complete except it had no diffs - luckily the mitchell 3B had diffs for it.

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About half way home I stopped for a good inspection. I was amazed at how little rust this jeep had - nothing significant in the body which is amazing for an old jeep. They were not really built with corrosion protection in mind and anyone who finds an old jeep with no corrosion in it is doing well.

I actually thought the vehicle was blue in colour based on the pictures emailed to me, but quickly realised that this was the original green colour with 32 years of fade on it. All in all I was pretty happy with my find.

I got the vehicle home and started the rebuild. I began by cleaning 32 years of grime, grease and dust from the vehicle. I than began to polish the paintwork to see how it would come up. I minimised any painting on the vehicle, trying to preserve the look of this outback survivor, but in some cases I elected to put a little paint on to keep the vehicle looking good in general (a bit on windscreen frame and a little on the LHS and RHS body panels.)

I had the diffs, steering box, engine, gearbox and t/case rebuilt. I fitted an overdrive and also (not original I know) 11" drum brakes.

I got the upholstery redone as close to the original seats as I could.

I also fitted an alternator - these small enhancements greatly improve the day to day driveability of the jeep.

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I fitted a newer style starter motor, a rear seat and original heater for the vehicle.

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Here she is - basically completed