Working on the Old CJ, Ozarks Style

Last week, a day or two prior to Mom's Last Bus Ride, I showed up at the bus's house to see what was up for the day. Given the bus and his private nurse and I have many similar interests, and they didn't seem to mind me hanging around, I knew I would have fun. Also, the jeep junkie's family was going down to Arkansas to visit family members, the operators of a store sponsoring Michael Waltrip, so he and I were going to spend the night in their cool old, totally restored Airstream Trailer. The pics I took of it didn't take so you can see it here, on their recent journey to Tulsa.

Upon arrival, I saw the bus and the youngster, Austin, having lawn mower races around the bus's back yard. It was enjoyable to watch, plus, the lawn got mowed.

Now, a while back I posted a blog about the Lee Boys and their Toys, in which I was able to determine some of the origin of our interest in our four wheeled friends. In it, I posted a picture of myself as a kid, seen below.

Well, when I was up there, the bus distributed to the jeep junkie and me two different envelopes containing pictures from Mom's estate. I am thankful for this, as the pics of my family belong to me, no one else. As a side note, I, in turn, took a bunch of photos of my family members up for the bus to distribute to them, Not So Skinny Jane and Ellen, included. But I digress.

Alot of the photos are of me, Jessica and her Mom. I am forwarding them down Naples way for Jess's Mom to hang onto for when Jess is ready to take them into her possession. This collection included a couple of my favorites of Jessica as a toddler.


The cool thing is there were several photos of Jess's Mom's family from when we were all kids. Thanks Jim, I know Maureen will appreciate those.

Anyway, in addition there was a photo album that had only landscapes in it, that's right, no people, no comments on the location or the attendees of that trip, just landscapes, thanks bus.

Well in addition to that was a photo album put together by Ed Dalheimer, an associate of my Dad's. He worked with Dad at the Queen's Work and, later, at the Mirror. I don't know what ever became of Ed but he and Dad had their ups and downs. Anyway, this photo album was put together in the Summer of 1970, alot of which is at Table Rock Lake and contains photos you will see in future blogs.

One of the photos you will see in this blog is this shot of the jeep junkie. He is standing next to BBB's old Jeep. I believe this was the first Jeep in the Lee family, certainly the first one I remember, but knowing the horse rancher and the bus, they will prove me wrong on this one also. Just like, in my last post, I commented on Jay Leno's toy budget and Bus, forgetting the toy budget of the bus and the bus's Crown. I need to stay on my toes around all my big brothers.

So back to the jeep junkie. He stopped by this evening and I showed him some longroofs I am interested in and, also, this photo. He empatically stated, 'That's an M38. I would love to have one like that.'

I must say, this may be where the jeep junkie got his passion. Somewhat similar as to where I got my passion for old European sports and classic cars, in our childhood.

So remember the lawn mower races and waiting for the jeep junkie to show up? Well, he did. The bus mentioned he wanted to put a tow bar on his most recent acquisition, a ?46JeepCJ2A?. As I am not a Jeep Junkie, I don't really remember the years of all of the Jeeps I have seen in the last couple months but it is around that vintage, but I will stand corrected when told what it is.

The bus and neighbor Jack, who also has a penchant for old cars, did a whirlwind trip out to Colorado to pick up this old CJ and, upon return, promptly dropped it off in the Crable Yard, then neglected, awaiting the arrival of the jeep junkie to retrieve it.

And he did. the jeep junkie, the bus, the youngster Austin and myself tooled out to that yard and retrieved it. The following shot is of the bus opening the gate to this yard.

You can spot the bus's newest jeep just beyond the dragline trailer, anxiously awaiting our arrival.

Of course, the first thing the jeep junkie does is pop the hood and determine the power plant.

the youngster, Austin, always smiling, while the jeep junkie putters around.

We all are checking out some unknown aspect of this CJ in this photo. Please ignore my, previously unknown to me, growing bald spot shown in this photo. Upon review of this photo, I asked the bus's private nurse if I did, in fact, have a bald spot back there. Ganey, in her sweet way, said, 'yeah, you do seem to be going a bit thin'. Ahhh, aging.

It is cool to note here. As we were removing the bumper, the bus found a data plate on the frame rail. The best part, to document the authenticity of this old CJ, that data plate showed the same numbers as the title, a rarity not often found in CJ's of this vintage. Excellent find, Jim!

There is the bus, happy to see some activity addressed to this old CJ.

Now, I must interject here to comment on something, the bus later shared with me. Ganey, his private nurse, has put up with many things from the bus, multitudes of VW's, Jeeps, Army Trucks, Buses-both long and short, big trucks, small trucks, basically everything but longroofs. The bus said to me Ganey thought he bought a pig in a poke with this CJ. I need to share this, the jeep junkie, upon seeing this old CJ told me, ' I could get the Kid to trade even up his CJ5 for this one. FOB'.



Me just standing back, trying not to get upset with the jeep junkie for wanting to do everything!

So, the bus, being as insightful as he is, sent the youngster Austin and me off to find replacement bolts for the reinstallation of the front bumper after the installation of the towbar. While we were at O'Reilly's waiting for the parts dude to find the bolts we needed, the youngster Austin is exploring the store. He comes up to me and tells me

that although this hammer is labeled "Made in China", it should be "Made in Mexico". I inquire why and he shakes it. It is a hammer with sand in the head of it and sounds like an instrument a spanish mariache band would play. Needless to say, I laughed my butt off and had to take this pic to remind me of that moment. the youngster austin has a great sense of humor and will continue to make us all laugh for a long long time.

So we got that tow bar installed and

the jeep junkie hooked it up to that Florida based Expedition

and then we all stepped back to admire our handiwork.

After a trip or two around the block, we got that CJ into the bus's sideyard and the jeep junkie and the bus got to, again, looking under the hood.

While the jeep junkie was working under the hood, the bus got the roll up windows in that rare half cab working. Sorry about the quality of this pic but you can see the joy on the bus's face.

And the jeep junkie

and the bus toiled into the darkness to get this CJ running. And they did.

the jeep junkie spent the next day rebuilding the carb and it was running fine, albeit with gas from a portable gas can.

On the day of Mom's Last Bus Ride, the jeep junkie was never far from that old CJ. I had to continually admonish him, 'Don't get dirty'.

But with no success. the bus and the jeep junkie ventured off to work on that old CJ while the youngsters, Trey, Austin, Blake and the Kid and I cleaned up and relegated all of the lawn chairs and tables to their original resting places.

the bus and the jeep junkie got that gas tank reinstalled on that old CJ and she fired right up.

As the jeep junkie was working on this old CJ, I kept telling the bus and his private nurse, "Ed will get this thing going." The Kid agreed with me. I am confident the bus and Ganey didn't believe me, but once it was going, I could see the glee on their faces.
Jim, just want to let you know, you got a helluva jeep there and it is worth every cent you have invested in it. And Ganey, thanks for being so great as to recognize it.

Have fun with it and, no, I won't come up and plow snow for ya'll but I do look forward to the blog on it.