The Project - First Things First

I have had a problem all my life with not letting go of anything. I have learned that my family name actually translates from Belgian to " Incorrigible Pack Rat".  This project is not helping me overcome that. For about 30 years I have held on to tools like timing guns, dwell meters, distributor wrenches, essentially all the tools I have had since my teens. It has reinforced my proclivity to not part with any thing, as you just never know when it will come in handy. That being said, I still should get read of 98% of the junk I have held on to forever. Sentimentality is going to ruin me. But someday all this stuff will make someone a lot of money, when they get paid to haul it to the dump. 

We got Willhemina home, rolled it off the trailer and started to push it up the driveway into the garage. My kids, Dessy, the two friends with the trailer and me. We had it halfway up the drive, and of course my jeans decided to fall to my ankles. So as I pushed the Willys, I sort of cause the neighbors to get the willies. That joke works a lot better in my head than on paper. 

Now that it is home, I have to decide exactly where to start. I have a plan, discussed it with the kids. 

The very first thing to do was load all the spare parts from the donor vehicle into the cargo area of the new  one. We did that. Next was to remove the cup holders that looked like they came from a 1960's boat. John jumped right on that task. 

 Next, we changed the ignition key set and hooked up the wires and battery. Some lights work, horn did not, but to our great surprise, the engine turns over. Great to know it is not seized up, we may get it to run soon. We stopped for the evening, put the hood on and admired the old girl and daydreamed on what she can become. Maybe something like this someday.

Or this:

There is a value in being patient, and doing things methodically and correctly. I explained to the kids 
that first, we needed to empty the old oil, change the filter, add new oil. check the engine compression, replace points, cap rotor, condenser, coil, ignition wires, etc. Then and only then would we attempt to start it. Naturally, I threw caution to the wind, and showed the kids why hurrying is bad. I did not bother to see what the engine numbers were so we could match it to the proper parts. I just guessed and bought filter and plugs for a mid 1970's engine.  Crawled under to see multiple layers of farm dirt, oil and other detritus clinging to the undercarriage. 

Had my son watch as I emptied the oil. Showed him the right way to reinstall an oil filter. Filled up the oil, being careful not to spill or over fill. Things were going great, until I realized the spark plugs were the wrong size.  This should have been my first clue to stop and regroup. 

Nope. 

I just moved on to pouring gas in the carburetor and trying to start it. No go. It would not catch. Josh suddenly yelped that oil was pouring out onto the floor. I checked the oil filter and low and behold, rushing and guessing on the year caused me to install the wrong one. Fortunately I had a big bucket of kitty litter that I saved from about 8 years ago, (despite not owning or ever planning to own a cat.) I had josh spread kitty litter on the spill and said we would move on to checking other things for the time being. I slapped a couple of bucket seats in it, ones I got locally from an old Ford pick up for 10 bucks each. I climbed up in, immediately cracked my skull on the upper door jamb and sat down. Discovered another major problem.

10/13/2020
First time sitting in the Willys 

I knew the original factory steering wheel was large. It needed that because of the lack of power steering. So I am thinking that either the steering wheel or my belly needs to get smaller. The upside is, I can use my gut to drive straight while I do my make up in the rear view mirror. 

I am pretty happy with the progress so far, despite the initial mishaps. Next weekend, The boys and I will put in the right oil filter, squirt some oil in the cylinders and then try to see if we can fire it up. 

We will get pictures and keep you up to date. 

- Mark