Hello Sonja and Markus,

After completing two ground up military vehicle restorations (1952 M38 and 1974 151A2) I decided that I had exhausted my desire to restore broken down old army jeeps and thought no more about it. Then a friend showed up and mentioned he had seen an old jeep with a for sale sign on it. “Old Jeep?????” I asked. It turned out to be a 1958 Willys CJ5 imported from California some time ago. It looked bad but had a ton of spare parts (many still in the original Kaiser or AMC box’s), it had a Ramsey PTO winch and an original venting windshield. The body was really beat up and the previous owner had started to cut and weld body panels but ended up butchering the tub. I bought the works for $900.00.

After disassembling everything, I started to reconstruct the chassis, which involved sandblasting, welding, epoxy primer and top coat. The motor was rebuilt, the seats recovered, glass, nuts, bolts, washers, hoses, springs and just about everything else replaced or restored.

I decided to look for a replacement tub and searched the internet for a rust free early CJ tub. After having no success, I looked into a repro tub. I ended up with a MD Juan tub custom built with a dummy battery box cover as per the original. All the brackets and other bits and pieces from the original tub were documented, cut off, cleaned up and welded to the new tub. Holes were cut for pedals, gas cap, speedo and all the other little penetrations through the fire wall, dash and floor. The end result was pretty good with most parts fitting fairly well.

The Jeep is now restored to a Naval Air Station (NAS) CJ5. I got the idea from a old navy man in Tacoma Washington who has an original NAS CJ5. He allowed me to research his jeep in order to accurately reproduce a similar jeep. This included getting the correct US government paint code, purchasing a USMC rear bumper kit, the correct markings and wheels and tires as used by the Navy.

I am quite happy with this restoration because it is different than the typical military jeep. I get a lot of comments on it and I have it registered in the August MVPA convention in Portland.

Steve Oldroyd

Great Job, Steve,
very nice restoration
& thank you for sharing
it with everyone!
Markus & Sonja

 

An update from Steve:

Well after attending the MVPA convention in Portland, I was humbled when I found my little blue Navy jeep surrounded by hundreds of beautifully restored military vehicles. After a five year loving restoration, I was rewarded by receiving “second place” in the ¼ ton – Vietnam era classification but the real honour came when I also was awarded the prestigious “Judges Choice Award” Wow! I still can’t believe it!

Steve

This is great news, we’re so happy for you!!! We’ll have to attach this to the showcase feature. Congratulations once again from all of us.













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