What's it worth?

That's a Real Civilian Jeep:

No Jeeper would buy thatsteel top, though. The over center windshield latch are stock, and as soon as we left the road off it came: The open channel frame is the strongest, that's why all commercialtrucks use them, and an added bonus is they don't hold water and rustout, like your AMC frame will.

DJs were the 2WD versions of the earlier CJs. If it does indeed have a transfer case as you seem to indicate it probably is a CJ. The

60/40 bench seat was an option, fairly rare except for the Tuxedo Park model. Likewise the steel hardtops were a dealer installed option, Willys/Kaiser/AMC never actually built metal tops. They just bolted on, not actually part of the body as on sliding door postal jeeps (that arn't technically DJs as they were built by someone other than Willys/AMC- IIRC Rockwell)

To pin down exactly what you're looking at try looking through the spotters guides at the Early CJ5 site:

All the body parts (& complete bodies) are readily available, priced all the way from "It Keeps the Wind Out" to "Full Resto Factory Correct" ,J.C. Whitney is about the cheapest. A quick web search will bring up the pricier options. For some weird reason the "proper" fenders (short without the side marker indents) are about $300, the slightly later style (short with the indents) are about 1/3 of that. AFAIK they're otherwise identical.

Check the frame around the spring hangers for cracks, especially if the serial # indicates it's a '57 or later - check here:

As with the body all the mechancals are still available, usually at you local UAP. All the early CJs were pretty much the same mechanically so there's more good info on what to look for to be found here:

Be Warned- if you want to build it for "Off Road" plan on a Saginaw steering conversion. If you're thinking resto plan on a major steering overhaul as the Ross setup needs EVERYTHING to be tight to keep the gray hairs away ;).

Even for full on restos 11" brake/ dual MC upgrades are genearlly considered to be A Good Idea.

$1200 does sound way outta line, basically you're buying a frame & some axles, & you're not sure if they're any good :(. Still, if its a project you're looking for these things ain't getting any commoner, especially in stock form.

Good luck, let us know if you go for it-

Howard

http://users.eastl>

put it back together for $3500...

Well, it ain't gonna happen. The footwells are gone, someone scabbed diamond plate over the rear floor, the tub has old, peeling, fiberglass repairs slathered on both sides

Yep, I was FOS and it is a CJ as I later figured out. Thanks for the thoughtful and informative post. Snipped and saved for future reference.

I'd meant to ask about that, yes, a long, narrow cover standing proud of the cowl, right hand side, looks like the one in pictures of M-38As. Other oddities to my 70s-sotted eye: An air intake scoop behind the grill, driver's side, part of the rather deep stamped radiator mount shell. What looked to be a heater box mounted on the engine side of the firewall, driver's side, but no connecting piece to the scoop. Two wiper mounts, each on the upper part of the windshield. 4 slices of ~3/4" tubing ~3" long, one each side welded upright just behind each door opening inside and then again outside of both rear corners (top bow pockets?). Hmmm. And a "Maximum Allowable Speed" plate riveted to the dash, but no Mil. data plate.

Didn't Jeep continue using the M-38A hoods on CJs? I'm sure that I've seen older CJs with the patch for a snorkle.

So are you thinking that this is an M38A? I've never seen a battery hatch on a CJ cowl but, then again, there's lots of things that I've never seen.

I may have to run the serial number, and also look up the restored value of an M38A.

Content-ID:

I was getting more and more curious, so I went back yesterday and got the serial number: 57548 123919 off the plate on the firewall (it says "Willys" only). If I'm correct that decodes to Universal Jeep, CJ-5 open body, 4 cyl 134 F-head, factory 4WD, made in either 1961 or `62 (depending on which web source I use, there's some confusion about production those two years).

The degradation of the sheet metal is uniform, so I don't think that anyone previously rebuilt the body

[Reposted. PINE picks up the fancy non-printable characters in Bill's articles and decides that it needs to post replies in HTML. I didn't notice the "attachments" flag was up until it was too late.]

I was getting more and more curious, so I went back yesterday and got the serial number: 57548 123919 off the plate on the firewall (it says "Willys" only). If I'm correct that decodes to Universal Jeep, CJ-5 open body, 4 cyl

134 F-head, factory 4WD, made in either 1961 or `62 (depending on which web source I use, there's some confusion about production those two years).

The degradation of the sheet metal is uniform, so I don't think that anyone previously rebuilt the body -- and here I'm thinking mostly about that gate-deleted rear sheet metal. Too, the tail lights are surface mounted, not recessed as I gather the military lights to be. The headlights are in civilian buckets and lack the military wingnut-and hinge setup. The parking lights are clear glass "beehive" style. It lacks the recepticle indent on the right cowl (what is that for? Battery jumping?). I happened upon a reference to the M606A2 (a barely militarized version of the CJ-5) and I got all excited, but it looks like those didn't begin production until 1968. Too late.

Perhaps it was just a custom-ordered Jeep with the 60/40 front bench, solid tail and dealer-installed hard top, and the cowl battery box is just a hold-over from earlier production? Too bad it is so far gone, it would be a fun project. (Too bad it isn't an M38A, they're getting pretty good prices these days.)

What I'd like to find is a year-by-year or block-by-block listing of detail changes/additions/deletions for early civilian Jeeps, but Google was coming up empty on my searches.