RESTORING A 1946 WILLYS JEEP CJ-2A

RESTORING A 1946 WILLYS JEEP CJ-2A FRAME

Let’s be honest. Sometimes our ideas about getting rigs running well enough to take out to the trail don’t quite go according to plan. In the case of this particular Jeep, it was the year 2000 and our plan was to buy a non-running ’46 Willys Jeep CJ-2A for a good price, and, with some luck, have it running in no time. We did get the all-white Willys with a 3A windshield for a steal, but when our two Jeep guru friends were not able to help me get the seized engine to break free, my plans quickly stopped turning as well. I did manage to order new Military NDT tires and had some nice wheels made to keep me excited, but that was where it ended. Sound familiar?

Knowing this project would now take a substantial amount of time, money, and effort, we booted the Jeep from the garage to the side yard, covered it with a tarp, and as the saying goes, it was “out of sight, out of mind.” There it sat for 13 years, and we even had horrible thoughts of selling it at one point. However, because the Jeep was responsible for me meeting my wife (a neighbor introduced us while talking about the Jeep on the day we brought it home), she said maybe we shouldn’t sell it. Her resistance to selling the CJ-2A was the spark we needed to finally pull the engine out and start tearing the entire Jeep down for a full restoration.

Once the Jeep was stripped down to the frame, we headed over to see our friends at AutoCraft in Camarillo, California, so they could media blast almost 70 years of crust and surface rust, and paint off of it. AutoCraft is a full auto body and restoration shop and also does high-end custom fabrication work to help finish any project right. At some point when a former owner painted the Jeep body white, the entire chassis also received the white-paint treatment, so what made it odd looking also preserved it and helped to keep the rust away. The next step was to prep and paint the frame using products from Eastwood. The Eastwood line of products and tools made the job much easier. We’ve had great results using them in the past and wanted that same quality look on this restoration. If you’re thinking of doing the same to your Jeep and need some inspiration, follow along as we show you how easy it was to prepare the frame for the restoration.