I Fixed My 1948 Jeep And Now I’m Off-Roading In The Promised LandI Fixed My 1948 Jeep And Now I’m Off-Roading In The Promised LandI Fixed My 1948 Jeep And Now I’m Off-Roading In…
After the tragic incident in rural Kansas that claimed my fiber camshaft timing gear, I had to tow…Read more Read more
A month ago, my 1948 Willys’ crankshaft was sitting on my dryer, the body still wasn’t attached to the frame, the transmission wasn’t shifting into second gear, the rear differential ring gear was bent, and I’d just narrowly escaped a junkyard fight over some used tires. The project was hopeless.
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But my friends and I trudged on, quickly rebuilding the engine, rebuilding the transmission, shimming the differential, and bolting the frame to the body via some hockey pucks and some enormous bolts.
My first attempt at driving to Moab was a false-start, with me only making it ten miles before the fuel pump ate itself. My second attempt took me an incredible 1,300 miles along only country roads to rural Kansas before a freak timing gear failure brought my Willys to its knees.
But then my coworker Freddy and I, after towing the Jeep the final 500 miles to Moab, replaced that gear, and the Willys became an off-road god. No slope was too steep, no summit was to sharp, and no dirt was too loose: once Project Slow Devil was in low range, and one of its front tires was on an obstacle, the little Jeep could not be stopped. It just climbed.
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I’ll post a video and a full report of the Willys’ off-road brilliance in the coming days.
But today’s update is that I’m back in Michigan after a miserable 1,800 mile return trip in a Ford Raptor, a truck that somehow—with its turbo V6 and 10-speed transmission—managed to score an abysmal 9.4 MPG while towing the little Willys on a U-Haul trailer. To stay awake I listened to Jane Austen and Ernest Hemingway audiobooks; needless to say, I pulled over quite often.
I’ll be honest, I wanted to drive the Willys home; I truly believe—with its new timing gear—Project Slow Devil would have made it without issue. But alas, I had a Ford Raptor that I couldn’t ditch in Utah, and I would have felt guilty taking more time off work to drive the little Willys at 40 mph for two weeks. (Plus, my boss Patrick George said something about how he needed me “back at work before the end of the decade.”)
But she’s home, and now I’m daily driving her. Full story and video are coming in hot, and then I’ll do a cost breakdown, so prepare your minds. Here’s a teaser via CJ-2A forum-member Jeff:
Project Slow Devil Somehow Managed To Be Worth It In The End
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