Another project Colin wanted to share with readers was this CJ-3A he restored. As I understand it, this was his project before he purchased this DJ-3A Surrey. After purchasing the Surrey, he turned the CJ-3A project over to his son who seems to be doing just fine with it.
Colin writes, “Here are some photos of our CJ3A project. It is actually by serial number a 1952, but wasn’t sold until 1953, so was titled as a 53 (Pretty typical of Willys products). I bought it in late 2006 and it hadn’t run in about 6 years. After getting it running, I decided to do a body off restoration on it. The mechanicals were pretty good, with a new engine with less than 500 miles on it, and it had been upgraded to 12 volts and larger 11 inch brakes. It had a CJ2A windshield on it, which I prefer over the CJ3A style. It was yellow and my wife is not fond of yellow. I found the original Luzon Red paint underneath the dash, so decided to paint it Luzon Red to match the Luzon Red of our Jeepster. Work progressed and I took a break from it and in December 2009, I found the Surrey for sale. At that point, I couldn’t pass on the Surrey and our oldest son, Lee said he would take over the CJ3A, but he wasn’t going to paint it red. I had already powdercoated the wheels and put new NDT 600×16 tires on the rolling chassis. There was still some body work that needed to be done before painting. Lee finished up the bodywork and we got the paint done 3 weeks ago. We started putting it back together and now we only need to do some of the small details and the wiring to be done. The latest photos don’t give a true color, but it is sort of a Butternut yellow or beige.”
Yes, those NDT tires do look much better! Sell those old M&S tires to someone with a Willys wagon or pickup. Those mud tire just look right on a little Flat Fender.
**Steve E.**