Left to -right: Me, Todd, Chris’ son Gabe (peeking out from behind Todd), and Chris.
Those of you that follow Chris McKay’s (aka Minnesota Chris on eWillys) on his Vintage Jeep Parts Facebook group know that he and his brother Todd (aka Idaho Todd) swept through Colorado the other day, leaving few rocks unturned in their search for jeep parts. Based on their loaded trailer, I doubt there is much left in Colorado, except maybe some left-threaded lug nuts and a rusty axle or two. After they finished, they beat a path for Todd’s home in northern Idaho. There, they hoped to get a newly acquired Tuxedo Park running.
It occurred to me that having Todd and Chris at the same place made it a great opportunity to meet them both, so we arranged a get-together on Wednesday.
I arrived before noon, just in time to see them trying to get their Tux Park to run. I might not be the best engine guy, but even I could see that they were having success. The evidence was everywhere, especially the fire and smoke coming out of the tail pipes! That’s more progress than I’ve made some days. As they worked on it, they filled me in on the jeep’s back story.
Todd (left) and Chris (right) fiddling with the carb.
Apparently it had been running-when-parked CJ-5 that had been sitting in the driveway since Nixon was in office … okay, maybe that’s an exageration, but it had been a while. Despite its long slumber, the brothers managed to get it running in Colorado just long enough to drive it onto the trailer. Once they got it too Todd’s place, they drained the gas-turned-rusty-varnish and tried to get it running better.
As I looked on, I felt they had everything under control. They even had a plan of action in case the jeep caught fire (push it outside, towards my Grand Cherokee!).
They are certainly men of action! As they worked, I took more of a supervisory role and spent some time with Todd’s father-in-law, a man they affectionally call Dad. He told me stories of jeeping the Pismo sand dunes. He also dispensed some useful tips. For example, after we watched a plastic cup melt from holding gasoline, Dad asked me if I knew that peeing into a foam cup melts it? I did not know that! That bit of wisdom became a running gag between him and I for the remainder of the day.
As we talked, the Tux Park belched more smoke, shot fire, and cleared itself of hairballs. Boy the McKay brothers sure know how to make starting a jeep exciting!
Once we’d had enough fireworks, we decided it was time to eat some lunch. But, before we did, Todd wanted to show off his round-fender collection.
You might notice that these jeeps look quite a bit alike. To help differentiate between them, Todd and Chris use a code. It’s based on the year of the jeep and either the place they bought it or the person they bought it from. This is a useful code, since combined the brothers have bought and sold about eighty jeeps. For example, Chris’ 1959 CJ-3B is called 1959 Ken. This differentiates it 1958 Ken, another CJ-3B that involved a Ken. See how clear that is? Seriously though, what it does for them is provides a story or memory for each jeep. They like their jeeps to have history and each one had its own tale. Continue reading →
