Here's a great story about CJ-3B #971 (VIN 453GB2 10971) which is being saved by a shop class in Indiana. Almost everything on the Jeep has been replaced, but the heart of a CJ-3B beats on in the original hood and grille.
"Hello. My name is Jeff Kranning. I am a shop teacher from Boonville High School in Boonville, Indiana. We have been working on a 1953 CJ-3B in my Auto Tech/Welding class and thought you guys and gals might like to see it!
"I pulled the Jeep from some weeds outside of town (pulled is an understatement!) I bought the Jeep for the hardtop to modify to fit my 1945 CJ-2A. It was a mess. I swear every animal in Indiana had used the restroom in this baby. Anyway I brought the 'thing' to my school shop for disassembly and my students fell in love with it.
"The pics in orange are before we gutted and cleaned the inside. The parts were just falling off this Jeep. The body was literally held together with duct tape and bondo, the frame was chopped and broken/cracked in at least 25 places, and it had what looked like remnants of a vintage Ford swap. Really the only solid parts were the top, hood, and grille. My kids wanted to fix it up -- they wanted to put it in the 2005 Christmas parade and the 2006 spring car show. Well, since I fund all of my projects and I just had my first baby, I said no way -- costs too much.
"But the students reminded me that I have parts spread all over the shop and in storage. And the school maintenance man made me a subway dinner bet that my students could not even get the pile-o-parts to roll on its own power by the end of the 2004-2005 school year.
"Anyway, to make a long story short, I had a 1946 CJ-2A body that we fixed up and raised the cowl to fit the hood, and made a tailgate. Put in a full cage. Modified a 1959 CJ-5 frame (got the info off CJ3B.info) to fit the body. Fixed some "nasty" fenders. Made seat frames -- the seats are from a 1974 CJ-5. Used an F-head out of a 1959 CJ-5, transmission out of a 1946 CJ-2A, transfer case out of a 1947 CJ-2A, "sprung over axles" out of a 1981 CJ-7.
"Well, here you see the moving pile-o-parts on the 'drive date' of May 22, 2005. I borrowed the 35" swampers from the maintenance man. (He talked me into doing the spring-over to fit the tires -- I wanted stock height. He and my students won the argument.)
"No paint yet -- that is where we are starting this school year. I'll send pictures of the finished project at a later date. We still have a lot of work to accomplish, but I feel my students can make it work! Wish us luck!" -- Jeff Kranning, Boonville High School
Thanks to Jeff and his class for telling us about the project. -- Derek Redmond
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