Things I learned about my 1969 Jeep CJ5 Friday.....

6:59 am - Saturday - October 26th - TWW - 42° F, humidity 41%, wind 3 mph out of the west....high, wispy clouds today with a forecast high of 81° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were boondocking at Lone Rock on the shores of Lake Powell in southern Utah.....

....we have not been back since then.  It will always be one of our favorite boondock sites.  We were in Page, AZ back in May of 2020 (Wuhan Flu days), and it was closed like a lot of places back then, so we couldn't stay there then.  We hope to return again....we'll see.

I haven't mentioned my 1969 Jeep CJ5 since we arrived at TWW, but it is there, in the garage.  Why haven't I driven it?   Well, quite by accident, the keys for it followed Charles and Phyllis home to Phoenix after they delivered it.  Those keys will be returning to TWW Saturday, so we will be able to drive it for the first time then.  Nevertheless, I spent time Friday checking it over for the first time since I bought it 3 weeks ago.  Some things I learned that I didn't know before....

......the hood has gas shocks to hold it open....these were added by the the guy who restored it 10 years ago....

....it has the extra fuel tank under the driver seat, which was standard on the CJ5, but often gets deleted.....

....the guy did a frame off restoration back then, and had the Buick Dauntless V-6 rebuilt at the factory, and reset the ODO....it has only been driven 2,026 miles since then!  One the biggest surprises was....

....it has a heater....you can see it just to the right of the fuel gauge, and the controls just to the left of the fuel gauge.....it gets cold in Northern Arizona, so I am very happy it came with a heater....this was an option on the CJ5's back then, but not standard. It also has amp meter, a tachometer...

The tachometer is right there in the middle of the picture mounted on the steering column....

.....it has a hitch (above), and the headers have been wrapped with heat tape (below).....

.....in addition to the full doors, it also has the half doors (below)!......

The rest of the gauge cluster.....amp meter, temp, and fuel gauges....and a nice Pioneer stereo with 4 speakers

....finally, it has a 'Jerry Can' already mounted.  The soft top is brand new (well 10 years old, but looks brand new, and the roll cage is a custom job.....much more robust than the factory version.

I spent some time Friday afternoon washing the dust off of it, and she is starting to look pretty....

.....I see Jeep CJ5's on Facebook Marketplace all the time in really rough condition going for what I paid.  Jeep CJ5's in this condition area going for over $10,000, but I paid just $4,500.....and the engine is immaculate.....

....so, what did TLE and I do Friday?  Well, we moved all the tree branches we cut the other day off of the driveway, then raked the driveway, and the front yard.....

Before (above) and after (below)

Before (above), and after (below)

.....we're trying to only 'work' 3-4 hours a day, and TLE is really keeping to that, but I can't just sit around, so I take breaks, and then do more.  One more thing we did was clean out a 330 gallon water tote that came with the property, so we can use it to supplement our 160 gallon fresh water tank.  It took us about an hour to move it, and clean it....

.....this is what the interior looked like when we started to clean it.  It looks like, in its first  life, this tote contained some sort of vegetable oil.  I poured in some diesel fuel to cut the oil, then we added water, and drained it......

.....the we poured in some Dawn detergent, added water, then rolled it over and over to wash all four sides, the floor, and ceiling before repeating the same process of rolling it over and over to clean all the surfaces....

....and finally, after draining out the Dawn, we added bleach, more water, and repeated the aforementioned process.....it came out pretty nice....

.....that was the end of TLE's work day.  After some lunch, I headed out to the Conex to begin organizing it.  It was easy work, and in the shade so the time passed quickly.  Pretty soon it was time for another sunset fire....

....thanks for stopping by!