Kilroy Revisited

About a year ago my husband bought a "project car". When he bought this old Jeep his intent was to fix it up cosmetically and give it a new coat of paint. Over the past year it has been a bigger project than originally thought and now Kilroy is all beautified.

When my husband was sanding, grinding, smoothing and filling, he noticed several layers of paint that ranged in color from army green to red to white. It was a fun challenge to choose a paint color. Trends in 2009 tend to run along the whites, silvers and black. But since this M38A1 is a "fun" car, we decided to go flashy. Now Kilroy is back to red. Cherry Red to be exact. His roll cage is a shiny black as are the front and back bumpers. I have to admit that I was skeptical that this old rig would ever be attractive. For months it sat in our garage, half sanded, looking like it had a flesh-eating bacteria problem. To put it mildly, it was an eye-sore!

Now there's just nothing pretty about this!

Now he looks great! It make such a difference to have to roll cage and hood put back on. Not to mention is snazzy new paint job.

Now that it is all pretty, it is likely that we will sell this car soon. Then what will we (meaning my husband) do with all our (meaning his) time?

Barbie Limbs and Midge Carcasses

Many people do a good spring cleaning after a long, cold winter. However, I do a good fall cleaning after a dirty, dry summer. I tend to start to feel overwhelmed by the bark dust that has been tracked in and the clutter of things we have outgrown. And with fall being my favorite season, I want to be able to enjoy it in a clean and orderly home.

Two days ago I decided it was time to tackle my kids' rooms. My son's room wasn't too bad because he doesn't play in there too often. I went through all of his drawers, pulling out all the clothes he has outgrown, and reorganized a few things. My daughter's room was another story. I went up there with a garbage bag and with a somewhat militant determination to get it all under control. Letting my son roam around her room also helped motivate her. It took three hours, but in the end her room looks tidy, we were able to find all the pieces to her baby talking nursery, and now I don't step on princess crowns with my bare feet anymore - OUCH! To celebrate our hard work she and I had a lovely tea party (with real tea) in her clean room. Plus I think the experience has helped her to rediscover some of her toys and appreciate them more.

Part of fall cleaning involves cleaning the car inside and out. With road trips the car gets cluttered on the inside and covered in bugs on the outside. However, the is no point in cleaning the car now because of a little thing called a "midge". Midges are vile, repulsive and disgusting bugs that swarm the town that I live in.

Between the huge, shallow lake and the slow flowing river that cuts through town, these bugs thrive and mass produce. Most of them are bright green and can get through window screens and collect on your ceiling. Some of them are black and when driving over the river, you see black columns on the side of the road - yeah, these are thick swarms of midges. When driving through a swarm it sounds like it is raining as the bugs smash onto your car. It is indescribably nasty. So, I'll just have to wait for the first frost before I can clean my car. In the meantime, I will move on to cleaning my bathroom cupboards ... fun!

Here are what the midges look like on your car, alive. Imagine splotches of green of the dead midges on your windshield. YUCK!

Jeep Archaeology

We can add another job title to my husband's resume - Jeep Archaeologist! As mentioned in a previous post, my husband has been fixing up an old Jeep Willys and it has been quite a process. Aside from replacing engine parts and giving the car a good washing, he has been digging to find some kind of identification information. Under layers of paint that range from the original army green, to bright red, to off white, he thinks he has finally found the necessary plaque.

It turns out that the vehicle may not actually be a CJ5 (civilian Jeep) as suspected, but rather an M38A1 which is a military rig. In my opinion that makes it a little cooler and more interesting. I would love to know what it was used for and who drove it. Being a 1950s vehicle, maybe it was used in the Cold War on highly classified operations - it turns out that this model of Jeep was used primarily in the Korean War. There is still much to find out about Kilroy, that will ultimately help us to decide on what color to paint it and what upgrades to make. I personally think it would be neat to keep it looking military and utilitarian.

Dutch Army M38A1

Kilroy Was Here

In my household we are often busy doing projects. Sometimes it is improving our home by painting a wall or building a deck (which we are getting ready to begin). My projects are usually computer related like writing this blog for instance. My husband’s projects are not so easy and not so cheap.

Back in 2002 before we had kids or had even bought a house we purchased a “fun” car. Seeing in the paper there was a 1967 Austin Healey Sprite convertible for sale, we decided to head right over and take it for a test drive. That very night we drove home our daffodil yellow beauty. Being as we are the type of people who name cars and other inanimate objects, our new car was named "Puck" – Shakespeare lovers may find the connection with this spritely name.

We had Puck for six years and he was a good little car. People would glance or honk when they saw him. He was BRIGHT yellow, you couldn’t miss him! But, since having children we weren’t able to drive in him together anymore, and the engine decided to poop out. So we sold him.

Puck in all of his glory. Doesn't he make you smile?

The absence of Puck gave my husband an itch. He decided he wanted a “project” car that was in good mechanical shape, but that he could fix up the body and sell for more than he bought it for. After spending weeks on Craig’s List looking at everything from an International Scout to a Hudson Hornet, he settled on a 1958 Willys Jeep CJ5. He brought it home yesterday, thanks to our friends who lent us their truck, and let me give you a little description of his new acquisition.

This, uh, car is in pretty rough shape to say the least. Originally white, there are holes, cracks and some rust. There were bumper stickers, T-shirts over the torn seats, and the gas gauge is literally a stick with a line on it that says “HELP!”. But, despite its beauty flaws, it runs great and is mechanically sound. And according to my husband, the off-road capabilities are phenomenal. Plus I have to admit it is pretty cool that the horn makes the “Ahhroooooga” sound when you honk it!

Kilroy. I can just imagine him with beautiful metallic paint and a skimpy bikini top!

Our compulsiveness about naming our cars sparked a debate over what to name the Jeep. I came up with “McFly” that I thought was well suited to a 1950s car. My husband wants to name it “Kilroy” after the American popular culture expression. Being that this isn’t my project – except perhaps the choosing of the paint color – Kilroy it is. Besides, the smell of its exhaust lends itself to a name that has the word kill in it.