Suddenly It’s Red!!!

…I mean, it’s Suddenly Red!!! Well, parts of it are…

I can’t believe it’s been more than a year since I announced the JeepMonster’s color, but it has. Back in August, 2022, I told y’all that we had decided on something called Suddenly Red. Two months ago we took the grille, hood, and tailgate to North American Powder Coating to get them sandblasted and coated. The grille and tailgate came back first, with the hood being ready a week or so later. After adding the requisite bits and pieces, I’m proud to present:

The Grille

It’s powdercoated on both sides, with LED headlights and period-correct parking/turn signal lamps. The cooling unit visible through the slats is for the Vintage Air a/c, and the notch in the lower driver-side corner allows for the Saginaw power-steering box.

The Tailgate

The tailgate is also powdercoated on both sides. Because it’s extra tall, there was space in the center embossed area (just below the Willys logo) for a license plate bracket. When I built it, I welded bracket bolts to the inside of the embossed area and drilled two holes to run the wires. The “6 WHEEL DRIVE” logo is adapted from the original Willys “4 WHEEL DRIVE” script logo shown in this photo:

I bought a stencil for the original logo, and stencils for individual numbers and letters, from Beachwood Canvas. After cutting and pasting, I took the modified stencil to The Gloo Factory here in Tucson. They created the vinyl transfer that I stuck on the tailgate.

The license plate is the standard plate I was issued when I transferred the title and registration of the CJ-6 hulk I bought. A couple of weeks ago I ordered a personalized plate, but it won’t arrive for several weeks, and I didn’t want to hold off on this post until then. The new plate (with the same Arizona background) will read “57CJ6X6” for obvious reasons.

The Hood

I had originally thought only the grille and the tailgate would be ready for powdercoating, but I eventually realized that the hood didn’t need a lot more work before it, too, would be ready. So I completed the minor tasks and sent it off. It comes from an early-70s CJ, and I know this because it’s designed for the 81-inch wheelbase instead of the 84-inch wheelbase of the AMC years, but it has provision for the center hood latch that was added sometime after 1968. The individual I bought it from had wanted to use it for a modified Jeepster Commando but decided to go in a different direction. By that point, though, he had drilled holes in the sides of the hood for the Commando badges, which I left unfilled.

The big hole in the center left is the air intake; it feeds into a box on the passenger side fender and will be capped by a Hummer intake cap. Right in the center, you can see the two holes I drilled for the windshield tie-down Footman loop, along with patched holes where it had been previously. (When I bought the hood, it had a Bondo skim coat and primer paint on it, so I didn’t know precisely where the original holes had been. I wasn’t too far off…)

Drum roll, please…

And here’s what they look like ON the ‘Monster!

The “8 350” badge is from a ’69-’72 Chevy C/K pickup / Blazer / Suburban; I added them because the ‘Monster’s powerplant is a 350 small-block. Here’s a slightly different angle on the front.

Last, but definitely not least, here’s the tailgate in its rightful position:

There’s SO much more work that still needs to be done, but it’s really great to go out to the shop and see COLOR!