My little homemade carport would work fine for a gentle, straight-down rain, but any little wind and the inside of the Jeep gets wet. Last night I threw a plastic tarp over the Jeep but that was a poor solution. Today I snapped on the “doors” of the custom canvas top and that’s going to work just fine. (Some of my resistance to the canvas top was due to the ugly-ass camo.)

I’ve been thinking of the Jeep as a warm weather ride but once I can safely drive the thing, I’m going to put the rest of the canvas top on and take it for a spin on a chilly day. The Jeep has a heater so we’ll see how it works.

After a day or two in the shop it was time for the Jeep to come home.

Since it was freeze-your-ass-off cold today, Paul kindly offered to trailer the Jeep to our place. Waiting to load.

We still need to do a little work on the poor man’s carport. I’m thinking maybe a roll-up tarp on the sides.
Tomorrow I’m going to spend some time with the owners manual and see if I can get the hang of the manual choke. The adventure begins.

The replacement steering box is in and the Jeep is almost ready to come home.The multicolored column is the perfect visual history.
Paul enlisted the help of some of his vintage car buddies (the cars, not the buddies). Here you see them working on the box after pulling the fender.

Too cold for much of a test drive but Paul took us for a quick spin around his property. Couple of minor tweaks and then we bring it home (on the first warm day). Looks so much better than that first day.

Paul hit a snag on replacing the broken steering box. Something about bearings and it means what he expected to be an easy job… won’t be. So no idea when I’ll finally get behind the wheel.

But it was a nice day so I put a fresh coat of paint on the roll bar and the tub. There are some brackets in the tub that I think will be perfect for safety anchors for the dogs’ harnesses. Not much left (that I can help with). I’ll paint the seats this week and finally say so long to the camo.
I put the jerry can in its mount, just to see how it looks. Very Jeepish but if it starts feeling like a big ass IED, I’ll leave it at home. AAA is my friend.
24 Hours Later: After thinking about it overnight, I decided to remove the jerrycan from the back of the Jeep. One, there was the Exploding Pinto consideration. Two, it is unlikely I’ll ever drive so far I need more fuel than the Jeep’s tank holds. And three, with the spare tire and the jerrycan the back of the Jeep would be too crowded. The vehicle just isn’t wide enough for all that stuff.