Survived the winter

Well, winter is finally winding down here in the finger lakes. this weekend was the last blast.
So far I've survived my first winter with my 80 CJ5 as my daily driver.
It's equipped with
1. The hamster breath heater. that's useful for starting to defrost the windshield about the time I get where I'm going.
2. Custom ventilated body panals. Naturally occuring here in NY, these gaping ragged vents effectivly replace any air actually defrosted by the aforementioned "hamster breath heater" with arctic, exhaust-fume laden outside air in short order.
3. Custom corrigated radiator air dam. Conveniently available in most shipping department refuse resepticals, this piece of equipment, placed between the grille and radiator dramatically helps raise the temprature of the air being sucked into the 9" open chrome air filter (without heat riser) sitting on top of the MC2100 carb, as wel as into various intermittant vacuume leaks.
4. Manual choke adapter. Useful for helping you realise just how cold blooded these old monsters are. A fickle device, the tiniest push or pull from the current "sweet spot" (this setting is a constant variable) will send the engine into coughing fits that would rival an asthmatic chain smoker standing down wind of a tire fire.
5. New Bestop replace-a-top. At least this offers the best view possible. other than that it accuratly replicates the same precision door fit of the original factory equipment. You know, the one that seals up as good as a screen door. This becomes even more obvious during a snow storm in a cross wind, while theres more snow blowing through the inside of the windshield than outside (again nullifying the aforementioned "hamster breath heater")
6. My final piece of winter gear is a seat cover made from a wool Army sleeping-bag cover. It's been very effective at keeping the frozen shards of original seat vinyl from penetrating my insulative layers (required to fend off hypothermia)
R) R) R)
All said. I'm looking forward to summer. I'm loving this Jeep. But I may have a moment of weakness and try to buy a "winterbeater" for next year...... Unless I find a hardtop!
Wishing for more "doors-off-days"
Ben

 

Sounds like you have alot of projects this summer!

 

Sounds a lot like the experience I had driving my VW bug in high school, in Butte, Montana. Winters were bitter cold. The thing the Germans put in there and called a heater was some sort of cruel joke. As you know VWs are air cooled, so there's no water for a heater. They use a heat exchanger that's heated by the exhaust system. Rather than use an electric fan to push the air through it (that would cost money after all), it uses the engine fan. So, the speed of the "heated" air (I use the term loosely) wasn't controlled by a knob on the dash, but by how fast then engine was turning . It was horrible. It didn't seem to matter how long it ran, it never got warm. When I would get up in the morning, I'd scrape the windows. About 2 blocks from my house, they'd be iced up solid again . Without any help from the defroster, I'd just drive to school with my head out the window like some kind of insane frozen dog. I actually kept a big, heavy blanket in the car that I would wrap around my legs in a vain attempt to keep warm. Because the intake manifold is really just a pipe suspended above the engine, the carb would always ice up. There was a tube that was attached to the intake that was supposed to carry exhaust gas to heat the intake to prevent this...but it's so small it gets plugged up pretty easy. This thing was 20 years old when I had it, and it was plugged solid. I know this thing was supposed to be the "Peoples' Car", but about the end of September, I started calling it the "Evil Hitler Car" :evil: .

I've driven a cj in the winter with no heater...no top...and no windshield frame. Hard to say if it was any worse than the VW

 

I, as well, drove my CJ for the second winter this year as my DD. I agree that covering up the grill makes a huge difference in running temp. The heater is useless, I'm looking to put an aftermarket in before next winter. Currently, in order to make my "high idle" work, I have to lift the hood and manually raise the lever as I push the throttle linkage. Good setup right???

Anyway, I don't miss those below zero days that's for sure. Can't wait to get the top off for the summer.


High5

 

i ran my '75 for three years as a DD. the first year, it was cold, and the defroster didn't work effectively. i replaced the leaking heater core, and, surprise, the defroster/heater was much more effective for the next two years. now, it was never balmy, but with normal winter outerwear on, i wasn't uncomfortable driving it, and the defroster could keep up with most conditions.

as to the veedubs, i had a '67 beetle in highschool. no heat, rotten rockers, ran great in the winter, decent traction with the engine over the drive wheels. don't miss that at all.

 

It did have decent traction...I'll give it that. It had one trick that was fun in the winter. If I stopped the car and cranked the wheel all the way over, revved it up and let the clutch out, it would spin in a perfect circle. It was the funniest thing...it must have had the perfect wheelbase for this. It would just rotate a perfect 360 all day long once I got it going. My friends called it the "cookie monster" R) .

 

Winter survival tip:

get an old throw rug, towel, whatever. When you park at night, lay this item over the windshield, top to bottom. Never have to scrape, again. Plus makes snow removal easier. For old school VW's a large beach towel will cover both front and rear windows!

I use this every time I need to be in the North country during snow season. Started doing it my last year of high school in Fairbanks. I highly recommend it, for those of us in a hurry and can't afford the ten minute window scraping time.:Coffee:

 

I had an air cooled VW as a winter beater in the '70's and used to sit at traffic lights with the RPM's revved up so I got heat and defrost. Mine did heat up except the vents were on the floor by my ankels and would burn them. I had to put weight in the trunk to get any traction to steer if there was much snow on the ground.R)