Project HUM WEE started

[xjman4life]

Can you give us a little history on this vehicle. Never seen it before and wondering what the hell it is?

[4.3L XJ]

It's an M422A1. It was a light weight replacement for the Viet Nam era M38A1 (CJ5) weighing in at 1680# with a full tank of gas. It was made for dropping out of air planes for the Marines. It was designed by a Marine Major. The contract went to AMC because they were the only bidder with an engine that would fit it. It was an air cooled V4 that looks identical to a Wisconsin V4 found on farm machinery. There were 6,000 made, probably only half still exist, so it is a relatively rare vehicle. My son is wheeling and dealing on two in SoCal. Hope he gets them so HUM WEE won't feel lonely.

[xjman4life]

That's awesome. I feel like I got a little history lesson. So it is essentially a military vehicle? Seems to look so close to a jeep that I actually thought it was a jeep but it is not but was built for what the original jeeps were built for so it may as well have been.

[4.3L XJ]

The funny thing is that when I registered it in OR the DMV didn't know what to call it. I said it is like a Jeep. So it is registered as a Jeep on the tittle.

[jakeWI]

haha thats funny

[riderxmjk]

lol wow dmv ppl

[aircruiser]

awesome! subscribed!

[4.3L XJ]

After calling for a NorCal meet and greet, I had to miss it. My son called me and said there was another Mighty Mite in SoCal and it sounded promising. So we hooked up the trailer and Sat afternoon drove down to Long Beach and spent the night there. In the morning we looked and haggled and himmed and hawed and ended up getting this one. It is straight and has an engine conversion in it. We started back and had to shift the load on the trailer in the black section of town in front of the pawn shops. The guys there were great and we had lots of fun with them. I think if I asked them to they would have just picked it up and moved it for me.

We started back and had a tire smoking. Lost a center pin in the left rear spring and the tire was rubbing on the fender. We got off I710 in the Hispanic part of town and found a repair shop open on Sunday. I figgered I could have done this in a half hour, but it took him three hours. I am beginning to think that people in that part of Los Angeles are just incompetent. I could not find an auto parts store that knew what a center pin was or where the next auto parts store was. I ordered some food at Taco Bell and that was screwed up too. But $50 later we were back on the road and 13 hours after we started we pulled into the driveway and this is as far as I got. HUM WEE will have a friend in the shop now.

[Rinkor16]

Wow you drove quite the distance to pick that up! Looks really good by the way

[4.3L XJ]

My son is coming this weekend and we are going to work on HUM WEE senior and junior. My granddaughter wants to drive junior. We need to clean the gas tanks on both. Senior has not had fresh gas in it for about 30 years and junior for about 2 years, maybe more. Anybody got any great ideas about how to get varnish out of the tank?

[Prerunner1982]

4.3L XJ... not sure if I have given this to you before but if you want a message board for the pickup 67-72chevytrucks.com has a large 73-87 board.


So you say Junior has an engine conversion.... what was it converted to?

[4.3L XJ]

Thanks for the message board info. That is just my work truck that refuses to die. I bought it cheap to resell and the buyer kept backing out so I kept it.

HUM WEE Jr. has a 57 1.6L Volvo in it. We will take pics this weekend when we get into it. We have started it on a can of gas, but it may need some work. We will see.

[jakeWI]

awesome. i missed when you posted up about Jr. Looks great.

[89xj4.7]

i went to my friends shop and he has one of these.... pretty beat up.. has a motor swat. small ford motor..

[4.3L XJ]

My sons has a swap to. Which motor is it?