It's mine again! Several years ago I gave away the work-hardened frame and twisted body tub of my '48 CJ-2A to the black hole of Jeep parts and former Jp Editor Rick Pw. About a year ago, after unsuccessfully looking for a good deal on a flattie, I tried to get it back, but he wasn't interested. When the black hole moved from his mountaintop retreat and into a real house in a real neighborhood, he eventually had to reintroduce some of his holdings back to the wild. A few days later it was on my trailer. I never signed over the registration to him, so he essentially stored it two years for me ... for free!
When I gave up my flattie I didn't have much extra space. I had loaded up everything I didn't want that was even slightly Jeep or automotive related (fortunately Rick can't resist worthless parts). Stuffed into the flattie tub were several old, rusty, and bent Wrangler leaf packs, a tube bumper for a Toyota, dented and rusty V-8 conversion headers, the driveshaft from a Ford F-150 (that I no longer own), a nasty carpeted center console, two flatfender hoods, two trailer tires, and a bent YJ front bumper. It was impressive that all of this would actually fit inside my tattered flattie tub. Interestingly, everything I had given him was still inside, right where I left it (minus a flattie hood) - Rick added a few beer cans and other garbage. This time it was easier for me to simply throw some of the stuff away because it was covered in rotting leaves, trash, and rat turds. Oh, and a huge rat.
What seemed like a five-pound rat fell to the ground while I was unloading the junk from the tub. Having recently dealt with vermin dwelling in my garage projects, I wasn't letting this one get away. He looked stunned (perhaps a 40-mile trailer ride isn't the best transportation for relocating vermin), so I grabbed the closest object (weapon) I could find. I unsheathed the first round from a stack of Wrangler leaf spring packs, and then began hurling them at the dazed rat. Leaf springs aren't exactly what most people would consider accurate projectiles, so it took me two shots before I made sure he didn't scurry away and hide.
I originally got rid of the flattie to build a bigger and better wheeling rig (my never-ending Juggy project that's been several years in the making). Today I want the flatfender for something else. It's not even gonna be a 4x4. You'll just have to wait and see what I do with it. Keen eyes will also notice an M35A2 in the background; that's mine too. Sit tight, I'm building things.- John Cappa