{"id":687,"date":"2017-07-01T21:11:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-01T21:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/?p=687"},"modified":"2017-07-01T23:08:38","modified_gmt":"2017-07-01T23:08:38","slug":"july-1st-the-countdown-to-the-start-of-alaska-or-rust-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/2017\/07\/july-1st-the-countdown-to-the-start-of-alaska-or-rust-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"July 1st — The Countdown to the Start of Alaska Or Rust Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

The countdown to the start of Alaska Or Rust begins.\u00a0First off, some updates are in order. Our original goal was to have 25-30 jeeps. Interest was high in the beginning, so much so that we had over 100 people expressing interest from several different countries. Over time, some people found the dates didn’t match their schedule. Other folks couldn’t get the time off. Still others found their Alaska plans\u00a0unexpectedly interrupted financial, medical, work, and family obligations. As a result, we have thirteen jeeps and twenty-one participants. The good news is that a smaller group means we can travel together more often (the large group meant dividing up into two or three stages as to not block traffic too badly).<\/p>\n

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Hugo Vidal with his recently restored CJ-3B being honored in Brazil for his 4×4 efforts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The participant who will travel the farthest to join us is also our oldest participant, eighty-four-year-old Hugo Vidal from Brazil. Hugo first traveled to Alaska in a CJ-3B in 1955 as part of Operation Pineapple<\/a>. When he read about Alaska Or Rust, he saw it as a wonderful opportunity to once more make an epic jeep trip north. This time, he’ll be joined by his son, Fernando Vidal.<\/p>\n

Many of us participants have had to rebuild our jeeps so they’d make this journey. Bill Reiss turned a rough, former\u00a01965\u00a0CJ-5 Dually Trencher jeep into one capable of making the trip from Pennsylvania. He’s almost finished:<\/p>\n

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Bill Reiss’ 1965 CJ-5 Dually that was a former trencher jeep.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Merlin’s been rebuilding his MB. He recently installed a new block from Allied Jeeps<\/a>, who is also a sponsor of Alaska Or Rust. We are looking forward to seeing how his engine performs!<\/p>\n

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Merlin’s new engine block from Allied Jeeps<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking of engines, Midwest leader Scott Gilbert ran into a series of engine problems that left him exasperated. He powered through his troubles and now has his wagon running well.<\/p>\n

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Scott Gilbert’s wagon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Rob Stafford decided to join the event, he didn’t know just how bad his jeep’s body was. It turns out, it was in really bad shape. So, he and his wife Diana agreed the best strategy was to install a new body. He recently got his jeep back onto the road.<\/p>\n

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Rob’s CJ-2A with the Bobcat hood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joe Bee’s CJ-3B didn’t need an overhaul, but he felt it still needed a decoration for the event. So, he and Emily added this tribute to the upcoming event.<\/p>\n

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Joe Beadenkopf’s CJ-3B.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This past winter’s Pacific Northwest weather put David Eilers a little behind on the rebuild of his 1956 Convertible DJ-3A named Rusty. The weather was just starting to turn nice in May when he spotted another 1956 Convertible DJ-3A for sale in California (The 366th DJ-3A built) at a great price with a great body, something Rusty did NOT have. Taking a chance, he and his wife (and copilot for the Alaska Or Rust adventure) Ann picked it up on Mother’s Day. The running and driving jeep still needed some brakes, so he didn’t get a chance to test drive it, but it ran, was in great shape, and sounded good. By the time he got it home, he discovered there was coolant leaking into the oil. Upon tearing it apart, he discovered that the engine would need a full rebuild. That necessitated using Rusty’s engine, one that hadn’t ran in more than a decade. This past weekend he installed it and fired it up. So far so good ….<\/p>\n

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David and Ann Eilers installing a rebuilt engine into Patterson, their 1956 Dj-3A Convertible.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These aren’t the only participants in the thick of getting ready for the event. Hopefully, we’ll all be ready!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The countdown to the start of Alaska Or Rust begins.\u00a0First off, some updates are in order. Our original goal was to have 25-30 jeeps. Interest was high in the beginning, so much so that we had over 100 people expressing interest from several different countries. Over time, some people found the dates didn’t match their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":745,"href":"https:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions\/745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deilers.com\/AlaskaOrRust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}