1951 Willys Jeep CJ3 I bought today.

Original Army green that someone in the past painted Over with white house paint with a brush. What is going to be my best way to remove it without causing to much damage to the metal?

If you can find it aircraft paint stripper/remover. Bad stuff but it will take the old paint down to bare metal. I have used it. My dad ran an aircraft paint shop that did large aircraft and they would strip all paint off before a repaint job! Bad stuff though.

Leave it as it is, nice snow camo.

Good idea.

good luck keep us posted

Very cool project, keep us updated for sure on the progress.

We use this stuff in the metal plating shop I work at , I don't know if they sell this to the public.

Very , very , very nasty stuff. You will want to wear every single piece of PPE you own. Use in a very well ventilated area , the fumes are rough. Will remove 10 layers of 40 year old paint with ease. Will not hurt the metal.

I'm going to start with the motor first it has not ran for forty years. Clean the gas tank, check the fuel line,new plugs,change oil,new battery, magic mistory marvel oil down the plug holes and hand turn the crank shaft. What else am I forgetting before I start this Flathead four cylinder?

IMO , I would back up a few steps.
I don't know your skill level so , bear with me.
Look the entire vehicle over from top to bottom and start making a list of what is good and what is bad. Put a dollar amount and sweat equity on each task. This is important.

Search for any deal breaker things that are hard or expensive or impossible to repair. I have seen people go to the effort of major repairs to only find out there is something like a non-repairable broken frame member to stop a project cold in it's tracks after spending a lot of time and money.

I bought a '68 Chevy Corvair project car years ago. It had 44k miles on it. Looked like a good candidate for a restoration. I started compiling a list of what it needed. The dollar amount exceeded what a restored one was worth by a considerable margin. I threw in the towel and sold it for just about what I paid for it. Let it become someone else's money pit or a parts car.

Bringing a vehicle back from the dead after 40 years is difficult to say the least. I've done it a couple times but I have a good set of skills and a massive tool collection.

Not trying to bash you in any way at all. Just trying to give you a heads-up of what you may be walking into as I have seen many people take on a near impossible project and lose steam and or money , then it becomes something that the significant other looks at a worthless project that they want to be gone out of your life.

Sometimes a project can be so difficult it may be better to find a exact copy in much better shape and use the one you have as a parts/donor car. I've done that a few times. Saves mucho cash and effort.

Again , not trying to bash you or discourage you , but look very carefully at where this can go.

That said , wish you the best on this project and may it go well with great results without breaking your bank or your back.

Paint over it with a different brush

To answer this question directly , I would do this -

Pull the plugs , dump a lot (1oz per cylinder) of Marvel Mystery oil in the cylinders , reinstall old plugs. Let it sit for days. Gently try to turn the engine over with a breaker bar on the crankshaft , do not force it. If it turns , try to sorta start it with a makeshift temporary fuel source just to see if the engine wants to start. Have a fire extinguisher right there with you. If it wants to start , shut it off and go back and put in new plugs, oil change , clean gas tank , fuel lines, new battery etc. Then try for real to start the engine. Have fire extinguisher there again.

seeing it has been used in winter = salt = rotten frame

Start from there
one fellow that had the love for them was driving a restored one and the frame collapsed and it flipped and killed him
RIP Mr Richardson

I would crank it without spark plugs 10 seconds at a time, several times before trying to start it. That pumps oil so no dry start. assuming it gets un seized, if it's seized.

Thank you Cragar my skill level is low so I am going slow and easy. So far the frame looks good but I will power wash it and get a couple more sets of eye balls to look it over. I paid 1,500 for it so I have room to try to get it back as close to original as I can. I have a big soft spot for Willys CJ3s.

Thanks for the warning North! The owner used it to plow his two service stations in Prospect, Oregon in 1950s through the 1970s with it. I haven't seen to much salt rot yet.

Very good idea. If ya can find a early CJ guy who knows what to look for in that era Jeep , huge help.

I like the early CJ's too. Been lucky enough to drive some. I worked at a Chrysler dealer that had one for snowplowing in their parking lot. Nice , snotty , small vehicle for maneuvering in tight spots to clear snow. The guys used to fight over who got to use it as it made a task fun.

Was quite a standard push truck back in the day to get the trucks into the bays.
Remember how heavy those old cars were.....

I think it is where the motor mount was to the frame where the rust happens

Are their frames not the same size as railway tracks, so you could deflate and drive and ride the rails !!!