Australian owner Mike Coning joined the EarlyCJ5.com site this week and posted some pictures of his ‘56 CJ6.  Also in his photo gallery were some older pictures of his fathers CJ6.

I asked Mike about both the long narrow item mounted on his rollcage, and about the hardtop CJ6 in these pictures (which I thought might be an older pic of his Jeep):

Mike responded:

those are 2 different jeeps bottom was my dads cj6, (the reason for my affliction!) in the pic is my brother 15yrs and my 2 sisters 10 and 11 yrs the picture was taken in Iran on the way to UK overland from Oz way back in 1976 the roof rack over the bonnet had tin trunks bolted on and was covered in canvas for water proofing, jeep was sold in England for 800 pounds

top pic is current, my cj6, the thing on the side is a roll of canvas for sunshade on the beach, the pic is 1 in a million, as we had loads of rain and the place really greened up, it’s usually more like a red desert!