Pete Ashby

Hydrogen is without doubt the answer there is a limitless supply all around us and it is a truly renewable energy source, burn it in air and it produces water plus perhaps a few compounds of Nitrogen and some pollutants from the lubrication system of course. The key is getting the whole highly explosive mass safely contained in a fuel cell that will not breach in an accident it should not be that hard to do I would suggest and would have the added bonus of not having to relay on other countries fora primary energy source in the form of Li. Pete

Odd this thread should have started to pick up as only last weekend we had lunch with someone who owns a Tesla and is highly committed and invested in green energy here in west Wales a place where diesel pick ups and tractors are more your everyday mode of transport. It was an interesting conversation and confirmed many of my suspicions about the logistical issues of owning an electric car although the owner suggested that it was not an issue providing some 'pre-planning of route and charging locations' was carried out before hand, I have to say I was not overly convinced by the argument. This lead me to carry out a few back of the envelope calculations that evening in terms of the power draw on the grid assuming 50% of the 35 million odd cars currently on the road plugged in to charge at 1800hrs every night it takes no account of HGV's or buses that would take significantly more power, it was a scary big number of KWhrs . Following on from this when we did our weekly shop at the 'big town' (well big for us here) I made a point of sitting and counting the number of vehicles in a ten minute period that went through the fuel pumps at the supermarket and an estimation of how long each one stayed on the pump, ...yes I know but I learnt on Sunday it's takes around 30min for a 50% charge so making the assumption that each vehicle I counted would also be there charging batteries I couldn't see how the logistics stacked up just in physical space to take that many cars over a 30 minute period. So the upshot of this is I think there are a lot of sound bites about at the moment coming from both the ardent Green energy quarter who on occasion let their passion blind them to the practical issues involved and politicians who see it as a current bandstand and won't be in power to see their proposals implemented. In conclusion to echo some of the comments on my old school reports "good idea not enough thought in the application" Pete

Very nice Pete

Just come onto Milweb no connection with the seller https://www.milweb.net/classifieds/view_large.php?ad=97940&cat=13 Pete

Bad news about your bug Paul, it's been a plague ridden Christmas here in the wild west too. Hope you'll soon be feeling better and back on the tools every little job is one nearer to completion keep the up dates coming. Pete

It would be well worth contacting the Military Vehicle Trust via their web site https://www.mvt.org.uk/ this will enable you to get in contact with the local area MVT secretary who coordinates attendance at events in your part of the world. Pete

Good for you that's the spirit !! At the end of the day these trucks are 78 years old and no matter how good the restoration is there's always a little tinkering required to keep them up to scratch and on the road it's all part of the experience you may find this site interesting if you haven't found it already https://forums.g503.com/ but be warned you'll need more than one brew to work your way through all the information there. look forward to following your progress regards Pete

Very nice indeed from your photos it certainly looks like some one has made the effort. My GPW is 2nd week of April 1942, I recorded the restoration of this one here in the HMVF restoration forum

That looks very tidy what's the date of delivery ? regards Pete

Welcome to the forum very nice Christmas present for you. If you have any questions at all about your jeep don't be afraid to ask in the appropriate sub forums there is a huge resource of knowledge both technical and historical on HMVF and people are always willing to help or direct you to another source of information. Pete

Sound advise from Simon (you don't fancy doing that joint lottery ticket with me yet then ?) Pete

As my old Grandmother used to say "there's more than one way to skin a cat my boy" and so it is with restoration, the basic principal is always the same however you choose to achieve it, starting with a pile of rust and decay and ending with something that matches the owners expectations in terms of accuracy and finish is the key. I've seen a number of different approaches used by people to achieve this, some good, some not so good and some doomed to failure and disillusionment from the start. Iv'e also tried a few variations of the basic principal myself which prompted me to ask the question of you. After restoring a number of my own and other peoples vehicles over the years I've come to the conclusion that there is no definitive way to carry out the work but have developed a methodology that suits my particular skill sets and resources. As you rightly note above it's dependent on a range of factors not least availability of space, tooling, availability of spares and most importantly cash flow to fund the project. I take it this is your first large vehicle project?. For what it's worth this is my approach, the key for me is a clear vision of the end state ( and you appear to be very clear on that point) and a fixed plan of how to achieve it. I break the overall restoration down into sub tasks so that as each task is completed it can be added to the previous assemblies to work towards the completed whole My starting point after an initial assessment is to break down into component parts the vehicle all the while taking 100's of photos. Then starting with the frame it's cleaned repaired and painted then sub assemblies follow on overhauled and painted as required they are then bolted onto the frame as finished units. I tend to work along the the route of axles, hubs, brakes,drive train, gear box, engine then body work and fitting out then a last top coat of paint over everything and then wiring and markings to finish off. For me this approach maintains focus of effort and funding while producing visible progress of the project. Restoration is undeniably challenging for all of us in terms of time and cost and not forgetting the all important factor of onward motivation, sadly I have taken on several projects over the years where one or a combination of these factors have defeated the previous owners. Iv'e just reread this and it sounds like I'm a classic old fart preaching away, I do hope you don't take it as such it is not meant to be in any shape or form, as I mentioned in a previous post I admire your attention to detail and those of us who are the 'Old Farts' of the movement ( and there is a disproportionate number of us) should do everything in our power to encourage younger chaps like yourself to take on these projects so I wish you the very best keep posting the up dates and photos Regards Pete

I'm impressed with your approach to this project it's meticulous to say the least and very methodical. I'm interested in your style of carrying out this project is your plan to collect everything you will need for the restoration before you start working on the truck itself?. Pete

It's for a modern fire extinguisher the sort found in domestic homes and public vehicles Pete

I afraid that over the last 46 years of restoring and collecting MV's that if I'd had a £ ( or in your case a $) for every jeep, Dodge or GMC barn find that was purported to have landed across the beaches I'd be a very rich man by now Pete

The shade of OD on the inside face of the prop shaft flange is interesting Pete

Thanks for the input chaps very interesting........ so Iv'e found my glasses and got the magnifying glass out here's what I've come with: Your right Matt on both counts, it is located where you suggest and it is the engine number according to the cab plates. I have not noticed it before as it is rather faint. It's located on the right hand rail just above the front spring rear hanger here's a photo that I've messed about with to try to bring it out more. it reads: T222 29865 C Well chaps there is nothing there on my frame that would relate to a part number which from my Jan 1943 T222 parts list is as follows, 929030 Right rail, 929031 Left rail. What is there as clear as a bell is this 2/41 up side down on both left and right rails see photos below, also just near to the numbers are what look like a pair of little shields stamped in..... are these the checkers marks you were referring to Gordon ? Right rail Left rail The number on the rear of the frame wont photograph clearly unfortunately but it is as follows, 91069764 which is the frame number stamped onto the cab plates and also the Dodge Brothers data plate on the door frame, see below. I don't think any of this has answered your original question, in fact it seems to have muddied the waters somewhat as is oft the way I'm afraid Pete

Well done Gordon I guessed you'd be out there somewhere in cyber space, fully agree with you that the rear position stamping for the frame number is a British addition and I wonder if it may have been done post war when the new two number, two letter, two number system came into force. Your observation about panel vans will also apply to any other body type in the Canadian range with the exception of Tankers where the rear top face of the frame is fully exposed. I'll have a good look in the morning in the front area you suggest but I'm pretty sure there is nothing there, Pete

Hello Kevin good to hear from you how is the T110 coming along? I keep looking out for any up dates on your blog. Yes I did find the frame number on the top face of the rear left hand frame rail (see photo below for position) .it appeared after the blasting process and it matches the contract and build data stamped onto the cab plates. I don't believe Dodge stamped their frames, (Gordon correct me if I wrong in this assumption) but I think this may be a British Army addition as I have seen one or two British operated Jeeps with numbers stamped into the front horns in a similar font and size . Pete

Nice find well done Pete

Putting aside the failure to portray authentic vehicles and kit for a moment, the problem for me with a number of recent TV and large screen productions that have been made in recent years is that the cast is very obviously and invariably made up of 21st century actors who carry themselves and react to situations in 21st century ways. For those of us who had Fathers, Mothers, Uncles and Aunts who were of an age to have participated in WW2 in a service capacity it grates because those people just did not react or interact with each other or display the mannerisms that are now the accepted form in the modern world. For me it's one of the major achievements of the HBO mini series 'Band of Brothers' in that that the actors portraying real people did so, to my mind at least, convincingly. This could have been because in a number of cases the actors actually met and studied the people they were representing, something that of course is now almost impossible to do. However there is plenty of archive material that professional character actors could turn to for inspiration and accuracy,. But I suppose at the end of the day there are relatively very few of the current audience that notice the errors be they vehicular, kit or behavioral. Pete

Thanks Nick I did see the added comment after you pointed it out, what I should have said is 'Has the fault been identified yet', it 's always useful to hear the outcome of an unidentified problem both for personal interest and also for others who may find the diagnosis and identification process useful. I've noticed on other forums that some times threads like this are left hanging with several suggestions provided but the originator never comes back with the result. I just find it a bit disappointing when this happens as the web provides a huge resource for all of us to enhance our mechanical knowledge and fault finding abilities but without a definitive answer there is always room for uncertainty on the advice offered. Pete

Any up date on this ? it's always useful to hear what the out come of a problem was Pete

I agree very strange indeed but do not be be tempted yet to strip any more of the engine , So you saying 5 out of the 6 pairs of valves appear to be stuck open with the springs compressed ? If you look in at the valve chest the cylinder with compression this has the pair of valves that are operational ? Which cylinder is this ? What was the reading? Looking at the other pairs of valves that appear open you should be able to see the cam followers and tappet blocks moving up and down can you see this ? Have you tried very gently tapping the valve springs of the valves that are open ? When you crank the engine over if your valves are stuck open you should be hearing all sorts of wheezing and blowing from the exhaust pipe and also from the carburetor can you hear any of this? that will do for starters have a think about the answers and come back here and we can all take it from there Pete