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I've been spending again! My '43 GPW


Jessie The Jeep

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When the engine had been bodged with the timing gear conversion, one of the oil pipe fittings in the crankcase was blocked off with a plug. After the oil filter was fitted, a replacement fitting was installed, seen just below the fuel pump, and the pipe installed. The engine can be seen below with the oil filter, filler tube, thermostat housing, manifold and carb installed.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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Rather than the usual dynamo, my Jeep was fitted with the late war Delco-Remy alternator. When I got the Jeep, the brackets for the alternator had been bodged to make it fit. It was time to make some as they would have been. Two supports were made for the bottom alt mounting point. The two brackets were cut to length, and a base plate welded on ( yet to be trimmed ).

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To mount the bottom bracket, I wanted to make use of the existing holes in the mounting plate, without damaging it, or preventing it from having a dynamo re-fitted. So I turned this bush to fit the existing hole. The bottom bracket was notched to fit over a spiggot on the mounting plate, while a hole was drilled to match up with the hole in the bush.

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The alternator fitted. As previously mentioned, the top bracket looks a bit short. The alternator mounting bolts should be one above the other ( compared to the original wartime set up ), but this is leaning in slightly. I may have to make a new top bracket as this one gives little room to tension the belt.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I didn't do much over the Christmas holidays, but have made a bit of progress since. The rad was fitted in place, but not bolted up yet. This was simply to clear some space in the workshop.

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The voltage regulator has all been stripped, cleaned, and repainted and new cork gaskets made. The item mounted on top is a relay for the starter motor. I think this was added during the Jeeps conversion from 6v to 12v, along with the Delco-Remy alternator.

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The light bowls and trailer socket cover were also painted.

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Something else I tried was to find some markings on the hood. The Jeep has been repainted a number of times. On top of the metal is a red/brown primer, then the wartime olive drab. Next comes white, then an olive/brown, lime green, cream, black, red and finally the top coat of olive green. It would seem that whoever did the first paint job did a reasonable/proper job, rubbing down the base layer of paint before applying any further coats.

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Despite careful rubbing down of the paint layers, there was no sign of the star or registration numbers, or even a hint of an edge to a number. So it either never had any markings applied or they were fully rubbed off prior to the first repaint. It was dissapointing not to find anything, but that's the way it goes.

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The Ford black out light was painted the other day. I still need a bowl to mount it in, and the mount that supports it needs a new hoop welding on to protect the light as it is missing.

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Another of the small jobs was repairing the hood clamps. Both springs had long since disintegrated, and a large amount of rust debris inside was jamming them. After removing what was left of the pin that holds the top on, the tube was opened up and the centre part was removed.

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A new spring was wound from piano wire, and then it was screwed onto the centre part of the hood clamp.

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Stepping back in time a bit, some time ago, I bought a skid plate for the transfer case. Actually it was just one part of the two piece unit. I later discovered the Ford's used a single piece plate, very much like the later Hotchkiss unit. The two piece unit was a Willys design. I was also having trouble tracking down the smaller part of the skid plate.

After finding pictures of the Willys, Ford and Hotchkiss plates, I wondered if I could modify the plate on my Hotchkiss to the Ford style. The only difference I could see was the centre hole had been enlarged to encompass one of the other holes on the Hotchkiss version. Upon closer inspection of my Jeep, this centre hole had quite raggy edges, not clean cut as it should be. I began to wonder if this plate on my M201 Jeep was actually a Ford unit!

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So today I went into the cold garage, and with numb hands, struggled to reach in and undo the bolts holding the skid plate on my M201. After the oil, grease, dirt and paint were cleaned off, I found an 'f' mark! My skid plate was indeed a modified Ford unit.

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Here's the raggy hole where the two original Ford holes have been joined. I haven't decided whether to clean up the hole and leave the larger access, or weld a piece in and return it to the small holes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The exhaust was then clamped to the skid plate at the mid point, and the silencer fitted in order to bend the flexipipe to allow the silencer to sit at the correct angle, rather than up through the floor as it was when it came out of the box.

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A couple of other small additions were new return springs for the brake and clutch pedals. The originals had been stretched and lost much of their spring.

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Both marker lights were 'f' marked, both on the bowl and front housing. However, one bowl had the rear part rotten away, and on the other, the mounting bolt had sheared. Because they were 'f' marked, I wanted to try and save them.

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I tried panel beating some tin to replace the rear, but I'm really not a panel beater it turns out! so I turned to my modelling knowledge to come up with a repair.

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A large lump of plasticine was softened in my hands, and the rear of the good lamp forced into it to make a mould. This was then painted with polyester resin, and lined with a few layers of 50g glass cloth.

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After an overnight cure, the moulded piece was removed from the plasticine, cleaned up, leaving me with a nice GRP copy of the lamp casing.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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