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I've been spending again! My '43 GPW


Jessie The Jeep

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Once cured, it was dry and then wet sanded to form the original shape.

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The small cast foot for each lamp was also cracked, so after a clean up, they were both filled with a mixture of polyester resin and milled carbon fibre to reinforce them.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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The sheared mounting bolt was ground off, a replacement found, drilled and then refitted into the good lamp bowl..

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The glazing from both lamps had been painted over a number of times, but a good sand with some fine wet & dry got all the paint off, after which they were polished with a mini mop in the drill and T-cut paint restorer.

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Here's the front casting after sand blasting.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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The tail lights were in a poor state, with both the main bowls very rotten, all the bulb contacts corroded and sheared mounting bolts. There was only one elyptical red lens and one half round light, rusted and painted over. The covers were in better condition, but no 'f' marks on them, though I'm not sure if these parts were ever stamped.

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  • 2 weeks later...

While three of the four hood/screen clamps were in fairly good condition, the base of the last one was badly corroded and looks like it has been repaired before. It now needed to be replaced. out came the steel sheet, a piece of 1/2 inch plywood and a big hammer!

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The piece was screwed back to the wood in order to drill the central hole for the clamp. This was then opened up with a file to the required length.

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The end of the clamp was then filed just enough to allow the centre spiggot to pass through the hole in the base. Once inserted and turned 90 degrees, it wouldn't come out again.

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I also recently started stripping the hood in order to make repairs. The reinforcing hat channel around the rear, including the hinge was in a poor state. I phoned around some of the Jeep part suppliers but nobody had any ( anyone know of some? ). All the spot welds were drilled out and the three pieces were separated and treated with electrolysis to remove the rust in case I need to repair them.

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The hood itself is quite pitted under the hat channel and also along the front edge where it sits on the top of the grill.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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The hood is seen here in the electrolysis bath as my rotary wire brush couldn't reach right into the lip at the front edge of the hood. It also got deep into the pitting along the front edge. Both side lips were treated the same way.

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Moving on to the black out lamp, it is a composite made from a number of parts. The original base was in good condition, but missing the hoop lamp protector. The lamp and shroud is an original Ford part while the bowl for the lamp is a NOS part.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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The blackout lamp finished and assembled.

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Also arrived recently was the last of the instruments. The old ones were in a poor condition and I've no idea whether they work or can be made to work. They are something to look at at leisure and can be sold on if they can be brought back to life.

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What seems like many months ago, in the early stages of stripping the Jeep, I was pulling the trailer socket to bits and the cover hinge was broken. I got a private message from Dave ( jeepfinger ) saying he had a spare, and he kindly sent it to me. It has been sitting around with all the other bits since then until a few days ago when I had a go at stripping the hinge pin out of the cover/hinge bracket. The end of the pin was hollow and had been flared out to retain it. Carefully using pliers, I was able to squeeze the flared part of the end and tidy it up with a diamond needle file until it was free enough for the pin to come out. The new spring was fitted and the hinge re-assembled and the end re-flared using a small centre punch.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 1 month later...

Must get around to adding some more pics shortly, but the latest is the tub is going to the blasters on Monday and should be back primed by the end of the week. It's going to take a bit of shuffling things around to get both Jeeps out of the garage, the trailer converted back to a flat bed and the tub out of the workshop and onto the trailer.

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So what's been going on recently? I've finished work repairing the tub, much of which was filling holes with brazing rod. At around £1.00 per metre, it gets expensive. My local welding supplies split a 2.5Kg pack when they discovered a full pack was £70.00.

The holes were the stretcher supports had been had a levelling with brazing rod, plus a number of holes in the rear body panel.

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Another job that took a while was fixing the captive nuts. A number of nuts had the stumps of sheared bolts in them. The only way to get them out was to heat the captive bracket with the gas torch, until soft, bend it open and remove the nut. This was usually hot enough to help free the broken bolt which was clamped in a vice while hot, while I used a spanner to twist off the nut. The bracket was then re-heated, the nut inserted and the bracket closed up again.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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