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I've been spending again! My '43 GPW


Jessie The Jeep

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There's just enough room to walk between them. If I need a bit more space for a day, I'll just roll 'Jessie' onto the drive. I'm planning to fit an 'I' beam across the roof as I've got a chain hoist and dolly to fit. Like all my projects, it will be well documented!

 

From serials and date tables I've seen so far, It appears I need a non-script Ford tub The data plate shows the date of delivery as May 6th 1943 ( yes, I got the month and day the right way around from the plate! ). So it's well after the script jeeps, but before the composite bodies.

 

The first job will be to strip the tub of fittings ( recording as I go ), and take off all the other small parts such as fuel filter bowl etc. These will all be cleaned up and red oxide primed, then stored. What's left of the tub will come off next, and salvagable parts cut away for re-use or sale. Then engine and gearbox out and the chassis and axles will be done. Then engine etc, tub and it'll be done! I'm sure I'll have a lot of hard work, cursing, sore fingers, cuts and bruises before it rolls out complete!

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,your lucky you can fit both jeeps in your garage ! :-)

 

I sure wish I had a nice double garage, space is a premium in London so with some ingenuity I have managed to store two Jeeps in a single garage. green one is a 1942 Ford GPW, the white one is a very original perfect body '43 Willys MB both on the "to do" list

 

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Edited by Nick Johns
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"Collected my new project yesterday, a 1943 Ford GPW with lots of 'f' marks. It was on Evilbay three times I think, and failed to sell, so I contacted the owner about a week after the auction to see if it was still available, and it was."

 

Trying to learn all the time I assume from what you write that 'f' marks are a way of determining if a GPW is genuine. I note on your later posts that the 'f' is the like the F in Ford, are all the major items marked in this way? Sorry if a very basic question but it would be interesting to know. Cheers.

 

F is only used on fords and it is the F from Ford. F marks were put on GPWs because Ford wanted a way of singling ford parts from Willys ones.

 

From what i think, most people refer Jeeps to Willys but Ford wanted a way of showing that they were in it too and they can prove it by showing the F mark.

 

F parts can make a small fortune on Ebay, but beware, not all F stuff is genuine even repros are made with Fs and i have seen F stamps for sale so just be careful.

 

We are lucky that our jeep consists of mainly original parts which are F marked. Not many were visible at first but we are still uncovering quite a few every now and then.

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I spent a couple of hours this morning starting to strip the tub of its accessories. Two of the 'f' bolts on the spare wheel bracket were siezed solid, and sheared. The other two survived.

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All the footman loops came off, but five screws had to be drilled out, with a score of 6 drills snapped to 5 screws extracted!

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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This is one of the bolts from the jerrycan bracket. The helicoil beside it is what remains of the nut. It had corroded away so much, there was virtually nothing left, but the bolt still unscrewed after the remains of the nut was held with pliers. Something tells me this Jeep wasn't dry stored when it was in the USA!

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Inside the left locker box, was this triangle box hiding the trailer socket and grab handle nuts.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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Once the rusted triangle box was chisled out, I found what was probably a mouse nest inside! At least I could now access the nuts inside.

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The trailer socket came out no problem, but the spring on the lid is broken. I was getting pretty lucky with all these 'f' bolts. The two sheared on the wheel bracket, and one on the jerrycan with the remains of the nut rock solid on the end. I may be able to carefullt cut/grind what's left of the nut off and re-tap the thread on the bolt.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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One of the grab handles was removed the the paint carefully rubbed back with wet and dry. This revealed the original dark olive drab, and also the 'f' stamp on the end.

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The 'f' can just be seen still green above and to the right of the two holes.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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The pintle hook bolts all came out without damage, but they were so tight, my face did change colour with the effort needed. My face was red, but the language was blue!

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After a couple of hours, the rear panel is almost naked, with just the light clusters to go.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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I've rubbed back the paint on the handle and bodywork to discover several layers. Straight on top of the metal is a red/brown colour. In some places it looks like red oxide, in others more a chocolate brown. Would this have been the wartime primer? On top of that is an olive drab shade which is quite light. Next is lime green, followed by sand/cream, then the dark olive, followed by red oxide and finally the top coat of green.

This the the rear wheel arch.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
Edited following further rubbing down of bodywork
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One of the side body handles was very rusted between the layers of steel, and a tap with a hammer brought out a big lump. This would have been a nice simple welding job with my gas welder, but I had to return the bottles to BOC when they started asking for £500+ for three years bottle rent!

So, my only option was my 100AH arc welder. Unfortunately the only sticks I had were 2.5mm whic needed around 70~80AH's to arc. With a bit of practice, I managed to do the repair at about 70AH's if I was careful. Fortunately, this was the opposite end to the 'f' stamp!

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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