I've been spending again! My '43 GPW

[Jessie The Jeep]

June 25th - Additional Photo Display Equipment

Just in time for the Bowes Railway event this coming weekend, I've added three more tins to the photographic display. This was prompted by possible space limitations at the show, meaning I may not be able to set up the airfield "Signals Square".

The photographic display only needs a table along side the Jeep, to show target photos, stereoscope, developing trays and a photo album of original 100th Bomb Group photos. So today I made two more one gallon Kodak developer tins, recycled from 20/50W engine oil tins. I've also used an old paint tin to make a Kodak Super-XX film tin. The tins were cleaned of oil and paint, primed with cellulose and then sprayed white.

Labels were taken from photos online, redrawn to eliminate perspective distortions and then printed out on white paper. The labels were then cut out and glued with waterproof PVA glue to the tins. The whole tin was then given multiple coats of dilute PVA to seal and waterproof the labels.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

June 27th - 16mm Film Reel Boxes

Another prop made on the 27th were a couple of film reel boxes, again using original artwork found online. The graphics were reworked, squared up and sides made for the box print out.

A wooden box was made onto which the print out would be glued.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

After coating the top of the box with a thin coat of PVA glue, the print out was stuck down, leaving the sides until the top was dry. Opposide sides were then glued down, left to dry and then the last two sides. 

Once the attaching glue had time to set, the boxes were given several sprayed coats of dilute PVA glue to water proof them and toughen up the paper.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

I'm quite pleased with the finished result. Along with the other photographic equipment, they should make a nice display and I'll have t get some photos at the weekend of it all together.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Enigma]

Love those details.

Makes a display so much better.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Bowes Railway/Springwell Village 1940's Weekend - June 28~30th

I took all three of my vehicles to Bowes Railway since it was only a few miles from my house. Rather than repeat the report in each of my vehicle threads, a full report is made in my Dodge thread, which I took along on Friday 28th for the school visits day. See here - 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Croft Retro & Classic ( formerly Croft Nostalgia ) - August 3/4th

While packing for Croft on Friday morning, I had a bad feeling. Something wasn't right, but I couldn't put my finger on it. "Jessie" was on the end of the drive, with the trailer behind. "Hope" was still in the garage while both Jeeps and the trailer were loaded. Time to get "Hope" out of the garage and shut the door ready to go. The engine turned over, and over, and over and apart from a brief cough, no signs of life.

Everything looked ok, wires on, plug leads etc., but upon pulling a plug, no spark. No spark at the points either. So I found two old 12 volt coils. One had the wrong terminals for a test, but the other had screw terminals. It was wired up and I tried to start the Jeep again. It coughed and spluttered like the timing was all wrong but wouldn't run. Hmmm, perhaps the original coil was the problem, so I thought I'd have one more test and wired it back up again. Pressed the starter and the Jeep fired up as normal!!! I was confused, but while it was running, decided to set off on the 40 mile trip.

We were set up with Maurice's Hillman staff car, plus a tractor with two bomb trailers, one of which carried a 4,000 pound "cookie". There were meant to be other vehicles which didn't show, so the Jeeps were moved around on Saturday morning from their Friday positioning.

Generators running nearby all night meant I had virtually no sleep, leaving me exhausted on Saturday. I was too shattered to go walkabout with my camera until mid afternoon on Saturday.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

The beginning of the military display started with a Home Guard and French Resistance display. My Jeeps and the RAF stuff came next.

After that, there was a mix of World War Two and modern vehicles, some of whom were camping and had tents set up while others were day visitors.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

This mix of eras continued up to the REME display of modern vehicles including trucks, Land Rovers and large recovery vehicles.

Beyond REME were more mixed types of vehicles with Jeeps, Dodges, Land Rovers, APC's etc. Having the vehicles mixed keeps the interest for me, rather than having a row of 50 Jeeps, followed by 30 Land Rovers, where you loose interest after the third or fourth similar looking vehicle.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

A few more vehicles led to the military bikes section with a mix of motor bikes, a para- bike and a folding para-cycle.

An entry closing date for military vehicles around D-Day, meant many were focused on the Normandy 75th Anniversary celebrations rather than show entries. While it was later extended, entries were down by 35 vehicles over previous years.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Next up was the impressive German North Africa Corps display and field hospital with a large variety of equipment and weapons on show.

A few more Jeeps from the Yorkshire area came next.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Patrick Smart's Jeep and Hercules aircraft engine were at the end of the row. 

Throughout Sunday there were the track parades for classics and around 2:30pm, it was the military parade. While Lynne and I were both driving the Jeeps, my daughter took over the camera and snapped a few shots from our position marshalling the end of the convoy. For much of both laps, the front of the convoy was half to three quarters of a lap ahead of us.

Lynne and "Jessie", half a circuit ahead of us on the lap.

The new 60's/70's Retro theme and other changes brought in my the new circuit manager took much of the atmosphere away from the event. Hardly anyone was dressed up in period clothing and the best dressed competition was a bit of a joke. People who were there for the first time seemed to enjoy it, but those who had attended over the previous nine years all agreed there was something lacking this year. The bands who played across the afternoons each day were loud, and not as popular as the 1940's entertainment of past years.

I'm a very light sleeper and a butterfly breaking wind can wake me up. As a result, the generators causing a lack of sleep was the killer for me and as a result, I'm unlikely to camp there again. In previous years, we've had two or three vehicles on show, and a reasonable diorama. For the future, we are more likely to only visit on Saturday with one vehicle. It's a shame, but the various changes brought in by the new manager has ruined the feel of the event.

The "bad feeling weekend" finished with Lynne really scaring herself on the drive home. She wasn't going particularly fast, but took a roundabout with adverse camber and felt like she was about to roll the Jeep over. When turning from one direction to the other, the Jeep does roll on its suspension and combined with the adverse camber, it was enough to cause a real scare. We did however get home ok, clocking up two milestones on the way. About one third of the way home, "Hope" clocked up 1,000 miles since the restoration and with just a couple of miles to go, "Jessie" clocked up 16,000 miles in my ownership.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Beamish Museum "Dig for Victory" - Aug 29th to Sept 1st

Both "Jessie" and "Hope" ( and "Terry the trailer" ) were taken to the Beamish Open Air Museum's "Dig for Victory" 1940's event. This is a unique event in the North and possibly the country, in that we have the freedom to drive around the site. After a briefing each day, we can singularly or in convoy around the 2 mile site road, parking up at a number of locations around the museum to display.

The Jeeps and trailer didn't have enough volume to carry the camping gear, which included two large canvas tents, so we also needed a normal car. This added to the fact that Lynne was working on Thursday and part of Friday, complicated getting there.

I took around 600 photos and three videos over the four days, far too many to add a good selection in the Jeep thread. Instead I'm going to add a couple of pictures here, then I'll write an event report in the "The meetings log and photobook" section of the forum and add a link here. That thread will have to wait until later today.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Here's the Beamish thread - 

 

[Jessie The Jeep]

Tanfield Railway 1940's Weekend - September 21/22nd

All three of my vehicles attended the Tanfield show across the two days. I've added a report with some pictures in my Dodge thread, but the full set of pictures can be found on my website here- 

http://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2019/tanfield_1940s.htm

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

October 2nd - Fuel Tank Filter

Since 2014, "Hope" has been driving around without the fuel tank filling filter. I had the main steel tube which was badly rusted, so it never got fitted. There was a filter on the firewall and modern fuel seems to be cleaner than I'm guessing wartime fuel was. The tank certainly looks clean after 5 years.

A few days ago, I dug the steel tube out and placed it in an electrolysis bath to remove the crud and rust. After several hours, it came out looking pretty good. It had some surface pitting, but was still solid. However, the filter mesh on the bottom was split. An Ebay search revealed some 0.2mm hole brass mesh in an A5 sheet for a few pounds. This arrived today and a circle slightly larger than the tube was cut.

The original mesh was trapped between a lip or ring of metal in the bottom of the tube. I couldn't tell for sure as it had been badly corroded. So I cut out the old mesh and filed the bottom of the tube free of the jagged remains. The outside of the tube was cleaned with a rotary wire brush and then tinned with solder. The new mesh was placed over the hole, flux added and solder applied, melting through the mesh to the tinned tube below, fixing it in place. A little dressing of the solder with a file and the job was done.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Blackfell Primary School World War 2 Day - October 22nd

In late October, we took both Jeeps to Blackfell Primary school for our annual Year 6 WW2 history day. Due to several factors, it was about a month later than normal and was very cold. It was just my two Jeeps there this year and several talks and demonstrations across the day.

That was my last event of the 2019 season.

There's always tinkering to do over the winter and I've just ordered some Ford and Willys filter decals to go on both Jeeps at some point too.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

November 24th - RAF Photo Album

I've already got a US Army Air Force photo album, full of pictures from the 100th Bombardment Group of the 8th Air Force. I decided that I could do with an RAF album for when 'Hope' is in RAF markings, to go along with the other photographic display items. I found an vintage looking album on Ebay and some paper photo corners. Since the album is quite small, I had to size the pictures fairly small to give a reasonable selection.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

The album has 48 sides, so having three photos per page gave almost 150 photos to cover various aspects of the RAF. I've gone for a 5 x 3 inch main picture, with a 3 x 2 and a 2 x 2 inch below. Looking through my dad's old merchant navy albums, many of the pictures are similar sizes and I recall him saying that larger prints cost a lot more to print!

I've split the photos into a number of categories covering Bomber Command, Fighter Command, Coastal Command, Air and Ground Crews, Armourers, Vehicles, Crash and Battle Damage and 100 Group's Electronic Counter Measures and Clandestine Operations. The photos are currently being printed and should arrive in a few days. The last picture gives an example of a typical page but I'll add a heading to start each new section of RAF activity.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Chris Hall]

Nice idea and a super nice addition.

[Jessie The Jeep]

December 8th - RAF Photo Album Update

I Finally finished assembling my RAF photo album, but it took quite a while longer than expected!

Each page has three photos with traditional photo corners, although I added some glue to the backs of the photos. However, because of the way the album is bound, the pages could slide over each other a little, like an old fashioned fan opening. This caused the photo corners to tangle up with each other!

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

As can be seen in the Sunderland Flying Boat image, each corner has two little flaps which made an ideal pocket to catch the edge of the corners on the opposite page. There was only one solution, a little PVA glue under each one. 150 photos, 600 corners, 1200 little paper flaps to lift and glue down!! A little cross eyed, I finished them last night. 

I also unbound the album, and added a little PVA glue along the edges of the pages at the binding end, hopefully preventing the pages fanning. It was all tied back together this afternoon and I'm very pleased with the finished result.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Next trip to my dad's house in Beverley, I need to bring the Typewriter home to make some headings for each section of the album.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Chris Hall]

Nice job mate.

 

do you know where the photo of the Wellingtons was taken? It looks like they are about to be inspected as each aircraft has its air or ground crew at the front stood at ease. And all the props are set with the 3rd blade pointing up.

 

just one minor comment though. You’ve put a massive effort into the albums but then put a Queens crown RAF crest on the front. It would have been the George the VI crown, if you can find one.

if I remember and you’re interested, I’ll see if I can get some photographs of my Sqns album. They have been part of the Sqn since they were taken in the early 40s. 

[Jessie The Jeep]

I struggled to find any decent image of th RAF crest. That was all that was useable.

Don't know about the Wellys.

 

EDIT - Had another search for RAF crests today and still can't find anything suitable.

Edited December 9, 2019 by Jessie The Jeep