Paul shared the story behind his one-of-a-kind stainless steel steering column.

Paul writes, The steering column in my Willys has quite a story behind it, …….  About 10 years into the rebuild (1995) I began thinking about what kind of steering column and wheel I’d like to have for the Willys. I wanted a tilt column to make it easier for me to enter and exit the Willys, the steering column and steering wheel should be one of a kind and not some mass produced stuff that everyone has and if at all possible these components should be fabricated from stainless steel to match the rest of the vehicle. I wasn’t even aware of any aftermarket suppliers that made replacement steering columns for custom vehicles but if there was a company in America making replacement columns I figured they would be mentioned in the hot rod or custom car magazines. I began reading all the current car magazines I could get my hands on, searching for any mention of or advertisement from a company making replacement steering columns.

It wasn’t long before I saw an advertisement for a company called ididit and the primary focus of this company was to build replacement steering columns for custom vehicles. Their ad had their address listed along with their telephone number so I made a quick phone call to the state of Michigan and ordered a free catalog. About a week later their catalog arrived here at the house and it was full of information about the company, about how to correctly determine the angle of the steering column and the location of the steering wheel along with internal wiring specs and how to identify the correct column length for your vehicle. This catalog was full of step by step procedures to solve installation problems I hadn’t even thought of yet. According to the catalog, steering columns could be ordered in steel or aluminum (plain or polished) in either standard lengths or total custom units. I was happy.

After mocking up a column in the Willys (a sawed off broom handle with a plastic plate screwed to the upper end) I was able to find the column angle which would give me the least interference during entry and exit while still providing a reasonable position for the steering wheel and this information allowed me to get the total length of the column from steering wheel to column end in the engine compartment. With my calculations in hand I made another call to ididit and attempted to order a column. This is where things got a bit weird. Continue reading →

Hugh wrote me a couple days ago. He was excited to share his barn find jeep, a 1943 MB that had sat for forty years.  Nick Oxender actually found the jeep and told Hugh about it. I wanted to share the jeep with everyone as evidence that barn finds still exist, even in the midwest!

Hugh wrote, The jeep is rust free and original and not too bubba-ed up. It has all three seat frames and four combat rims with almost new tires.  The switches and controls on the dash are present and it is only missing the parking brake handle.  

It runs and drives well, but has a post war engine. The original insulation is on the firewall and the filterette and it came with the original radiator with the horsehair insulation. The original crossover tube, air cleaner and fuel strainer are still there. It also has the original oilfilter and bracket. Someone just switched out the engine and left the T-84 trans and WW2 components alone.

I will be watching for an mb engine but it drives just fine right now.  i don’t plan on an extensive restoration, just paint markings, a canvas top and an engine swap. I plan to preserve it. There is a patch right over the transfer case that i believe covered a hole where it had a PTO operated generator.  Judging by the extra holes, ground straps and suppression devices, I believe it was a radio jeep. i am very pleased with this piece of history.  Oh yeah, it needs a front bumper and that crazy hitch on the back removed as well, but its a very original rust free example of a ww2 jeep.

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Lee’s shared some updated photos on his M-38. His goal has been to restore it back to stock. Though he’s got a great deal of stock jeep to use, as he disassembled it he discovered a few more problems than he’d planned. Despite some unexpected issues, he’s been working all summer since Ann and I visited he and his family last April in San Saba, Texas. He doesn’t have a great deal of time, between his job, farm, kids and wife, but he’s been making the most of it. He tells me he is almost done.

Here’s the jeep before disassembly:

The body:

Some body work completed.

The Frame:

Plenty of scrubbing needed.

First coat of paint.

Partial assembly

Continue reading →

You may remember Robert’s 1942 GPW from this post last year. Since then his father and he have repowered their modified GPW.

Robert writes, It has been about 18 months since I wrote you about the GPW project that my father and I found on your website in 2010. You were kind enough to feature the build of our Willys last time. Since then we have made some drastic changes that I think you may enjoy.

Things got out of hand last November when a simple craigslist browse lead to the purchase of a B&M 144 Supercharger from Ohio. Initially, we were not sure if the blower would find its way into the GPW, and decided to bore out a 350 that we had lying around. The plan was to build a supercharged 383 stroker for fun, and then decided what vehicle to install it in. As you may imagine the longer we had the blower in the garage the more inclined we were to see it tentatively installed in something, and the GPW was the easiest option. We pulled the 400 SBC and installed the 350 with no internals, but the blower on top to see how it looked. The result was amazing, and we decided that the Willys was going to get a new motor!

Installing a small block chev​y with a blower in a Willys that came with a 4 cylinder comes with numerous obvious and unforeseen hurdles. For instance the blower is a bit taller than a traditional intake manifold, and consequently the hood would not close. Therefore, we moved the motor mounts down which actually helped the center of gravity! This alone did not clearance the blower, carburetor, and air cleaner though. However, we were undaunted, and decided that the only remaining option was to cut a hole in the hood and stuck the air cleaner out!

After we figured out how to fit the motor in up and down we decided to address the issue of front to back. The position of the motor already had the HEI distributor close to the firewall so there was no room to move the engine backwards, and the snout on the blower was too long for us to fit the single core radiator before the grill. Therefore, we completely removed the radiator from the engine compartment, and installed a new 3 core aluminum radiator on the roll bar behind the seats! We had to customize all of the plumbing for the cooling system, and my uncle assisted us with a very special bender borrowed from a former custom off-road shop. In addition to the bent aluminum portion we ran the same flexible lines along the frame rails that you can find on monster trucks. Continue reading →

Colin bought a Hickey aluminum cylinder head to modify his 1960 Surrey, but ran into some problems with it. Below he describes the changes he made, the problems he encountered, and his current solution. Thanks for sharing Colin!

I started a hop-up project on our Surrey that involved the installation of a 1950s Nick Hickey aluminum cylinder head for the L-134. That morphed into the fabrication of a dual carb setup using  two intake manifolds with a balance tube an F Head exhaust manifold that a very good friend, Steve Mason, and I fabricated out of an old manifold supplied by Jim Sullivan.

The first issue was the two new Weber carbs. They were supposed to be synchronized and jetted the sam, but weren’t. That led to the rear carb dumping extra fuel into #s 3&4, resulting in a blown head gasket which dumped coolant into those cylinders.

Hickey head top and bottom.

Took it all apart, rejetted the carbs and had the head resurfaced. I finished buttoning everything up and fired it up. adjusted the carbs slightly, running smooth, then noticed coolant in the #2 spark plug recess. Shut it off, pulled all plugs, could see coolant in #2, and steam coming from what must be a crack in the threads.

When I had the engine running previously I did not have water pooling in the plug basins. Upon looking at the plugs, the electrodes indicated the possibility of them coming in contact with the valves. Took a very hi intensity flashlight and looked into the cylinders and at least two of the valves I saw the imprint of the electrode on the valves.

So my theory is this:
I had the head resurfaced and in that process, the machine shop used an epoxy to smooth the surface indentations( corrosion?), and then did the resurface. The plugs I had used were nearly new from the original head. Those electrodes did not extend into the combustion chamber. The machine shop( guys who do a lot of work on Ford V8s with aluminum heads told me to get plugs with a slightly longer shank for better combustion. So I did. Only a small imperceptible difference in length.

Continue reading →

For just finished restoring this Holden Ambulance jeep. For more pic’s go to: www.yankreenactment.nl then choose “jeep”, there you find the amb jeep and the finnished project under “canvas top”. Looks great!

Before:

After:

Craig recently inherited this 1943 GPW from his deceased father. His Honda Racing shop will be rebuilding this. The goal will be to keep it’s original look. He plans to have it completed in two months and share some photos when completed.

Here is a list of items to be done:

Body (tub) removed and sandblasted
Rust locations repaired and sealed
Repair rear bumperettes
Underbody and frame powder coat black color
Body to be painted in either original OD green enamel or we may color match that and paint with acrylic
The problem is we are not allowed to use enamel in our spray booth legally
We will not have any decals except for a small one on the back which says “1943 Ford GPW”.

Continue reading →

Leigh found this 2WD 1948 wagon that had been sitting in a shed in Australia since 1994. He plans on restoring while retaining the current look as much as possible. From what he has been told only about 400 Wagons of any description came to Australia so parts are a bit difficult, however he reports Kaiser Willys has been a big help.

Mark has just posted a new feature story over at Warjeeps.com. Read about how David Egerton spent three years restoring a 1942 GPW that had been civilized.

http://warjeepstories.blogspot.com/2015/01/honoring-veteran-42-gpw.html

David Egerton’s 1942 GPW

1952 CJ-3A on the left and a 1962 CJ-3B on the right.

In the ‘it’s a small world’ category, David Darrah grew up barely a mile from where I did in Renton. His father Ray was a charter member of the Seattle Rump Bumpers Jeep Club, so he’s had jeeping in his blood from birth.  Where David lived was just a street over from George Steele. George has been involved with jeeps a long time (and still is — I talked with him this summer) and my parents knew him pretty well. As a teen, David knew George well also, occasionally begging him for discounted parts for his first jeep, a 1942 MB.

A few years ago David had a chance to buy a green CJ-3A that George had rebuilt back in 1996 (though George no longer owned it). Despite owning several different flat fenders over the years (see end of post), just owning one jeep wasn’t enough, so David recently bought a second one Willys, a 1962 CJ-3B that needed a little bit of work. David feels like he’s well on his way to owning a ‘collection’ of jeeps. He just needs some more room (don’t we all!). David lives in Puyallup now, so I’ll be getting down there at some point to talk jeeps and see these in person. Thanks for sharing David!

1952 CJ-3A with some modern touches added by George Steele:
153 cu. in. Iron Duke 4 cyl, T14 3-spd, Dana 18 T.C, manual saginaw steering, Cherokee 11 inch drum brakes, Warn Hubs and Overdrive. Stock Dana 25/41 538 ratio. 3A needs nothing other than replace a few warn parts in Overdrive unit (growls a tad—still works good) Owned this Jeep almost 3 Years now.

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John Escobar bought a few FCs last month. He recently acquired a few more through a trade. He writes, “I got the Bug! Just traded a Snowmobile I had for three fc’s and flatfender jeep ! he collection goes on! The one fc 170 is real nice and originally from Washington State. Was used n the area as a water truck. (government owned )   Parts will be for sale this spring.  Can’t wait to get started on them. Spring can’t come fast enough!”

3 FCs and a truck for this snowmobile. Looks like a good trade to me!

Brady Leetch shared his recent build. It’s got a great flat fender / scrambler feel to it. The snow is a nice touch, too. You might remember one of Brady’s other builds, this blue low-rider jeep.

Justin bought this FC last year believing he could save it. I’d say he’s done a bang up job on it!

Justin’s FC was pretty rough at the beginning.

I bought this jeep and restored it over the year. It was very rusted out but I rebuilt what was there and now it’s almost back on the road. Still need to buy a new windshield and get some tires. But it purrs like a kitten.

Maybe you can see on the rear bumper the spots I need to cut out still for my 28-31 Ford Model A tail lights and the slots to mimic the grill. I ended up going with new rugged ridge low back seats. They where pretty easy to attach the old brackets to. My rear view mirrors or for some kind of motorcycle. They look cool and the curved mirror allows good visibility. I kept the front lower part of the body off so I could build a nice flush bumper in its place with a winch hidden behind it.

My cab mounts are reinforced on the back with 1/4″ steel. And the cab mount is made from 2″ sch 40 steel pipe. The cab is raised 3″. So I could put a taller tire. I still need to mold some fender flares from fiberglass in the next couple of months pending the weather. I built this with intentions of snorkeling the engine tranny and axles air tight so I could go under water if I wanted.

This was gonna just be a trail rig. But I loved it more and more as I worked on it. It’s not by any means a great looker. It still needs a few things I can’t find like- speedo cable and front E-brake cable. And other things a cant think of off hand.

Justin took a bunch of photos to share.

Continue reading →